Resumo

XABA, Lungile; LE ROUX, Catherine  e  DAVIS, Annemarie. Migrating from disruption to consensus: Middle manager experiences with organisational change. JCMAN [online]. 2023, vol.20, n.1, pp.376-403. ISSN 1815-7440.  http://dx.doi.org/10.35683/jcman1028.201.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The study explored middle managers' experiences during organisational change and mapped their migration from disruption to consensus. When change is introduced, middle managers experience dissonance, which creates uncertainty, unpredictable consequences, and opposing priorities that may impede the restructuring objectives. Middle managers must make sense of the change for themselves and others before change implementation can be embraced DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A qualitative case study within a financial services provider in South Africa was used to gather rich data from 13 middle managers through semi-structured individual interviews FINDINGS: Findings confirm sensemaking and sensegiving as social processes toward shared understanding. Dissonance affected middle managers' interpretation of organisational change, resulting in ineffective communication of strategy to others. When consensus is reached between emotions experienced, understanding the organisational change, and the practices of organisational members, middle managers are ready to fully implement the change. Sensemaking and sensegiving enable middle managers to create springboards for putting organisational change into practice RECOMMENDATIONS/VALUE: Middle managers are vital in explaining critical organisational change and driving its implementation. Recommendations are for middle managers to participate in planning or designing organisational change to provide them with greater clarity regarding the change and its rationale. Ongoing emotional support to assist middle managers cope with negative emotions is recommended. Change management upskilling and reskilling techniques are recommended to clear dissonance and obstacles that delay strategy implementation MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS: The study presents middle manager experiences in a single case organisation in the South African financial services industry, but the findings may be transferable to other organisational change contexts. The findings benefit organisations by providing insight into how middle managers align themselves and others through sensegiving during organisational change. Creating a shared understanding of organisational change will align all stakeholders to focus on the change objectives and achieve the desired strategic outcomes JEL CLASSIFICATION: M10

Palavras-chave : Change management; Middle managers; Organisational change; Sensemaking; Sensegiving; Strategy-as-practice perspective.

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