Serendipity in management and organization studies
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Publication Type:
- Chapter
- Citation:
- Serendipity Science: An Emerging Field and its Methods, 2023, pp. 49-67
- Issue Date:
- 2023-07-14
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 978-3-031-33529-7_4.pdf | Published version | 235.82 kB |
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Miguel Pina e Cunha and Marco Berti understand serendipity as a process that requires the right combination of effort and luck. In this chapter, they suggest that organizations are better off embracing or "cultivating" serendipity as learning opportunities. Their approach is to frame serendipity as a "negative capability, i.e. a capacity to pursue a vision that leads to confusion and uncertainty rather than to certainty and clarity. " Their argument sets out by making a distinction between the mechanistic view and the organismic view of organization. In contrast to mechanistic views, organismic views acknowledge the unpredictability and uncontrollability of the environment external to the organization and, thus, its serendipitous potential. Cunha and Berti lament that organizational cultures rather engage in a paradoxical strategy, of trying to predict what their competitors will do, while at the same time trying to remain unpredictable to them. They suggest several ways in which effort towards serendipity can be realized, including generative doubt-the fostering or embracing of a state of not-knowing, and peripheral vision-paying more attention to areas outside the organization's attention. Conclusively, Cunha and Berti argue that while not being controlled, serendipities' probability can be increased.
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