Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers of Management (Harvard Business Review Book) - Softcover

A. I wrote the essays and research articles collected here during a period of great discovery and change for businesses all over the world. I have been an active explorer on these new intellectual boundaries, and I've participated in business revolutions that have established new frontiers in management thinking. I prepared this book to bring to people the wisdom that has already been accumulated, to consolidate the lessons from a period of change, so that they could be used as a guide, a map to the continuing change we will face in the years ahead.

But, it's important to realize that the destination has not been reached just because the map has been drawn. Even though terms have been defined and new models have been established, we should not imagine that everyone has crossed the frontier into a new way of thinking. That's a significant reason why I wanted to publish this book--to keep the momentum going, to encourage more organizational self-scrutiny, to help managers see that the hard work of improving innovation still lies ahead.

Q. From two decades of analyzing and writing about business--and implementing processes that have changed the nature of business--what are some of the key patterns and traits that, from your perspective, are specific to successful organizations?

A. This questions strikes at another reason I had for gathering together the enduring lessons learned over the years--as a reality check for managers enthralled by the latest fad in business management. New management methods are sometimes flogged as miracle cures and translated into programs followed religiously, to the point that all the other things that make organizations effective are jeopardized. This book provides a broadview to help managers steer a course between opposing pulls: between the tendency to make so many rules that innovation is stifled and the risk of having so few rules that duplication and wasted effort ensue. I'd say that in my experience, balance and judgment have always been--and will remain--essential skills for leaders.

Similarly, over the course of my career, I've observed three intangible assets that help companies and individuals to master change: concepts, the best and latest ideas and technologies, the result of continuous innovation; competence, the ability to execute flawlessly and to deliver value to customers with ever higher standards, by investing in work force skills and learning; and connections, the best partners to extend the company's reach, leverage its offerings, or provide a window on innovations and opportunities.

Q. What do you perceive as the role for managers and leaders in change-adept organizations? Are these leadership roles also changing, or do some common traits necessarily endure?

A. As companies move toward flatter, less hierarchical, and more flexible and agile change-adept organizations, managers must change their roles. Managers will always have the fundamental, enduring job of mobilizing and motivating individual human talent in pursuit of collective ends. This encompasses defining and communicating tasks, grouping people and attaching them to their tasks, and ensuring appropriate treatment of people on the job. However, leadership in a change-adept organization must strengthen its focus on the gap between current performance and the organization's possibilities--its collective hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Leaders cannot count on flawless plans to guide action; they must be prepared for adjustments. Managers must become leaders who mobilize people through an inspiring mission and who emphasize learning capabilities.

Q. Your devote a substantial portion of your book to Leading Change: Innovation and Transformation, and many of the individual essays, from Change: Where to Begin, to The Attack on Pay and The New Managerial Work voice the need to reconsider, re- evaluate, and change many long-held business assumptions and practices. Do you consider yourself, and this book, a proselytizer for change?

A. It's true that my work, my experience, and this book, all reflect the predominant influence that change holds on business today. In our ever-evolving marketplace, products and services provide only temporary competitive advantage, instead, sustainable competitive advantage is based on organizational capabilities to master change. Leaders cannot count on flawless plans to guide action; they must be prepared for constant adjustments. It is difficult to impose authority on world of constant motion. In this new environment, the only comfort will be comfort with change.

The change theme, by now, is a familiar one in business--increasingly, leaders do not question whether to change, but they want to know how. My work has evolved from conveying the need for change, to the struggle with how to make change happen, how to effectively implement it. That's the value that the perspective of this book brings--it spans a broad range of topics, from one of the most change-intensive periods in business history, so that taken together, the essays provide a comprehensive agenda for managerial work as it relates to change-adept organizations, whether that work is carried out by those bearing a formal leadership title or by self-managed teams of professionals.

Q. As one of the foremost woman business thinkers, does your book offer any insights for the unique aspects of work that women must address?

A. Perhaps one of the most important essays in this collection is Power Failure in Management Circuits, an examination of the single most critical element in effective managerial behavior. The traditional problems of women in management are illustrative of how formal and informal practices can combine to engender powerlessness, and so I devote a section of this chapter to When Women Managers Experience Power Failures as a tool for re-considering the organizational situations that have led women in management to be more likely than men to be rendered structurally powerless.

Q. Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers of Management focuses a great deal on change, but are there any essential workplace situations that come to mind that you've observed to be change-proof?

A. In the face of change programs, it's also essential to keep a strong grasp on those elements that have not--and must not--change: primarily the need to treat people as assets. It's currently fashionable to proclaim that people are a companies' most valuable asset, but I'd like to amend this theory so that people are considered a company's most valuable raw material--they cannot become assets or sources of capital until they are deployed effectively. Human talent exists only as potential until activated by the organization. If there's one single, timeless message that I'd emphasize, it's the importance of providing the tools and conditions that liberate people to use their brainpower--this is what makes a difference in a world of constant challenge and change, and this need will never change as a key element of building a successful organization.

For 25 years, Rosabeth Moss Kanter has been an advance scout, always poised at the frontier, helping us understand the dynamics and complexity of exemplary organizations. Incredibly, she always manages to maintain an awesome balance between a measured detachment and a powerful empathy for these institutions. In this book, a summative masterpiece, we can reap the harvest of Kanter's wisdom. --Warren Bennis, University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, University of Southern California, and author of Organizing Genius

Rosabeth Moss Kanter is highly qualified to document the challenges faced by managers in a world-class, global enterprise. Her timely insights offer concrete advice on organizational development, change management, and strategy. Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers of Management is an excellent guidebook for executives and managers today. --Alfred M. Zeien, Chairman and CEO, The Gillette Company

This book contains the new agenda for managerial work by the most influential management guru of our time. It's a fresh look at the timeless ideas of Rosabeth Moss Kanter--in her own words--and a road map for turning them into action. It will spur you on to complete the tasks that are critical to your organization's success:

Understanding how to sustain competitive advantage in a world of constant change. Picking the best strategies for your business to ensure that customers really do come first. Choosing the right business partners and then making the alliances work. Using the motivational tools that work with today's--and tomorrow's--workforce. Meeting the challenge of managing today's issues while simultaneously innovating for tomorrow.