How Do Managers Make Sense of Their Crisis? Disrupted Relationships and Rediscovering Co-existence

Abstract

Managerial work is associated with the experience of critical situations that affect not only the work performance of managers, but also their daily lives. This study presents the results of extensive qualitative research that examines, through interpretative phenomenological analysis and existential hermeneutic phenomenology, how managers make sense of their crises and other specifics disrupting their daily practice and personal lives. An existential-phenomenological approach based on the idea of co-existence – relating to the world and to self through interpersonal relationships – provides a useful framework for interpreting the lived experience of managers within the transformative process related to their identity and modes of being. Research shows that critical moments are often associated with disrupted interpersonal relationships. These can be analysed in several existential categories, such as work, struggle, play, love, and death. This article points out the fact that critical situations are inherent in managerial work and provides a novel philosophical understanding of the importance of interpersonal relationships to overcome these challenging crises. The article provides a model of managerial self-development that is extended to include the level of existential disruptions – critical situations that lead managers to question their being a manager. It is the personal crisis that is significant in initiating a new process of meaning-making, which gives rise to a new managerial self-concept that is the basis for self-development.