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Managing Organizational Responsiveness

Toward a Theory of Responsive Practice

verfasst von: Claus Jacobs

Verlag: Deutscher Universitätsverlag

Enthalten in: Professional Book Archive

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From the very beginning in the field of organization development and action research there has been a central role afforded to the role conversation plays in enabling change to take place in social systems. Kurt Lewin himself actively pursued and developed settings in which conversation was the foundation for attitudinal and behavioral change. After his death, his colleagues and subsequently the scholars and practitioners who took his seminal research and insights into the world of organizations continued to explore ways in which conversation in groups could facilitate individual, group and organizational change. From T-group to team development, from the confrontation meeting to large group interventions, from intergroup conflict management to dialogue conferences, the heritage of Kurt Lewin has stamped itself on the applied behavioural science approach to change management that we know as organization development. In more recent years the work of Bohm, Isaacs, Schein and others has contributed significantly to the development of how conversation can be structured. The flourishing of large group interventions - open space technology, search conferences, future search, whole scale change - have created structures whereby whole systems can engage in simultaneous conversation about the future of their organizations and communities. Another distinctive characteristic of organization development is the role played by the external consultant. In organization development, consultants work in a facilitative, process consultation mode whereby they work at enabling members of the client system to perceive their own issues, understand them and develop and take their own actions in their regard.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Introduction

Abstract

This study investigates the nature of responsiveness in organizations and its relation to dialogue as a reflective mode of conversation. The theme emerged from my encounters and conversations with participants in my capacity as facilitator in an organization development (OD) project with a residential care provider for people with physical and sensory disabilities. In the literature, the metaphor of stimulus-response in general and that of responsiveness in particular, has been used extensively in the strategy literature, but has rarely been conceptualized comprehensively in its communicative implications. Stakeholder management emphasizes the normative and instrumental benefit for adhering to stakeholder demands, but has not reflected on the conversational formats required for such a dialogical interaction. Organizational learning as a change in an organization’s response repertoire draws from a mechanistic model of responsiveness, which does not sufficiently address communicative consequences. This study will investigate the nature of responsiveness in organizations and its relationship to dialogue by addressing the following research questions: What is the nature of responsiveness? What is the relationship between dialogue and responsiveness? The journey has been organized as follows.

Claus Jacobs

1. Responsiveness in Organization and Management Theory

Abstract

Why responsiveness? The initial motivation and interest for a research subject is rarely made explicit and can hardly be rationalized — at best in an ex post effort to do so. However, I would like to explicate where and how my interest in responsiveness and dialogue initially came from. Beyond the analytical dimension of this study, a historical perspective on the genesis of the topic might provide the reader with a broader frame for reading this study. My interest in responsiveness and dialogue can be discerned from my biography on the one hand, and from the practical experience as facilitator and process consultant in the Organization Development (OD) project called “Learning through Listening” (LTL) on the other.

Claus Jacobs

2. Responsiveness and Communication

Abstract

Conceiving of organizations as coalitions of interests (Cyert & March, 1992), policy making is at the core of organizational processes of decision-making. The means of moderating organizational conflicts are political arenas that allow for the different coalitions to voice and support their concerns and interests. The plural interests of stakeholders emerge from and are embedded in specific lifeworlds and language games of participants that exist ‘within and around’ the organization, i.e. subcultures within an organization (e.g. a department, a subunit) as well as social configurations in the private life of stakeholders. Participants of an organization, i.e. its members and stakeholders, will develop individual or group interests that represent their goals for the organization. The goals of the organization, however, are defined in formal or informal conversational arenas (Kirsch, 1991). Drawing from Habermas (1984,1987), lifeworlds are defined as areas of social interaction that are enacted and constituted by language games, i.e. rules of behavior and language that are learned and developed by participants of these contexts. These rules provide a ‘grammar’ of the specific lifeworld and provide a framework for cognition and sensemaking. Consequently, members of different lifeworlds will have difficulties to communicate easily. The agony of translation is a strong indication of incommensurability: “Members of a community of context will have less difficulties to communicate with and among each other than they have when communicating with externals.” (Kirsch, 1991:120–121; my translation).

Claus Jacobs

3. Methodology

Abstract

“Behind every method lies a belief.” (Zuboff, 1988:423) — When reflecting on epistemological and ontological aspects of research, paradigms matter. A paradigm can be defined as “a set of basic beliefs … that deals with ultimate or first principles. It represents a worldview that defines, for its holder, the nature of the ‘world,’ the individuals place in it, and the range of possible relationships to that world an its parts.” (Guba & Lincoln, 1994: 107).

Claus Jacobs

4. The Learning Through Listening Project

Abstract

At the time of the project, the Omega foundation provides residential care in 13 centers for people with physical and sensory disabilities. It was founded in 1963 as a foundation and has currently about 300 places in its centers with a total number of staff of around 400. Each regional health authority in which a local Omega Center is located funds the service provision. Local managers of the centers report directly to the CEO who is supported by a Head Office team that covers central function such as strategy and organization development, service user development, human resource management and training, financials and administration amongst others. The Board of Trustees in which voluntary members from the wider community as well as service users and staff are represented has the accountability for ensuring a quality service delivery as well as the strategic development of the foundation (Omega Foundation, 1999a).

Claus Jacobs

5. Toward a Theory of Responsiveness in Organizations

Abstract

As to distinguish the quality of conversations in the different workshop settings, I will employ Scharmer’s process archetype of conversation for the case analysis. Throughout the project and based on the properties of the different conversational modes as outlined in Table 6, I have identified the dominant conversational mode for each session. As sketched out in Chapter 2, Scharmer (2001) suggests to distinguish speech acts along two dimensions: (1) degree of reflection of speech act (reflective/non-reflective) and (2) orientation of speech act (primacy of social whole or parts).

Claus Jacobs

6. Reflections on Responsiveness and Communication

Abstract

The dialogue strand of organization and management literature (Isaacs, 1993, 1999; Scharmer, 1999, 2001; Schein, 1993, 1999; Senge, 1990, 1994) diagnoses an increasing differentiation in organizations and pluralism of subcultures. These developments and trends increase the need of perceptive, reflective mechanisms that make it possible for people “to discover that they use language differently, that they operate from different mental models, and that the categories we employ are ultimately learned social constructions of reality and thus arbitrary.” (Schein, 1993: 43). This problem definition suggests that differences in lifeworlds and language games call for an enhanced capacity of the organization to perceive, understand respond to issues voiced from members of the different contexts. Based on this investigation, I would refer to such a capacity as responsiveness. Most forms of organizational group talk take place in a confronting mode such as discussion or debate, usually resulting in a strategy of participants to maintain their certainties and suppress deeper inquiry into the root causes of problems. In contrast, dialogue, conceptualized by proponents of this literature, is considered “a discipline of collective thinking and inquiry, a process for transforming the quality of conversation and, in particular, the thinking that lies beneath it.” (Isaacs, 1993: 24–25). In the light of these considerations, the acknowledgment of pluralism in language and social construction of reality results in the suggestion to consider responsiveness as a means for enhancing and encouraging collective thinking, i.e. perception and reflection.

Claus Jacobs

7. Implications and Conclusions

Abstract

As discussed in Chapter 1, responsive aspects in current strategy concepts consist of providing adequate responses to strategic challenges. While acknowledging the relevance of responsiveness, strategy literature implicitly relies on a behaviorist, reactive concept of responsiveness whereas the assumed environmental properties such as turbulence, change would suggest an active concept of responsiveness. The communicative formats and strategies necessary to understand demands made by stakeholder are not discussed in these approaches. Hence, I will revisit the schools of strategy formation and discuss the implications with regard to the above shortcomings in the light of the propositions.

Claus Jacobs

Backmatter

Titel: Managing Organizational Responsiveness
verfasst von: Claus Jacobs
Verlag: Deutscher Universitätsverlag
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-322-81119-6
Print ISBN: 978-3-8244-0727-9
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-81119-6

Springer Professional

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Introduction

1. Responsiveness in Organization and Management Theory

2. Responsiveness and Communication

3. Methodology

4. The Learning Through Listening Project

5. Toward a Theory of Responsiveness in Organizations

6. Reflections on Responsiveness and Communication

7. Implications and Conclusions

Backmatter