Communication in a power vacuum: Sense‐making and enactment during crisis‐induced departures

Abstract

Unanticipated departures of CEOs place demands upon interim leaders. From the literature a model is derived that illustrates problems of sense‐making, enactment, communication, and organizational learning faced by these leaders and their internal and external stakeholders. A case, which focuses on the sudden resignation of the president of American University for making obscene phone calls to an area day‐care worker, is used to illustrate the model. Comparisons are made in the corporate world with executive transitions at Kodak and American Express. Alternatives are suggested for improvements in communication and interim leadership when traumatic executive departures place severe and unfamiliar pressures on governance structures. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Celebrating 50 years: 50 years of knowledge sharing: Learning from a field moving forward

“…Most major journals explicitly encourage submissions representing all forms of research methodology, and HRM is no exception. Some examples of the many qualitative contributions that have been published in HRM include Vashdi, Bamberger, Erez, and Weiss-Meilik's (2007) study of briefing and debriefing in military settings and Theus's (1995) study of the sudden departure of senior leaders.…”

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“…Also, perceptions of legitimacy based on propriety increase when there is information symmetry. An open, systematic examination of candidates on explicit criteria that represent a broad set of stakeholder interests is implied when information is disseminated widely (Theus, 1995). It is regarded as illegitimate when, for example, decision-makers consciously convey limited or distorted information about candidates and selection criteria in order to manage impressions about the suitability of competing candidates (Pettigrew, 1973;Zald, 1965).…”

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“…There is evidence of increased use of interims in universities ranging from the presidency (Keefe & Pesut, 2004) to the college football coach (Browning & Kassing, 2011). Theus's (1995) work offers some insight into this process by showcasing the communication, sensemaking, and organizational learning of interims who must manage crises or the sudden departures of chief executives. Moreover, Browning and McNamee (2012) highlighted this institution immersed in interim leadership examining the sensemaking practices of institutional leaders while examined the dichotomies that are created through interim leadership.…”

“…For example, Mouly and Sankaran (1999) distinguish between the ''crisis-induced departures'' of incumbents in several cases (Farquhar, 1995b;Hall, 1995;Theus, 1995) versus the ''departure-induced crises'' faced by acting leaders in an Indian research and development project group. The challenge of interim leadership for the former is to restore stability, while the latter must hunker down to forestall organizational demise.…”