David A. Nadler

Organizing for Innovation

In todays business environment, there is no executive task more vital and demanding than the sustained management of innovation and change. Rapid changes in the marketplace make it essential to think in terms of the future. This article discusses the various types of innovation and focuses on how to organize for todays work while managing for tomorrows innovation. It also deals with the role of leadership—specifically, the relationship between executive leadership and innovation.

Beyond the Charismatic Leader: Leadership and Organizational Change

In ever more turbulent environments, executive leadership matters as never before. Organization speed, flexibility, and the need to execute discontinuous change require sharpened leadership skills. Charismatic leaders are important. These relatively rare leaders provide vision, direction, and energy for their firms. However, charisma is never enough to build competitive, agile organizations. Charismatic leadership must be bolstered by institutional leadership through attention to details on roles, structures, and rewards. Further, as most organizations are too large and complex for any one executive or senior team to directly manage, responsibility for managing in turbulent environments must be institutionalized throughout the management system.

A model for diagnosing organizational behavior

Abstract This article has presented a general approach for thinking about organizational functioning and a process for using a model to analyze organizational problems. This particular model is only one way of thinking about organizations; its clearly not the only model, nor can we claim its definitively the best model. It is one tool, however, that may be useful for structuring the complexity of organizational life and helping managers create, maintain, and develop effective organizations.

The effects of feedback on task group behavior: A review of the experimental research

Abstract Experimental research on the cueing and motivational effects of feedback on behavior in task groups is reviewed. The impact of feedback is seen as contingent on several factors including the nature of the feedback information (including level of aggregation, task/process focus, and evaluative content), the process of using feedback, individual differences among group members, and group task structure. Feedback is seen as contingently leading to affective and cognitive outcomes, including level of attraction to the group, pride in the group, motivation, defensive feelings, and acceptance of group problems. Feedback is also seen as potentially leading to behavioral outcomes such as task performance, membership behavior, and coping behavior. A preliminary model of the impact of feedback is constructed.

Managing Organizational Change: An Integrative Perspective

An integrative approach to managing organizational change is presented. This approach is based on a congruence model of organizational behavior which views the organization as an interdependent set of elements including tasks, individuals, formal organizational arrangements, and the informal organization. Within the context of the organization, change is seen as presenting three major problems: resistance, control, and power. These imply a need to motivate people to change, a need to manage the transition, and a need to shape the political dynamics of change. Specific action steps related to each of these three needs are discussed. A brief illustrative case is described.

Managing transitions to uncertain future states

Abstract The management of organizational change is a challenging task in any context. When events create a situation in which the future is uncertain, the task becomes even more difficult. In this article, I have tried to explore this difficulty, building on the views expressed by Charles Brown in the accompanying interview and using AT&T as a case in point. Although the nature of the problems inherent in managing transition to uncertain futures has become clearer, the solutions have not. What has been presented here is merely a first attempt at proposing some basic approaches for dealing with such situations. As such, it is an effort to extend our knowledge about how to manage organizational change effectively.

Developing a Feedback System for Work Units: A Field Experiment in Structural Change

This study examines the effects of introducing an ongoing feedback system into 10 branches of a Midwestern bank. The feedback system was designed to facilitate collaborative control and problem solving in the branches and was hypothesized to raise the level of participation in the branches and increase their effectiveness. The effects of the new feedback system were evaluated by observing its use and by comparing questionnaire and archival information from the experimental branches with similar data collected from 10 branches where the feedback system was not implemented. The results of the study indicated that the new feedback system produced functional consequences in some of the work groups in the experimental branches, but not in others. It appeared that in some cases the consequences were due to an increase in participative control processes, while in others, they were due to an increase in directive management. It is concluded that the effects of different feedback system designs are probably contingent on contextual factors such as the problem-solving skills and orientations of organization members, the nature of the reward systems existing in the organization, and task and individual differences among work units.

The ongoing feedback system: Experimental with a new managerial tool

Abstract This experiment represents a first step in the development of ongoing feedback systems as useful managerial tools. Additional research and testing of systems is needed. The results of this first experiment, however, are encouraging and indicate that if used effectively, such systems have the potential of improving organizational performance while also having a positive effect on employee attitudes. A consistent theme in the experiment has been that feedback systems are managerial tools, and are thus constrained in their value by the knowledge, skill, and motivation of those who use them. Wherever that knowledge, skill, and motivation exist or have been developed, the system appears to produce durable and positive changes, in a number of different work units, at a reasonable cost, and without the constant intervention of consultants. Thus the ongoing feedback system appears to meet the basic criteria for an effective and useful managerial tool and holds promise as a means for building more effective organizations.

A RESEARCH DESIGN AND MEASUREMENT PACKAGE FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY OF WORK INTERVENTIONS.

A research approach to evaluating organization development and/or quality of work interventions is presented. The basic components of a long term research program on organization change, based at t...

Strategy and Organization Consulting

This article is about the convergence of strategy and organizational consulting. Originally these two specialties were combined under the label of general management consulting. Then the process of specialization fragmented the practices. To some degree, the organizational design area has sought to reintegrate strategy and organization. Today, there is a movement to develop intellectual property and deliver integrated services. The article speculates on who might be the winners in this new development. Consulting in Strategy and Organization began as a single practice area, General Management. Since its beginning it has fragmented into many specialties. Today there are pressures to put these specialties back together again in the service of the general manager. This article confronts the issues of whether the specialties should and can be combined into integrated consulting offerings for general management. The article begins with a description of the development of the practice areas. The development of the practices reflects the advancement of the underlying knowledge base. Such progress highlights the three parallel streams of knowledge that have influenced the consulting practice. These are the evolution of management practice, the theory and research created in business schools and the knowledge coming from the consulting practice itself. At different times each of these has been the leading edge. The article finishes with a discussion of today’s issues, challenges and responses that characterize the two practice areas. Specifically, the forces toward the reintegration will be featured along with the reactions by consultants and their development of sources of intellectual property. The Development of Strategy and Organization Practices The two practice areas began as one called General Management. Then as the practice of management became more complex and the knowledge base increased, General Management fragmented into Strategy, Strategic Planning and several different organizational practice areas. The continual appearance of new management challenges and the resulting increase in Strategy & Organization Consulting complexity have been the forces driving both the expansion and the fragmentation of the consulting areas. The practice of management was the original leader as a source of consulting knowledge. During the 1920s and 30s, consulting firms were staffed with experienced practitioners who transitioned into consulting. Management books were written by thoughtful practitioners like Henri Fayol of France and Chester Barnard in the United States. The businesses of the time were simple by today’s standards. They followed single business strategies and managed through functional organization structures. They executed single business strategies of vertical integration and geographic expansion and consolidation. Very often the bankers who financed the strategies also delivered the consulting on strategy and organization structure. The consulting firms, like McKinsey, were focused on solving the problems of top management. They developed an integrated approach to top management problems. The approach was written in McKinsey’s General Survey Outline which was required reading for all consultants. “The Outline forces a strategic approach in that it calls for considering the industry outlook and the company’s competitive position before considering anything specific to the organization. It also forces an orderly approach by requiring examination of the elements of managing, in an undeviating sequence: goals, strategy, policy, organization structure, facilities, procedures and personnel – in that order.”1 This situation changed after World War II. Companies began to grow and follow strategies of diversification. These strategies required new organization structures. The companies struggled to transition from single business, functional organizations to diversified multi-divisional profit centers. It was a situation tailor made for consulting firms. Through projects they began to acquire the knowledge of diversification strategies and to understand the working of the multi-divisional structure. The strategy and organization consulting firms grew their business and their knowledge base as one firm after another transitioned to a multibusiness company. First, the American firms and then the European and Japanese firms implemented the diversification strategy, many of them with the help of consultants. The intellectual leadership shifted at this time to the business schools. There were at least three important streams of work. One was the strategy and organization stream. This stream was initially led by Peter Drucker. His Concept of the Corporation was a seminal work and has been followed by a never-ending sequence of books on management. Alfred Chandler wrote Strategy and Structure which documented the evolution to the diversification strategy and multi-divisional structure. Igor Ansoff, a practitioner turned academic, contributed one of the first books on strategy, Corporate Strategy. And finally, Michael Porter took the leadership with a series of books stretching into the 1990s. 1 Bhide, 1992, p. 13.