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This chapter traces the author's journey of change research from positivism to pragmatism and how different types of “engaged scholarship” shape how we know and do change. It takes readers through the ontology, epistemology, and methodology of different types of research and how these were expressed in studies of planned change interventions, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), cynicism and its consequences, “soul work” and community building in business, organizational transformation, and the development of more socially and environmentally conscious people, purposes, and practices. The paper reflects on the author's research as it relates to regulatory versus radical change and whose interests are and might be served by change research.

Reflecting on 25 years of collaborating in action learning research initiatives in interorganizational settings, the authors have framed three key theoretical contributions: (1) a formula for action learning in networks, (2) the notion of action learning research, and (3) the application of action learning research in networks. This chapter reviews how each of these three key theoretical contributions emerged as insights and were developed over time through three large-scale funded interorganizational action learning projects. The chapter provides insights into the process of theorizing as the authors show how these frameworks emerged through inquiry into experience and were consolidated through collaborative action as practice-based research, research as practice, and practice as research toward designed-in impact.

The chapters in this first volume of the book series “Organizing for Sustainable Effectiveness” captured a rich set of cases in which sustainable effectiveness was the central focus. Each chapter illuminated the development of a distinct sustainable system, and had a special focus on reporting theoretically informed and rigorously explored knowledge to guide purposeful design and learning approaches. Collectively the chapters highlighted the processes, organization and design, system regulation, and continuous learning approaches in complex organizational and multiorganizational systems that enabled simultaneous focus on and advancing of economic, social, and ecological outcomes. In this concluding chapter, we capture, via a comparative investigation, some of the learning from the cases about the development of new capabilities, design orientations, and learning mechanisms, and we chart directions for further research and managerial actions.

Many operating managers view culture and culture change as something “soft” or “squishy” and remote from day‐to‐day concerns. They're worried about “making their numbers” and say they haven't got time to think about organizational culture.

The evolution of the global village during the Information Age created a huge powershift from centralized bureaucracies to small decentralized organizations formerly on the edges of power and influence, essentially a shift from the centers to the margins. This phenomenon can be seen in every part of the country, throughout the world, and in every aspect of life—economic, cultural, social, and political. Once‐dominant centers of business power and influence such as New York and Chicago are giving way to a more widely diffused and distributed pattern of power, with, for example, major banks in North Carolina and software developers in Seattle.

Purpose – This chapter frames the topic of organizing for sustainable health care in terms of the environmental trends that have rendered current health care approaches unsustainable, the embeddedness of health care in society's triple bottom line, and the need to build adaptive capability within the complex health care ecosystem.

Design/methodology/approach – We synthesize documented trends and empirical findings regarding the viability of current approaches to health care, and provide a theoretically framed treatment of the adaptation process in the complex health care system that can lead to the emergence of sustainable approaches.

Findings – There is a misfit between current approaches to delivering health care and the requirements and trends in contemporary society. Fundamental transformation is required that entails a broadening of purpose, a future orientation, and a rethinking of how health care adds value and how it is embedded in society.

Originality/value – By reconceptualizing health care reform as intricately related to societal sustainability and the triple bottom line, we open the possibility of transcending a narrow focus on reengineering to create more efficient organizations and work processes that consume fewer resources and deliver greater value. We invite health care practitioners and scholars to rethink all the connections in the health care ecosystem, and the need to build in self-organizing capabilities and adaptive capacity. The cases in this book provide knowledge from systems engaged in fundamental transformation, analyzed through the lenses of theoretical frameworks that help us better understand essential dynamics involved in creating sustainable health care systems.