Inquiring into arresting moments overtime: Towards an understanding of stability within change

Article published by Marie-José Avenier and Jenny Helin in the Scandinavian Journal of Management of Elsevier in June 2016. Marie-José Avenier is professor at EMLV and researcher of Devinci Research Center – Business Group at Pôle Léonard de Vinci

The aim of this paper is to contribute to current knowledge about special moments – what is referred to as “arresting moments” – when something unexpected spontaneously occurs, by exploring how such moments are part of a dialogic flow taking place over time.

Based on a collaborative study that has been going on for 15 years and Bakhtin’s work on dialogic forces, the paper contributes with a conceptualization of “stability within change,” which shows how arresting moments not only create newness but also a sense of stability; a strong feeling of knowing how to meet the future and thereby how to move on here and now.

Thus, it is not a question of stability or change, but rather an intertwined manifold of opposing forces of stability within change. Implications for practice and research are elaborated upon.

Highlights

• We offer an in-depth account of “arresting moments”, i.e. moments where something extraordinary spontaneously occurs.
• The empirical account illustrates how the experience of arresting moments over time can function as a vitality mechanism for stability within change to occur.
• To better understand the possibility of dialogic encounters, there is a need to understand the on-going forces of disruption and flow, as well as forces of sameness and sharedness.
• To engage in research about dialogic encounters in the present, a sensitive and listening stance is of significance.

Learn more about Marie-José Avenier

Learn more about the Devinci  Research Center –  Business Group: www.devinci.fr

Full article: www.sciencedirect.com