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Organizing and the Search for Excellence: Making Sense of the Times in Theory and Practice

University of Bath

Robert H. Waterman

The Waterman Group

Karl E. Weick

University of Michigan

This paper seeks to draw out commonalities between the organizational/practitioners' and academic agenda and to explore the idea that academe may not only reflect the times but also help to create them. In so doing, it examines the extent to which In Search of Excellence, a significant and timely exemplar of the organizational agenda, in effect operationalized The Social Psychology of Organizing. If, it concludes, sensemaking is retrospective, then how can it help us to think about current issues that require action and shape our conversations and sensemaking about time future? To this end, much of academic management treats much of management practice as beyond the pale and, for that reason, what matters in this paper is not just a consideration of how to break out of Hambrick's closed loop, but also how others can be encouraged to break in. We see this as part of an ongoing conversation that matters.

Organization, Vol. 6, No. 1, 129-148 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/135050849961006


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