Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo

Managing, managerial control and managerial identity in the post‐bureaucratic world

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the issues involved in managerial control and managerial identity in relation to the idea of a post‐bureaucratic organization. In addition it introduces the papers in this special issue.Design/methodology/approach – The paper identifies the increasing complexity of issues of managerial control and managerial identity that arise from the idea of a post‐bureaucratic organization and post‐bureaucratic working practices, such as flex‐work and project management.Findings – The paper suggests that the form and nature of managerial control and managerial identity are constantly evolving and in a state of flux as a consequence of processes of (de)bureaucratization and (re)bureaucratization.Originality/value – The paper raises important questions about the nature of management in post‐bureaucratic work environments and challenges the behaviourist competencies approach to developing managers.

Framing uncertainty: narratives, change and digital technologies

Using material from three qualitative studies into the social psychological processes surrounding uncertainty and change in organizations, this paper explores the insights gained from conceptualizing narratives as a bounded space that accommodates disruptions while providing safety in uncertain conditions. The empirical material illustrates how narratives are used to transmit permanence and collective knowledge while allowing for self-development and the managing of emotions. The use of narratives to make sense of change processes is particularly relevant in regard to the current widespread use of digital technologies for communication and information sharing. The paper suggests that the fragmentation and plurivocality that new digital technologies bring to the workplace can be framed, contained and managed safely within collectively created narrative spaces. Cet article explore l’hypothèse que les récits sont un lieu qui permet aux membres d’un groupe d’effectuer un travail psychologique pour assimiler les perturbations de l’organisation. On s’appuie sur trois études qualitatives sur les processus psychosociologiques accompagnant l’incertitude et le changement dans les organizations. Le matériel empirique montre comment les récits sont utilisés pour assurer la continuité et transmettre la connaissance collective, tout en permettant le développement personnel et la gestion des émotions. L’utilisation de récits pour donner un sens aux processus de changement est particulièrement intéressante dans le contexte actuel d’un usage accru des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication. On suggère que la fragmentation et la plurivocité que les nouvelles technologies numériques apportent dans le travail peuvent être encadrées, contenues et gérées de manière plus rassurante dans des espaces narratifs partagés.

Networking In Organizations: Developing A Social Practice Perspective For Innovation And Knowledge Sharing In Emerging Work Contexts

Abstract This article focuses on the micro-level phenomena related to emergent ways of organizing. It explores how new ways of organizing might be enabled or inhibited through the networking activities and knowledge flows that organizational members engage in within a multinational business organization after the set-up of an innovative Internet business unit. The article considers innovation and networking as social practices mediated in this particular case study through knowledge-sharing activities. This perspective on innovation, networking, and knowledge leads to a conceptualization of organizations that stresses their inherent complexity and their interactive and co-evolving nature with their environments.

Stories and Decision Making : Supporting Collective Action after a Major Organisational Change

This paper analyses a case study, the merger of two multinational companies, in the light of collective decision making. The particular organisation on which our analysis focuses is a traditional UK based British engineering company that in 1999 bought a collective of family-run businesses, scattered across Scandinavia. This paper draws on the findings from a research project carried out with the newly created company during the post-merger period. The paper explores how the two collectives brought together via a merger are trying to work, make and implement decisions and move forward. The analysis shows how the tension generated by the different narratives brought to place in the merger and the initial resistance to engage in collective action is potentially overcome by the co-authoring of a new narrative, a new “proceduralised context”. This collective co-construction is seen in the paper not as a final output but rather as part of a constant becoming, a “liquid decision making” process (after Bauman, 2000). A finding of this study is that enabling symbolic spaces (contexts) for new narratives to emerge and develop can support the improvement of collective actions.

Liminal Entrepreneuring: The Creative Practices of Nascent Necessity Entrepreneurs

This paper contributes to creative entrepreneurship studies through exploring ‘liminal entrepreneuring’, i.e., the organization-creation entrepreneurial practices and narratives of individuals living in precarious conditions. Drawing on a processual approach to entrepreneurship and Turner’s liminality concept, we study the transition from un(der)employment to entrepreneurship of 50 nascent necessity entrepreneurs (NNEs) in Spain, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. The paper asks how these agents develop creative entrepreneuring practices in their efforts to overcome their condition of ‘necessity’. The analysis shows how, in their everyday liminal entrepreneuring, NNEs disassemble their identities and social positions, experiment with new relationships and alternative visions of themselves, and (re)connect with entrepreneuring ideas and practices in a new way, using imagination and organization-creation practices to reconstruct both self and context in the process. The results question and expand the notion of entrepreneuring in times of socio-economic stress.

‘I Just Want a Job’: The Untold Stories of Entrepreneurship

The field of organizational storytelling research is productive, vibrant and diverse. Over three decades we have come to understand how organizations are not only full of stories but also how stories are actively making, sustaining and changing organizations. This edited collection contributes to this body of work by paying specific attention to stories that are neglected, edited out, unintentionally omitted or deliberately left silent. Despite the fact that such stories are not voiced they have a role to play in organizational analysis. The chapters in this volume variously explore how certain realities become excluded or silenced. The stories that remain below the audible range in organizations offer researchers an access to study political practices which marginalise certain organisational realities whilst promoting others. This volume offers a further contribution by paying heed to silence and the processes of silencing. These silences influence the choice of issues on organisational agendas, the choice of audience(s) to which these discourses are addressed and the ways of addressing them. In exploring these relatively understudied terrains, Untold Stories in Organizations comprises an important contribution to the organizational storytelling space, opening paths for new trajectories in storytelling research.The field of organizational storytelling research is productive, vibrant and diverse. Over three decades we have come to understand how organizations are not only full of stories but also how stories are actively making, sustaining and changing organizations. This edited collection contributes to this body of work by paying specific attention to stories that are neglected, edited out, unintentionally omitted or deliberately left silent. Despite the fact that such stories are not voiced they have a role to play in organizational analysis. The chapters in this volume variously explore how certain realities become excluded or silenced. The stories that remain below the audible range in organizations offer researchers an access to study political practices which marginalise certain organisational realities whilst promoting others. This volume offers a further contribution by paying heed to silence and the processes of silencing. These silences influence the choice of issues on organisational agendas, the choice of audience(s) to which these discourses are addressed and the ways of addressing them. In exploring these relatively understudied terrains, Untold Stories in Organizations comprises an important contribution to the organizational storytelling space, opening paths for new trajectories in storytelling research.

Between Planned and Emergent Change: Decision Maker’s Perceptions of Managing Change in Organisations

Today’s business environment is increasingly complex, interconnected, unpredictable and competitive. Within this context decision makers struggle to find some stability amidst uncertainty using planned change methods while being aware of the need for flexibility and agility to leverage emergent change and survive. It is this tension between the desire for continuity and the experience of emergence in change processes that this paper addresses. To examine this tension the paper contrasts the planned organisational change methods used by decision makers since the 1950s with the more recent emergent change approaches developed out of economic destabilization and increased competition. The paper is based on a qualitative research project that used relevant organisational documents and in-depth interviews with 14 highly placed decision makers involved in change efforts in different organisations to explore different experiences and understandings of change. The stories told show a rich picture of organisational change efforts as well as individual understandings and insights. The experiences transmitted by the different decision makers illustrate the tension between planned and emergent change. The language they use however, leads to the conclusion that a ‘becoming view’ on change combining both continuity and emergence could help to eliminate the paradox.

Organizational identity work - its narratives and practices: working towards a desired identity

How do organizations engage in organizational identity work and how does organizational identity work emerge in daily activities, when organizations are confronted with market pressures, forcing them to internally question taken for granted sets of beliefs, values and structures. We explore this process within a private healthcare provider in the United Kingdom, from a perspective of organizational identity work and practice theory. We investigate how Health Corp experiments with two organizational integration initiatives driven by contextual pressures within the healthcare industry. Our single case study captures the transitional state between past and future organizational identity beliefs following a number of strategic acquisitions. We draw on a longitudinal qualitative case study, over a period of four years. Our analysis illustrates that the organization failed with its first integration initiative, yet the initiative helped to show that organizational members did not know ‘who we are’ and ‘what we stand for’. The second initiative also failed, due to its top-down nature and the lasting confusion about ‘who we are’. Only with the introduction of integrative products, the organization developed a new identity narrative, representing ‘who we are’ and ‘who we want to be’ in the future.

A Very Personal Process

This research highlights how organizational members use narratives as cultural resources to make sense of the merger in a newly created organization (FSI). The paper considers culture as a critical success factor in any change effort, especially in post-merger integrations. As such, culture and change are regarded as being interdependent and interrelated. The paper however, proposes to extend traditional models of organizational change to take into account the highly unpredictable, unexpected, and unplanned conditions of current financial institutions as illustrated by the specific change events experienced by FSI employees. A qualitative research design drawing upon documents, field notes, and narrative interviews was used to explore the cultural context of FSI after the merger. The analysis found that the narratives FSI employees use, revolve around four main overarching themes that both illustrate FSIs post-merger culture and display elements of cultural integration, as well as differentiation, and fragmentation: i) Under the rule: The need to feel valued; ii) The merger is a very personal process; iii) When the others arrive: A mosaic of sub-cultural realities threatening our identity; iv) Fragmentation is a threat to our personal stability. The findings confirm that all three cultural perspectives are ubiquitous within the organization supporting Martins (2002) meta theory of the need to adopt a multi-perspective-lens to better understand cultural transitions in organizations. The research findings show how the merger became a very personal process for FSI members, threatening not only their financial situation, working conditions and roles but also their sense of self and their personal identities. Hence, merger events not only represent drivers of change in organizational terms but also, and more importantly, in social and personal terms. And it is through the study of narratives that we can access these processes.