A Paradigm Shift is Taking Place

A shift is taking place in management, from using rules and instructions to the use of vision, mission, culture and values. Leadership is now more based on dialogue rather than authority. Why the change? What happened? It must be easier just to order people to do things, write down some rules and ask managers to hand out instructions on how work should be done! Well, society has been undergoing social and economic changes, such as technological development, knowledge intensive industry and global competition. Consequently, new organizational forms are needed with freedom on all levels in an organization. In order to maintain some control over the employees’ work performance, managers need to be able to influence people’s understanding of their own and companies’ task. Managers need to trust that their staff act and make judgments in accordance with the company’s strategic direction. Therefore, a shift is needed towards a dialogue-based leadership where managers manage understanding in an organization. Is it possible to manage people’s understanding? Well, I think, the task of influencing people’s understanding is highly challenging. There are no direct buttons you can turn on to affect people’s understanding. There are no direct methods you can use to command understanding. As a manager, you are left with indirect methods which hopefully, will encourage and stimulate people to reflect upon their experiences and perform with continuous improvement. Quite risky! As a manager, you are likely to fail in managing people’s understanding and their will to change because of different human defense mechanisms. Employees, usually, listen and examine whether they like your ideas or not, and based on that they either comply with them or not. As a result, your task as a manager is not only to present new ideas and measures to be taken. Your task is to make your employees understand the ideas and measures in a way that will support your intentions. It is a difficult task but not an impossible mission.