Improvisation as a Way of Dealing With Ambiguity and Complexity

8/7/2019 Improvisation as a Way of Dealing With Ambiguity and Complexity

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Improvisation as a Way of Dealing with Ambiguity and

Complexity

By Stephen A. Leybourne, PhD

2010 Volume 13 Issue 3

As process becomes less relevant in todays flexible organizations, can organizational

improvisation produce emerging best practice?

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The Times, They Are A-Changin, Bob Dylan said, or rather, sang in 1963, but as ananthem for the 2000s, he was right on the button. Organizations are changing, and

changing quickly, and managers who do not recognizeand more importantlyreact, to

this emerging truth, will struggle to compete as markets become more demanding andcompetition intensifies.

Change is driven by a number of inter-related phenomena, notably:

1. the turbulence of environments;

2. the need for organizations to respond quickly to changing environments;

3. increasingly sophisticated, demanding, knowledgeable, and discerning customers;and

4. the shortening of product and service life-cycles.

Put simply, we as consumers want more choices, better quality, faster and moreconvenient delivery, and all at a lower price!

This requires significant change on the part of traditional organizations, and we have seen

a shift away from hierarchical, command and control, micro-managed operational

styles toward an organizational model based on flattened hierarchies, increased

flexibility and local autonomy, the increased importance of inter and intra-organizationalnetworks, of and self-directed, self-designed work. However, such a radical shift in
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organizational style also requires major changes in the way in which culture,

motivation, commitment, and trust are addressed. Essentially, work is becoming less

formalized, more complex, and more improvisational.

This leads to a view that improvisation, which developed from Karl Weicks early work

on sensemaking, and which has evolved through comparison to jazz, and theatricalimprovisation, can assist in this shift. Improvisation has been accepted both conceptually

and empirically, and has a genuine contribution to make in resolving the issues ofcomplexity and ambiguity that organizations are grappling with in these turbulent times.

Indeed, employees are arguably becoming more like entrepreneurs, or maybe

intrapreneurs, in that they are often expected to innovate in real time within their

organizations to resolve issues as they arise. This is the essence of improvisation, and it isalso linked to an emerging area known as effectuation, which involves problem solving

through human actions in environments that are essentially unpredictable.

Components of Improvisation

So, what is improvised work about, and more importantly, what are the components ofimprovisation?

In 1998, academics at the University of Wisconsin identified and documented three

elements of improvisation: creativity, intuition, and bricolage.

In other words, improvisation involves using an element of creative thought, combinedwith an intuitive feel for what will assist in the resolution of a particular problem.

Bricolage, which essentially means utilizing the resources at hand, indicates that the

improviser has only limited resources to apply. Bricolage comes into play because it isunlikely that the improviser in a given circumstance will have time to mobilize additionalresources. This is a significant limitation at times when organizations are trying to

achieve increased performance with reduced means.

Improvisation is also closely linked with time, and in particular the pressure to achieve a

demanding or compressed timetable. Improvisation in this context is defined as: the

degree to which composition and execution converge in time. It follows from this that

the less the time between the design and implementation, the more that activity is

improvisational. This temporal link between two activities is important in judging thedegree of improvisation required in the activity.

Arguably, there are other constructs that link with the concept of improvisation, including

socialization, given that group-based activity arguably produces more robust

improvisational interventions, and prototyping, in that there are strong parallelsbetween improvisation and new product development.

In 2001, four additional elements or constructs of improvisation emerged from the

literature: adaptation, innovation, compression, and learning. Adaptation refers to the


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adapting of one of a personal store of previously successful interventions or improvised

routines to assist in resolving emerging requirements. Adept and experienced improvisers

innovate at the personal level in order to leverage previous practice and existing routinesto solve organizational problems. Compression shortens intended timescales in order to

deliver or resolve problems in less time. Learning is the outcome from successful, and

indeed from unsuccessful, improvisation, in that effective interventions can join thepersonal library of successful improvised applications of the experienced improviser.

Learning from less effective improvised activity is equally important.

Improvisation Ecology

It is evident that experienced and adept improvisers can circumvent routine and process,

and deliver resolutions to problems quickly and effectively. In organizations where theculture and working styles are supportive of improvised work practices, employees can

quickly develop a store of effective interventions that can be adapted and re-used. Often,

this skill is linked with experience i.e. this is an experienced manager. This can

however require a degree of risk tolerance that some organizations find difficult toengage with.

The next step is to capture successful improvisational activity and codify itand in

doing so, make the shift from tacit to explicit knowledge, that can be shared withinthe organization for wider benefit. This requires that the organization supports and

encourages improvisational activity, and has a culture that does not denounce or worse,

punish failure.

This is essential, as one of the outcomes of research in this area is that in manyorganizations, failed or ineffective improvisation is stigmatized, leading many

employees to improvise surreptitiously. Moving away from planned activity involvesdiscarding the shared responsibility that comes from consensus-based planning, and itexposes improvised activity to intense scrutiny. Lack of organizational support can

therefore drive effective and adept improvising managers underground.

A Taxonomy of Improvisation

Given the importance and likely influences documented in this section, it is useful todevelop a taxonomy of improvisational competence to assist with the management of

complex and challenging work.


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Figure 1: Improvisation Characteristics Creativity -v- Analytical Adaptability

In Figure 1 a simple matrix is proposed that classifies activity along two axes:

creativity and analytical adaptability. The intention is to assist organizations toidentify situations where improvisation could reasonably be beneficial. The matrix can

also help to understand what practices and procedures are relevant to organizations insimilar regions of the diagram.

Creativity

The creativity axis is characterized as high and low. High creativity is associated with

dramatic change, numerous risk events, and situations with many unknowns. These

changes should be fundamental and more than simple incremental variation and costescalation.

Analytical Adaptability

This axis recognizes the fact that improvisational work needs to be based on and linked

with traditional analytical tools and techniques, such as the production and analysis ofdecision-making data (e.g. to estimate costs and scheduling). However, particularly early

in the planning cycle, much creativity may be required in data collection and analysis.


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Questions to be answered include: Is the data typical, or did special conditions hold? Is

the design facing major revisions? Are the underlying assumptions no longer valid?

If the answer to these types of questions is yes, then we ask the fundamental question,Can improvised activity assist?

In Figure 1 the vertical axis describes the level of creative challenge, which can be high

or low. The horizontal axis describes the level of analytical adaptability, which again can

be high or low.

For the purposes of this matrix, creativity can be considered as an assumption breakingprocess, in that it defies the acknowledged and accepted paradigm in a specific area or

for a specific process.

On the other axis, analytical adaptability is considered as a tool breaking process, in

that it defies the acknowledged and accepted paradigm for the tools and techniques.

Analytical adaptability is required when the processes or the cost and schedule data areunpredictablethat is, significantly outside of their expected boundsand the tools and

techniques generally associated with activity planning appear to be predicting results wellbeyond a simple cost or schedule overrun. It is now appropriate to move to an

explanation of the matrix.

An example from the IT sector will be given for each quadrant in the matrix, in order to

contextualize the concept.

Box One: High Creativity, Low Analytical Adaptability

Smaller non-profit organizations tend to fall in this category. Non-profits oftenencompass creative arts organizations conducting fund-raising projects or putting on

performances. They typically require considerable creative energy, but the activity oftenresembles previous efforts: previous fund raisers or previous performances. Therefore,

while this requires considerable creativity, the analytical aspect is often similar to

previous efforts and is therefore low on the analytical adaptability scale. Web page

development for new markets would fall into this quadrant.

Box Two: Low Creativity, Low Analytical Adaptability

Herewe have work such as incremental software maintenance and Information

Technology (IT) activity, which requires relatively low creativity. Maintenance worktypically inherits characteristics from the already existing parent system, whichpresumably has existed for a while. Therefore, relatively low creativity is also required,

since maintenance changes are unlikely to require a redesign of the underlying system.

In box two, we do not expect the activity to require much in the way of new or innovative

tools to analyze the project. Maintenance activity typically exists in a regime where the


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processes and tools are already rigorously defined, and the team is expected to follow

existing protocols.

Box Three: High Creativity, High Analytical Adaptability

The pharmaceutical and drug industries characterize activity with both very highcreativity and highly adaptable analytical requirements. New drugs require research and

development, which is unpredictable, and calls for high degrees of creativity. Drug

development is both highly regulated and expensive, so there is a great deal of analyticalwork to plan the development, and closely monitor the cost and schedule during the trials

and acceptance. A high degree of analytical adaptability is also required to manage the

project through the lengthy process with its many changes in direction. Strategic IT

systems would fall within this quadrant.

Box Four: Low Creativity, High Analytical Adaptability

Herewe have activity with very high analytical requirements but low creativity. Manytypes of Department of Defense and other large public sector projects fall in this

category. The government imposes many and varied standards and procedures. Whiledata reporting and analysis requirements in this category of activity are significant, the

work is developed to a very specific and pre-existing scope statement, on which

compromise and the use of immature process is rarely possible. Backroom accountingsystems would also fall within this quadrant.

Summary

The logical outcome from this matrix is that creative improvisation is likely to be more

evident, and indeed more effective, in certain environments. In some domains,considerable analytical creativity can be brought to bear to evolve new and innovativeways to allow adept and motivated employees to develop new ways of achieving required

activity. An example of this is the development of the Grameen Bank, where bricolage

and significant creative leeway is required to circumvent and adapt traditional bankingmodels to operate effectively in a third world environment.

The skill in improvisation is in knowing when to relax the framework that surrounds

proscribed activity in organizations, and when to impose a greater degree of rigor and

structure. Realistically, this will depend on two factors:

That is, employing creativity will depend on the degree of trust and confidence thatstrategic managers have in the ability of employees to improvise effectively. As this trust

and confidence increases, the degree of rigor and structure can be relaxed.

Managing the tension between improvisation and control is a challenge for modernorganizations, but is one that needs to be addressed. Evidence suggests that traditional

routines for micro-managing organizational activity will not deliver the flexibility and


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agility required in modern organizations, and will not resolve the ambiguity and

complexity that are inherent in modern organizational work.

This tension is real, and complicates the relationship between proscribed activity andimprovised creativity. It is apparent that those organizations that successfully manage the

tension between process and improvisation effectively will benefit in the turbulentorganizational environments that make up tomorrows challenging business landscape.

As an example of this, innovative organizations like Grameen Bank are demonstratingthat rethinking traditional business sectors can generate dramatic change from very small

beginnings.

Dylan, Bob, The Times They Are a-Changin (Columbia Records, 1963).

For an interesting exposition of complexity in organizations, Ralph Staceys work onorganizations as complex adaptive systems is highly recommended reading.

Weick, Karl E., The Social Psychology of Organizing[2nd edition], (Addison-Wesley,

1979).

Hatch, M.J., Exploring the Empty Pages of Organizing: How Improvisational JazzHelps Redescribe Organizational Structure Organization Studies, 20, no. 1 (1999): 75-

100.

Vera, D. and M. Crossan, Theatrical Improvisation: Lessons for OrganizationsOrganization Studies, 25, No. 5 (2004): 727-749.

e Cunha M.P., J.V. da Cunha, and K. Kamoche, Organizational Improvisation: what,

when, how and why? International Journal of Management Reviews, 1, No. 3 (1999):

299-341.

Miner, A.S., P. Bassoff, and C. Moorman, Organizational Improvisation and Learning:

A Field Study, Administrative Science Quarterly, 46, (2001): 304-337.

Lewin, R., Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos, (New York: Macmillon, 1992).


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Effectuation is outside the scope of this paper, being an interesting subject in itself.

However, for more information on effectuation, see Sarasvathy, S.D., Effectuation:

Elements of Entrepreneurial Expertise (Cheltenham, Glos: Edward Elgar, 2008).

Moorman C. and A.S. Miner, The Convergence of Planning and Execution:

Improvisation in New Product Development, Journal of Marketing, 62, No. 3,

(1998/July): 1-20.

Bricolage can be literally translated from the French or Spanish to mean do-it-yourself,

and in this context, it means doing the best job you can with the human, physical, and

financial resources that you have at your disposal at that time.

Moorman, C. and A.S. Miner, Organizational Improvisation and Organizational

Memory, Academy of Management Review, 23 No. 4 (1998): 698.

See note 10 above.

Miner, A.S., P. Bassoff, and C. Moorman, Organizational Improvisation and Learning:A Field Study, Administrative Science Quarterly 46 (2001) 304-337.

About the Author(s)

Stephen A. Leybourne, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Boston University, and has

published widely on improvisation in organizations. Prior to joining his current

institution, he completed his PhD at Cardiff Business School, and then taught for sevenyears at Plymouth Business School, both in the UK. Leybourne's research has been

recognized with "best paper" awards at the AOM conference in Atlanta in 2006, and at

the 18th World Business Congress in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2009. He is an editorial boardmember of the Project Management Journal, and is particularly interested in

improvisational activity within the project domain. Before joining academia, Dr.

Leybourne was a senior executive in the UK banking sector. [email protected]
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Improvisation as a Way of Dealing With Ambiguity and Complexity