“New Shelteredness in Change” Experiencing and Managing Change: An Exploration of Managers’ Biographical Development from the Perspectives of Heidegger and Bollnow

Gómez-Strömer, Yamilet Lucía (2025) “New Shelteredness in Change” Experiencing and Managing Change: An Exploration of Managers’ Biographical Development from the Perspectives of Heidegger and Bollnow. PhD thesis, University of Gloucestershire. doi:10.46289/SWGM4335

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Abstract

Purpose: This qualitative biographical interview study explores managers’ experience and management of private and organizational change through the lens of the ontological structure of human existence. It aims to complement conventional psychological or managerial change management approaches with philosophical one – particularly, Heidegger’s (2010, 2012) phenomenological concept of Dasein and Bollnow’s (1960) notion of New Shelteredness. This study investigates the existential possibility to be safe and secure amid turbulences of change, without disregarding its challenging and volatile reality. Results: The potential for positively attuned, “sheltered” change experiences depends primarily on individuals who find themselves embedded in a genuine, supportive context: Cultivating trusting, resonant yet truthful pedagogical relationships, while establishing recurring events and a familiar spatial order, fosters a sense of home and belonging amid flux. A resourceful relationship to time emerges through gratefully relating to the past, hopefully envisioning the future, and practicing present awareness. A balanced, grounded authentic self appears crucial for navigating change in an adaptive but courageous way. Everyday authenticity and stability can be nurtured by regularly reconnecting to one’s source of beyng, truth, and trust. However, this sense of stability remains always in tension with the human existential condition of being thrown into an unpredictable world. Driven by outer requirements, individuals struggle to regain control but risk losing themselves in the process - resulting in exhaustion, helplessness, and a sense of alienation. Following Heidegger (2010, 2012), the remedy lies in acknowledging this condition, confronting one’s deepest anxiety, and assuming accountability for one’s choices. The study supports this view and illustrates how participants realigned with their own purpose by initiating radical changes in their personal and professional lives after awakening experiences. Transforming existential thrownness in change into a genuine possibility requires truth- and trust-based self-leadership from all individuals involved in an organizational change process. Managers should focus on facilitating the change rather than attempting to direct and control it, thus enabling courageous, “leaping” innovation through an iterative, evolutionary course. Authentic, adaptive, and trustful “Sheltering Change Management” marks an “other beginning” in organizational change by refocusing on existential human possibilities. Conclusion: This study addresses unexamined presuppositions of human existence regarding the experience and management of change by introducing a phenomenological perspective on human Dasein to the organizational change debate. It seeks to strengthen the theoretical foundation of change management for more informed practical application - advocating a dynamically balancing, authentically sheltering, evolutionary approach that recognizes the human existential potential for innovative, sustainable solutions, while staying true to oneself and grounded in a fundamental sense of trust – a New Shelteredness.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Thesis Advisors:	Thesis Advisor Email URL Bown, Robin rbown@glos.ac.uk UNSPECIFIED Williams, Sue scwilliams@glos.ac.uk UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords:	managers’ experience; management of private and organizational change; change management; Heidegger’s phenomenological concept of Dasein; Bollnow’s notion of New Shelteredness
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5001 Business
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Business, Computing and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Anne Pengelly
Date Deposited:	28 Jan 2026 12:53
Last Modified:	28 Jan 2026 16:55
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/15782

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