Jean M. Bartunek

Changing Interpretive Schemes and Organizational Restructuring: The Example of a Religious Order

Jean M. Bartunek This paper reports a case study of a religious order whose shared interpretive schemes (the schemata that map its experience of the world), especially its understanding of its mission, were being substantially changed. During thistime the order underwent a major revision in structure. On the basis of the case, the paper explores ways interpretive schemes undergo fundamental change and ways these changes are linked to restructuring. The paper proposes that major changes in interpretive schemes occur through dialectical processes in which old and new ways of understanding interact, resulting in a synthesis. The process of change in interpretive schemes is in a reciprocal relationship with changes in structure. This relationship is not direct, but rather is mediated by the actions of organizational members and their emotional reactions to change. Environmental forces are likely to initiate the change, but the way the environment is interpreted by organizational members affects the type of change that takes place. Similarly, the way the organizations leadership initiates or responds to alternate interpretive schemes limits the type of change in understanding that can occur.

Across the Great Divide: Knowledge Creation and Transfer Between Practitioners and Academics

Observers have long noted a considerable gap between organizational research findings and management practices. Although volumes have been written about the probable causes and consequences of this gap, surprisingly little empirical evidence exists concerning the various viewpoints. The articles in this forum provide data on the role of academic-practitioner relationships in both generating and disseminating knowledge across boundaries. The contributions of each article are summarized in light of recent theories of knowledge creation, and suggestions are made for increasing the value and relevance of future research to both academics and practitioners.

First-Order, Second-Order, and Third-Order Change and Organization Development Interventions: A Cognitive Approach

This article discusses how recent developments in the cognitive sciences, especialy the concept of schemata (organizing frameworks for understanding events), can illumine the practice of organization development. On the basis of a cognitive perspective, the authors discuss the relationship between organizational change and schemata, describing the following orders of change that might result from OD: first-order change, or incremental changes occurring within particular schemata already shared by members of a client system, second-order change, or modifications in the shared schemata themselves; and third-order change, or the development of the capacity of the client system to change the schemata as events require. To show how understanding the differences among orders of change can help clarify problems and solutions from an intervention, the authors discuss how a paternalism schema affected a particular quality of working life intervention. They conclude by suggesting implications of the cognitive perspective for OD practice and research

Learning From Academia: The Importance Of Relationships In Professional Life

In-depth interviews with business school faculty members suggest that work relationships are more than strategically chosen means to career mobility. Relationships are career-defining ends as well, and negative relationships may be as consequential as helpful ties. Findings also showed significant gender differences: women, more than men, told stories about harm; men, more than women, told stories about help. Workplace relationships may play different roles for professionals and managers, and mens and womens different relational experiences may foster different career logics, or ways of striving for success.

On the Receiving End: Sensemaking, Emotion, and Assessments of an Organizational Change Initiated by Others

This study focuses on the interpretations and experiences of change recipients, those who carry out organizational interventions initiated by others. Based on the ways nurses experienced a shared governance initiative implemented in their hospital, the authors investigated change recipients’ sensemaking about organizational change through their ascribed meanings, emotional responses, and perceptions of its impacts on them. Survey data demonstrated how nurses subjectively assessed their gains and losses from the change initiative. Participation in the initiative increased the experience of gains, as did membership in a unit where change was implemented more fully. Textual analysis of open-ended responses to the survey indicated that gains were linked with interpretations of the change initiative and pleasant feelings and that there was considerable emotional contagion within work units. Such effects are particularly likely in employee empowerment initiatives as experiences are linked to interpretation and mood among change recipients.

Academics and Practitioners Are Alike and Unlike: The Paradoxes of Academic–Practitioner Relationships

In this essay we challenge standard approaches to the academic–practitioner gap that essentially pit sides against each other, treating them as dichotomous. Instead, we identify and suggest ways of working with such dichotomies to foster research and theory building. We delineate several tensions associated with the gap, including differing logics, time dimensions, communication styles, rigor and relevance, and interests and incentives, and show how such tensions are valuable themselves for research and theorizing. We show that the gap often reflects views of conflicting groups of academics, while practitioners’ voices are not always incorporated; thus we add a practitioner’s voice to the conversation. We describe the dialectical forces that foster the tensions associated with the gap, including initiatives of national governments, ranking systems, and special issues of journals. We then show how the tensions represent fundamental, unresolvable paradoxes that can be generative of new research and practice if appreciated as such. We suggest several implications for research that build on tensions, dialectics, and paradox. We conclude with a brief reflection about the tensions we experienced while writing this essay and what these might suggest about the importance of academic–practitioner relationships.

Third‐order Organizational Change and the Western Mystical Tradition

Third‐order change in organizations refers to attempts to help organizational members to transcend their shared schemata. It has not previously been explored in depth. Uses mystical experience as a model of how the third‐order change process may occur. Discusses several characteristics of mystical experience, focusing in particular on the central characteristic of transconceptual understanding. Presents an example of Teresa of Avila, a Spanish woman from the sixteenth century whose mystical life was reflected in her organizing activities. Suggests how mystical experience can inform understanding of the third‐order organizational change process and presents a preliminary model of ways in which the third‐order change capacity might be developed.

Insider/Outsider Research Teams: Collaboration Across Diverse Perspectives

The authors propose that research teams in which one or more members are relative insiders to a setting and one or more members are relative outsiders offer distinct advantages for integrating diverse perspectives on organizational activities. The approach taken builds on insights about insider/outsider collaboration presented by Evered and Louis (1981). This article develops a rationale for using insider/outsider teams, indicates their advantages and disadvantages, and contrasts this mode of inquiry with other forms of collaborative research. An example of the processes and products of such collaboration helps illustrate the issues associated with the implementation of insider/outsider research.

Hidden conflict in organizations : uncovering behind-the-scenes disputes

Introduction - Deborah M Kolb and Linda L Putnam The Dialectics of Disputing Drinking Our Troubles Away - John Van Maanen Managing Conflict in a British Police Agency Womens Work - Deborah M Kolb Peacemaking in Organizations The Private Ordering of Professional Relations - Calvin Morrill The Role of Conflict in a Second Order Change Attempt - Jean M Bartunek and Robin D Reid The Culture of Mediation - Raymond A Friedman Private Understandings in the Context of Public Conflict The Suppression of Gender Conflict in Organizations - Joanne Martin Culture and Conflict - Frank A Dubinskas The Cultural Roots of Discord Bringing Conflict Out from Behind the Scenes - Jean M Bartunek, Deborah M Kolb and Roy J Lewicki Private, Informal and Nonrational Dimensions of Conflict in Organizations

Sharing and expanding academic and practitioner knowledge in health care.

The purpose of this paper is to expand understanding of academic-practitioner knowledge-sharing in the service of enhanced knowledge creation in health care. To this end, we describe the tacit and explicit knowledge of academics and practitioners and how this knowledge exists within their communities of practice. We also discuss benefits of, difficulties with, and some underlying dynamics of academic-practitioner knowledge-sharing. We then propose what might be done, based on appreciation of these dynamics, to foster joint knowledge-sharing and knowledge creation. We illustrate our arguments with examples from health care settings.