The Entrepreneurial Organization PDF
The Entrepreneurial Organization PDF
Organization
What it is and why it matters
1. Introduction 1
2. Leadership 2
6. Conclusion 19
7. References 20
Introduction
1
Successful entrepreneurs are opportunists who, through their creativity, drive and
vision, create economic or social value. They challenge conventional wisdom by practising
disruptive innovation — innovation that creates new markets through the application
of a different set of values. They change the rules of the game by questioning the status
quo and upping the stakes. They ask: “Why do we do things this way and how can we do
things better?”
In a fiercely competitive
world, the measure of the
truly competitive organization is
the extent to which it can break this
cycle at any point; the extent to which,
regardless of size, it remains or becomes
an entrepreneurial organization. But what does an
organization need to do in order to regain its entrepreneurial spirit and release the disruptive
thinking and opportunism that drives growth? To understand this we need to understand what
the entrepreneurial organization looks like and to do this we need to consider four distinct
but connected factors: Leadership; the organizational culture and structure; the team – its
composition and dynamics; and the employee profile.
1
2
Leadership
In the entrepreneurial organization people are led rather than managed; that is to say,
while the organizational vision and strategy is set by a senior leadership team, there are
leaders throughout the organization – whether or not they are in formal leadership roles.
What characterises this ‘leadership’?
2.1 Vision
“
I strongly believe that missionaries make better products. They care
more. For a missionary, it’s not just about the business. There has
to be a business, and the business has to make sense, but that’s not
why you do it. You do it because you have something meaningful
that motivates you. – Jeff Bezos
An organization’s vision acts as a powerful motivator for employee behavior (Bennis & Nanus,
1985), creating a common purpose that helps pull people in a desired direction, and increasing
performance and commitment (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1996). The specific content of the vision will
vary with the organization – but whatever it is it is the job of senior leadership to formulate an
inspiring narrative and for line-leadership to then articulate that narrative clearly and regularly.
As well as clearly articulating and regularly communicating the organization’s vision, leaders
need to make that vision concrete in terms of values and expected behaviours; motivating
their people by reinforcing entrepreneurial behaviours (e.g. free-thinking, free expression,
openness, honesty, courage, lack of deference…) and promoting entrepreneurial values (e.g.
creativity, opportunism, proactivity, ambition, excellence…).
2
STEVE JOBS The late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs motivated his employees
JEFF BEZOS Through its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, Amazon
years later, Bezos still believes that they are at Day One
3
STEVE BALMER Under Steve Ballmer’s control, it is argued Microsoft lost its
2.2 Empowerment
At the inception of a project leaders should grant high levels of autonomy (in order to
develop ideas and identify opportunities) but set clear expectations in terms of deadlines and
deliverables. As projects progress, with ideas and strategies becoming more concrete, leaders
should adopt a more directive approach to consolidate ideas and ensure that the project is
completed and delivered on time.
4
Within this autonomous-directive leadership style, it is important that leaders trust their
people to carry out their tasks and provide constructive criticism in order to further develop
the individual’s skill-set. If the leader micro-manages and displays pessimistic attitudes,
entrepreneurial behaviours will be quashed (Kim & Yuki, 1995).
VALVE Valve, a multinational, billion dollar video games
only decide what project they want to work on, but also
growth.
Leaders should also consciously aim to reduce office politics (e.g. gossiping, manipulative
behaviours and power grabs) and the centralisation of power (e.g. top-down decision-making)
and should instead welcome and facilitate open discussion of organizational issues no matter
how controversial; (Gilbert, Carr-Ruffino, Ivancevich, & Konopaske, 2012).
2.3 Tolerance of risk
When making decisions, it is important to consider the amount of risk the leader is willing to
tolerate.
Leaders who work for organizations (employees) tend to be less confident and less impulsive
than pure entrepreneurs (founders), and as a result they are less inclined to over-estimate
5
their ability and tend to favour incremental rather than revolutionary developments (Busenitz
& Barney, 1994; Forbes, 2005). As a result, these leaders often not only have a lower appetite
for risk, but also a lower tolerance of risk, and this is inimical to innovation and growth.
This is not to say that senior leaders should simply encourage risk-taking. Rather, they need
to establish a level of risk tolerance which they comfortable with (and which in most large
organizations is too low); actively seeking opportunities to take controlled risks and, at the
same time, mitigating risk when new initiatives are pursued.
Finally, and crucially, leaders need to demonstrate a tolerance of risk by handing as much
decision making power as is possible to those below them; empowering people to act quickly
and decisively when opportunities are identified.
6
LEADERSHIP CHECKLIST ?
its heart?
behaviours?
risks?
7
3 Culture and Structure
3.1 Culture
Every organization has a culture — the values and beliefs of an organization that influence
employee’s experience, behaviour, and interaction with others (Pettigrew, 1979; Schein,
2004). And as an organization’s culture shapes behaviour, it is vital that the culture facilitates
entrepreneurial behaviours (Schneider, Ehrhart & Macey, 2013).
An entrepreneurial culture is an open, inclusive culture where social interaction and the
communication of ideas are actively facilitated. By increasing communication employees are
able to share different ideas, perspectives and approaches. By promoting social networks,
organizations can expect an increase in knowledge utilisation; for example, employees will
discover experts in a given domain and be able to draw on their knowledge and experience.
Building social networks not only helps in executing ideas, but also in generating them. The
more individuals share ideas and knowledge, the more likely it is that they will be able to ‘join
the dots’ between various sources of information. By increasing multiple sources and types of
information, hidden patterns and relationships can be identified (Talke, Salomo & Kock, 2011).
An entrepreneurial culture is a culture where where ambitious thinking and free expression
are encouraged and valued. People must be given the time and security to develop ideas that
may fail (the corollary of leaders tolerating controlled levels of risk). Most people become
self-employed because they are not given the opportunity to develop their ideas, or because
their ideas are not valued by their organization (Beugelsdijk, & Noorderhaven, 2005; Pinchot &
Pinchot, 1978). With this in mind, any organization looking to become entrepreneurial needs to
ensure its culture supports its ‘intrapreneuers’ (existing employees that have entrepreneurial
potential; Menzel, Aaltio & Ulijn, 2007).
8
IDEO IDEO, a global design and innovation consultancy, puts
3.2 Structure
An organizational structure is important because it defines how jobs are formally divided,
grouped and coordinated (Robbins, Judge & Campbell, 2010). An entrepreneurial organization
needs to structure itself in a way that maximises the exploitation of new opportunities. To do
this, three factors need to be considered:
Work specialisation, better known as the division of labour, is the degree to which tasks are
divided into separate jobs. Although high division of labour is ‘efficient’, carrying out repetitive
tasks leads to stress, long-term reductions in productivity and poor quality, with the inverse
occurring when employees have low division of labour (Parker, 2003). Identifying when to
increase and decrease the division of labour is important for entrepreneurial organizations: if
9
an employee has a narrow view of the organization’s operations, it is unlikely that they will be
able to spot opportunities for innovation. By experiencing different roles, research suggests
that employees will be both satisfied and more creative as they are able to draw together their
experiences and think differently about the way their work is carried out (Glassman, 1986).
3.2.2. Departmentalisation
Departmentalisation describes the way jobs are grouped together (e.g. sales, finance, marketing,
etc.). Within organizations there is a wealth of talent that is hidden through siloed departments.
By removing these innovation road-blocks and increasing open communication organizations
can expect co-operation and an influx of innovative ideas (Denning, 2010). What’s more by
promoting cross-functional departments and teams where people have a range of backgrounds
(e.g. work experience, educational background, ethnicity, etc.) and skill-sets, knowledge can be
more effectively shared, utilised and exploited (Shin & Zhou, 2007).
The chain of command describes the line of authority from the top of the organizational hierarchy
to the bottom. Span of control, is related to the number of subordinates a manger can (and
does currently) both effectively and efficiently direct. Why is this important for entrepreneurial
organizations?
Successful entrepreneurs are able to react and exploit opportunities as and when they arise
(Chell, 2008). A long chain of command coupled with a large span of control makes it harder to
seize opportunities quickly. Conversely, successful entrepreneurs operate with a low chain of
command and grant high autonomy to their subordinates (Gupta, MacMillan, & Surie, 2004); a
‘flat’ hierarchy which facilitates fast decision-making.
As well as the management structure, the physical layout of the working environment may need
to be modified in order to increase co-operation and speed decision-making. If departments
and functions are spread across multiple locations or simply shut away in different parts of a
building, employees will have less opportunity to meet new people and are less likely to have
the confidence to purposefully approach colleagues (Penn, Desyllas & Vaughan, 1999).
10
CULTURE CHECKLIST ?
• Is it better to try new things and fail than to not try at all?
• Are decisions made quickly and once they are made can they be
acted on quickly?
11
4 Teams – composition and dynamics
Throughout human evolution we have had to be flexible, adapt to our environment and work
with others in order to survive. The success of an organization is dependent on the same
principles. Contrary to the popular conception of the creative genius in their garret, people are
actually more innovative and effective when they are part of a larger social group, and in the
workplace this is likely to be their department or team (Leeners, Van Engelen & Kratzer, 2003).
Entrepreneurial teams are defined as a small a number of individuals who work together to
innovate and exploit opportunities. A common characteristic of under-performing teams is the
prevalence of shared apathy and inertia, however, this can be reduced by making the team
member’s implicit attitudes and assumptions explicit (Waddell, Roberto & Yoon, 2013). One
way to do this is to encourage functional conflict — the ability to challenge and constructively
criticise decisions, assumptions and ideas in a positive manner (Druskat, & Pescosolido, 2002).
12
In o rd e r f or functio nal con flict t o occur , t here ar e four k ey
fa c t or s t hat need to b e co nsi dered:
1. Groupthink
2. Resources
For entrepreneurial teams to be successful, it is imperative that they are given the resources
they need to succeed. This does not necessarily mean more time or money. Giving teams access
to the information they require and the opportunity to learn new skills, will not only make the
team more effective, but will also increase its ability to identify new opportunities and produce
innovative ideas (Bessant, Alexander, Tsekouras, Rush, & Lamming, 2012; Mathieu, Maynard,
Rapp, & Gilson, 2008). New information can be accessed quickly by forming connections with
other teams and departments, thereby making the teams incrementally more knowledgeable.
And increasing the exchange of knowledge means teams are better equipped to spot new
trends, identify gaps in the market, and solve problems.
3. Communication
Research has shown that the more an idea is shared with other experts, the more feasible and
applicable the idea becomes (Sáenz, Aramburu, & Rivera, 2009). For example, it is common to
find that engineers are preoccupied with detail, yet fail to pay attention to what the consumer
wants from a product. By increasing the level of communication between marketers and
engineers, consumer demand can be met while reducing the possibility of ‘dead on arrival’
product releases (Menzel et al., 2007). It is important however, to bear in mind that too much
communication and deliberation can result in stasis; so this is a process that must be managed.
13
GENERAL At General Electric, the management and distribution of
ELECTRIC
knowledge is paramount in order to develop and deploy
4. Team Spirit
When managing entrepreneurial teams, it is important to foster ‘team spirit‘ - a belief in the
team’s ability to succeed. Research has shown that if team members perceive their goal to
be both feasible and desirable, they are more likely to achieve it (Shepherd & Krueger, 2002).
Conversely, if team members do not trust in each other’s ability to succeed, and if they don’t
have a clear understanding of the team goal there will be a reduction in morale and performance
(West, 2007).
14
TEAM CHECKLIST ?
15
MICROSOF T The beleaguered Microsoft long measured team
industry.
5 The Employee Profile
An entrepreneurial organization is not an organization that only employs entrepreneurs. In
fact, if it were it would almost certainly be dysfunctional. Rather, it is an organization that (a)
has a culture that facilitates entrepreneurial activity and (b) puts together teams of people with
the right combination of entrepreneurial characteristics.
META’s research identifies four key characteristics of the entrepreneurial personality: Creativity,
opportunism, proactivity and vision.
16
CREATIVITY The ability to generate innovative business ideas (relates
to non-conformity, originality and preference for novel
experiences)
PROACTIVITY The tendency to be proactive about projects and get stuff done
(relates to energy, confidence and self-determination)
VISION The ability to see the bigger picture, the motivation to bring
change and create progress (relates to values and having a
higher sense of purpose)
Very few individuals possess all these characteristics, but a great many possess one or more
and – even in start-ups – it is getting the right mix of these characteristics within teams and
departments which is the key to success. How can this be achieved?
Research has shown that the most effective (reliable and valid) way to identify an employee’s
strength or “unique talent” is through the use of psychometric measures — questionnaires
created through scientific principles that measure psychological qualities (Ahmetoglu &
Chamorro-Premuzic, 2013).
These measures give an accurate and unbiased assessment of a person’s skill set. They also
provide information that cannot be obtained during an interview or even through performance
at work (for example, because most large organizations are not entrepreneurial they do not
allow for entrepreneurial behaviours to be manifested). So, the use of psychometric tests can
make the construction of complementary and cross-functional teams both quicker and more
effective.
Creating teams that have a complementary mix of creative, proactive, visionary and
opportunistic people, can produce ideas that are both innovative and actionable. The founders
of Apple, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak achieved the perfect balance. Jobs was an ‘ideas man’
and Wozniak was the technology expert. Jobs couldn’t program a computer but knew exactly
how he wanted it to function. Wozniak on the other hand understood how to make Job’s vision
a reality.
17
EMPLOYEE PROFILE CHECKLIST ?
workforce?
18
6 Conclusion
An entrepreneurial organization places opportunism and innovation at its heart in order to
achieve growth. Achieving this requires a culture that embraces freedom of thought and
freedom of expression; where co-operation and the sharing of knowledge is the norm; where
leaders throughout the organization articulate a guiding vision, empower people and value
creativity; and where teams are made up of people with complementary traits and skill sets
who believe in each other and who are willing and able to challenge the status quo. Evidence
suggests that an organization that can make this a reality will reap the benefits.
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