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Management & Leadership vocabulary · Change Management

Organisational inertia

Meaning in management & leadership, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In management & leadership, organisational inertia means: The tendency of an organisation to continue established patterns even when conditions call for change.

In Turkish: örgütsel atalet

How it is used

Use for persistence rooted in routines, structures or past investments, not only personal unwillingness.

Example sentences

  1. Organisational inertia kept the old approval sequence in place long after its purpose disappeared.

    A routine persists because it is embedded in the organisation.

  2. The new director underestimated organisational inertia when she announced immediate changes to every process.

    Formal instructions alone may not displace established working patterns.

Common collocations

  • overcome organisational inertia
  • structural organisational inertia
  • resistance to changeThe unwillingness of people to accept or adapt to a new way of working, often caused by fear of losing something, lack of information or tiredness from earlier changes.
  • restructuringA major change to how a company is organised, such as merging departments, removing management layers or reducing staff, usually to cut costs or support a new strategy.

More terms: Change Management

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