British Academy of Management BAM 2 nd 4
British Academy of Management (BAM), 2 nd - 4 th September 2020 Mobilizing Negative Capability to manage change Caroline Rieu Plichon, c. rieuplichon@ieseg. fr
Literature Research Questions Methodology Results Organizational Change Contributions Limits & Perspectives Managers (in change) "an experience of cognitive disorder" (Herzig & Jimmieson, 2006) Different roles: implementors, designers and creators, "barriers to uncertainty management" (Herzig & Jimmieson, 2006) Weick (2009), Lewin (1951), Huy (2002), Langley et al. (2013) Mintzberg (1973), Jackall (1988), Stewart (1991), Tengblad (2001), Puranam & Hakansson (2015), Kerr et al. (2018) Often planned, top-down and measured by performance criteria => a performative vision and terminology of change ("change champions", "successful change", "change effort") Uncertainty (of change) and Negative Capability Uncertainty: often seeked to be minimized. To cope with uncertainty: denial or resistance (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999) Negative Capability: the aptitude "of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after facts and reason" (Keats, 1970) Simpson, French & Harvey (2002), Ou (2009), Crossman & Doshi (2015), Saggurthi & Thakur (2016) 2
Literature Research Questions Methodology Results Contributions How do managers manage an organizational change? What resources do they mobilize? 3 Limits & Perspectives
Literature Research Questions Methodology Results Contributions Limits & Perspectives Organizational ethnography of 2 years (22 months) @a global furnishing retailer of Scandinavian origins (French subsidiary) Organizational change observed : an e-invoicing process (new Shared Service Centre) Position: participant observer ("I, change manager") Data: fieldnotes, interviews (18 managers, their directors and their subordinates) archival data 4
Literature Research Questions Methodology Results Contributions Limits & Perspectives 1) Identification of criteria to operationalize the managers’ capabilities (positive / negative) Managers’ Capabilities Criteria Certainty / Doubt Emotions Action Speech Decision Positive Capability Seek for certainty Uncertainty is Visible implication Eloquence and acknowledged in the change transparency as the main implementation difficulty of the change Hasty decision making Negative Capability Overflow of emotions Presence of emotions (emotional distanciation) Suspension of the decision More discrete participation to the change Concision and imprecision, at time silence From the literature and from the observation of managers, identification of a grid of capabilities (doubt, emotion, action, speech and decision) 5
-: NC +: PC What is the preferred capability mobilized by each manager? Criteria Managers Certainty Emotions Action Speech Decision Total Main Capability 6 2) Mobilization of a mix of managerial capabilities (positive / negative) to manage the change
3) Mobilization of Positive or Negative Capabilities, according to the phase of the change Negative Capability Positive Capability Change 7
Literature Research Questions Methodology Results Contributions Theoretical contributions 1) Grid of 5 criteria to caracterize and operationalize these capabilities 2) Complexity in attitudes vis-à-vis uncertainty (tolerance / aversion) 3) Comprehension from within of a change process Managerial contributions 1) Rehabilitation of uncertainty in organizations 2) Combination of both managerial abilities 8 Limits & Perspectives
Research Context Literature Research Questions Methodology Results Contributions Limits & Perspectives Limits Reflexive feedback: related to my change manager position Research perspectives Research development on Negative Capability: 1) Which factors may favour or limitate NC (individual factors + organizational factors culture, size…) ? 2) What are the limitations of NC (the possible negative implications of NC)? 9
Thank you for you attention
- Slides: 10