Managing Organizational Responsiveness

Responsiveness - conceived of as an organization's ability to listen, understand and respond to demands put to it by its stakeholders - has become a crucial, yet underresearched concept in strategic change and organization development.Claus Jacobs develops a concept of enactive responsiveness that transcends the traditional stimulus-response metaphor by re-introducing the dialogical and relational dimensions of responsiveness. Based on an interpretive case study of a 12-month organizational change project in a health care organization, he conceptualizes responsiveness as a perceptive, reflective and adaptive capacity of an organization. Thus, this study contributes to the development of a theory and practice of 'organizational answerability'.

1. Responsiveness in Organization and Management Theory.- 1.1. Responsiveness - An Issue Emerging from Practice.- 1.2. Responsive Aspects in Strategy.- 1.3. Responsive Aspects in Stakeholder Management.- 1.4. Responsive Aspects in Organizational Learning.- 1.5 Conclusion.- 2. Responsiveness and Communication.- 2.1. Communicative Action in Organizations.- 2.2. Conversations 'Make Sense'.- 2.3. Dialogue as a Reflective Mode of Conversation.- 2.4. Conclusion and Research Questions.- 3. Methodology.- 3.1. Epistemological Considerations.- 3.2. Characteristics of the Research Question.- 3.3. Interpretive Case Study.- 3.4. Participatory Mode of Inquiry.- 3.5. Research Design.- 3.6. Conclusion.- 4. The Learning Through Listening Project.- 4.1. The Omega foundation.- 4.2. Rationale and Design.- 4.3. The Story unfolds.- 4.4. Conclusion.- 5. Toward a Theory of Responsiveness in Organizations.- 5.1. Characteristics of Conversational Modes.- 5.2. Characteristics of Responsiveness.- 5.3. On the Relationship between Conversational Mode and Responsiveness.- 5.4. Conclusion and Propositions.- 6. Reflections on Responsiveness and Communication.- 6.1. The Dialogue Perspective.- 6.2. The Communicative Action Perspective.- 6.3. The Sensemaking Perspective.- 6.4. Conclusion.- 7. Implications and Conclusions.- 7.1. Theoretical Implications.- 7.2. Practical Implications.- 7.3 Implications for Further Research.- 7.4. Limitations.- 7.5. Toward a Theory of Organizational Answerability.- References.