Mutual Sense-Censoring, Generative Exploration, and Collaborative Change

Abstract

Although several extant studies have focused on the discourse-based organizational change, the full potential of the change practices in global meaning-making systems has remained unexplored in the field of organization development and change (ODC) research. Hence, the major objective of this article is to develop systematic explanations on the power mechanisms in multinational corporations (MNCs) by proposing a model that implies the evolutional co-existence of various meaning-making patterns in the headquarter-subsidiary relationship. Furthermore, this paper attempts to explore the implications of some questions, such as what kind of leadership is more conducive for the constructive dialogic setting in the context of the headquarters-subsidiary relationship and how practitioners can facilitate a smooth transition from the mutual sense-censoring phase to the collaborative action phase in multi-cultural settings. The author uses a Japanese manufacturing MNC as a case in point and shows that the change practitioners are in charge of the crucial position to keep a good balance to create psychological safety in a dialogic space and to lead members to move ahead with the sense of crisis. Furthermore, from the viewpoint of leadership, the change leaders’ authentic self-descriptiveness can provoke organizational members to imagine and develop new ways of looking at the complex organizational realities.