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Organizations are Conversations
Abstract
One of the authors remembers vividly a situation where two civil engineers working on a complex project were not too civil with each other. They sat in an office cubicle, facing each other. The only thing separating them was a partition. One of the engineers was quite upset with the other over some details that were overlooked in the large-scale project they were working on together. He reacted to this situation by firing off an angry email to his colleague sitting a meter away. His email contained words such as “unprofessional” and “careless.” He did this when he could have simply got out of his chair and had a conversation with his colleague — sharing his concerns about the overlooked details in the construction project and discussing solutions. The other engineer, understandably very angry and defensive about this email, fired off a heated email response with his own accusations and also copied in the project manager! Not a verbal word was uttered. In isolation this seems like a ludicrous situation, but unfortunately it happens too often in organizations.
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Inspired by auto-ethnographic and self-study action research methods, I explore my experience becoming an interim head in an academic department following the death of my department head. I reflect on my experiences using the literature on department head leadership as well as theory and research I have developed regarding a systemic constructionist approach to leadership. My analysis suggests that our current thinking regarding department head and systemic constructionist leadership could be extended in various ways, including by giving additional attention to reflexive practices that enable leaders to attune to the emerging conversational ecology, focusing on the conversational flows that constitute organizational activity, and investigating how material realities and bodies weave themselves into conversational practices.
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