Organizing emotions: a case study of merging social cooperatives

Since the beginning of the recent crisis, many third sector organizations in Italy have been going through a phase of profound change. The difficulty in reacting to this situation resides in the need to reallocate capabilities... [ view full abstract ]

Since the beginning of the recent crisis, many third sector organizations in Italy have been going through a phase of profound change. The difficulty in reacting to this situation resides in the need to reallocate capabilities and resources and to do so relying on a democratic participative process involving every level within the organization. Understanding how decisions are taken and how the context and the quality of the relations between individuals influence the dynamic of the process can shed light on how organizations evolve and try to adapt to a changing environment.
One of the best-known proponents of an ecological approach to the study of social systems is Bateson, who was among the first to highlight the importance of studying them not in isolation, but instead taking into account the fact that any external element interacting with them would inevitably influence their internal functioning. This work embraces this view and applies it to social enterprises by focusing on the analysis of emotions, which we consider to be the triggers of individual action and thus of interaction. The relevance of emotions is an important theme in Damasio’s research, who finds evidence in neurobiological studies suggesting that they are the basis for rationality, in that they constitute the filter through which individuals transform data under the form of external stimuli into information.
This research follows an experiment undertaken by two social cooperatives based in northern Italy that has ultimately led them to merge. The organizations we studied base their operations in the Veneto region and have mostly overlapping fields of intervention; after the onset of the crisis they decided to try joining forces on some projects instead of competing for a shrinking set of resources. After collaborating for a relatively long time, the two cooperatives started an experimental phase to evaluate the possibility of merging. During this time they temporarily integrated some units to work on specific projects and opened a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of being a unique entity. The joint work proved to be a success, although collaborating was not always easy. The existence of information asymmetries between the parts created at times a fear of manipulation and a lack of trust. There has been a debate among the workers about these emotions, their causes and possible consequences in the attempt to understand these feelings and prevent them from interfering with the joint activity.
This paper analyses all the phases of the process and tells the of how the instrument of Evaluative action-research, proposed and administered by the researchers to the shareholders, has fuelled the discussion and led emotions to surface and conflicts to be understood and overcome. We propose a novel approach to look at how the internal dynamics of organizations contributes to shape their behaviour in an uncertain and ever-changing environment.