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Leading Organizations through the Stages of Grief : The Development of Negative Emotions over Environmental Change
Journal
Business and Society
ISSN
0007-6503
ISSN-Digital
1552-4205
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2017-03-24
Author(s)
Abstract
This conceptual paper theorizes about the effect of emotions of individual organizational leaders during a period of sustainability-related upheaval within an industry. To illustrate the effect of emotions, it proposes to draw on the model of five stages of grief by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1969), a conceptual framework describing terminally ill patients' responses to their impending death. The authors adapt Kübler-Ross' taxonomy and use anecdotal evidence from grieving top managers of energy companies in response to the nuclear phase-out in Germany. The paper conceptualizes the influence of emotions in the decision-making process of key agents in response to institutional pressures in their field. The paper suggests that focusing on emotional influences will add an important dimension to the analysis of sustainability strategies, and discuss implications for further research at an individual and organizational level.
Language
English
Keywords
Emotions
stages of grief
organizational change
decision-making
corporate sustainability
nuclear energy
energy policy.
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Sage Publ.
Publisher place
Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Volume
56
Number
2
Start page
186
End page
213
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
233869