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Speak! Paradoxical Effects of a Managerial Culture of ‘Speaking Up’
Author(s) -
Cunha Miguel Pina e,
Simpson Ace Volkmann,
Clegg Stewart R.,
Rego Arménio
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8551.12306
Subject(s) - salient , ambiguity , multinational corporation , organizational culture , process (computing) , public relations , psychology , sociology , social psychology , business , political science , law , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , operating system
We explore the intrinsic ambiguity of speaking up in a multinational healthcare subsidiary. A culture change initiative, emphasizing learning and agility through encouraging employees to speak up, gave rise to paradoxical effects. Some employees interpreted a managerial tool for improving effectiveness as an invitation to raise challenging points of difference rather than as something ‘beneficial for the organization’. We show that the process of introducing a culture that aims to encourage employees to speak up can produce tensions and contradictions that make various types of organizational paradoxes salient. Telling people to ‘speak up!’ may render paradoxical tensions salient and even foster a sense of low PsySafe.