Fear and Existential Anxiety as the Basis of Vision at Intel

Abstract

Organisations are not just a means to an end. They also reflect who we are. When our organisational practices are disrupted or disturbed, we are also disrupted or disturbed. Our sense of self-worth is affected by the crisis. This is a message that is reflected through the experience of Andy Grove at Intel. As will be discussed in this chapter, we cannot deal with this disturbance in a purely technical or instrumental way but need to be able to “reframe” and reflect on who we are — as individuals and as an organisation — in order to come through the experience of disturbance. Yet because an organisation is a construct, and does not exist in the absence of humans, can we speak meaningfully about an organisation going through an existential crisis?