When organizational imperfections prove to be fruitful: the case of unionized managers

This paper unfolds the case of organizational imperfections within a multinational in aeronautics, around the unionization of middle managers. In the light of their dealing with their double hats of managers and union-members, we identify different elements of ambiguity, showing the coexistence of two types of ambiguity, ambiguity by design and emerging ambiguity, occurring at different levels. We also show that these coexisting ambiguities lead to silence and tabou, which themselves nurture ambiguity, producing a circle of ambiguity. The theoretical contribution of this paper is to enlighten the undermath of ambiguity and its dual effects on the organization. We indeed show that imperfections reveal to be potentially positive yet jeopardising for the organization and its people. This paper also intends to contribute to the literature in Management, by widening the field of strategic ambiguity on anti-unionism, described in sociology (Boltanski & Chiapello, 2011) and in industrial relations literature (Kelly, 1998) to strategic management. Industrial Relations rarely address the issue of power and even less the one of ambiguity. Our research gives back some of the complexity of the real organization life. The managerial implication of this paper is to propose to engage in a reflexion about unionism of employees and middle managers in particular, breaking with the more traditional view of unions as organizational blockers.