How to avoid burnout when you follow your passion in your career choice

Insights for employees and employers to ensure that meaningful work doesn’t turn from soul-stirring to soul-crushing - by Kira Schabram and Sally Maitli

On the way to Ithaka [1] : Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Karl E. Weick’s The Social Psychology of Organizing

Karl E. Weick’s The Social Psychology of Organizing has been one of the most influential books in organization studies, providing the theoretical underpinnings of several research programs. Importantly, the book is widely credited with initiating the process turn in the field, leading to the ‘gerundizing’ of management and organization studies: the persistent effort to understand organizational phenomena as ongoing accomplishments. The emphasis of the book on organizing (rather than on organizations) and its links with sensemaking have made it the most influential treatise on organizational epistemology. In this introduction, we review Weick’s magnum opus, underline and assess its key themes, and suggest ways in which several of them may be taken forward

The social processes of organizational sensemaking

A longitudinal study of the social processes of organizational sensemaking suggests that they unfold in four distinct forms: guided, fragmented, restricted, and minimal. These forms result from the degree to which leaders and stakeholders engage in “sensegiving”—attempts to influence others' understandings of an issue. Each of the four forms of organizational sensemaking is associated with a distinct set of process characteristics that capture the dominant pattern of interaction. They also each result in particular outcomes, specifically, the nature of the accounts and actions generated

Taking it from the Top: How CEOs Influence (and Fail to Influence) their Boards

This article examines how chief executive officers (CEOs) influence their boards in symphony orchestra governance. Traditional governance research has studied the impact of structural factors on the CEO-board relationship, but less attention has been paid to the ways in which influence in these relationships is enacted, and to the role of the CEO in particular. Drawing on two intensive, longitudinal case studies, this article investigates the behavioural dynamics of the CEO-board relationship, identifying four key processes that underpin successful CEO influence: exploiting key relationships, managing impressions, managing information, and protecting formal authority. It concludes with an examination of the interrelated and embedded nature of these processes, and considers the implications for theory and research in organizational governance