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

by Shaw; Patricia

• ISBN13: 9780415351294
• ISBN10: 0415351294
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2006-01-17
• 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 andEmergence 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 InExperiencing 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	viii
Series preface	ix
Preface	xi
Introduction: working live	1	(18)
Patricia Shaw
Response to a planned intervention	3	(3)
Predictability and spontaneity	6	(1)
Commitment	7	(3)
The experience of spontaneity and `working live'	10	(2)
The emergence of legitimizing explanations	12	(7)
Editors' introduction to Chapter 2	17	(2)
Theatre, improvisation and social change	19	(27)
Preben Friis
Henry Larsen
Involving the audience	21	(5)
Reflections on our way of working	26	(3)
Keith Johnstone and his way of understanding theatre improvisation	29	(4)
Other ways of understanding improvisation in theatre work	33	(6)
Relating organizational improvisation to theatre improvisation	39	(7)
Editors' introduction to Chapter 3	44	(2)
Risk and `acting' into the unknown	46	(29)
Henry Larsen
Prologue	46	(4)
Contributing to organizational change: improvised theatre influences power relations	50	(5)
Understanding spontaneity	55	(3)
The notion of social control	58	(1)
Power as dependency	59	(2)
Mainstream understanding of power	61	(1)
Linking power and spontaneity	62	(1)
Power and spontaneity: a paradox	63	(1)
Fiction and reality in theatrical performance	64	(5)
Conclusion	69	(6)
Editors' introduction to Chapter 4	73	(2)
Presence and spontaneity in improvisational work	75	(22)
Preben Friis
The Grindy Company	76	(1)
Fact and fiction	77	(3)
Theatre improvisation	80	(1)
Teaching improvisation	81	(5)
Social interaction as improvisation	86	(1)
Spontaneity	87	(2)
Presence	89	(2)
Improvising in organizations	91	(6)
Editors' introduction to Chapter 5	95	(2)
Leading in the moment: taking risks and living with anxiety	97	(27)
David Walker
Planning the development of Ariadne	100	(2)
Complexities of leading and following	102	(1)
First steering group meeting	103	(3)
Leadership in the moment	106	(1)
The live interview	106	(2)
Leadership as process	108	(1)
Present moment	109	(5)
Ariadne day 2: the challenge leading to a moment of meeting	114	(2)
Ariadne leaves Minos	116	(1)
Understanding anxiety	117	(5)
Conclusion	122	(2)
Complex responsive processes as a theory of organizational improvisation	124	(18)
Ralph Stacey
Organizations understood as complex responsive processes of relating	128	(1)
Communicative interaction	128	(6)
Relations of power	134	(2)
Choices arising in acts of evaluation	136	(1)
The thematic patterning of human experience	137	(1)
But how do strategy and planning feature in this account?	138	(4)
Index	142