Thomas Schumacher
Former Member
Thumbnail Image
Title
Prof. Dr.
Last Name
Schumacher
First name
Thomas
Email
thomas.schumacher@unisg.ch
Homepage
LinkedIn

Filters

1
Reset filters

Settings
Now showing 1 - 10 of 20
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

Unfolding the paradox of dialogue – leveraging social systems theory and third elements

2022-05-20 , Tuckermann, Harald , Schumacher, Thomas

View
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

Expectations and decisions: A relational process perspective on institution and organisation

2017 , Krautzberger, Marc , Schumacher, Thomas

View
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

In-house Consulting – an answer to building change capacities in complex organisations?

2016-08-07 , Schumacher, Thomas , Scherzinger, Martin

Systemic in-house Consulting (SIHC) is a new phenomenon in many German-speaking multinational companies. Triggered by the increase in parallel change projects (particularly in bigger organisations), SIHC faces an almost Munchhausen-like paradoxical task: to consult and change organisations from within. In this article, we explore the SIHC phenomenon and argue that increasing change needs have the potential to stimulate organisational change capacity. SIHC can also be interpreted as one way to build up internal change capacities. The article illustrates the new SIHC phenomenon, using the case of an automotive supplier building up SIHC as a resource to cope with the multiple, heterogeneous and parallel change processes.

View
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

'It definitely made a difference to me' : Practical Relevance of Management Development Programs

2014-08-01 , Schumacher, Thomas

In this paper I explore how different communication processes around two management development programs contribute to establish different forms of relevance for management practice. Understanding the MDP and the organization through a communication-based perspective enables us to elucidate the social complexity between the MDP and the organization and understand more about the relevance of management development programs for managerial practice. Drawing upon two ethnographically informed empirical cases of top-management development programs in decentralized organizations their interpretation from a communication-theoretical perspective enables a new understanding of the controversial discussion on MDP´s relevance, their relation for organizational development and the enabling and limiting elements for the ‘transfer' into organizational practice.

View
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

Managing a strategic paradox across organizational boundaries

2019 , Krautzberger, Marc , Schumacher, Thomas , Langley, Ann

View
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

The paradox of employee’s individuality

2016-07-07 , Krautzberger, Marc , Schumacher, Thomas

View
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

"…these workshops are like Sunday´s church visit - but then it is Monday again…" : A systemic view on bridging talk and action

2015-07-02 , Schumacher, Thomas , Krautzberger, Marc

View
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

De- and Recoupling Reflective Episodes: The Case of a Top Management’s Learning Expedition

2019-08 , Schumacher, Thomas , Krautzberger, Marc

View
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

The paradox of employee’s individuality: How top management turns an organizational paradox into trans-organizational complementarity

2016-06-16 , Krautzberger, Marc , Schumacher, Thomas

View
No Thumbnail Available
Publication

“…these workshops are like Sunday´s church visit - but then it is Monday again…“ A systemic view on interaction and decision making

2015-01-21 , Schumacher, Thomas , Krautzberger, Marc , Dominici, Gandolfo

This paper presents detailed insights into the challenges of the organizational renewal in an engineering company. Our action research is based on a single case study and focusses on one of the key challenges of organizational renewal: to put talk (words, communication, discussion) into action (doing, practice, acting). The paper investigates and discusses the talk versus action gap from a systemic communication theory perspective and puts forward two main arguments: First, it shows how the face-to-face communication differs from but is linked to the decision making process in organization. Second, it reveals that beside the often considered aspects of information and utterance the aspect of understanding in the definition of communication adds an impactorientated take on communication and a broader understanding of the talk versus action gap. Literature shows three different streams, that capture the differences between talk and action. First, Brunsson (2003) conceptualizes the difference between talk, decision, and action to describe the gap between these forms of operations as a strategy of political organizations to handle different demands of their environment. By talking, deciding, and acting inconsistently political organizations can satisfy inconsistent demands which might lead to positive and negative effects of an organized hypocrisy (e. g., Krasner, 1999; Lipson, 2007; Weaver, 2008). A second stream of literature is linked to the first one and explores the inconsistency between talk and action of organizations in their corporate social responsibility (CSR). The literature analyzes the difference of talk and action in this particular area as a highly functional strategy of organizations and a problem for its environment (e.g., Christensen, Morsing, Thyssen, 2013; Fernando, 2010). The third stream views the gap rather as a weakness and argues that organizations try not to fail in doing what they talk and decide (e. g., Hardy, Palmer & Phillips,2000; Herarcleous, Barrett, 2001; McClellan, 2011). Putting talk into action in this understanding is an organizational challenge and not a strategy.

View