zeppelin universität

zwischen Wirtschaft Kultur Politik

Organizational Change and Change of Leadership

CASiM Conference 2013 P Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Alfred Kieser Zeppelin Universität Friedrichshafen

Agenda Thesis 1: Concepts of change management tend to overemphasize the importance of leaders Thesis 2: Charisma is seen as the key factor of change management and of company performance in general – or is it rather that success makes leaders charismatic? Thesis 3: Schumpeter already attributed innovation performance to organizational systems, not to the charismatic creative destructor Thesis 4: The impact of top managers on organizational change and performance is probably lower than commonly assumed Thesis 5: Company innovation systems develop into open innovation systems

Agenda Thesis 6: Charismatization of top managers reflects the need for simple person-oriented explanations Thesis 7: Innovations increasingly result from networks Thesis 8: Gatekeepers who create networks through collaborative innovations require specific leadership concepts Thesis 9: Organization can learn from and cooperate with Distributive Innovation (Open Source) Systems (DIS) Thesis 10: Organizational change management should not focus on charismatic managers but on self-management of innovators

Thesis 1: Concepts of change management tend to overemphasize the importance of leaders

The dominant view: change management as effective change communication Top management has to set the agenda, develop the big

picture, walk the talk! Middle managers should be involved as communicators! Participation should be enabled! Instruments like HRM (workshops, trainings, seminars),

internal communication (media, intranet, publications, events) should be orchestrated.

Sustainability should be secured through measurements, companywide organization of knowledge exchange, through provision of feedback!

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• “He [Steve Jobs] had that presence. The reality distortion field. […] And even if you were exaggerating what he was in your own mind, … he was still inspiring you to be better - to be like him.” (Rossetto, 2011)

• “Kamprad is always seen as the spiritual leader of the company. There is no one at the moment who has the charisma and flair to take on his position.” (Rothacher, 2004)

• “Jürgen Klopp. This coach transpires charisma like other people transpire sweat. “ (Kölner StadtAnzeiger 23.04.2012)

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Thesis 2: Charisma is seen as the key factor of change management and company performance in general

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… or is it rather that success makes leaders charismatic?

Peter Drucker (1996, p. xii): “The one and only personality trait the effective [leaders] …had in common was something they did not have: they had little or no 'charisma' and little use for the term or what it signifies". Already Max Weber recognized that charisma is more In the eyes of the beholders than in the charismatic: “The holder of charisma seizes the task that is adequate for him and demands obedience and a following by virtue of his mission. His success determines whether he finds them. His charismatic claim breaks down if his mission is not recognized by those to whom he feels he has been sent.” (Weber, 1946)

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Thesis 3: Schumpeter already attributed innovation performance to organizational systems, not to the charismatic creative destructor

“Innovation is being reduced to routine. Technological progress is increasingly becoming the business of teams of trained specialists who turn out what is required and make it work in predictable ways.” (Schumpeter, 1942/1976)

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Thesis 4: The impact of top managers on organizational performance is probably lower than commonly assumed

“Dismissing the coach within the season has basically no effect on the subsequent performance of a team.” (Heuer et al. 2011)

“[M]any causal forces [are] to consider [in attempts for explaining success] and they occur together in highly intricate and overlapping networks, complete with multiple inputs and outcomes, numerous feedback loops, and all existing in some dynamic state of flux. Total comprehension of the system will easily be beyond the power of the observer. In such a task, the particular understanding that is gained will depend at least as much on the characteristics of the observer as it does on the system itself.” (Meindl et al. 1985)

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Thesis 5: Company innovation systems develop into open innovation systems

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The Open Innovation System of Deutsche Telekom

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Thesis 6: Charismatization of top managers reflects the need for simple person-oriented explanations of organizational performance

„Our informal, implicitly held models and perhaps our more formal theories, as well, are limited responses to the task of comprehending the causal complexities that characterize all organizations.” (Meindl et al. 1985)

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Thesis 7: Innovations increasingly result from networks

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Isolated small networks have integrated into linked large networks.

Companies no longer innovate independently but together with other companies in a “Small world”.

7.244 Inventors in the largest network: Silicon Valley in the 1990s

(Source Fleming and Marx 2006)

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Each member of a network can reach a member of another network through few indirect connections

Thesis 8: Gatekeepers who create networks through collaborative innovations require specific leadership concepts Bostons largest cluster 1986-1990

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Thesis 8 contnd. Silicon Valleys largest cluster 1986 - 1990

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Thesis 8 contnd.

Problem: Small worlds create anxiety for many managers. Given the expense of hiring and training scientists, inventors, and other creative professionals, managers understandably resent their diminished ability to appropriate returns on those investments due to short job tenures and information spillovers. What to do? Identify the gatekeepers Care about and feed the gatekeepers Exploit the fishbowl Never stop hiring someone

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Thesis 9: Organization can learn from and cooperate with Distributive Innovation (Open Source) Systems (DIS)

Examples: Linux – powerful competitor of Microsoft; Wikipedia – better than conventnional encyclopedia; Apple iPhone App Store – more than 700.000 Apps, produced by more than 150.000 developers, 25 billions downloads, 6 billion USD sales Motivation: esthetics, job as calling, common enemy, strengthening of self-confidence, reputation, identity and values Coordination: problem: voluntary participation, free choice of tasks, mechanisms: norms, availability of instruments, small modules („Lego-like modularization“), low integration costs through interface design, simple evaluation through many, hierarchy through meritocracy and relationship management

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Linking Hierarchies and Distributed Innovation Systems (Source: Kornberger 2013)

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Thesis 10: Organizational change management should not focus on charismatic leaders but on self-management of innovators

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“When special exigencies arise, that is to say, when there is peculiar need of a full and free recourse to the law of cause and effect, then the individual commonly has recourse to the preternatural agency as a universal solvent (…).” (Veblen, 1949

“The charismatic illusion is fostered by tales of white knights, lone rangers, and other heroic figures who rescue us from danger. … The common thread in the stories of these [charismatic outside] CEOs and in the stories of most charismatic leaders, … is that they deliberately destabilize their organizations. “ (Khurana 2002]

“To get one business employing at least one person in ten years, we need 43 entrepreneurs to begin the process of starting a company. […] 43 people have to try to start companies so that we can have 9 jobs a decade from now“ (Shane, 2009).