Managerial Dilemmas : Exploiting Paradox for Strategic Leadership

by Storey, John; Salaman, Graeme

• ISBN13: 9781405160278
• ISBN10: 1405160276
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-07-20
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

In the midst of the most severe recession for 80 years there is little need to argue that organizations are beset by dilemmas and paradoxes. Confidence in prevailing business models and in the underlying assumptions underpinning business decisions over many decades has now been shaken. But it is not enough to rail against arrogance and greed. Within their own (flawed) assumptions bankers and corporate leaders were acting rationally. A major reason for the failure to anticipate and warn is that observers of organizations usually tend to view organizations in terms similar to those employed by the people who run them: as rational, sensible and objective, whereas, in fact, they are usually confused and confusing, paradoxical and contradictory entities. Paradox is at the heart of how organizations work (or don't work) yet the phenomenon has been strangely unstudied. We suggest that, in an age of crisis and uncertainty, dilemmas and paradoxes are especially evident and prevalent. The fascination and the promise of paradox is that there is also a sense that there is a hidden truth entwined within the opposites. This we contend is a challenge for leaders. The ultimate responsibility of leadership is to make sense of these and to handle them in a competent manner. This, we argue, demands a new mode of leadership. The management of dilemma and paradox is, we contend, the essence of leadership today. Paradoxical forces provide a dynamism which, although often experienced as potentially threatening, discomforting and negative can also be exciting, promising and positive. "The assumption that organisations are rational entities is challenged every day in the work environment by a rich reality of asymmetries between conflicting forces, complexity, hidden intentions and paradoxes. Anyone wanting to understand the real forces that govern organisations should read this book. A must read for modern leaders who have the intellectual honesty to lead organisations with open eyes and not with the over simplifications and cliches of the past" Giovanni Ghisetti, Director Business Transformation, Coca Cola Enterprises Europe "Storey and Salaman's description of the paradoxes which characterise leadership today is hauntingly accurate. Their intelligent optimism that those dilemmas can be met is as encouraging as it is challenging for those of us who have to do just that. Having read the insights in this book I now understand how their business advice was always so pertinent". Andy Street, Managing Director of John Lewis

Author Biography

John Storey is Professor of Management at the Open University Business School and a consultant to leading corporations. He authored and edited 16 books on business, management and organizations.

Graeme Salaman is Professor of Organizational Studies at the Open University Business School. He has published widely and is an international consultant.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Unifying Framework: Knowledge-Mission-Form-Capability-Performance

End of chapter summary and further reading

Managers and Knowledge: the Key Resource and Capability.(Exploration of the types of knowledge relevant to managers and the skills involved in their utilization)

End of chapter case box and exercise

Setting the Mission: The Role of Leadership.(Covers these issues: leading the business and leading change; the nature of modern leadership; managing change and managing change consultants.)

end of chapter summary and further reading

Managing Innovation and Change (Innovation in products, services and supply chains; global industries; identifying successful and less successful ways of managing for innovation)

end of chapter case box and summary

Designing Appropriate Organizational Forms.(The range of choices; and inter-organizational forms and capabilities: including capability to adapt and innovate and to use and develop knowledge

.end of chapter summary and further reading

Managing Organizational Networks.(Managing suppliers, partnerships, networks, and inter-organizational relations)

end of chapter summary and further reading

Managing Capability.(Talent management, learning and development; global teams)

end of chapter case-box and summary

Performance Management.(Goal setting, feedback, managing rewards)

end of chapter case box and summary

Bringing It All Together.(The ways in which the key issues align; discussion of future trends.)

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