The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of the theory of authenticity and metaconversations, particularly in relation to managerial metaconversations, and to show an empirical example of what one might term authentic metaconversational management from below.
The theoretical part of the paper consists of an analysis and elaboration of theories of metaconversation and management. The empirical part of the paper builds on a single case study, which was of both the one holistic and embedded holistic type. In connection with the case study structured and unstructured, open and direct techniques of participant observation were applied. Certain parts of the case study were based on action research and consultation methods.
This conceptual paper presents a definition of authenticity in relation to the theory of metaconversations, and demonstrates with the help of a case study that metaconversations can also be created from below, via a bottom‐up process.
On the basis of the theory of authenticity and metaconversations, the manager(s) and staff, collectively and individually, can reflect on and discuss whether the metaconversations they create and by which they are encompassed – or to which exposed – are authentic in the sense that everyone is being given a voice.
The paper offers a concept of authenticity, as it relates to management, which challenges the idea of authenticity as being primarily concerned with the manager's relationship with himself or herself, e.g. the degree of consistency between a manager's “walk” and “talk”. Authenticity in relation to the theory of management as a metaconversation deals with the relationship between the manager and the staff, for which reason authenticity in this paper is treated as a social and collective matter, not merely one which is individual and personal.
