Orlando Antonio Llanos-Contreras and Muayyad Jabri
The purpose of this paper is to determine how family and business priorities influence organisational decline and turnaround in a family business.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine how family and business priorities influence organisational decline and turnaround in a family business.
Design/methodology/approach
Following critical realism as philosophical orientation, this research is based on an exploratory single case study.
Findings
This research identified specific socioemotional wealth priorities driving this organisation decline and turnaround. The study also determined how the family and business dynamic leads to decisions that first trigger the organisational decline and then explain the successful implementation of turnaround strategies.
Research limitation/implications
Findings of this research provide limited and contingent theoretical generalisation. Accordingly, replication and further quantitative research is required for a better understanding of this phenomenon.
Practical implications
Managers can benefit from this paper by noting which behaviour could lead to organisational decline and which factors could lead to a turnaround. Similarly, managers can learn about the importance of the alignment of socioemotional wealth priorities as a critical response factor to determine whether to follow exit strategies or turnaround (succession) actions.
Originality value
The study contributes to the organisational decline literature and family business literature. It advances the understanding of how family businesses should balance family and business priorities to avoid organisational decline and identify strategies successfully implemented for turning around.
Objetivo
El objetivo de este artículo es determinar cómo las prioridades familiares y del negocio influyen sobre la declinación y recuperación organizacional en una empresa familiar.
Diseño/Metodología/Enfoque
Se usa investigación cualitativa basada en caso único de estudio y realismo crítico como orientación filosófica.
Hallazgos
Esta investigación identifica prioridades socioemocionales específicas que explican la declinación y recuperación organizacional de una empresa familiar. Se determina como la dinámica familiar y empresarial lleva a tomar decisiones que primero desencadenan declinación organizacional y luego explican la implementación exitosa de estrategias para la recuperación organizacional de la empresa en cuestión.
Limitaciones
Los resultados dan soporte a una generalización teórica y contingente. En consecuencia, se requiere replicación y más investigación cuantitativa para una mejor comprensión de este fenómeno.
Implicaciones prácticas
los gerentes pueden beneficiarse de este artículo al identificar qué comportamiento podría conducir a la declinación de la organización y qué factores podrían conducir a su recuperación. Del mismo modo, los gerentes pueden aprender sobre como alinear prioridades socioemocionales y hacer de esto un factor crítico en la definición sobre implementar estrategias para continuar (sucesión) o dejar el negocio.
Originalidad/Valor
El estudio contribuye a la literatura sobre declinación organizacional y también a la literatura sobre Empresas Familiares. Avanza en la comprensión de cómo las empresas familiares deben equilibrar las prioridades familiares y del negocio para evitar el declive de la organización y da luces sobre estrategias implementadas con éxito en la recuperación organizacional de una empresa familiar.
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This paper proposes a perspective of change agency that builds on the regenerative power of language achieved through ongoing talk and conversations associated with managing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper proposes a perspective of change agency that builds on the regenerative power of language achieved through ongoing talk and conversations associated with managing change. It seeks to elaborate on the role of speech in helping one to see change as a continuous stream of socially constructed utterances.
Design/methodology/approach
Configurations have played a central role in determining the extent of fit or misfit between entities – a prelude for steering change and modes of intervention. Much of the reliance on the notion of fit or misfit between entities has been largely driven by conceptions of organizations as consisting of objective entities. But change is not separate from its own construction; conduct of change is deeply rooted in meanings people attach to events. The paper develops a constructionist perspective of change agency; one that builds on the role of language in constructing change.
Findings
The social construction of meaning remains crucial for building connections with organizational identity. The main finding is that there is a very rich meeting point where both language and social construction converge to find each other. For change to take root, change agents would need to emphasize the social co‐construction of meaning and to focus on the role utterance plays in the formation of organizational identity.
Originality/value
The paper develops a constructionist perspective of change agency (regenerative and transforming qualities); one that builds on the role of language in constructing change.
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Muayyad Jabri, Allyson D. Adrian and David Boje
The purpose is to inspire a more Bakhtinian perspective of conversations in change communication. Inspiration is drawn from Bakhtin and argue that change management has, for too…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is to inspire a more Bakhtinian perspective of conversations in change communication. Inspiration is drawn from Bakhtin and argue that change management has, for too long, focused on monologic implementation of predetermined change, i.e. how to develop the “best plot”. Change agents need to consider their anthropology are argued and ask themselves whether the people in their organizations are the objects of communication or subjects in communication. Furthermore, the argument about one's anthropology and one's espoused communication theory are intrinsically intertwined: how one communicates depends entirely on whether one views people as participating subjects in the process or as objects of the process.
Design/methodology/approach
Consensus‐as‐monologue and consensus‐as‐dialogue are distinguished. Under the former, the notion of a single speaker is emphasized (expectations of response are low). But under the latter, consensus becomes saturated with the self as the other (polemic, but born between people).
Findings
Change agents need to consider their anthropology are argued and ask themselves whether the people in their organizations are the objects of communication or subjects in communication.
Originality/value
Seeing conversation among people as a never‐ending process. A different perspective on participation – a perspective whereby one person's message joins with that of another and one person's meaning joins with that of another is offered.
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Recent work in change management has emphasized the role of feedback in creating a readiness for, and contributing to acceptance of, the need for change. This article illustrates…
Abstract
Recent work in change management has emphasized the role of feedback in creating a readiness for, and contributing to acceptance of, the need for change. This article illustrates the development and application of an intervention protocol where differences in perceptual location among team members of an R&D team were used as a springboard for inducing them to talk more openly about their differences and to help them see how change could be constructed through dialogue as a medium. To the extent that team members were willing to create shared meaning, rather than gaining agreement on one meaning, they were more able to learn from each other and to “criss‐cross” their views with each other, thus enhancing their understanding of the sorts of issues that are impeding their ability to perform.
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Alan O'Neill and Muayyad Jabri
This paper aims to show that the knowledge that many change efforts fail to deliver meaningful results is by no means new, but understanding why this is the case remains an…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to show that the knowledge that many change efforts fail to deliver meaningful results is by no means new, but understanding why this is the case remains an important issue for those involved in the management of change. In this paper, the authors question the current emphasis of popularly held explanations of implementation failure by proposing an alternative perspective that draws on social constructionist theory. The authors argue that failure to recognize the legitimizing role and function of conversation has a significant contribution to implementation failure.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws upon observations and information collected as part of a two‐year longitudinal study conducted in an organization and two of its sales offices operating in the Asia Pacific Rim to support and illustrate the conceptual development of the theory presented.
Findings
Change efforts will be negatively affected when new perceptions are not assimilated into the daily language and conversational practices used in the various groups and sub‐groups that make up an organization. The authors present a model to demonstrate how various types of conversation within an organizational setting legitimize perceptions of reality, and how business leaders and change agents can work with this model in order to improve the likelihood of a successful implementation.
Research limitations/implications
Guided by the work of Berger and Luckmann, the authors demonstrate how four levels of legitimization, upon which social constructions of reality proceed, have a significant contribution to play in determining the outcome of a change initiative.
Originality/value
This paper provides a framework that will assist business leaders and change agents to assess how their organization's conversational legitimization processes may work for or against a proposed change, and what conversational practices will need to be altered to positively influence the outcome.
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Muayyad Jabri and James S. Pounder
Examines the role of narrative in management development. It contrasts the characteristics of this genre with the more conventional approach to management development. Using a…
Abstract
Examines the role of narrative in management development. It contrasts the characteristics of this genre with the more conventional approach to management development. Using a management of change course delivered to management practitioners as an example, the paper draws attention to the value of narrative in enriching knowledge of the effects of change on individuals. It is argued that narratives express the richness and diversity of human experience and thus challenge simplistic analyses of management issues such as change that can result from adherence to narrow, mechanical models of human nature. Thus, narrative is recommended as a valuable tool for conveying the reality of managerial situations to practitioners engaged in management development.
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Draws attention to the value of myths for therapeutic purposes; cleansing oneself of addiction to theory. Espouses the need for moving beyond the rigidity of types and…
Abstract
Draws attention to the value of myths for therapeutic purposes; cleansing oneself of addiction to theory. Espouses the need for moving beyond the rigidity of types and quantification of change. Attempts to loosen these types and to prepare the ground for their consideration side by side with myths. Discusses implications for learning and communication.
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Narrative and dialogic modes of theorizing identity are both premised on textuality. However, theories of narrative identity tend towards unity and coherence (in accordance with…
Abstract
Narrative and dialogic modes of theorizing identity are both premised on textuality. However, theories of narrative identity tend towards unity and coherence (in accordance with the notion of narrative as constant and pre‐given), whereas the dialogic mode is more aligned with the postmodern novelistic literature (thus drawing heavily on dispersion, voice, disorder, and otherness). In accordance with the approach of Mikhail Bakhtin, the present study attempts to remedy the shortcomings of narrative identity by proposing change as involving shifting identities that are achieved through the transposition of utterances. Only through the recognition of the undecidable, unfinalizable nature of utterance can change be conceived as being shaped and reshaped through shifting identities. Such an approach reveals the interlocking relation between change and the varied texts people inhabit as they contemplate change.