The interplay of planned and emergent change in Cuba

This paper analyses the interplay of planned and emergent change in fin de siècle Cuba. The situation in this nation is analysed according to a theory of action that sees change as the result of interplay between top-down, State-directed planned change and emergent, bottom-up, problem-driven change. Drawing on a series of eight focus groups with a total of 106 Cuban executives and management scholars, this paper addresses the Cuban case to suggest that the essence of change may be captured through a structural perspective, where agents and structure interact to produce the social innovations required in face of environmental change. The article reports how the need to protect the nation's core ideology is being combined with the adoption of Western management practices, and how the process of social innovation can be thought of as the recursive interplay between planned features emanating from the institutional context and emergent actions resulting from individual attempts to deal with local conditions.