Less Closure for Better Closure: What HR-managers should do to mitigate the negative aspects of an employee's high Need for Closure in a VUCA world
(2024) MGTN59 20241Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- The VUCA world we face today, proposes challenges for individuals with a high Need for Closure (NFC) as they may experience decreased well-being when faced with uncertainty and ambiguity. This in turn creates a problem for organizations as their employees with a high NFC may struggle to come up with innovative solutions to the complexity they are facing, making it difficult for the organization to keep up with the rapidly changing organizational landscape (Kossowska et al. 2018; Roets & Van Hiel, 2008). Previous research has not addressed what can be done to mitigate the negative aspects of a high NFC in an organizational context. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to increase awareness about this challenge and provide HR-managers... (More)
- The VUCA world we face today, proposes challenges for individuals with a high Need for Closure (NFC) as they may experience decreased well-being when faced with uncertainty and ambiguity. This in turn creates a problem for organizations as their employees with a high NFC may struggle to come up with innovative solutions to the complexity they are facing, making it difficult for the organization to keep up with the rapidly changing organizational landscape (Kossowska et al. 2018; Roets & Van Hiel, 2008). Previous research has not addressed what can be done to mitigate the negative aspects of a high NFC in an organizational context. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to increase awareness about this challenge and provide HR-managers with recommendations for what they should do to mitigate the negative aspects of an employee's high NFC.
To fulfill the purpose of this study an explorative and qualitative approach was used, which combined information from literature with findings from 11 semi-structured interviews with experts and HR-practitioners. The findings propose that HR-managers should implement strategies on an individual, leadership, and organizational level. These include: help employees develop self-awareness, expose them to diverse environments, encourage leaders to adapt their leadership style to employees with a high NFC, foster experimentation and learning in the culture, and implement supporting structures. These measures could provide structure, clarity, and a sense of predictability in uncertain and ambiguous situations and thereby mitigate feelings of distress and discomfort for employees high in NFC, which in turn mitigates the negative aspects of their high NFC.
The study contributes to an existing research gap, and provides valuable insights for managing complexity and improving employee well-being in VUCA environments. Future research could conduct a broader theoretical framework, more interviews with NFC-researchers, investigate how common a high NFC is, and explore the effects of the proposed recommendations in this study. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9156155
- author
- Viberg, Elsa LU and Franz, Malin LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MGTN59 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Need for Closure (NFC), HR Management, VUCA, Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity, Employee well-being, Employee development
- language
- English
- id
- 9156155
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-24 13:34:03
- date last changed
- 2024-06-24 13:34:03
@misc{9156155,
abstract = {{The VUCA world we face today, proposes challenges for individuals with a high Need for Closure (NFC) as they may experience decreased well-being when faced with uncertainty and ambiguity. This in turn creates a problem for organizations as their employees with a high NFC may struggle to come up with innovative solutions to the complexity they are facing, making it difficult for the organization to keep up with the rapidly changing organizational landscape (Kossowska et al. 2018; Roets & Van Hiel, 2008). Previous research has not addressed what can be done to mitigate the negative aspects of a high NFC in an organizational context. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to increase awareness about this challenge and provide HR-managers with recommendations for what they should do to mitigate the negative aspects of an employee's high NFC.
To fulfill the purpose of this study an explorative and qualitative approach was used, which combined information from literature with findings from 11 semi-structured interviews with experts and HR-practitioners. The findings propose that HR-managers should implement strategies on an individual, leadership, and organizational level. These include: help employees develop self-awareness, expose them to diverse environments, encourage leaders to adapt their leadership style to employees with a high NFC, foster experimentation and learning in the culture, and implement supporting structures. These measures could provide structure, clarity, and a sense of predictability in uncertain and ambiguous situations and thereby mitigate feelings of distress and discomfort for employees high in NFC, which in turn mitigates the negative aspects of their high NFC.
The study contributes to an existing research gap, and provides valuable insights for managing complexity and improving employee well-being in VUCA environments. Future research could conduct a broader theoretical framework, more interviews with NFC-researchers, investigate how common a high NFC is, and explore the effects of the proposed recommendations in this study.}},
author = {{Viberg, Elsa and Franz, Malin}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Less Closure for Better Closure: What HR-managers should do to mitigate the negative aspects of an employee's high Need for Closure in a VUCA world}},
year = {{2024}},
}