Poignant organizing
Poignant organizing is the process by which disparate elements or fragments come together in an elegant manner at the opportune time to create a fleeting or momentary whole (an episode) in the organization that changes the organization. This process assumes that change is the heart of organizing, gi...
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| Format: | Dissertation |
| Language: | English |
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
01-01-2000
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Poignant organizing is the process by which disparate elements or fragments come together in an elegant manner at the opportune time to create a fleeting or momentary whole (an episode) in the organization that changes the organization. This process assumes that change is the heart of organizing, given our increasingly complex, global, and variable business and organizing world. I draw on the theories of Bakhtin (1919/1990, Art and answerability: Early philosophical essays by M. M. Bakhtin. (M. Holquist, & V. Liapunov, Eds.), (V. Liapunov & K. Brostrom, Trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press), de Certeau (1984, The practice of everyday life. (S. Rendall, Trans.). Berkeley: University of California Press.), and Weick (1976, Educational organizations as loosely coupled systems. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21 1–19) to define how this movement of parts to wholes is beautiful or poignant, transformational and fleeting, and a-rational. I utilized a multi-method interpretive approach, involving interviews with participants, participant observation, and member checking with a management team over the course of 24 months to ascertain features and characteristics of reported and behavioral instances of poignant organizing episodes. My findings indicate that participants to poignant organizing episodes acknowledge these episodes as occurring in their lives and are able to talk about them in insightful and meaningful ways. Participants' reported features of such poignant organizing episodes include situational appropriateness, shared knowledge, respect, synchronized learning, energy, and relational comfort. I applied these features to 19 management team meetings specifically looking for observable poignant organizing episodes. Findings from this application indicate participants recognize poignant organizing in their own experiences. One such episode was found from observation of 19 management team meetings. This finding indicates that poignant organizing episodes exist, but are rare. |
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| ISBN: | 9780599912069 0599912065 |