[Research Seminar] iLead: “Promoting system recovery after disruptive events: The role of leader-driven communication networks'” C. MAUPIN – University of Mississippi
Speaker: Cynthia K. MAUPIN
University of Mississippi
Date and Location – Thursday June 2nd 2022 from 14:30 to 16:00 on Zoom
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ABSTRACT
Disruptive events are a fact of organizational life, and organizations must find ways to effectively recover from disruptive events in order to maintain operational capacity and competitive advantage. To promote rapid recovery following a disruptive event, organizational leaders are often expected to take a prominent ‘command-and-control’ role in the organization’s communication network by serving as a central conduit through which communication flows.
However, recent advancements in understanding the nature of organizational events (e.g., Morgeson & DeRue, 2006; Morgeson, Mitchell, & Liu, 2015) suggests that disruptive events can vary with regard to key characteristics, such as their urgency (time-sensitivity), criticality (importance), and novelty (unfamiliarity), and organizational responses should be adapted accordingly. We propose that event characteristics represent an important boundary condition determining the degree to which leader-driven communication benefits system recovery following disruptive events. Aligning with research on crisis management, we assert that leader-driven communication is particularly beneficial to system recovery following highly disruptive events that require urgent attention.
Yet, we draw from research on team effectiveness and organizational innovation to propose that the positive effects of leader-driven communication on system recovery are attenuated when systems are responding to disruptive events that are highly mission-critical and/or novel. We find support for our hypotheses in a longitudinal study of 144 disruptive events experienced by a 93-person organizational system over the course of a two-week multinational military coalition training. Our findings demonstrate event characteristics determine the effectiveness of a leader-directed approach to communication.
