The order-to-order leap: redefining organisational change in times of crisis

Radical organisational change is frequently theorised as a process that necessarily entails phases of instability or chaos. This conceptual paper challenges that assumption, questioning models from the Lewinian framework (1947) to edge-of-chaos dynamics (Stacey, 1996), and proposing that organisations, understood as complex systems, can transition directly between qualitatively different ordered configurations. Drawing on complex-systems physics (Prigogine, 1977), sensemaking theory (Weick, 1995), and narrative resilience (Cyrulnik, 2002), the paper conceptualises change as a discrete leap sustained by the continuity of the identity narrative. Its original contribution lies in identifying digital heritage as a critical infrastructure for transitional coherence, capable of neutralising the supposed necessity of ontological disorder. Crisis is reinterpreted as a critical configuration that destabilises existing parameters of order without inherently producing disorder, while the role of power flows and identity narratives is examined as a fundamental dimension of organisational order. The paper culminates in the formulation of original conceptual propositions intended to guide future empirical enquiries into the stability of power flows and digital memory in both private enterprises and public administrations