What is an Organization?

After/Before Party, Dominican Republic, 2024

What if we challenged the belief that an organization is a fixed entity? How might this reshape the way we think about and practice leadership?

​What if we dared to set aside the belief that an organization is a fixed entity, “a thing” that exists independently of the actors that compose it?…

Freed from this conceptual constraint, we could then approach organizations — especially those to which we belong — as dynamic and participative processes, as social constructs in constant motion, constantly created and recreated by the relationships that bring them to life.

Organization as a Social Process

In other words, we would realize that organizations are not governed by fixed rules or simple chains of causality. Rather, organizations would appear to us as a set of apparently spontaneous and often unpredictable interactions between individuals, with the primary element being, quite simply, “conversation.”

Through this shift in perspective, we would realize that there isn’t truly an organization acting upon its members from the “outside”; there is no “system” external to the people who compose it. Consequently, there are also no leaders external to the organization, only participative actors, valued differently according to their status, role, influence capacity, and the virtues and vices they embody daily.

We would become more aware that all members of an organization are inevitable actors who contribute to its development while also being shaped by it. Like any relationship, the actors of the organization create it and are created by it. Within the interdependent networks they help weave, they continually adapt according to the nature and quality of their relationships within their context, influencing others and being influenced in return. And although everyone communicates with intent — whether to inform, request, persuade, guide, or even frighten others — it is only through the responses of their interlocutors that interactions truly make sense.

Gradually, we would become more attuned to the meanings that emerge from communicative interactions, as some formalize into slogans, mottos, even logos, as well as into rules and employment contracts, while others seem continuously negotiated in the informal conversations that enliven organizational life.

Implications for Leadership

This shift in perspective would have significant consequences for leadership practice; it would affect it directly and profoundly. Here are some principles derived from this perspective:

• Total control is an illusion: When we realize that the organization lives and evolves through interactions, and that nobody controls all interactions — so actions and decisions are never entirely predictable — leading with the aim of overseeing everything no longer makes sense. Leaders are then called upon to explore new, alternative approaches to the quest for control (even if the desire for control is sometimes real and persistent), and they become more actively involved in interactions, seeing themselves less as “external controllers” and more and more as “facilitators of interactions”.
• The role of dialogue is central: Conversation becomes a tool — if not the primary tool — of leadership. To act, influence, and transform the organization, leaders are present in dialogues, promote exchanges, and facilitate communication among teams and departments.
• Diversity is valued: To stimulate creativity and innovation (and generally foster change), leaders dare to promote diversity and opportunities for different perspectives. They facilitate exchanges that explore new ideas and solutions, capitalizing on the diversity of the organization’s actors.
• Strategy is adapted to each local context: Realizing that imposing strategic intentions uniformly is unrealistic (and thus ineffective), leaders tailor their decisions to the varied and specific needs and contexts of their collaborators. Strategy thus takes shape locally, depending on the specific realities of each team and department.
• Power gaps are minimized: Based on their field experience and specific organizational and cultural environment, leaders may find that the best decisions are often those made collectively, in consultation with other members of the organization. When overly directive power exercises tend to create fear and demotivate teams, leaders are called to reduce power asymmetries and to embody a role as facilitators of interactions to encourage more active participation.
• Change is embodied: As authority figures, leaders profoundly influence the organization’s culture. By adopting exemplary behaviors and embodying the values they wish to promote, they encourage others to do the same. By focusing on certain themes they deem important, and making room for fruitful and meaningful conversation, they contribute to the conscious construction of collective reality.

In Summary

Thinking of organizations as social processes significantly impacts how we approach organizational leadership and embody it in practice. It becomes less about adapting to an organization concept dictated by generic “best practices” from the past or getting lost in fantasies of what the ideal organization should be. Instead, it is about addressing the reality of the moment, moment by moment, and interacting with it with curiosity and courage.

This newfound curiosity, which we dare to recognize and cultivate through more courageous risk-taking, fosters a heightened personal responsibility for the impact of our actions, words, and engagement in interactions with others. We become more aware that we directly and continuously shape the culture and evolution of the organizations in which we participate.

Gradually, we experience leadership not as a power to be exercised “over” others but as a relational skill to be embraced. This skill consists of “being with” others in a continuous process of co-creation, exploring through dialogue, and advancing together.


References
Bill Critchley, A View Of Organizations As ‘Complex Social Processes’, 2018
Bill Critchley & Hartmut Stuelten, Starting when we turn up: Consulting from a complex responsive process perspective, 2008
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