Ethel Brundin Emotions in Motion The Strategic Leader in a Radical Change Process Jönköping International Business School P.O. Box 1026 SE-551 11 Jönköping Tel.: +46 36 15 77 00 E-mail: [email protected] www.jibs.se Emotions in Motion - The Strategic Leader in a Radical Change Process JIBS Dissertation Series No. 012 © 2002 Ethel Brundin and Jönköping International Business School Ltd. ISSN 1403-0470 ISBN 91-89164-32-6 Printed by Ark Tryckaren AB, 2002 Preface Some twenty years ago, I started my own company together with two former colleagues. There was nothing spectacular about this, even if at the time it was considered somewhat different for a young woman to do such a thing and also act as the managing director. However, the spectacular thing was that in forming this company we tried to do so by conforming to rules, regulations and current standards – but there was a lot of hassle on a variety of issues to come to an agreement. In those negotiations we all showed, felt and expressed a good deal of emotions. However, there seemed to be a tacit agreement that those emotions were not to affect our decisions about the structure and running of the business. At least we pretended that this was the case. As a professional consultant within the field of strategic and organisational change, I often came across a great deal of emotions among strategic leaders, managers and other employees. This was even more explicit in different change processes of the companies. Nevertheless, emotions were something one tried to exclude from strategic leadership. In the early eighties, our company was given a big project where we were to participate in the total re-construction and re- organisation of a huge nation-wide organisation including managers on four levels. This project lasted for ten years – and naturally a great deal of emotions were involved. To many of the participants, the re-organisation meant new ways to work and think, and to some of them their very position was challenged, changed, threatened or taken away. In this turmoil, the managers’ emotions were not legitimate to involve as a process per se. Instead, they were something, if felt or shown, that had to be ‘outside’ the change process itself and dealt with in a special way – if they were dealt with at all. Some years later, at the very edge of the former millennium, in a radical change process, personally relived, emotions still seem to be something that an organisation cannot handle. What differs from the beginning of my career is that now people are asked to come forward with their personal thoughts and feelings. However, once we ask for them we do not seem to know how to behave and take care of them. Emotions are still something we should try to hold back, or if we are to show them, we seem to be asked to do so in a civilised and rational way. This book is about emotions. It is about emotions in an organisational setting. It is an attempt to understand the role of emotions in the context of a radical change process and with the strategic leader as the key focus. Furthermore, it is an effort to acknowledge emotions as something natural in organisations. Emotions are self evident and omnipresent in the workplace and they should accordingly be considered as such. By following two strategic leaders from two different companies during a radical change process for about eighteen months, I will illustrate that emotions evolve, transform, change and take new directions during social interaction. The individual, inter-personal and organisational levels interact in this process of shaping, sustaining and changing emotions. Emotions will be studied and analysed from a communicative approach. My ambition is to give a contribution to the field of strategic change including strategic leadership and illustrate that emotions matter in radical change processes which are by no means colourless! As will be shown in this book, emotions matter as driving and/or restraining forces with power implications in such processes, where emotion sediments and emotions as mood setters play a role as well. Abstract This thesis offers an emotion perspective to the field of strategic change and leadership. Through a longitudinal study, following two strategic leaders in a real time setting of a radical change process, this study shows that emotions are all-embracing within such a process. The findings stress that strategic leaders are very emotionally committed and tied to the strategy of a company and feel personal responsibility for its progress. Emotions evolve in daily interaction and are produced and reproduced in this context. They arise as a means to understand and relate to the on-going process and as a means to explicitly emphasise and stress the importance of different aspects of the change as well. The results of this study show that emotions can be related directly to the change process where they serve as driving forces or restraining forces and as indirect driving or restraining forces in relation to the strategic intent. Furthermore, the co-production of emotions between the strategic leader and other organisational members has power implications such as power gain or power drain for the strategic leader, and thereby the strategic leadership. Emotions have also been proven to serve as constructors of emotion sediments, good-mood-setters and bad-mood-setters within the process. Methodologically, this study opens up for further research on emotions. Through a series of micro-processes, the strategic leaders of this study have contributed by helping out with conversations prior to and after meetings and by offering their personal diary notes. Furthermore, a suggested classification of emotions is made in connection to a radical change process. Content 1. The Emergence of Emotions in Management Theory 11 Introduction 11 Vignette 1 11 Vignette 2 12 Strategic Leadership and Strategic Change and Emotions 14 Organisation Theory and Emotions 18 Conclusion 19 Do Emotions Matter? 20 Implications for this Study 22 Purpose and Structure of the Thesis 23 2. Radical Change and Strategic Leadership 27 Introduction 27 Radical Change 28 The Magnitude of Change 29 Approaches to Radical Change 31 Implications for this Study 33 Strategic Leadership 35 Implications for this Study 39 3. What are Emotions: Towards Conceptualising Emotions 43 Introduction 43 Part I: A Literature Review 44 Philosophers’ Views on Emotions 44 The Cognitive Perspective on Emotions 50 The Social Constructionist Perspective on Emotions 50 Integrated Approaches to Emotions 65 Discussion on the Social Constructionist View on Emotions 67 Part II: A Place for Emotions in this Study 70 Emotions as Socially Constructed 70 Implications of Viewing Emotions as Socially Constructed 77 Emotions My Way 81 4. How to Appreciate Emotions 83 An Interpretive Approach 83 Implications of an Interpretive Approach in Field Research 86 Towards an Interpretation 94 The Empirical Material in Condensed Form: “Narrated Chronologies” 96 Concluding Discussion 100 5. The Two Case Companies: May We Be Introduced? 103 Higgledy 103 The Strategic Leader of Higgledy - Hericles 104 The Development of Higgledy 105 Hericles’ Business Management Style and Higgledy’s Radical Change 107 Piggledy 110 The Strategic Leader of Piggledy - Pericles 111 The Development of Piggledy 112 Pericles’ Business Management Style and Piggledy’s Radical Change 114 Reflections upon the Two Case Companies 116 Guidelines for Further Readings 120 6. The Story of Higgledy 123 Summary 168 The Radical Change Process Divided into Managerial Issues 168 Hericles’ Emotions Over Time 180 7. The Story of Piggledy 181 Summary 230 The Radical Change Process Divided into Managerial Issues 230 Pericles’ Emotions Over Time 242 Closing Remark 242 8. Emotion Patterns: Hericles’ and Pericles’ Emotions in Motion 243 A Classification of Emotions 243 Hericles’ Emotion Pattern with the Classification as Reference 253 Pericles’ Emotion Pattern with the Classification as Reference 258 Critical Strategic Issues and Emotions: Hericles 263 Critical Strategic Issues and Emotions: Pericles 267 Concluding Discussion 270 9. Do Emotions Matter? Emotions in Motion and Strategic Leadership 273 Thematic Discussion I 273 Translated and Transformed Emotions as Driving Forces and Restraining Forces 273 Thematic Discussion II 286 Emotional Role Models, Power Gain and Power Drain 286 Thematic Discussion III 290 Emotion Sediments and Emotions as Mood Setters 290 10. Contributions and Implications 299 Contributions 299 The Visibility of Emotions and Emotions as a Natural Part of Organisational Life 299 Methodological Contribution 301 Emotions and Cognition as Parts of Each Other 302 Emotions and Contextual Factors 304 Resistance to /Radical/ Change 305 Where Does this Leave Strategic Leadership? 308 Practical Implications 311 Suggestions for Future Research 312 11. A Summary: Emotions in Motion 315 A Never Ending Story 319 Epilogue: Some Emotionalities 321 References 323 Enclosures 341 Enclosure A: Professional Views on Emotions Enclosure B: Personal Reflections: Are the Results Trustworthy? Enclosure C: Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson and O’Connor: Coordinates of 135 Emotion Words Enclosure D: A Linguistic Description of Emotions Enclosures E1-9: Lexical Chains of Emotions The Emergence of Emotions in Management Theory 1. The Emergence of Emotions in Management Theory This is a thesis about emotions. The purpose is to create an understanding of emotions in a radical change process in an organisational setting with a strategic leader as the key focus. In this introductory chapter, the situations of two strategic leaders will lead to a discussion which will make clear the need of an emotion perspective within the field of strategic change including strategic leadership. This is done through a short exposé within this research field including the field of organisation theory1 and with an emphasis on emotions. The chapter should thus not be read as a literature review of emotions, rather it serves as a framework for stressing the importance of acknowledging emotions per se within strategic change as well as strategic leadership.