PAINTING A CLEAR PICTURE WHILE SEEING THE BIG PICTURE: WHEN AND WHY LEADERS OVERCOME THE TRADE-OFF BETWEEN CONCRETENESS AND SCALE

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Carton, Andrew M.; Knowlton, Karren; Coutifaris, Constantinos G. V.; Kundro, Timothy G.; Boysen, Andrew P.
• 署名单位: University of Pennsylvania; Dartmouth College; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2018.1019
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 43-66
• 关键词: research-and-development; CONSTRUAL-LEVEL THEORY; STRATEGIC CHANGE; organizational-change; firm performance; management; exploration; vision; exploitation; ambiguity

摘要

One of the most effective ways leaders can promote change is by generating visions with image-based rhetoric (make children smile). By conjuring visual snapshots of the future, leaders paint a portrait of what their organizations can one day achieve. It would thus stand to reason that leaders who naturally think and speak in terms of picture-like detail (a concrete orientation) would promote more organizational change than those who are inclined to think vaguely (an abstract orientation). Yet, research has established that individuals with a concrete orientation tend to focus on short-term, narrow details (e.g., small features of a single product) rather than long-term visions requiring the coordinated effort of all employees. To determine how and when concrete-thinking leaders induce large-scale change, we integrate theory on attention, organizational hierarchy, and construal. We predict that leaders who have a concrete orientation will promote change by redirecting their attention toward long-term visions of the future, if their organizations have strong, rather than weak, hierarchies. By contrast, hierarchical strength will have no such effect on leaders with an abstract orientation. We test these predictions in an archival study of CEOs and then examine the attention-based process that helps explain this effect in a preregistered experiment.