Managing Responsibly Together: How an Obligation is Made to Matter in Top Management Team Work

Figures & data

Figure 1. The top management team of the municipal company studied.

Table 1. Overview of the selected communicational events.

	Documents	Observation TMT meetings Issues on the agenda	Interviews (TMT members + Others)
May 2019	Strat. plan 2020	Strategic planning
Aug. 2019	List of duties	TMT collabortion	(10 + 6)
Dec. 2019	Budget 2020 Proj. Spec.	Strategic objective
Feb. 2020		Securing profit, Strategic planning	(10 + 8)
Jun. 2020	Strat. plan 2021	Strategic objective	(8 + 5)
Sep. 2020		Securing profit, Strategic planning

Table 2. Doings taking form during the first communicational episode.

	An obligation is made to matter	What happens in the communicational events and in conjunction with them	Which doings are enacted
May 2019	There is a demand in the owner’s directive for the company to be a tool in the development of a sustainable region (that may become an obligation) and for agreement to articulate how to answer it through a strategic plan.	– The draft of the strategic plan articulates how to respond to the owner’s demand. – In this draft, a concrete objective is defined – this objective is not negotiated. – The TMT further articulates how to respond to the owner’s demand and negotiates it (in relation to sustainability). – The TMT is asked to co-author the strategic plan. – The TMT declines by providing accounts that are accepted without discussion.	– The articulation and partial negotiation of what to write in the strategic plan make the demand present. Negotiation is interrupted and no co-authoring of the strategic plan in the TMT is done. – The demand animates the TMT-member writing the plan and thus co-authors the strategic plan. A concrete objective is defined for product portfolio renewal to respond to the demand who is to work towards it and how is not defined. – Accounts are provided and accepted about what to do in relation to the demand.

Table 3. Doings taking form during the second communicational event.

	An obligation is made to matter	What happens in the communicational events and in conjunction with them	Which doings are enacted
December 2019	The obligation is made to matter to some extent through the concrete objective for portfolio renewal defined in the strategic plan that is discussed.	– The objective of product portfolio renewal is articulated since it is on the agenda through the project that the CEO has initiated. – The TMT engages in articulating and negotiating how this project and its results should be handled. – The discussion mostly centres around how to define discrete tasks to be allocated – Accounts of why things cannot go faster are provided and accepted. – The TMT agrees on the need for competence development and a training programme to be performed.	– The articulation and negotiation of how to achieve the objective of product portfolio renewal make the obligation present. There is no plan that is co-authored in writing. – Attempts at defining discrete tasks for others make the obligation animate the discussion. The TMT also defines a task for the team to some extent. – Accounts of what it is possible to do regarding the obligation are provided and accepted. They are mostly about why it is not possible to act more on the obligation. No answers are demanded for such a lack of action.

Table 4. Doings taking form during the third communicational episode.

	An obligation is made to matter	What happens in the communicational events and in conjunction with them	Which doings are enacted
February 2020	The obligation is made to matter to some extent while discussing an unexpected issue leading to profit loss.	– Different aspects of how to deal with the situation are articulated and negotiated. – Accounts proposing actions that are not compatible with being a tool for sustainable development are articulated. – Sustainability is articulated as impeding taking a decision focused on the short-term. – The TMT is asked to provide answers in relation to the sustainability of the proposed measures, but a shared answer is not provided. – The TMT defines tasks to be assigned. – Agreement is produced on making a forecast.	– The articulation of issues related to sustainability of the short-term proposed actions makes the obligation present. – As the obligation is made present, it impedes defining a task or objective for the team since the proposed actions are not in line with the obligation. This leads to defining a task for others: producing a forecast. The obligation thus enables action in terms of stopping some actions and evaluating them first. – The obligation makes certain accounts be provided, whereas, for instance, profit requirement results in other accounts There is an attempt at making the TMT answer for the obligation, but this is not fully supported in the conversation.

Table 5. Doings taking form during the fourth communicational episode.

	An obligation is made to matter	What happens in the communicational events and in conjunction with them	Which doings are enacted
February 2020	The obligation is made to matter to some extent while discussing the authoring of a new version of the strategic plan in which response to the owner’s demand is to be detailed.	– The strategic plan is on the agenda and the TMT is asked to co-author it. – The TMT declines to co-author it. – The TMT is not asked to answer for this lack of co-authoring in relation to the list of duties compiled in 2019. – Accounts about why engaging in co-authoring is not possible are provided and accepted.	– The articulation of the need to produce a new strategic plan detailing how to respond to the owner’s demand makes the obligation present. Co-authoring the strategic plan is proposed but declined. – The obligation does animate the planner’s talk but is not let enable action in terms of defining a task for the team. Rather, it is by defining the plan as a task for the planner that the obligation partly enables action. – Accounts of why the TMT cannot engage in co-authoring, despite previous agreements, are provided and accepted. The planner attempts asking for answers but is not supported in this.

Table 6. An overview of the doings and the accomplishments that make the studied obligation matter.

	Which doings are enacted	What these doings accomplish
May 2019	– The articulation and partial negotiation of what to write in the strategic plan make the demand present. Negotiation is interrupted and no co-authoring of the strategic plan in the TMT is done.	Making the demand present
	– The demand animates the TMT-member writing the plan and thus co-authors the strategic plan. A concrete objective is defined for product portfolio renewal to respond to the demand – who is to work towards this and how is not defined.	Making the demand enable action
	– Accounts are provided and accepted about what to do in relation to the demand.	Accounting for the demand
December 2019	– The articulation and negotiation of how to achieve the objective of product portfolio renewal make the obligation present. There is no plan that is co-authored in writing.	Making the obligation present
	– Attempts at defining discrete tasks for others make the obligation animate the discussion. The TMT also defines a task for the team to some extent.	Making the obligation enable action
	– Accounts of what it is possible to do regarding the obligation are provided and accepted. They mostly are about why it is not possible to act more on the obligation. No answers are demanded for such a lack of action.	Accounting for the obligation
February 2020	– The articulation of issues related to sustainability of the short-term proposed actions makes the obligation present.	Making the obligation present
	– As the obligation is made present, it impedes defining a task or objective for the team since the proposed actions are not in line with the obligation. This leads to defining a task for others: producing a forecast. The obligation thus enables action in terms of stopping some actions and evaluating them first.	Making the obligation enable action
	– The obligation makes certain accounts be provided, whereas, for instance, profit requirement results in other accounts There is an attempt at making the TMT answer for the obligation, but this is not fully supported in the conversation	Accounting for the obligation
February 2020	– The articulation of the need to produce a new strategic plan detailing how to respond to the owner’s demand makes the obligation present. Co-authoring the strategic plan is proposed but declined.	Making the obligation present
	– The obligation does animate the planner’s talk but is not permitted to enable action in terms of defining a task for the team. Rather, it is by defining the plan as a task for the planner that the obligation partly enables action.	Making the obligation enable action
	– Accounts of why the TMT cannot engage in co-authoring, despite previous agreements, are provided and accepted. The planner attempts asking for answers but is not supported in this.	Accounting for the obligation