ABSTRACT
The looped patterns were presented as systemic forms of discursive closure and as opportunities for discursive invitation. Four themes stood out as of significance and meaningful material was clustered within these themes in the form of strange loops. The themes selected were: strategic coherence; accountability; trust and fairness; appraisal. One person can be kept happy without thinking of fairness for the organization. People sometimes have been promoted to management without a formal procedure. People were able to speak explicitly about their perceptions of their own sectional interests and how these perceptions shaped behaviour and created constraining patterns. The potential for greater coherence was facilitated through the new narratives of identity, relationship, and culture. In creating the conditions for dialogue about the contexts shaping the unwanted looped patterns, leverage was created for new stories of obligation and entitlement. There was deep ambivalence about the adoption of management identity from the Chief Executive Officer “down”.
