discontinuous (adjective, dis-con-tin-u-ous, \ ˌdɪskənˈtɪnjuəs \) change (noun, change, \ tʃeɪndʒ \)
Definition: is an abrupt change that presents a threat to the traditional or current authority or chain of command of an organization. The threat lies in the fact that a sudden, unplanned change can drastically alter the overall running of the company and can render the pre-existing policies, systems, code of conduct, and operational patterns useless. However, on rare occasions, a discontinuous change can have the opposite effect on a business and boost a company’s profitability in a manner that isn’t possible with an incremental change.
In a Sentence:
- The biggest discontinuous change that occurred in the last thirty years was the introduction of the Internet into the employees’ daily routines. This innovation has completely changed the way business was done in our travel agency.
- Last month, FutuTech has suffered from a discontinuous change due to the development of a new, more powerful processor that was incompatible with their devices. This led to the creation of a brand new product line that was designed to support this new piece of technology.
Synonyms and related words: organizational transformation, authority, incremental change, discontinuous innovation
