Making Sense of Ambiguity: Organizational Entrepreneurship

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Making Sense of AmbiguityOrganizational
Entrepreneurship

• Mariann Jelinek, Ph.D.
• College of William and Mary

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Problem Roots

• Traditional Organizations
• Are Designed to Produce Stable, Predictable
  Performance by Eliminating Unauthorized Behavior
  -- and Ambiguity
• Use Specialization to Narrow Members Focus
• Emphasize Control and Managerial Intent, Ignoring
  Other Cognitive Resources
• 100 Years of Bureaucracy . . .

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Traditional Consequences

• Thought and Attention Limited to Managers
• Consistency Sought Rigidity Found
• Credibility Gap Ignored Realities
• Alienation
• Reduced Capability in Uncertain Times

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Strategy
Organizational Culture, Norms Values
Managerial Systems
Operating System
Structural Elements of Organizations
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An Alternative Approach

• Organize Instead for Innovation
• Performance Improvement
• Organizational Change
• Organizational Learning
• Emphasize Shared Cognitions
• Embrace Ambiguity as Opportunity

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Cognitive Elements of Organizations
Strategy
Organizational Culture, Norms Values
Shared Management
Ambiguity Absorption
Mindful Alertness
Managerial Systems
Operating System
Structural Elements of Organizations
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Multidisciplinary Perspective

• Organization Theory
• Cognition
• Information Theory
• Social Psychology
• . . . Against Constant Process Performance
  Assessment Reality Testing

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Need for a Cognitive Perspective

• Real Organizations are People . . .
• . . . With all their Cognitive Pluses and Minuses
• What is Central, is Whats Traditionally
  Dismissed (e.g., Subjectivity, Creativity,
  Emotion, Responses Beyond Rationality)
• Coordinating Shared Understanding Puts Cognition
  at the Center

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Innovation vs. Traditional Organizations

• Novel Methods and technologies
• Novel Products
• Novel Processes
• Multidisciplinary, multifunctional perspective
• . . . Yet Doesnt Fit with Traditional Stability
  Norms Procedures

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Organizational Change

• Strategic
• Systemic
• Structural
• Cultural
• Constituent
• Experimentation
• . . . None of Which Fits Traditional
  Organizations

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Organizational Learning

• Investigating Knowledge and its Application
  Details
• Shared learning
• Virtual teams, Collaborative Work
• Culture, Technology Learning
• . . . Which Also Do Not Fit

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Responding to Crisis and Ambiguity

• Process Redesign on the Fly
• Reengineering to New Facts
• Quality Improvement Redefinition
• Performance Innovations
• Dynamic Authority, Based on Relevant Expertise
• Problem Solving Focus on Data

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Organizational Entrepreneurship

• Shared Management Were All Responsible for
  Results
• FedEx Keeping Others Informed
• Texas Instruments, 3M, Intel Initiating New
  Ideas, Products Processes
• Blowing the Whistle on Projects
• Mature Industry Bootstrapping

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Mindful Alertness

• Within a Context, Data Takes Meaning
• Alertness to Pattern, Anomalies, Change
• Pushing Data Up the Pipe
• Lost Wrenches
• Rivals Paper Buy
• My Serendipity Hand is Out!

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Ambiguity Absorption

• Who Deals with Ambiguity?
• Who has Data? Information? Context?
• Organizational Attention Resources
• Shared Interpretation

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What Supports Adaptation?

• Technology to Capture, Save, Access, Display
  Share Information -- Helping to Make Meaning and
  Track the Process
• Organizational Structures to Identify Where
  Information is Likely to Reside
• Cultural Norms that Value Evidence
• Operating Policies Based on Data

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The Data-Based Organization

• Show me the Money! -- What Real Results? What
  Real Causes?
• Benign Neglect -- Places to Experiment
• What Have You Done for me Lately? -- Constant
  Attention, Search for Better
• Sharing Information to Drive Empowerment
• Listening Down

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Anomaly Recognition

• Routines Dismiss as Noise, What Entrepreneurial
  Organizations Embrace as Data
• Driving Out Mindlessness
• Shared Interpretation The Chase!
• What Does This Mean For Us?

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Hazards and Limits

• High Performing Organizations are Hard
• Burn Out
• Easy to Forget About Peoples Lives
• The Highest Divorce Rate in Silicon Valley
• The 82nd Airborne School of Management
• Dismissing Bureaucracy that Works
• Finding a Balance Between Stability and Change

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Auto Adaptive System
Technical Support System
Organizational Flexibility
Cultural Openness
Sensemaking
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Structuring Mechanisms
Cognitive Management Methods
Constrained Improvisation
Organizational Reliability
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Structuring Mechanisms
Technical Support Infrastructure
Cognitive Management Methods
Constrained Improvisation
Mindful Alertness, Ambiguity I
Bounded Entrepreneurship
Organizational Reliability
Effective Crisis and Ambiguity Response
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Further Research 1

• The Human Cognition Revolution
• Technical Information Support
• Organizational Dynamics
• Interpretation Influence
• Entrepreneurship as a Resource

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Further Research 2

• Sensemaking as a Shared Endeavor, a Common Human
  Task
• Extreme Events, Near Misses
• Dynamic Reconfiguration Among and Between Levels
  (Individual, Group, Organization , System. . .)