Despite the prevalence of dystopian futures, our understanding of how organizational members engage with these is limited. This study introduces the concept of ‘futuphobia’, a fear of futures that are linked to pessimistic imaginations of undesirable outcomes, and outlines members’ engagement with as well as their responses to such dystopian outlooks. We conducted a single case study within a public broadcasting company whose members expressed omnipresent fears of the future concerning the potential ceasing of the overall public broadcasting system and low audience rates. Based on our analysis, we distinguish between fears of near and distant futures, showing how members engage in varying practices and innovation initiatives in the wake of these types of futuphobia. The contributions of our study are threefold. First, the introduction of ‘futuphobia’ extends the literature on future-making, providing insights into how members grapple with dystopian futures. Second, the study identifies innovation hyperopia and myopia as innovation outcomes in the wake of futuphobia, highlighting the coexistence of both myopic and bold, hyperopic innovation activities within an organization. Lastly, our research contributes to understanding expectations-of-expectations, showing how members’ responses to futuphobia are influenced by others’ expectations about organizational outlooks. Overall, the study calls for a closer examination of how organizational members engage with pervasive fears associated with dystopias in contemporary organizational life.
