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Emotional Dynamics and Strategizing Processes: A Study of Strategic Conversations in Top Team Meetings
Author(s) -
Liu Feng,
Maitlis Sally
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2012.01087.x
Subject(s) - dynamics (music) , process (computing) , mechanism (biology) , psychology , key (lock) , strategic management , team composition , knowledge management , social psychology , sociology , business , computer science , marketing , epistemology , pedagogy , philosophy , computer security , operating system
An important but largely unexplored issue in the study of strategy‐as‐discourse is how emotion affects the discursive processes through which strategy is constructed. To address this question, this paper investigates displayed emotions in strategic conversations and explores how the emotional dynamics generated through these displays shape a top management team's strategizing. Using microethnography, we analyse conversations about ten strategic issues raised across seven top management team meetings and identify five different kinds of emotional dynamic, each associated with a different type of strategizing process. The emotional dynamics vary in the sorts of emotions displayed, their sequencing and overall form. The strategizing processes vary in how issues are proposed, discussed, and evaluated, and whether decisions are taken or postponed. We identify team relationship dynamics as a key mechanism linking emotional dynamics and strategizing processes, and issue urgency as another important influence.