João Vieira da Cunha

Organizational Improvisation: What, When, How and Why

In this article, the authors review the growing body of literature on organizational improvisation in order to present an encompassing and systematic perspective on this concept. An integrative definition of its construct is presented together with a new way of measuring this phenomenon in organizational settings. The article further explores this construct by presenting its triggers, necessary conditions, influencing factors and major outcomes. The issues of improvisation’s growing legitimization in the organizational arena for practitioners and researchers alike are addressed in order to argue for the need for and interest in a fuller development research on this concept.

Management Paradoxes: A Relational View

Paradox is gaining more and more pervasiveness in and around organizations, thus increasing the need for an approach to management that allows both researchers and practitioners to address these paradoxes. We attempt to contribute to this project by suggesting a relational approach to paradoxes. To this aim, we first present the state of the art of research on management paradoxes and then explain four regularities surfaced in the literature on this topic. We conclude by arguing that taking these regularities as a whole allows us to suggest a new perspective on paradoxes - one with a positive regard for the co-presence of opposites but that takes seriously the potential relationship between these.

Towards a complexity theory of strategy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the creation of a complexity theory of strategy by integrating a number of ideas that have previously been explored independently in the strategy literature, namely improvisation, minimal structures, simple rules, dynamic capabilities, bricolage, and organizational resilience.Design/methodology/approach – Organizations are taken as complex adaptive systems that align with their environments through interaction and response rather than analysis and planning. The paper discusses how Schumpeterian environments influence organizations in the direction of simpler, minimally‐structured designs and considers why Schumpeterian environments create the need for strategic improvisation and minimally‐structured designs.Research limitations/implications – The paper articulates recent concepts in the management literature. The integration of these new concepts may be relevant to explore the way they relate with each other in the emerging organizational configurati...

Organizational improvisation and change: two syntheses and a filled gap

Change has become one of the most studied topics in management research. Although literally hundreds of research initiatives on this theme are carried out annually, there are still important questions in this area that have been left unanswered. There are two, logically possible, modes of change that have yet to be identified and there are at least two tensions that go unresolved: the punctuated versus incremental change and the emergent versus deliberate change tensions. Drawing on a “grounded theory” research on organizational improvisation, we argue that this phenomenon contributes toward filling one of the gaps in a taxonomy of organizational change modes and toward a synthesis between the poles of the two tensions mentioned above.

Managing Improvisation in Cross Cultural Virtual Teams

Drawing on grounded theory research, we present a grounded model of improvisation in cross cultural contexts, the major contribution of which lies in advancing the concept of the dialectical team, where a minimal structure and a compatible perception of reality foster improvisational action, with diverse members responding to a turbulent environment using simple resources. This arrangement creates the conditions that allow a team to improvise successfully, while remaining both efficient and effective. The model strengthens the argument for a dialectical perspective of organizations, unearths the presence of curvilinear relationships in cross cultural phenomena where linear ones were thought to prevail, and provides alternative answers to some of the problems found in cross cultural research.Drawing on grounded theory research, we present a grounded model of improvisation in cross cultural contexts, the major contribution of which lies in advancing the concept of the dialectical team, where a minimal structure and a compatible perception of reality foster improvisational action, with diverse members responding to a turbulent environment using simple resources. This arrangement creates the conditions that allow a team to improvise successfully, while remaining both efficient and effective. The model strengthens the argument for a dialectical perspective of organizations, unearths the presence of curvilinear relationships in cross cultural phenomena where linear ones were thought to prevail, and provides alternative answers to some of the problems found in cross cultural research.

LOOKING FOR COMPLICATION: FOUR APPROACHES TO MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

This article argues for the adoption of complicated approaches by management educators. The argument rests on the position that if uncertainty and ambiguity are inherent to management, particularly in view of the profound changes that have occurred during recent years in the competitive environments of organizations, there is the need to develop complex managers, that is, managers more skilled in dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity. Four approaches (hypertext, dialectics, linkages, and metaphors) are presented to illustrate complementary ways of operationalizing the logic of complication in a management education context. These approaches have the potential for increasing the awareness and alertness of management students to the challenges with which they will probably be confronted in the emerging competitive landscapes.

Ecocentric Management: An Update

In an article published in 1995, Paul Shrivastava coined the notion of an ecocentric management paradigm. The ecocentric paradigm provided an integrated and holistic view of the organization at peace with the natural environment. This paper updates the idea of ecocentricity and enriches it with facts and fears that have emerged since then. We suggest that Shrivastavas original formulation was an improvement of the industrial paradigm, advance an alternative reconceptualization of ecocentricity, and discuss some of the possible obstacles to the emergence and adoption of ecocentric management.

Reading between the lines: unveiling masculinity in feminine management practices

The authors draw on an article by Fondas published in 1997 to expose a masculine ethos underlying “feminine” management practices, diffused through management texts. This is based on the findings that: management theories are of a masculine nature; companies seldom implement “feminine” practices; and those that do use those practices to maintain their underlying masculinity. This challenges academics and practitioners to recognize that management theory is gendered and that changes towards feminine organizations are superficial, at best.

The Age of Emergence: Toward a New Organizational Mindset

This paper discusses how new competitive landscapes invite organizational scholars and practitioners to adopt a new organizational mindset. The proposed new mindset does not negate the importance of the traditional functions of management, but invites a reexamination of how they are expected to function. The paper is organized as follows: (1) the traditional mindset is briefly presented; (2) the precipitating conditions for the new mindset are highlighted (e.g. hypercompetition, global standards, world class competitors) and the age of emergence concept introduced (3), standard approaches for dealing with the new economic order will be advanced (e.g. trust-based organizations, designs for innovation, network forms); (4) the new emergence mindset is presented as a dialectical alternative, linking the past and the future. The new emergence mindset is derived from a larger research project on how organizations can adapt to the age of emergence. The research involves theoretical research, case studies and field research (observation, interviewing). It is shown that some old concepts have been prematurely condemned in recent research. We argue in this paper that emergence age organizations need to synthesize old and new concepts in a dialectical manner, instead of getting rid of old concepts (control, planning, etc.). We believe that this view will provide a refreshing and realistic approach for the understanding of contemporary organizations in the millenium.

Minimal networks: a contribution to the understanding of control in trust-based organizations

The need for effectiveness in contexts of high performance ambiguity and high goal incongruence is in the foreground of management practice but almost absent from management theory. Moreover, trust-based forms, because of their strong cultures and their unobtrusive default controls, fail to deliver the effectiveness they promise. Minimal networks integrate elements of formal power and elements of trust in order to assure effectiveness, via (1) a minimal trust that derives from (2) minimal commitment and (3) minimal consensus, held together by (4) a minimal structure. These four elements are presented via a set of propositions, together with the case for there being an independent organizational form which combines elements from hierarchies and networks/clans in a way that can increase the effectiveness of trust-based organizations.