There has long been the need for a theory of leadership built on a scientific foundation. This author’s new book, Driven to Lead: Good, Bad, and Misguided Leadership, seeks to provide such a theory using neuroscience and evolutionary biology. This article discusses the evolution of decision making, the four basic drives of humans, and how firms can keep their decision-making processes on track.
This three-case series, set internationally (Japan) explores corporate responsibility and brand rebuilding in the face of a serious crisis. Suitable for MBA, executive education, and undergraduate students, it depicts a consumer advocate's decision-making process as she considers whether to help the company restore its reputation. In spring 2002, leading consumer activist Nobuko Hiwasa was invited to join the Japanese company Snow Brand Milk Products' board of directors. The CEO wanted her to assist in SBM's revitalization efforts, which were being implemented in the wake of two recent scandals-contaminated milk and beef mislabeling-that had almost brought down the venerable company. Hiwasa had to decide whether to take on this Herculean task. Was the company sincere in wanting to reform and revitalize? Would she be accepted as an equal among the board members, and would her views and suggestions be given serious consideration? Was the request publicity-driven? How would fellow consumer advocates view her if she accepted the position? This case details the history of Snow Brand Milk Products and the missteps and scandals that plagued it in the 1990s and early part of the decade that followed, and includes Nobuko Hiwasa's decision making process as she considers whether to join the board of a company that has been badly tainted by scandal.
In the past, cheap, centralized power and efficient but expensive production machinery tipped the competitive advantage toward large companies. Now low-cost computing and communications are tipping the advantage to a new organizational form: the "value-adding partnership". VAPs are groups of small companies that perform different steps along the value-added chain. The partners share information freely and perceive the whole chain as one competitive unit. VAPs have the benefits of both large and small companies: focus and flexibility as well as coordination and sharing. However, VAPs require a delicate balance of power between partners: What happens if one partner tries to take over another?
In order to maintain commitment to ethical standards, companies must foster professional pride and honest business practices in their employees. Examination of the paper industry price-fixing conspiracy in 1976 indicates that a crowded and mature market, declining demand, and absence of product differentiation can create a ripe climate for price collusion. To avoid this, top managers must recognize these dangerous conditions, clearly communicate their intentions, and by their conduct set a good example for their subordinates.
A study of a number of companies employing some form of matrix reveals nine pathologies to which the matrix design is particularly vulnerable, along with prevention and treatment methods. Often there is a mistaken belief that matrix management is the same as group decision making, and there are tendencies toward anarchy and power struggles. The layering of a matrix can frequently result from the dynamics of power rather than from the logic of design, and there is a tendency for matrixes to sink to group and division levels.
Two studies investigating resistance to change reveal that the social aspects of change, rather than the technological aspects, cause the most strident resistance in workers. Everyday changes among employees working closely together elicit little resistance. Management action, usually initiated by staff people outside of the small work group, brings on the symptoms of resistance. The manner in which staff specialists effect changes threatens and disrupts social relationships. Self-preoccupation frequently blinds staff specialists to the social aspects of change.
Details the behavior of line managers, management staff, and workers in response to long-established control system developed by corporation headquarters.