Change management, effective leadership behaviour and corporate success [Elektronische Ressource] : a longitudinal study investigating the micro-macro effects of work optimisation on managers in an international chemo-pharmaceutical company / von Caroline Schuster-Cotterell

Caroline Schuster-Cotterell

Sujets

• Management

Informations

• Publié par: technischen_universitat_darmstadt
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 16
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Change Management, Effective Leadership Behaviour
and Corporate Success

A Longitudinal Study Investigating the Micro/Macro Effects of Work
Optimisation on Managers in an International Chemo-pharmaceutical Company

von
Caroline Schuster-Cotterell
BA(Hons), MSc (Ind. Psych.)
geboren in London


Genehmigte Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doctor philosophiae
(Dr. phil.)

an der
Technischen Universität Darmstadt (D17)
Fachbereich 03: Humanwissenschaften
(Erziehungswissenschaften, Psychologie und Sportwissenschaft)
Institut für Psychologie

Eingereicht am: 27. Mai 2002
Tag der Prüfung: 4. September 2003

Referenten:
Prof. Dr. B. Rüttinger (Technische Universität Darmstadt)
Prof. Dr. T. B. Seiler (Technischeität Darmstadt)

Darmstadt 2005
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to give grateful thanks to my 'Doktorvater' PhD supervisor, Professor Dr.
Bruno Rüttinger, and to my second PhD supervisor, Professor Dr. Bernhard Seiler, from the Darmstadt
University of Technology, Institute of Psychology, for their absolutely invaluable help and advice in all
practical doctoral matters and also for giving me so much moral support during this academic
investigation.
Many grateful thanks also go to my husband, Dr. Jörn Schuster, who gave me an immeasurable amount of
support and advice throughout these research years, and who tolerated so well the highs and lows that
accompany doctoral research. Without your help, I would not have been able to get so successfully
through the research impasses experienced.
I would also like to express my thanks and appreciation to all the employees and senior management at
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, who were involved in the research, and who gave me much of their
valuable time by taking part in this field study.
Many thanks also go to Dr. Udo Keil for helping me by providing much statistical advice, and to Dr.
Jürgen Sauer for his invaluable help on the project and for the innumerable cups of hot tea and a ready ear
that he so kindly provided during the course of this research project.
Thanks also go to all members of the Tuesday morning colloquium at the Institute of Psychology (TUD),
especially to Dr. Alex Deppert and Dr. Harald Schlitt, for their valuable help and tips regarding thesis
writing.
Thanks are also due to all my friends (especially those who have been through this process themselves,
and who therefore, spoke from experience) and for my dear family for their unswerving help and support
before, during and after this research. Thank you all.
IISUMMARY
This field study investigated the effects of a change management program on the workplace behaviour of
employees and managers at a chemo-pharmaceutical company based in Germany. The central theme of
this work revolves around the manager-performance dyad in an organisation undergoing a change
management initiative. It is known from the literature that managers and leaders undergo highly complex
interactions with their social, task and organisational environments (Fiedler, 1996), and it was one of the
main aims of this research to capture the essence of and understand better, these 'complexities', by
measuring managers work performance especially in relation to ongoing change and transition. Whilst the
subject matter of this research is very broad it has been necessary to elaborate on the wider topics
associated with this investigation, as these have included matter that is specific to the organisation hosting
the research. The role of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and its relevance in
the development of a business model for measuring employee workplace performance, has been an
essential element in this organisations efforts through total quality management, towards achieving long
term improvement. The research, whilst dealing largely with organisational development also
concentrates on micro issues such as employees and their involvement in the changing organisation, and
especially on their reactions to change-induced stress. Another central theme to this investigation has
been the examination of cross-cultural differences within the changing organisation. The host
organisation is an international concern with offices based around the world, thus the importance of
capturing any cross-cultural differences is clear.
The field study was carried out bearing the particular research interests and needs of the host organisation
in mind and comprised a longitudinal design which measured managers workplace performance at two
points in time (with a gap of one year between measurements). It had been conceptualised that employees
would display in their workplace behaviour and daily work routines 'superior performance', as
characterised by SPI's, (Superior Performance Indicators). The, up until now, relatively unresearched
concept of excellence was further explored and provided not only the basis for manager excellence
profiling, where individual participants were 'profiled' in excellence terms, but also the groundwork for
the Leadership & Change Management Questionnaire (LCMQ) - the main instrument used to gather
employees workplace performance data.
Unique to this organisation were two salient factors concerning deployment of the LCMQ. Firstly, it was
the largest in-house survey to be carried in the organisations history - additionally, it was the first to
incorporate managers from several different cultural backgrounds. Secondly, it was also the first time that
a multi-rater feedback system had been used to gather employee workplace behaviour data in this
organisation. The LCMQ is a 360° measurement instrument, meaning that managers are given the chance
to evaluate their own behaviour, whilst their work colleagues are also able to evaluate their behaviour. It
also serves as an extremely powerful and accurate measure of how managers and leaders in an
organisation are perceived by their co-workers and thus, provides invaluable evidence about individuals
self-other image (Yukl, 1994). An accurate self-other image or Spiegelbild is able to predict future
behaviour and is thus one important measure of the LCMQ (Bass and Yammarino, 1991). Another benefit
to the organisation of the LCMQ is that through its comprehensive measurement of both general and
organisation-specific excellence factors, it can accurately interpret its employees current and future
workplace behaviour, and can be used in the selection and development of its employees and managers.
Predictions derived from this investigation into manager performance and the changing environment were
divided into five areas, all of which were empirically tested.
It was anticipated that individuals' (managers and their co-workers) quality performance would be
effected by the attendance of excellence factors. It was confirmed that staff (subordinate co-workers)
constantly rated their managers the least well out of all co-workers, this may have been due to the
increased time that employees spent with their bosses and leaders, or again may involve the role of power
and influence, which is more emphasised in such relationships. It seems managers rated themselves
higher at Time2 than at Time1, which meant these managers felt that their work performance had
IIIincreased (improved) between the two measurement points - this view conflicted with the staffs ratings
which also remained constant across time. It was predicted that managers who were rated as being less
'egoistic' (as rated on the Egotism Scale) in their workplace behaviour, were more likely to prove a
motivating and empowering force for their employees and indeed, results confirmed that the more
egoistic a manager is in his/her behaviour, the less motivating he/she was for co-workers. Whether good
performance was recognised by superiors was also a prediction in this research, and indeed results
confirmed that superiors were more likely to promote managers with good performance, but interestingly,
only at Time2 and not at Time1. An explanation for this might be a 'time effect' where, for some reason,
superiors might delay in recognising or responding to the good performance of their underlings. The
importance of good communication and goal clarity in superior performance is well known, and it was
predicted that both these factors were necessary for reduced job stress. Managers reported that whilst
being a good communicator meant for them being able to give open feedback, it also meant being able to
cope with job stress levels. An explanation of this may simply be that good communicators operate a
more highly developed information network, and are thus, open to greater and more complex information
sources - it is these additional sources of information that probably provide them with a way to cope with
stress, or alternatively serve as a prophylactic function against job stress developing. It was also predicted
that managers with reduced Ego scores would have a positive effect on co-workers i.e. co-workers would
rate them higher on the quality of their performance. Research results did confirm that in the low Ego-
scoring manager group, peer co-workers found qual