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I feel a responsibility to proclaim … that doubt is not to be feared, but that it is to be welcomed as the possibility of a new potential for human beings. If you know that you are not sure, you have a chance to improve the situation.

- Richard Feynman

Embracing Uncertainty: The Executive's Challenge

Executive Abstract

The old news is that organizations function in an increasingly chaotic and uncertain environment. The good news is that most employees want their organizations to embrace uncertainty rather than suppress it. Our research reveals that employees who work for organizations that embrace uncertainty tend to be:

  • More satisfied with their job.
  • More committed to their organizations.
  • Less cynical about organizational life.
  • More likely to identify with the organization.

These tendencies occurred even when employees themselves did not fully embrace uncertainty. Therein lies the executive's challenge: creating and sustaining an organizational climate that welcomes, utilizes, and exploits uncertainty.

That's not an easy task because it means pushing an organization to come to grips with vagueness, complexity, randomness, the unknown and sometimes the unknowable. For instance, how can executives encourage their organizations to:

  • Recognize vagueness when reviewing market studies?
  • Factor in complexity by reflecting on the ripple effects of a new organizational policy?
  • Acknowledge randomness when planning crisis management strategies?
  • Speculate about the unknown when projecting future business trends?
  • Face the unknowable when contemplating the impact of endeavors they choose not to pursue?

Wise executives cultivate organizations with the intellectual dexterity, emotional toughness, and operational flexibility to embrace uncertainty implied by these various types of uncertainty. Doing so requires that they 1) recognize different organizational climates, 2) understand the reasons why their organizations suppress uncertainty, 3) determine how their organizations suppress uncertainty, and 4) develop appropriate uncertainty-embracing competencies.

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