Thomas Schumacher

Systemic in-house consulting: an answer to building change capacities in complex organizations

ABSTRACT Challenged by the increase in parallel change projects, many organizations have created internal change consulting teams. One theoretically inspiring and practically important phenomenon that we find in our empirical context of a German multinational company is systemic in-house consulting (SIHC). This change consulting approach, which intervenes on the back of strong system-theoretical considerations, faces a paradoxical challenge: to consult on organizational change from within, without the cachet of an external expert. Using the case of an automotive supplier creating SIHC as a coping resource for multiple, heterogeneous, and parallel change processes, the article both examines and illustrates SIHC. We argue that increasing change needs have the potential to stimulate organizational change capacity and that SIHC offers one very concrete and workable expression.

Linking action learning and inter-organisational learning: the learning journey approach

The article presents and illustrates the learning journey (LJ) – a new management development approach to inter-organisational learning based on observation, reflection and problem-solving. The LJ involves managers from different organisations and applies key concepts of action learning and systemic organisational development. Made up of practitioners from 6 to 8 organisations, the LJ visits each of the organisations to explore management practices, taking into account their particular organisational context and challenges. Following a sequence of (a) becoming aware of the particular organisational context, (b) learning about established management practices and (c) working on a current challenge as ‘comrades in adversity’, the article introduces and illustrates the LJ approach. The article closes with a discussion of the approachs challenges and implications for research on – and development of – inter-organisational learning processes.

Preparing Managers for Turbulent Contexts: Teaching the Principles of Design Thinking:

Design thinking is a creative practice that sparks managers’ thinking and acting in response to the challenges of shifting consumer preferences, emerging new technological possibilities, and changing business models. The issues for management education, that is, preparing students for future management roles, is how one can teach design thinking to management students to prepare them for turbulent contexts. This article presents a conceptual approach with empirical illustrations for teaching the core principles of design thinking: user focus, problem framing, visualization, experimentation, and diversity. To help future managers develop a design-thinking attitude, we present a structured 1-hour approach that, first, introduces the design-thinking process (understand, observe, define point of view, ideate, prototype, and test); second, links design-thinking principles to the phases of the design-thinking process and the management of turbulences; and, third, zooms in on each of the six phases. We focus on how design-thinking principles—the common denominator of different design-thinking approaches—can foster students’ creativity and innovation as key elements of managing in turbulent times. In addition to presenting the process itself, the article contains instructions for conducting the exercise.

Strategie und Organisationsdesign in Hochschulen

Hochschulen als offentliche Organisationen sind mit rasant zunehmenden Anforderungen und einer steigenden Komplexitat konfrontiert. Die damit verbundenen multiplen Rationalitaten und Handlungslogiken (z. B. Wissenschaft, Okonomie, Politik), verbunden mit der speziellen Auspragung der Machtstrukturen, die in Hochschulen sehr viel fliesender und weniger hierarchisch sind als in anderen Organisationen, erschweren die Entwicklung tragfahiger Zukunftsvorstellungen innerhalb der Organisation. Mehr noch: Lehre und Forschung als die Kernprozesse einer Hochschule bedingen Autonomie (sie sind nicht von auserhalb des Seminarraums steuerbar) und lassen sich nicht von der Fuhrung uber Vorgaben anweisen. Hochschulen finden sich damit in einer Beteiligungs-Paradoxie wieder: Sie wollen gleichzeitig die autonome Selbst- wie auch die demokratische Mitbestimmung erhalten. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser herausfordernden Ausgangssituation beleuchtet dieser Beitrag die Herausforderungen an Fuhrung von Hochschulen als pluralistischen Organisationen und stellt die Implikationen fur die Strategie- und Organisationsdesignentwicklung in solchen Organisationen dar.