Browsing by Author "Clegg, Stewart"
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- Cognition, emotion and action: persistent sources of parent–offspring paradoxes in the family businessPublication . Cunha, Miguel Pina e; Leitão, Maria João Soares; Clegg, Stewart; Hernández-Linares, Remedios; Moasa, Horia; Randerson, Kathleen; Rego, ArménioPurpose: The purpose of the study is to explore inductively the unique paradoxical tensions central to family business (FB) and to analyze how FB's members face these tensions and their implications in the personal and professional realms. Design/methodology/approach: A multiple-case study with 11 parent–offspring dyads from Portuguese FBs was conducted putting the focus on the micro-level interactions. Findings: The slopes of roles and relationality in FBs produces three persistent sets of tensions around cognition, emotion and action. These tensions exist in a paradoxical state, containing potentiality for synergy or trade-off. Originality/value: Our study is the first to empirically demonstrate that paradoxical tensions between parent and offspring are interrelated, by emphasizing the uniqueness of FB as a paradoxical setting and offering insights to negotiating of these singular paradoxes.
- Drawing on the dark triad to teach leadership is dangerous, irresponsible, and bad theoryPublication . Pina e Cunha, Miguel; Clegg, Stewart; Rego, Arménio; Simpson, Ace VolkmannThe proposition that the Dark Triad (DT) personality traits, comprising a callous ‘constellation’ of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, are beneficial for leaders has gained traction. While supported by certain scholars and practitioners, this perspective represents bad management theory that undermines good management practice. Although some research suggests potential benefits of DT traits in leaders, it is a mistake to assume that they are inherently functional. A common error underlying this viewpoint is the assumption that if a number of successful and celebrated leaders exhibit DT behaviors in their leadership, then other managers must adopt similar behaviors to be effective and successful. In this essay, we propose a teaching-learning agenda aimed at identifying and screening dark traits, reducing DT behaviors in future leaders, and dealing with DT leaders. Just as good educators combat toxic management behaviors that hinder sustainability, we should also counteract toxic management behaviors that negatively affect employees, organizations and even society. Despite the apparent correlation with stereotypes of successful leaders, DT traits in leadership are a destructive force, and it is important to teach students and practitioners how to counteract them.
- Evolving conceptions of work-family boundaries: in defense of the family as stakeholderPublication . Cunha, Miguel Pina e; Hernández-Linares, Remedios; Sousa, Milton de; Clegg, Stewart; Rego, ArménioIn the management and organization studies literature, a key question to explore and explain is that of the family as an organizational stakeholder, particularly when working-from-home became the “new normal”. Departing from meta-analytic studies on the work-family relation and connecting with scholarly conversation on work-family boundary dynamics, we identify three main narratives. In the separation narrative, work and family belong to different realms, and including the family in the domain of organizational responsibility is seen as pointless. The interdependence narrative stresses that organizations and families are overlapping domains in which it is important to acknowledge that the policies and practices of the former might have an impact on family life, and vice-versa. The embeddedness narrative, brought to the fore by the COVID-19 pandemic, sees employment and family as progressively convergent and hybrid work domains. The evolution of employment relations towards increased hybridity of the work situation being embedded in the familial/household context increasingly calls for consideration of the family/household as an integral rather than a peripheral stakeholder.
- Explaining suicide in organizations: Durkheim revisitedPublication . Clegg, Stewart; Cunha, Miguel Pina e; Rego, ArménioDrawing on Durkheim’s concept of anomie, we address the under-explored phenomenon of anomic suicide in contemporary organizations and discuss the consequences of solidarity for organizations and society. The relations of social solidarity to issues of identity and insecurity are explored through the cases of France Telecom Orange and Foxconn. Remedial implications for organizing, considered as community building, are discussed. Durkheim wrote not only about anomic but also altruistic suicide. We will also analyze examples of this type of suicide. Some tentative suggestions are made for how to organize to minimize the incidence of suicidal violence in organizations.
- "Heaven or Las Vegas": competing institutional logics and individual experiencePublication . Cunha, Miguel Pina e; Giustiniano, Luca; Rego, Arménio; Clegg, StewartSignificant research has been dedicated to the study of the dual constitutive core at the field and organizational levels but less attention has been paid to the micro-dimensions of the collision of competing logics, namely in terms of how individuals experience and navigate through them and how that influences organizational ethos and strategy. We study how one individual, founder of the organization behind the independent music label 4AD, made sense and lived through the fundamental clash of two logics: 'music as art' and 'music as business'. We analyse how the personal struggles of the founder allowed the construction and maintenance of a strong, solid and continued organizational identity for 4AD. We uncover four factors accounting for the protection of 4AD's sustained artistic integrity in face of a transforming industry.
- Hope in business organizing for societal progress: three narrativesPublication . Clegg, Stewart; Simpson, Ace Volkmann; Cunha, Miguel Pina e; Rego, ArménioThe relationship between business and society has been contested throughout history. This chapter explores the role of capitalistic organizations in society from ethical, empirical and prudential perspectives. The ethical analysis reviews a range of contested philosophical ideas related to what the relationship between entrepreneurship and society ought to be. The empirical analysis considers evidence of the dominant impacts of organizations on society. In contrast to ideological perspectives holding business organizations as automatically harmful or beneficial to social progress, an objective review of the evidence will indicate both beneficial and harmful effects. The prudential analysis therefore considers the importance of exercising judgement in pursuing practices that reduce harm and enhance positive potential. While we see cause for hope from an emerging range of practical business approaches emphasizing the pursuit of a social contribution over a narrow emphasis on profit maximization, we offer caution. In the greater scheme, movements promoting social and environmental awareness in business are in their infancy, in what remains a dominant neo-liberal environment with totalizing tendencies. Positive practices can even be adopted as a smoke screen by less scrupulous actors. We therefore see an ongoing need for oversight of business and of government by alert and informed citizens engaged in democratic processes. So long as there are informed citizens committed to the greater good, we see hope. In this we also see a place of responsibility for management and organizational scholars.
- Mission impossible? The paradoxes of stretch goal settingPublication . Cunha, Miguel Pina e; Giustiniano, Luca; Rego, Arménio; Clegg, StewartStretch goal setting is a process involving multiple and nested paradoxes. The paradoxical side of stretch is attractive because it holds great promise yet dangerous because it triggers processes that are hard to control. Paradoxes are not readily managed by assuming a linear relation between the here and now and the intended future perfect. Before adopting stretch goal setting, managers should thus be prepared for the tensions and contradictions created by nested or interwoven paradoxes. Achieving stretch goals can be as difficult for the managers seeking to direct the process as for designated delegates. While the increasing popularity of stretch goal setting is understandable, its unexpected consequences must be taken into account. The inadequate use of stretch goals can jeopardize the social sustainability of organizations as well as their societal support systems.
- Myopia during emergency improvisation: lessons from a catastrophic wildfirePublication . Cunha, Miguel Pina; Clegg, Stewart; Rego, Arménio; Giustiniano, Luca; Abrantes, António Cunha Meneses; Miner, Anne S.; Simpson, Ace VolkmannPurpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how a number of processes joined to create the microlevel strategies and procedures that resulted in the most lethal and tragic forest fire in Portugal's history, recalled as the EN236-1 road tragedy in the fire of Pedrogao Grande. Design/methodology/approach Using an inductive theory development approach, the authors consider how the urgency and scale of perceived danger coupled with failures of system-wide communication led fire teams to improvise repeatedly. Findings The paper shows how structure collapse led teams to use only local information prompting acts of improvisational myopia, in the particular shape of corrosive myopia, and how a form of incidental improvisation led to catastrophic results. Practical implications The research offers insights into the dangers of improvisation arising from corrosive myopia, identifying ways to minimize them with the development of improvisation practices that allow for the creation of new patterns of action. The implications for managing surprise through improvisation extend to risk contexts beyond wildfires. Originality/value The paper stands out for showing the impact of improvisational myopia, especially in its corrosive form, which stands in stark contrast to the central role of attention to the local context highlighted in previous research on improvisation. At the same time, by exploring the effects of incidental improvisation, it also departs from the agentic conception of improvisation widely discussed in the improvisation literature.
- New space and the future of capitalismPublication . Cunha, Miguel Pina e; Clegg, Stewart; Rego, Arménio; Berti, MarcoOnce upon a time it was just infinitesimally there. With the dawn of space exploration in the late 1950s it has slowly become apparent that governance of space is necessary. Given important developments in the domain of space exploration and the complex management challenges involved, it is timely to incorporate this domain and its role in the future of capitalism. We explore organization involvement in outer space through a sequence of three conceptual movements. First, we outline the shift from an “Old” view of outer space as a domain for exploration to a “New” perspective that considers space as a resource to be exploited by private capitalistic interests. Second, we advance a typology of the main actors and the logics they bring to the processes of exploration/exploitation. We finally discuss the role of the state in the governance of these important changes.
- Non-naïve organizational positivity through a generative paradox pedagogyPublication . Cunha, Miguel Pina e; Simpson, Ace Volkmann; Rego, Arménio; Clegg, StewartPositive Organizational Scholarship (POS), with positivity as a core conceptual component, is a major innovation in recent decades in management and organizational studies. Just as organization is an inherently paradox laden process, so too, we argue, is positivity. Yet in classrooms and in practice, POS is mostly taught in a manner that accepts only one side of the paradox, that which, at first glance, appears positive. Against such linear approaches we propose another possibility: teaching positivity through a pedagogy of generative paradoxes emergent from creatively harmonizing the energy of competing and interdependent positive and negative tensions. In the process we extend the notion of generative paradox as discussed in paradox literature by embracing the notion of generativity as discussed in POS theorizing where it is associated with organizational processes that facilitate outcomes of collective flourishing, abundance, wellbeing, and virtue. Our proposed three-part generative paradox pedagogy contributes to the literature on POS, organizational paradox, and management learning.