Table of Contents

Introduction - Improvisation in organizations: A convocation, a celebration and an invitation Anne S. Miner, António Cunha Meneses Abrantes, Dusya Vera, and Miguel Pina e Cunha

Part 1. Conceptual linkages

1. Improvisation and bricolage: Similarities and differences between two approaches to resource scarcity Ricardo Coelho da Silva, Leid Zejnilovic, and Pedro Oliveira

2. Eight paradoxical tensions of organizational improvisation

Miguel Pina e Cunha, Medhanie Gaim, and Stewart Clegg

3. The Importance of Referents for Advancing Improvisation Theory and Methods

Jay O’Toole, Indria Handoko, and Hendro A. Tjaturpriono

4. The improvisation-serendipity nexus

Miguel Pina e Cunha and Marco Berti

Part 2. Improvisation process: Before, during and after

5. The improvisational arc: A sensemaking perspective

António Cunha Meneses Abrantes and Olivier Berthod

6. Preparing to be spontaneous for effective organizational improvisation

Ace V. Simpson and Stewart Clegg

7. Character and improvisation: A recursive relationship

Corey Crossan, Mary Crossan, and Cassie Ellis

8. Improvisational decision making: Context, antecedents, and outcomes

Dusya Vera, Pooya Tabesh, Susana Velez-Castrillon, Ariff Kachra, and Steve Werner

9. Improvisation, routine dynamics, and temporal regularity

Kenneth T. Goh and Claus Rerup

10. Practising strategizing: Novelty as a leap of faith expanding learning and improvising

Elena P. Antonacopoulou

Part 3. Improvisation in specific contexts

11. Improvisation in Africa

Emanuel Gomes

12. Locating improvisation in public service management: Past, present, and future research directions

Ian R. Hodgkinson and Paul Hughes

13. Organizational improvisation in project management

Stephen A. Leybourne

14. Professional service firms: Why is improvisation so important?

Muriel Faden

15. Team leadership, momentum, and improvisation in extreme contexts

Bjarke Aage and Stefan Meisiek

16. Managing improvisation in dispersed settings

Massimo Magni and Likoebe Maruping

Part 4. Improvisational theater beyond metaphor

17. Improvisation as a design for organizational emergence

Lukas Zenk, Ralf Wetzel, and Markus F. Pesch

18. Improvisational theater in organizations: Between company expectations and effects on individuals and teams

Cynthia Zabel and René Mauer

19. Theatrical improvisation for organizational improvisation education

Eduardo P. B. Davel and Fernanda P. M. Barbosa

Part 5. Improvisation and new organizational forms

20. Improvising around and about boundaries in open organizations

Antonio Daood and Luca Giustiniano

21. Agility and improvisation

Allègre L. Hadida and Nathan O. Odiase

22. Flow with the go: Real-time continuous improvisation in digital business ecosystems

Pernille Rydén and Omar A. El Sawy

23. Advancing improvisation within entrepreneurship research

Michael P. Ciuchta, Lani Faith Gacula, and Cintya Gajardo-Vejar

Part 6. Conceptual expansions and conclusions

24. Improvisation: A taste of chaos in the middle of order and a taste of order in the middle of chaos

Pedro Marques-Quinteiro and Rita Rueff-Lopes

25. Strategic improvisation in loosely coupled systems

Victor Meyer Jr. and Diórgenes Falcão Mamédio

26. Improvisation in organizations: A review with a phenomenological research agenda

Demetris Hadjimichael

27. Why ever stop improvising? Why endings matter for theory and practice

Anne S. Miner and Jay O’Toole

Epilogue - Improvisation in organizations: Looking ahead

Dusya Vera, António Cunha Meneses Abrantes, Anne S. Miner, and Miguel Pina e Cunha

About the Author

Miguel Pina e Cunha is the Fundação Amélia de Mello Professor at Nova School of Business and Economics, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal.

Dusya Vera is a Professor of Strategy, the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Chair in Leadership, and the Executive Director of the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership at the Ivey Business School at Western University, Canada.

António Cunha Meneses Abrantes is an Associate Professor at TBS Business School, France. He is also Chair of the Team Performance Management track of EURAM.

Anne Miner is a Professor Emerita at the University of Wisconsin, USA.

Reviews

"A stunning consolidation of significant work on Organizational Improvisation. This is the definitive discussion that positions improvisation as a foundation for organization studies and practices. The book models the ways in which a deeper analysis of adaptive improvisational coping can unfold.” Karl Weick, Ross School of Business and University of Michigan, USA.