MARVIN BOWER ON WHY MORE COHESION AND LESS HIERARCHY IS REQUIRED IN ORGANISATIONS
Use this to help you break down hierarchical structures and improve organisational cohesion.
Marvin Bower (1903–2003) was an American business theorist, management consultant and the CEO of management consultants McKinsey and Co. He argued that to improve organisational performance:
More cohesion is needed rather than [more] hierarchy.
[What is required is] a network of leaders.
Marvin Bower
It can be argued that the move towards flatter structures during the late 1980s and 1990s has created fewer levels of management within many organisations. However, that does not mean that organisations are any less hierarchal than what existed 40 years ago. Power and control still flow from the top, usually in the form of a series of stultifying instructions, targets and objectives which demotivate, rather than energise, staff. Too often, achievement of the target becomes more important than doing a good job or satisfying the customers.
WHAT TO DO
- To improve cohesion, seek to increase formal and informal channels of leadership within the organisation. Unlike managers, leaders do not require positional power to exercise influence. People respond to them because they trust the leader and want to respond to their urgings. This means that leaders can be found at every level in the organisation, from level one supervisors to board members.
- Identify who the staff in your organisation look to for both formal and informal leadership. Within any office or production unit there will be one or more leaders whom staff look to for advice and guidance. They may be a member of staff, a supervisor or, possibly, a manager. These are the people that you want to work through to achieve greater cohesion and co-ordination without the need to rely on hierarchical power exercised by a chosen few.
- Use the following typology of dispersed leadership to decide how much power you wish to devolve to the people identified:
- Delegated: You retain ultimate power, but check whether the person is willing and able to undertake specified work and offer support when it’s requested (see Quotation 51).
- Distributed: You distribute power to those who already hold a formal management position in the organisation and advise them to encourage, not stifle, collaboration and joint working.
- Democratic within existing structures: You ask others for their opinions and encourage collaboration and joint decision making.
- Democratic – challenging existing structures: You allow nominated leaders within the organisation to challenge existing power structures and practices and to take on the responsibility for changing them.
- Dispersed: You encourage the emergence of leaders in informal and spontaneous ways that may not be planned or even approved by you.
- In seeking dispersed leadership, you are feeding into people’s desire to take responsibility for their work and to act as they see fit within reasonable limits.
- Effectively, you want to encourage managers and staff to take greater responsibility for their work, improve communication with colleagues and management and co-ordinate their actions with other teams and departments.
- Encouraging dispersed leadership is not the same as abrogating responsibility. You still have to maintain an overview of what is going on in your department or organisation and step in when required. But, if you follow the advice of Warren Buffet on recruitment of staff (see Quotation 25), such occasions will be few and far between.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- Does the organisation’s culture allow for aspects of dispersed leadership? If not, can I change the culture (see Quotation 63)?
- How comfortable am I with the concept of dispersed leadership? What are my concerns?