ביטוי רגשי בין מנכ"ל ליו"ר כיסוד מיקרו לפיתוח יכולות ארגוניות

מדוע וכיצד משפיעים יחסי העבודה בין מנכ"לים ליושבי ראש של מועצות מנהלים על תהליכים ותוצרים ארגוניים?

זו השאלה שעמדה בבסיס מחקר "ביטוי רגשי בין מנכ"ל ליו"ר כיסוד מיקרו לפיתוח יכולות ארגוניות"

שנערך על ידי ג'ון פול סטיבנס, יוסף סרור ואברהם כרמלי, בתמיכת מכון אלי הורביץ לניהול אסטרטגי בפקולטה לניהול ע"ש קולר באוניברסיטת תל אביב.

ממצאי המחקר המשלבים השיטות — כמותי ואיכותני — מצביעים על התפקיד המשמעותי שיש למערכת יחסי עבודה בין מנכ"ל ליו"ר בעיצוב אקלים התקשורת בארגון ויכולות הארגון לייצר ידע חדש ולשפר ביצועים. שני המנהיגים המובילים של הארגון מודעים למדי לאיכות יחסי העבודה שלהם, כיצד הם מבטאים רגשותיהם במרחבים הפרטי והציבורי וההשפעה שיש לכך על הארגון כולו. המחקר מציע זווית חדשה להבנה כיצד מנהיגות אסטרטגית עשויה לקדם פיתוח ובניה של יכולות ארגוניות אסטרטגיות.

לפניות ניתן להתקשר עם אברהם כרמלי באימייל: avic@tauex.tau.ac.il

תקציר המחקר באנגלית 

Emotional Expression between CEO and Chairperson as a Micro-Foundation of Organizational Capabilities: An Exploratory Mixed Methods Study

Journal of Management Studies  

doi:10.1111/joms.13050

Why and how do work relationships between CEOs and Chairpersons influence organizational-level processes and outcomes?

This has been a key issue that attracted scholarly attention in the fields of strategic leadership and corporate governance. These theoretical anchors inform us about the important roles that these two executive entities play in a firm’s functioning—CEOs are responsible for the daily management and both the design and execution of firm strategy and personnel, while Chairpersons are responsible for managing the board of directors (BOD), as well as advising, supporting and monitoring the CEOs and their top management team, both role functions are complementary rather than substitutable. The literature also points to the relationships exchange between CEOs and Chairpersons and their executive entities (top management team and board of directors, respectfully) as keys for influencing the organization—its direction, processes, and performance outcomes. Hence, the work relationships they establish come to the core in our quest to understand why and how the relational work modes unfold to influence the organization.These work relationships are anchored in ‘behavioural perspective’ on corporate governance and we argue that they are cast as key micro-foundations, such that they can help in explaining higher level phenomena. In particular, we advance a micro-relational view of strategy by (1) shifting the discussion from general micro-foundations of strategic leadership (often centering on CEO/Chairperson qualities) to specific micro-foundations at the dyadic level focusing on their work relationships, 2) moving from examining CEO-Board relationships in general to discuss CEO-Chairperson relationships; and 3) attending to discrete, dyadic relationships by focusing on their capacities (what the relationships enable the individuals in the relationships to do), particularly on their ability to express emotions in the connection. In developing this theoretical ground, we attempted to explain why and how the ability of the CEOs and Chairpersons to express emotions in their work relationships can be conducive for facilitating the development of strategic capabilities—knowledge creation at the organization level and by implication influencing the organization’s performance.

Through both survey and interview data, we delineated the power of positive work relationships between the two key individual executives of the organization for shaping communication climate that is vital for knowledge exchange and integration. This expands the line of theorizing and thinking regarding work relationships underlying capability development; the notion that positive work relationships are resourcing individuals and collectives to better functioning (i.e., “relational resourcing view”). Moreover, integrating this perspective with the micro-foundations of strategy, the paper develops some ideas around micro-relational foundations of strategic capabilities (here, knowledge creation capabilities). Finally, and not less important, this endeavor to unveil why and how the relationship quality between CEOs and Chairpersons matters to them and those around them reveals some intriguing observational finding that CEOs and Chairpersons are quite mindful of the quality of their interpersonal relationship, and how they express emotions publicly and privately, and they believe such emotional expressions impact the broader firm.

Management Takeaway

This research offers some important implications for managers, organizations and even stakeholders.

First, stakeholders and organizational members can learn significantly about the organization’s health by looking and attending to the relationships between the CEO and Chairperson. Negative or poor relationship quality at the top might create a corrosive climate across the organization and positive or healthy relationships can shape more positive communication climate across the organization and outside it. We suggest that relational competencies be foregrounded in selecting, rewarding and retaining board and TMT members. Firms could thus employ relational human resource management principles to recruit and select CEOs, for example, who can form positive work relationships with the Chairperson and other board members.

Second, it may be essential for the Chairpersons and CEOs to become more mindful about in their interactions with each other and those around them, since their constructive communication of emotions can potentially provide impactful cues for observers. Mindfulness in work interactions can involve CEOs and Chairpersons setting clear intentions on the kind of presence or engagement they wish to have with each other and with their subordinates.

Third, for ability to express emotions in their relationships to have spillover effects on the organization’s strategic capabilities, increasing and bolstering the opportunities for connection between these top leaders and subordinates may be useful. Our interview data suggests that it might be possible to institutionalize opportunities for interaction with or, at least, exposure to the CEO and Chairperson. Retreats or summits that bring together top leadership and project teams and departments can be designed to allow for interaction, reflection on both project progress and relationship quality, and training on constructive feedback and emotional expression across hierarchical levels.

Finally, a key takeaway is that relationships between two people at the top can go a long way – they can serve as the micro-foundations of capability development and performance improvement at the organization level.

Biography

John Paul Stephens

John Paul Stephens is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. He received his Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan. His current research focuses on the experiential and perceptual aspects of role-based coordination and inter-organizational work relationships. 

Yossef Srour

Yossi Srour received his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Management-Coller School of Management at Tel Aviv University. Yossi has over twenty years of executive management experience in the medical device industry. He has held various top-level positions at a number of technology-based companies. His current research interests include micro-foundations of strategic leadership.  

Abraham Carmeli

Abraham Carmeli is a faculty member at Faculty of Management-Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Haifa. His current research interests include strategic leadership, relational dynamics, learning and knowledge creation processes, resilience, and entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation in the workplace.