|
22nd Annual International Conference of the Strategic Management Society
“Old
Barriers Crumbling, New Barriers Rising”
Two
tracks interested me in
particular – Organizational Structure, Leadership, and Change and
Global Strategies. Of the papers that I heard, there are two that I
want to highlight.
The
first was presented by David Sims of the School of Business and
Management, Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK. The paper, Passion as
a Prime Determinant of Organizational Success, was co-authored with
Paul Raimond of the Cass Business School, London, UK.
There
are four propositions
developed in the paper: successful organizations are those in which key
people are passionate about the organization succeeding, organizations
can arouse the passion for organizational success in their key people,
organizations can do much to kill passion in their people, and through
understanding passion for organizational success, … we are enabled to
show organizations how to be more successful.
The
authors investigated the question: Why are some companies more successful than
others? They outlined standard approaches in strategic literature and
research, starting with the 1960s' SWOT theory of performance focused
on superior strategic fit. Followed by competitive positioning in the
1980s, where the answer was to have a competitive advantage (better
or cheaper). This was followed in the 1990s with the addition of a
resource based view (RBV), which looked to the resources and
capabilities possessed by the firm. This paper then goes on to answer
the next questions: What might be missing, or does having a better
product or a better capability automatically result in superior
profits? Based on their research and fieldwork, passion was the “other”
factor.
The
“problem” with passion, is that while the process of forming a passionate attachment is not a rational one, neither is the development of passion a completely uncontrolled process. It takes looking at both the rational
and personal factors working together to attempt to understand how an
organization can make itself more likely to be an attractor of passion
and therefore more successful.
The
second paper, Closing the Culture-Leadership-Strategy Loop,
was presented by Abby Ghobadian of the Center for Interdisciplinary
Strategic Management Research, Middlesex University Business School,
London, UK, and co-authored with Nicholas O’Regan of the same
institution.
This
paper studied the
relationship between performance and leadership style, organizational
culture, and strategy. Their study looked at small to medium sized
manufacturing companies in the electronics and engineering sectors.
The
findings indicated that
certain organizational structures map with specific leadership styles
to support specific strategies.
For
example, if you are
trying to focus on short-term performance, a transformational
leadership style in an internal orientation culture will work best with
a control mechanism strategy. Alternatively, if your performance goal
is to avoid problem areas, a human resources leadership focus with an
intergroup culture and a strategy focused on departmental co-operation
is best.
|
