Leading When You're Not the Boss - How to Get Things Done in Complex Corporate Cultures

Answer the questions that arise when managers and workersneed to adjust to unfamiliar leadership roles and rules in flattenedorganizational forms. Leading When You'reNot the Boss provides a conceptual framework that you can apply whenassessing your own organizations and work. The book discusses the underlyingideas necessary for a shift from a culture of hierarchies to one ofrelationships and the establishment of intrapreneurial and holistic workenvironments. 
This book supports the trend in many corporations towardflattening parts of their traditional top-down hierarchical management systemsinto more egalitarian, democratized, and distributed organizational forms. Itanalyzes the weaknesses of "management" culture at a time of evermore rapid change and complexity in the business world and illustrates howflattened organizational units increase agility, innovation, and efficacy.Moreover, it discusses how individuals can exercise effective leadershipdespite lacking the command-and-control authority of conventional bosses andways for organizations to cultivate effective "post-management"cultures. 
Especially in the technology sector, large projects havebecome too complex to be mastered by any single leader. Drawing on hisexperience as a senior manager and executive consultant for a number of FortuneGlobal 500 companies, Roger Strathausen analyzes the situations and benefitsthat motivate companies to adopt flattened organizational forms. He shows thatempowering a multi-talented group to manage itself by horizontal cooperationcan deliver products with more speed, efficiency, innovation, and nimblenessthan a solo boss could, while yielding higher employee productivity andretention rates.
With an entertaining mix of real-world examples and anepisodic HBR-style fictitious case study, the author illustrates throughout thebook how his leadership lessons can be serviceable only when intelligentlytailored to the dynamic complexities of specific situations, including thepersonalities and competencies of the people involved. 
What You'll Learn

• How to tailor the techniques of shared leadership to specificbusiness situations rather than treating them as iron rules
  
• How to flourish in nonhierarchical andambiguously-hierarchical organizational contexts that encourage individualinitiative for the joint benefit of the enterprise and personal professionalgrowth
  
• How success and fulfillment at work are enhanced byorganizational forms in which participants assess the situational relevance oftheir respective talents and actively apply them to group objectives in lateralcooperation with peers, as opposed to passively receiving orders from appointedbosses
  

 
Who This Book Is For
The primary readerships for this book are businessleaders and managers at all levels in corporations and non-managerialprofessionals who work in self-directed teams.
The secondary readerships are practitioners,consultants, and academics interested in the topics of human resources,organizational design, and the future of work.

List of contents

Change, As Planned and As Happens: A Plea for Human Values.- Leader, Know Thyself.- Management Unplugged: Modulating to a Post-Management Key.- Alpha Dogs.- Let Talent Lead! Fostering Situational Leadership within Self-Organizing Teams.- Lateral Leadership.- Guiding Lost Giants: A Post-Management Strategy for Adapting Jobs to Talents.- Why Are We Here

About the author

Roger Strathausen is a business consultant with expertise in organizational design, process modeling, corporate universities, talent strategy, coaching, functional team building, and post-management leadership whose clients are chiefly multinational companies. He was previously a senior manager at Accenture and an external consultant at SAP. Dr. Strathausen lectures on leadership, management, HR, and learning at the Technical University of Berlin, the University of Applied Sciences for Engineering and Economics (HTW Berlin), and the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HTW). He previously lectured at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Kaiserslautern. Strathausen took his PhD from Stanford University while on Fulbright and Stanford Dissertation Fellowships and his MA from the University of Tübingen.

Summary

Answer the questions that arise when managers and workers
need to adjust to unfamiliar leadership roles and rules in flattened
organizational forms. Leading When You’re
Not the Boss provides a conceptual framework that you can apply when
assessing your own organizations and work. The book discusses the underlying
ideas necessary for a shift from a culture of hierarchies to one of
relationships and the establishment of intrapreneurial and holistic work
environments. 

This book supports the trend in many corporations toward
flattening parts of their traditional top–down hierarchical management systems
into more egalitarian, democratized, and distributed organizational forms. It
analyzes the weaknesses of "management" culture at a time of ever
more rapid change and complexity in the business world and illustrates how
flattened organizational units increase agility, innovation, and efficacy.
Moreover, it discusses how individuals can exercise effective leadership
despite lacking the command-and-control authority of conventional bosses and
ways for organizations to cultivate effective "post-management"
cultures. 

Especially in the technology sector, large projects have
become too complex to be mastered by any single leader. Drawing on his
experience as a senior manager and executive consultant for a number of Fortune
Global 500 companies, Roger Strathausen analyzes the situations and benefits
that motivate companies to adopt flattened organizational forms. He shows that
empowering a multi-talented group to manage itself by horizontal cooperation
can deliver products with more speed, efficiency, innovation, and nimbleness
than a solo boss could, while yielding higher employee productivity and
retention rates.

With an entertaining mix of real-world examples and an
episodic HBR-style fictitious case study, the author illustrates throughout the
book how his leadership lessons can be serviceable only when intelligently
tailored to the dynamic complexities of specific situations, including the
personalities and competencies of the people involved. 

What You'll Learn

How to tailor the techniques of shared leadership to specific
business situations rather than treating them as iron rulesHow to flourish in nonhierarchical and
ambiguously-hierarchical organizational contexts that encourage individual
initiative for the joint benefit of the enterprise and personal professional
growthHow success and fulfillment at work are enhanced by
organizational forms in which participants assess the situational relevance of
their respective talents and actively apply them to group objectives in lateral
cooperation with peers, as opposed to passively receiving orders from appointed
bosses

 

Who This Book Is For

The primary readerships for this book are business
leaders and managers at all levels in corporations and non-managerial
professionals who work in self-directed teams.

The secondary readerships are practitioners,
consultants, and academics interested in the topics of human resources,
organizational design, and the future of work.

Product details

• Authors: Roger Strathausen
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 23.04.2016
• EAN: 9781484217474
• ISBN: 978-1-4842-1747-4
• No. of pages: 126
• Dimensions: 154 mm x 10 mm x 234 mm
• Weight: 243 g
• Illustrations: XV, 126 p. 14 illus.
• Series: aPress
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Business > Management; Management, B, Personalmanagement, HRM, Leadership, Human Resource Management, Business and Management, Business Strategy/Leadership, Personnel & human resources management, Personnel Management, Management science, Business Strategy and Leadership, organizational design, Situational, hybrid management systems