Organizational Improvisation Theory: Integrating Knowledge on Management in the Face of the Unexpected

The articles curated in this collection trace the evolution of improvisation research from an under-researched footnote in organizational theory until the emergence in the 1990s of a distinctive theory, one that is particularly useful in dynamic organizational contexts subject to unpredictable time pressures and random, rather than routine, occurrences. Encountering the unexpected is increasingly part of organizational expectations; improvisation is a means of dealing with the discontinuities in sensemaking that unexpected events disclose. The articles chosen for this collection address empirical research in which improvisation emerged as relevant, collectively constituting a contextual approach that focuses on organizational responses to the unexpected. This collection reveals diverse approaches to studying organizational improvisation. Organizational improvisation’s importance is that it makes organizations become more adaptable, more resilient, and, more importantly, more capable of facing contemporary challenges, whether of war, pandemic management, or ecological transition.