Performing Under Pressure

The GMP Blog

 Welcome to the Cranfield General Management Programmes (GMP) Blog!

 This blog is primarily for GMP participants, but we also hope that your colleagues will find the topics to be of interest. The purpose of the blog is to create a dialogue with you about current organisational issues, hot topics and research which David, Catherine, Martin and I are working on.

 We’d also like to hear your views so we can have an on-going discussion and keep in touch.  What kind of content would you like to see? One of the suggestions we’ve had is to use the blog to have a conversation about how people are implementing pockets of good practice – where are the big wins, key challenges and major roadblocks? By sharing progress, there’s an opportunity for us to create a forum for exchanging ideas and useful learning so please get in touch.

 One the major topics we’re currently working on, is the role of luck, legacy and leadership in organisational performance. Much has been written about the significance of leadership as a factor in sustaining organisational achievement but there is a dearth of hard evidence to support its impact. Organisations are becoming increasingly complex and the current economic situation poses real challenges for businesses and their leaders but how can we explain organisations which manage to survive despite atrocious leadership? What other factors are at play? In this context, research which has explained leadership as an individual collection of traits, skills or styles is simply inadequate. But what is the alternative? There seems to us to be benefit in challenging conventional approaches which suggest leadership to be the single most important element and to acknowledge the role that other variables play in sustaining organisational success. This crucial gap in understanding has immense significance for business leaders and leadership development.

 We acknowledge that there is still a compelling need to pursue a greater understanding of individual leadership characteristics and behaviours. Yet, this does not prevent us from posing questions about how leadership actions contribute to performance relative to other factors. There is a fundamental need to explain leadership as an organisational, rather than an individual variable, encompassing the idea that leadership can be exerted at all organisational levels (a theme consistent with GMP philosophy). There is a compelling need to focus on the impact rather than simply the nature of leadership and until this crucial gap is addressed, its economic value will remain unclear.

 So far, we have conducted desk research which has provided a useful framework for influences on performance. Fieldwork involved case studies of 4 high performing organisations over a period of 15 years (1993-2008) and a further questionnaire survey in 2009. Key findings reveal three main influences on organisational success. We have called these three factors leadership, legacy and luck. The data suggest that success is a product of pre-existing legacy – i.e. what’s already in place; purposeful acts of leadership, designed to create or sustain future capability; and luck – unanticipated internal or external changes which influence capability levels.

 These and other issues have been the focus of our thinking and we will be sharing more of our findings on the blog in the coming months. Catherine and David lead the charge on the book! Other projects we’re working on include research on employee engagement (Martin) and the links between elite sport and individual performance in business (Veronica). We’ve also recorded some video clips on current hot topics for the KI online and these can be accessed via the Cranfield website.

 We’d like to hear whether you have questions / comments about these topics and what you would like to see discussed. Watch this space for the next Blog!

 Best Wishes,

Veronica and the GMP team