Experiencing Spontaneity, Risk & Improvisation in Organizational Life: Working Live

by Shaw; Patricia

• ISBN13: 9780415351287
• ISBN10: 0415351286
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-01-13
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The theory of complex responsive processes and its implications for those working within organizations has become the focus of increasing interest in recent years. This is in good part due to the success of the editors' previous groundbreaking theory, Complexity and Emergence in Organizations. In this innovative new series, the editors have focussed on what these ideas mean for practitioners tackling real organizational issues, and how they can be used to make sense of the changes and challenges which organizations must face. This book introduces and explores the possible meanings of the idea of "working live." It makes sense of the sense-making experience itself, drawing attention to the way ideas and concepts emerge "live" in all conversations in organizations. An appreciation of the open-ended, improvisational nature of ongoing human communication becomes key to such an understanding. The chapters, all written by experienced managers and consultants, explore: How variousforms of improvisation in social interaction can inform ways of appreciating how those links are forged How these insights can illuminate the challenges of managing, developing and changing organizational practices In Experiencing Risk, Spontaneity and Improvisation in Organizational Life, Shaw and Stacey explore, through the real-life experiences of practicing managers, some of the emerging themes and practical insights that can be drawn from an improvisational view of organizational life. With contributions from managers in both the private and public sectors, the book explores human communication skills and interactions to provide a unique exploration of "working live". It will be of interest to advanced students and practitioners.

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors	p. viii
Series preface	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Introduction: working live	p. 1
Response to a planned intervention	p. 3
Predictability and spontaneity	p. 6
Commitment	p. 7
The experience of spontaneity and 'working live'	p. 10
The emergence of legitimizing explanations	p. 12
Editors' introduction to Chapter 2	p. 17
Theatre, improvisation and social change	p. 19
Involving the audience	p. 21
Reflections on our way of working	p. 26
Keith Johnstone and his way of understanding theatre improvisation	p. 29
Other ways of understanding improvisation in theatre work	p. 33
Relating organizational improvisation to theatre improvisation	p. 39
Editors' introduction to Chapter 3	p. 44
Risk and 'acting' into the unknown	p. 46
Prologue	p. 46
Contributing to organizational change: improvised theatre influences power relations	p. 50
Understanding spontaneity	p. 55
The notion of social control	p. 58
Power as dependency	p. 59
Mainstream understanding of power	p. 61
Linking power and spontaneity	p. 62
Power and spontaneity: a paradox	p. 63
Fiction and reality in theatrical performance	p. 64
Conclusion	p. 69
Editors' introduction to Chapter 4	p. 73
Presence and spontaneity in improvisational work	p. 75
The Grindy Company	p. 76
Fact and fiction	p. 77
Theatre improvisation	p. 80
Teaching improvisation	p. 81
Social interaction as improvisation	p. 86
Spontaneity	p. 87
Presence	p. 89
Improvising in organizations	p. 91
Editors' introduction to Chapter 5	p. 95
Leading in the moment: taking risks and living with anxiety	p. 97
Planning the development of Ariadne	p. 100
Complexities of leading and following	p. 102
First steering group meeting	p. 103
Leadership in the moment	p. 106
The live interview	p. 106
Leadership as process	p. 108
Present moment	p. 109
Ariadne day 2: the challenge leading to a moment of meeting	p. 114
Ariadne leaves Minos	p. 116
Understanding anxiety	p. 117
Conclusion	p. 122
Complex responsive processes as a theory of organizational improvisation	p. 124
Organizations understood as complex responsive processes of relating	p. 128
Communicative interaction	p. 128
Relations of power	p. 134
Choices arising in acts of evaluation	p. 136
The thematic patterning of human experience	p. 137
But how do strategy and planning feature in this account?	p. 138
Index	p. 142
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