個案總覽

In an increasingly complex and volatile business environment, companies need leaders who can collaborate, whether across national boundaries or teams. According to a recent survey of over 300 organizations by the Hay Group, organizations have become flatter and more “matrixed”; employees work on different project teams and report to different managers. Alongside benefits to innovation, information sharing, and complex problem solving, this also results in unclear lines of accountability and authority, and slower decision making. The survey found that executives are lacking competencies for collaboration, suggesting that leadership skills have not evolved with the new organizational structure. This flat, matrixed structure requires leaders who can subordinate their agenda, yield power, and give up resources for the greater good, rather than exercise maximum control. The Hay Group’s research found that successful collaborative leaders have six key capabilities: enterprise perspective, cross-functional perspective, customer perspective, self-management, respectful listening, and matrix influencing. Furthermore, companies can improve their chances of successful collaboration by following five guidelines: be clear about the destination, develop mutual understanding, know when to lead and when to follow, set schedules and stick to them, and encourage information sharing. After examining these issues with examples from Procter & Gamble, Apple, Sony, and Cisco, this article ends with a collaboration assessment tool.