In contemporary organisations, management practices are increasingly related to shaping the flows of information, ideas and resources for the sake of organisational success. This means that the managers of the organisation are expected to reflect and analyse organisational activities, processes and human relations in order to gain a systemic understanding of the workings of the organisation that, in turn, forms a basis for short- and long-term decision-making. These views can be traced back to a shift from positivist management models towards relational and constructivist approaches that emphasise the situated and interpersonal nature of organising and leadership (e.g. Cunliffe and Eriksen 2011). In constructivist management literature, managing organisation has been referred to as “critically reflexive practice” (Cunliffe 2016) that takes into account the socially constructed nature of the social world and recognises the ways in which organisational realities are embedded in everyday social encounters. Similar to other practitioners, the managers of the organisation thus have to learn to view their social worlds in socially organised ways that form the basis of their professional scrutiny, namely, allow them to perceive how organisation as a living system is constituted and steer its course accordingly.

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