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- Chair of Leadership and Human Resource Management (6) (show_all)
What is it that actuates a person to really engage with their work instead of simply going through the motions? Through what means can an individual become involved and immersed in their appointed task? A textbook definition of motivation proposes it to be the sum of ‘the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort towards attaining a goal’ (Robbins & Judge, 2015), and adjudges it as a ‘psychological process resulting from the interaction between the individual and the environment’ (Latham & Pinder, 2005). Since the 1940s a succession of theories has interrogated the interaction of the various needs and values of the individual with those of the organisation, with a theoretical cleft lying about the origin of the motivation, hypothesised as springing from an external or from an internal source (Ryan & Deci, 2000a), with external motivation arising from incidentals associated with but outside the work itself while internal motivation emerges from the enjoyment that the worker derives from the task. A third very important type of motivation, prosocial motivation, taps into the desire to protect and care for others (Grant & Berg, 2011). However, one particular class of influential values that have the potential to motivate has hitherto been ignored: that of one’s religious beliefs. This is especially puzzling as religiosity or religiousness has experienced a recent surge, especially during the past decade. For example, in 2014 around 41% religiously affiliated American adults affirmed that they rely mainly on their religion’s tenets to guide them morally, a startling increase from the 34% who answered accordingly in 2007 (Pew Research Center, 2015). Closely associated with and reinforcing this motivational source is a second unexplored possible wellspring of motivation: one’s sense of chosenness in the religious sense. Present mainly in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), chosenness is the feeling that one has been selected, or elected by a supernatural entity, often for a specific reason or a special mission.
The present dissertation applies findings from the field of cognitive psychology to the business context. Specifically, it examines the influence of different types of similarity on decisions in the areas of innovation and strategy. Similarity and related concepts, such as strategic fit, play an important role in these fields, such as when generating or assessing the value of ideas. However, recent findings in cognitive psychology, indicating that a purely taxonomic, traditional model of similarity does not capture the entire picture of similarity, have widely been ignored in the business context.
Two entities are taxonomically similar if they belong to the same category based on features they share (e.g., dog and cat). In contrast, entities are thematically similar if they co-occur or interact in the same scenario or event (e.g., dog and bone). Thematic thinking builds on the latter type of similarity. The present dissertation focuses on the role thematic similarity plays in managerial decision making and takes the first steps toward establishing thematic thinking as a business-relevant concept, using a multi-study approach. After explaining the conceptual basis of thematic thinking, hypotheses are derived and tested, using four different samples of field data and applying different methods of data collection. The main body of the dissertation comprises four empirical studies.
The first study that is presented examines individual antecedents and outcomes of thematic thinking based on a sample using survey data from 199 individuals. Positive affect and experience are shown to be positively related to thematic thinking. A negative relationship is postulated for thematic thinking and formal education; the relationship found is indeed negative, yet not significant. The empirical findings related to the outcomes of thematic thinking turn out to be the opposite of the postulated relationships: creativity is found to be significantly negatively related to thematic thinking, while adaptation is significantly positively related to it.
The second empirical study investigates the relationship between thematic thinking and individual performance within the research and development (R&D) context. The findings are based on a sample of 172 R&D professionals. As hypothesized, a significant positive relationship between thematic thinking and innovativeness as well as job performance are hown. The relationship between thematic thinking and job performance is mediated by innovativeness. Furthermore, post-hoc analyses reveal that the relationship between thematic thinking and job performance is moderated by political skill.
Dispersed innovation teams rely upon team members who share leadership responsibilities to attain high levels of team performance. Although this concept of team shared leadership is receiving increasing attention, this dissertation shows that especially research on team-level antecedents of shared leadership has major deficits regarding a basic framework for analyzing antecedents, depth of theory, context-specific arguments, and empirical validation. This dissertation tries to fill these research gaps, thus shedding light on the question: How can we foster the important process of shared leadership in dispersed innovation teams?
This dissertation introduces a theoretical framework into shared leadership literature to structure the antecedents of shared leadership according to their mode of functioning. As such, this dissertation argues for the first time that to establish high levels of team shared leadership the basic dimensions of motivation, opportunity, and ability for shared leadership should be addressed (motivation-opportunity-ability framework or MOA framework). Based on this notion team-level antecedents providing motivation, opportunity, and ability for shared leadership are operationalized and hypothesized as antecedents of shared leadership in dispersed innovation teams using acknowledged theories. Moreover, all discussed hypotheses are verified in a sample of 96 dispersed real work teams with innovative software tasks. Thereby, empirical results are drawn from 96 team leader responses (used to assess team-level antecedents of team shared leadership) and 337 team member responses (used to assess team shared leadership).
Motivation for Team Shared Leadership. Based on the perspective of shared leadership as a risk-taking behavior for team members in dispersed innovation teams, trustworthiness is argued as a facilitator of the willingness, thus motivation to engage in risky shared leadership actions with others. This argumentation based on trust theory was supported by empirical results showing that team member trustworthiness in terms of benevolence and integrity was positively related to team shared leadership. Surprisingly, the proposed positive relationship between ability-based trustworthiness and shared leadership could not be confirmed, thus ability-based trustworthiness could not be validated as a facilitator of shared leadership in dispersed innovation teams.
Opportunity for Team Shared Leadership. Opportunity for team shared leadership is addressed by discussing team reflexivity as an antecedent of shared leadership in dispersed
innovation teams. Team reflexivity is argued as opportunity providing antecedent of shared leadership as it gives team members a clear information basis in the complex and constantly changing environment of dispersed innovation teams, thus making leadership needs identifiable. In support of this argumentation based on goal setting theory and shared mental model theory team reflexivity was positively related to team shared leadership. Thereby, the relationship between team reflexivity and shared leadership could be shown as even stronger under conditions of high team role breadth self-efficacy and high team empowerment.
Ability for Team Shared Leadership. Ability for shared leadership is addressed in terms of social and project management skills. These two skills are argued as basic and
complementary skills needed for shared leadership in dispersed innovation teams based on socio-technical systems theory. Underscoring the importance of interpersonal competence
the empirical analysis showed that social skills were strongly positively related to team shared leadership. Contrary to the hypothesis of this study project management skills were not related to team shared leadership.
Structural Team Properties and Team Shared Leadership. Moreover, several structural team properties are discussed as team-level antecedents of shared leadership, namely female ratio, mean age, age diversity, and national diversity. Thereby, structural team properties are argued as potentially affecting team shared leadership through several
MOA dimensions. In the empirical analyses female ratio was positively related to shared leadership in dispersed innovation teams, while mean age was negatively related. Age
diversity showed no significant relationship and national diversity was marginally positively related to shared leadership in dispersed innovation teams. Based on these findings, important implications for practice, related to the three stages of a project team (establishment, forming, and performing stage), are provided. As such, team leaders of dispersed innovation teams is given a check-list of how to foster shared leadership in dispersed innovation teams based on the results of this dissertation. Future research is especially suggested regarding the “non-findings” of this dissertation, interaction effects, additional team-level antecedents, the vertical team leader’s role within shared leadership evolvement, antecedents of shared leadership in other contexts, and other levels of antecedents (e.g., organizational-level antecedents).
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich damit, wie die Wissensnutzung in verteilten Teams gefördert werden kann. Wissen ist heutzutage eine der wichtigsten Ressourcen, über die Unternehmen verfügen und die ihnen entscheidende Wettbewerbsvorteile liefern kann. Viele Unternehmen sind heute multinationale Organisationen mit Standorten auf verschiedenen Kontinenten. Um das Wissen der Mitarbeiter1dieser verschiedenen Standorte zu nutzen, arbeiten Teams standortübergreifend in sogenannten virtuellen oder verteilten Teams zusammen.
Aufgrund der Verteiltheit der Teams ergeben sich Herausforderungen für die Zusammenarbeit der Mitglieder. Klassische Führungsansätze erweisen sich aufgrund der räumlichen und zeitlichen Distanz als wenig geeignet in einem solchen Kontext. Das Konzept der geteilten Führung, also die Übernahme von Führungsverantwortung durch die Teammitglieder selbst, hilft, das in einem Team vorhandene Wissen effektiv zum Einsatz zu bringen.
Verteilte Teams greifen zur Kommunikation auf verschiedene Medien zurück, die einen unterschiedlichen Grad an Reichhaltigkeit bereitstellen. Dabei besteht einerseits ein Zusammenhang zwischen der Wahl der Kommunikationsmedien und dem Grad an geteilter Führung in einem Team, andererseits kann die Verwendung reichhaltiger Kommunikationsmedien die Wissensnutzung in einem Team fördern. Die Wahl der Kommunikationsmedien kann durch das Definieren von Kommunikationsnormen beeinflusst werden. Auch auf die Effektivität der Wissensnutzung hat das Aufstellen von Regeln zur Kommunikation und Information innerhalb eines Teams positive Auswirkungen.
Häufig spielen kulturelle Unterschiede bei der Betrachtung von verteilten Teams eine Rolle, da die Teams aufgrund der standortübergreifenden Zusammenarbeit auch Länder- und Kulturgrenzen überschreiten. Dabei spielen die kulturellen Orientierungen der Teammitglieder eine Rolle, die kulturelle Heterogenität und die kulturellen Unterschiede zwischen den Mitgliedern. Alle Faktoren können einen Einfluss auf das Auftreten von geteilter Führung in einem verteilten Team haben.
Für die Studie, die dieser Arbeit zugrunde liegt, wurden die Mitglieder und Leiter von 96 Innovationsteams aus 36 Unternehmen – vornehmlich aus der Softwarebranche – befragt. Insgesamt beantworteten 426 Teammitglieder und –leiter die Fragebögen zu den Themen Führung und Zusammenarbeit in ihren Teams.
Diese Arbeit zeigt, welche Einflüsse die unterschiedlichen Konzeptualisierungen von Kultur sowie verschiedene kulturelle Orientierungen auf das Auftreten von geteilter Führung in einem Team haben. Darüber hinaus wird der Zusammenhang zwischen der Reichhaltigkeit der Kommunikation in einem Team und dem Prozess der geteilten Führung, der Definition von Kommunikationsnormen und der Nutzung des vorhandenen Wissens untersucht. Die Wichtigkeit von geteilter Führung und Kommunikationsnormen für einen funktionierenden Informationsaustausch und die Entwicklung von Metawissen wird durch die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit unterstrichen.
Innovators' careers
(2013)
The success or failure of most organizations is heavily dependent on innovation. However, this innovation is only possible through a special group of employees: the socalled innovators. These scientists, researchers, and developers are vital for the innovativeness of the organization. In my dissertation, I examine innovators’ careers from their organization’s point of view. In particular, my objective is to develop a more balanced approach to innovators’ careers than is offered in the contemporary career management literature. Some researchers argue that organizational career management has become more important because of the war for talent, whereas others postulate that organizations withdraw from career management because of the changing definitions of a career. These contrasting viewpoints leave organizations without a clear guideline for managing their key players’ careers. In order to provide such a guideline, in this thesis I address three central research questions by drawing on a cross-level sample of 625 innovators and 37 HR (human resources) managers from 37 organizations.
First, I analyze why some innovators leave their technical field of specialization to become managers. The results reveal that new career attitudes and organizational culture have an influence. More specifically, innovators with a self-directed career attitude, a boundaryless mindset, and a preference for organizational mobility often have a high managerial orientation, whereas the opposite is the case for innovators with a more valuesoriented career attitude. Furthermore, it is more likely in organizations with a supportive and collaborative culture that innovators will want to advance their career in a management position than in organizations with a culture in favor of innovativeness, power sharing, and
learning and development.
Second, I investigate whether organizational career management can still influence innovators’ careers. My results reveal that this is the case. In particular, they show that organizations should apply their organizational career management intensively, but should refrain from using too many practices and from further diversifying an already intensively applied organizational career management. Moreover, my study indicates that organizations profit from increasing innovators’ perceived career management support because it boosts the match between individual and organizational career plans.
Third, I examine how organizations can use dual ladders to raise innovators’ organizational commitment and career satisfaction. I identify the perceived recognition and transparency of the dual ladder as factors integral to the success of this career management instrument. My analyses illustrate that both are positively related to innovators’ organizational commitment and career satisfaction. In addition, my results reveal that selfdirected career management weakens the positive relationships between the perceived recognition of the dual ladder and organizational commitment and career satisfaction. Based on the conceptual arguments and empirical results, I provide recommendations for organizations on how to handle innovators’ careers in the era of the new career. Therefore, I provide easy-to-use guidelines on how to keep innovators in their technical
positions and roles, how to use organizational career management, and how to make dual ladders work. Last, but not least, I focus on the limitations of my study and point to future research possibilities.