Don’t talk about it: Active avoidance in organizations

We introduce a new construct—active avoidance—that can be beneficial for organizations. Active avoidance is motivated by situational incongruence and takes two qualitatively different forms— pretending and bypassing, depending on the salience of outcome versus process expectations in an aversive situation. Active avoidance can lead to positive consequences by facilitating process inventions that involve increased efficiency and helpful accommodations. We discuss the conditions under which organizations can harness the positive results of active avoidance