Fraher, Amy and Grint, Keith (2018) Agonistic governance : the antinomies of decision-making in U.S. Navy SEALS. Leadership, 14 (2). pp. 220-239. doi:10.1177/1742715016656649

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Abstract

This article expands organization theory about Wicked, Tame, and Critical problems and their associated decision-making styles, Leadership, Management, and Command, by offering a framework that spans across all three which we call ‘Agonistic Governance’: an approach to decision-making that is premised on the acceptance that complexity generates paradoxes and contradictions and, to be successful, organizational actors must have the agency to positively embrace these, rather than try to eliminate them, recognizing that some failure is the price of overall success. Through an ethnographic study of US Navy SEALs, we suggest that, unlike the cultures of conventional military forces, elite military units can thrive in a leadership environment that is much more subtle, paradoxical and complex, and can be seen as illustrative of Agonistic Governance. Findings reveal that the success of these groups is dependent on the construction of a contradictory decision-making model that recognizes leadership is often as much an art as a science, and an understanding that the willingness to seek out and learn from failure rather than avoid it, is itself part of the solution not the problem. Agonistic Governance offers a way to move from binary thinking rooted in decision-making models that aim to be internally coherent, unilinear and without contradiction, and instead offers a way to accept the irrational and paradoxical prevalent in today’s complex organizational environments. In effect, Wicked Problems an only be addressed by accepting that failure is a prerequisite not a proscription.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management H Social Sciences > HM Sociology U Military Science > U Military Science (General) V Naval Science > V Naval Science (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	United States. Navy. SEALs, Organizational sociology , Corporate governance, Decision making
Journal or Publication Title:	Leadership
Publisher:	Sage
ISSN:	1742-7150
Official Date:	1 April 2018
Dates:	Date Event 1 April 2018 Published 29 June 2016 Available 30 May 2016 Accepted
Volume:	14
Number:	2
Page Range:	pp. 220-239
DOI:	10.1177/1742715016656649
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Related URLs:	Publisher

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