Making Sense of Organizational Change in Times of Dynamic Complexity: Change Managerialism and Reflexivity

Alain Guiette () and Koen Vandenbempt ()
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Alain Guiette: Universiteit Antwerpen
Koen Vandenbempt: Universiteit Antwerpen

A chapter in Managing VUCA Through Integrative Self-Management, 2017, pp 45-63 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter analyzes micro-processes of sense-making sensemaking during change implementation under a macro-level discourse of ‘change managerialismmanagerialism ’. We demonstrate how managerialism is interwoven in taken-for-granted enactments of managing change and how this instrumental rationalityinstrumental rationality subsequently suppresses reflexive capabilities and agency during change implementation in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Adopting a reflexive research methodology, this chapter aims at illustrating how sense-making processes are enacted by a predominant perspective of change managerialismmanagerialism that does not take into account the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous nature of the organizational context. Empirical material presented suggests that sense-making is shaped through a dynamic interplay of dominant macro-level discourse of change managerialism change managerialism on the one hand, and grandiose discursive enactments and rhetoric strategies on the other hand. This interdependent play results in sense-making that is characterized by system colonization of the sense-maker’s lived reality, de-familiarization, discursive disconnection, and eventually suppression of reflexive capabilities.

Keywords: Organizational Actor; Institutional Logic; Consult Service; Empirical Material; Dominant Logic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:mgmchp:978-3-319-52231-9_4

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-52231-9_4

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