Information, organisation och
ledarskap: några teorier och
modeller
Leif Åberg
Communicare
17.5.1999
Hur bör
informationsenheten
vara organiserad och
vilken kompetens
bör den besitta?
information
organisation
ledarskap
Hur integrerar man
informationsverksamheten i
organisationens
övergripande
mission och verksamhet?
Vad innebär egentligen
ett strategiskt informationsarbete
och hur kan det leda fram till
ökad effektivitet och realiserande
av organisationens övergripande mål?
Hur integrerar man
information informationsverksamheten i
organisation organisationens
övergripande
ledarskap
mission och verksamhet?
Vad innebär egentligen
ett strategiskt informationsarbete
och hur kan det leda fram till
ökad effektivitet och realiserande
av organisationens övergripande mål?
When skilled and knowing people are
getting committed, the organization
should be able to direct the surfacing
energy to a desired direction.
For this, a good strategy and
enthusiastic communications are
needed!
”A group without goals is like a herd of
mustangs galloping on a prairie.
There is speed, sure, but no direction.”
Erkki Tikkanen, a well-known Finnish manager,
to the personnel of Labsystems Ltd.,
after having been called in to
save this corporation from a crisis
Management
It is about directing the resources
to direct, there has to be a direction
resource= a potential that can be used
can be used, but is not necessarily used
effectively
 a direction, where to? To the future!
 But future is in the mind of the beholder
 key concept: visioning, and sharing a
common vision




Group synergy
 A work group, in a synergic phase
produces new, creative solutions in a
positive manner: the members enjoy
being synergic
 synergic processes make tacit knowledge
and tacit skills to surface
”I accept this goal or task
and I will give my best
to help to fulfill it.”
Vision has been internalized.
Visions
 to build a solid vision, the organizations
must combine managerial processes and
processes that emerge from human
activities
 metaphor: a kite!
The art of flying a kite:
the kite will fly,
 if it is windy,
and
 if one, running against the wind,
manages to bring about
the essential initial driving force
Once the kite is up,
it is vital to maintain an
active balance between
managerial processes and
processes related to
human behavior
This active balancing is
achieved through
communication
Åberg’s
Kite
Åberg’s
Kite
C
O
M
M
U
N
I
C
A
T
I
O
N
Åberg’s
Kite
C
O
MANIM
FESTATM
ION
OF
U
VISION
N
ICOMC
MUNIA
TCATSCAN-IING
NINGOCHANNGE
Manifestation of vision:
Åberg’s
Kite building up the core story of the organization
Scanning:
the recognition of the first
weak signals of essential
external and internal
changes as early as
possible, in order to make
corrective action possible
C
O
MANIM
FESTATM
ION
OF
U
VISION
N
ICOMC
MUNIA
TCATSCAN-IING
NINGOCHANNGE
Communicating
change:
Communications that
a) bring about change
and
b) describe it.
Manifestation of vision
 the people should be able to see
themselves in the vision
• when Martin Luther King once said ”I have a dream”
and when hundreds of thousands of people listened to
that, moved, they did not think: ”this Martin, what a
great vision he has”, but saw themselves as a part of
that vision, and it was this that emotionally shook them
 ”sharp on edges, blurred in the center”
 vision is deliberately blurred, yet it shows
the direction
Tools for Revealing the Vision
 core story links the past with the future and
defines the current position
 strategic keywords: using, e.g.,
a 3x3x3-diagram
 strategic core messages: elaboration of the
strategic keywords
 slogan: one core message, used for
identification of the company
 emblem: e.g., logo+name, or an auditive
emblem
Core
Story
VISION
EXTERNAL
LEGITIMACY
INTERNAL
LEGITIMACY
GOOD
HERITAGE
The S-group continues to
develop the cooperative form
of enterprise best suited to the
needs of the people VISION
in order to produce a more
humane direction in the
development of the
Today, through customerfree-market economy
ownership, chain operations
and efficient structures, the
S-Group uses its influence
make living in Finland
The S-Group hastoalways
less expensive
and
played an important
role
in quality
in the social andricher
economic
this is opened
development of Finland.
using a 3x3x3It hasGOOD
been innovative and
diagram
responsive
to the challenges
HERITAGE
of the time
Core
Story:
S-Group
A 3 x 3 (x 3) Diagram
You receive benefits
You’re working
for good cause
You can influence
Customer-ownership
”Your benefits
in Finland”
Unique structure
Regional
Networks
Efficiency
Personnel
Chains
National
Logistics
B) Scanning
 the recognition of the first weak signals of
essential external and internal changes as
early as possible, in order to make
corrective action possible
 environmental and internal scanning
Trends
Random
fluctuation
Environmental
responses
to our
actions
?
1 Recognition
of possible sources
of essential
weak signals
6 Control of
consequences
Scanning
5 Taking
action
4 Recommendations
for actions
2 External and
internal
monitoring
3 Interpretation
Communicating change
Enhance
Balance
Control Task centered
change
Excite
past:
”good old times”
present
Perturb
Chaos
Attract
Transformation
future:
”times of
turbulence”
time
A dynamic model of
organizational change
Revolution: VISION
Balance
Perturb
Enhance
Control
Excite
Task centered
change
Transformation
Robin M. Rowley & Joseph J. Roevens:
Organize with Chaos. Lint 1996
Chaos
Attract
Evolution: VALUES
Bringing about change
á la Rowley & Roevens
 Enhance:
create an atmosphere that enhances risk taking, cooperation, and selforganizing behavior
 Perturb:
”shake” the organization out of its current orbit: create a controlled state of
uncertainty -> self-organization begins
 Attract:
bring about emotional commitment, in order to produce the critical mass
needed for change
 Excite:
create an emotional state that excites people, this gradually leads to a
higher level of order
Enhance:
create an atmosphere that enhances risk taking,
cooperation, and self-organizing behavior
 enhance risk taking
 stress the value of
and self-organizing
customerhip, service,
behavior
and competition
 manifestation of
 define and surface
vision
internal values
 key strategic concepts  enhance free
cooperation and
 allow experimenting
communication
 create a constructive
feedback system
Perturb:
”shake” the organization out of its current orbit:
create a controlled state of uncertainty -> selforganization begins
 abandon old status
 pick to the front line
symbols, rituals and
the ”true rebels”
rules
 throw in ”impossible”
 emphasize positive
professional challenges
criticism
and make them ”projects of national pride”
 emphasize open
communications at all  use benchmarking and
levels
scanning to detect
signals of change
 question old ways:
ask ’why’ and ’what if’
Attract:
bring about emotional commitment, in order to
produce the critical mass needed for change
 motivate and bring
about commitment
 ask all the time the
synergic groups to
argue and to reason
their new ways of
doing things
 enhance new symbols
and rituals, created
by synergic groups
 use creative problem
solution techniques
Excite:
create an emotional state that excites people, this
gradually leads to a higher level of order
 create excitement
over things being
done ”the new way”
 allow outbreaks,
bursts of excellence
 reward top
performance
 tell stories about top
teams and synergy
 bury with dignity old
ways of doing things
 make the new ways
of doing things part
of the new vision
Scanning as a part of
the knowing cycle
streams of experience
Sense making
shared meanings
new knowledge,
capabilities
Knowledge
creating
Decision
making
goal-directed,
adaptive
behavior
Choo, C.W., The Knowing
Organization. New York 1998
Scanning as a part of
the knowing cycle
streams of experience
scanning
Sense making
shared meanings
new knowledge,
capabilities
Knowledge
creating
Decision
latency
making
goal-directed,
adaptive
behavior
Choo, C.W., The Knowing
Organization. New York 1998
Latency
 the time between the observation of those
weak signals that have to be taken into
account and the execution of decisions
made on the basis of these signals
Zero latency enterprise
 a concept created by Gartner group
 an organization with instant, real-time
decision making
 a theoretical concept, similar to the
concept of absolute zero temperature
 a zero-latency enterprise has to possess
tolerance for erratic decisions
years
months
weeks
days
hours
0
”the one who knew” travelled
transportation means
mail messengers
telegraph
telefax, telephone
new information technology
zero latency enterprises
information Hur integrerar man
informationsorganisation verksamheten i
ledarskap organisationens
Hur bör
informationsenheten
övergripande
vara organiserad och
mission och verksamhet?
vilken kompetens
Vad innebär egentligen
bör den besitta?
ett strategiskt informationsarbete
och hur kan det leda fram till
ökad effektivitet och realiserande
av organisationens övergripande mål?