ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND MANAGERIAL SENSE MAKING: WORKING THROUGH PARADOX

Organizational change and managerial sense making: Working through paradox

Organizational change and managerial sense making: Working through paradox

Scher ? Lotte and Lewis discuss the properties of organizations in terms of non-linear network feedback systems ? suggesting that these are the very properties that complexity theory was developed to help understand. To Scher ? Lotte and Lewis organizations are clearly feedback systems because every time two humans interact ? the actions of one person will have consequences for the other ? requiring a further response. These feedback loops are non-linear because they are based on perceptions that lead to over and under-reactions.

Due to factors such as intangibility and perishability managing quality in service settings is much more challenging than managing quality in product markets. It is even more challenging to manage quality in non-standardized relational service settings such as in professional services. In this type of service ? quality can be determined by the network that the company provides for a client ? and these networks can be formal and centrally established ? or informal and based on chance encounters of individuals with similar or different interests and expertise. The complexity of managing quality in this type of service is further increased if there is continuous change in the external environment due to intense competition and changing customer needs.

The concept of spontaneous self-organizing emergent strategy may be an integral property of organizations where informal networks exist ? but managing quality (or not managing) by this process may be frightening to managers due to the lack of any control. Scher ? Lotte and Lewis offer an alternative solution to these systemic problems: that of the learning organization. This solution ? at least ? gives managers the hope that they may influence strategy if they follow Senge's (1990) advice and develop personal mastery and proficiency by learning.

Scher ? Lotte and Lewis contend that an alternative solution to the problems articulated above: that of the multi-paradigm approach requires investigation. Therefore Scher ? Lotte and Lewis suggest that both the solutions offered above are partial solutions and can be incorporated into an integrated multi-paradigm framework. Scher ? Lotte and Lewis further contend that as complexity increases the need for a multi-paradigm approach to manage quality becomes more necessary.

Scher ? Lotte and Lewis suggest that a reliance on only one of these theoretical paradigms by its whole-sale acceptance by managers can lead to an uncritical ideology within an organization in relation to its strategy for the management of quality. An alternative argument is developed in this article: those theoretical paradigms can be integrated in practice. Scher ? Lotte and Lewis investigate the advantages and limitations of each so that these may be accepted and understood. Scher ? Lotte and Lewis further suggest that managers should configure the advantages of different strategy paradigms to benefit the management of quality in their organizations ? dependant on the contextual factors faced by the organization. The multi-paradigm view is further necessitated as complexity increases.

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