PPMO - Summary
Perspectives on People, Management and Organizations
Week 1..................................................................................................................................... 3
Lecture 1: Leadership, Innovation and Learning................................................................ 3
Article 1 - Bezuijen, X. M., van den Berg, P. T., van Dam, K., & Thierry, H. (2009).
Pygmalion and employee learning: The role of leader behaviors. Journal of Management,
35(5), 1248–1267............................................................................................................... 6
Article 2 - Sijbom, R. B. L., Janssen, O., & Van Yperen, N. W. (2015). How to get radical
creative ideas into a leader’s mind? Leader’s achievement goals and subordinates’ voice
of creative ideas. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 24,
279–296............................................................................................................................. 7
Week 2..................................................................................................................................... 8
Lecture 2: Management Consulting................................................................................... 8
Article 1 - Kieser, A. (2002). Managers as marionettes? Using fashion theories to explain
the success of consultancies. Management consulting: Emergence and dynamics of a
knowledge industry, 167-183............................................................................................13
Article 2 - Schein, E. H. (1990). A general philosophy of helping: Process consultation.
Sloan Management Review, 31(3), 57-64........................................................................ 15
Article 3 - Sturdy, A. (2009). Popular critiques of consultancy and a politics of
management learning? Management Learning, 40(4), 457-463...................................... 17
Week 3................................................................................................................................... 19
Lecture 3: Organizational Strategy...................................................................................19
Article 1 - Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage.
Journal of Management, 17(1), 99-120............................................................................ 23
Article 2 - Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? Harvard Business Review, Nov/Dec,
37-54................................................................................................................................ 24
Article 3 - Nag, R., Hambrick, D. C., & Chen, M. J. (2007). What is strategic
management, really? Inductive derivation of a consensus definition of the field. Strategic
Management Journal, 28(9), 935-955.............................................................................. 26
Week 4................................................................................................................................... 28
Lecture 4: Organizational Culture & Change Management..............................................28
Article 1 - Schein, E.H. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership (4th edition). John
Wiley & Sons. (Chapter 2)................................................................................................34
Article 2 - Stouten, J., Rousseau, D. & De Cremer, D. (2018). Successful Organizational
Change: Integrating the Management Practice and Scholarly Literatures. Academy of
Management Annals. 12(2), 752–788.............................................................................. 36
Article 3 - Oreg, S. (2006). Personality, context, and resistance to organizational change.
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 15), 73–101........................ 38
Week 5................................................................................................................................... 40
Lecture 5: Entrepreneurship.............................................................................................40
Article 1 - Austin, J., Stevenson, H., & Wei-Skillern, J. (2006). Social and commercial
entrepreneurship: Same, different, or both? Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice,
30(1), 1–22....................................................................................................................... 43
Article 2 - Shane, S., & Venkataraman, S. (2000). The promise of entrepreneurship as a
1
, field of research. Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 217–226..............................45
Week 6................................................................................................................................... 47
Lecture 6: Managing Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in Organizations......................... 47
Article 1 - Dobbin, F., & Kalev, A. (2016). Why diversity programs fail. Harvard Business
Review, 94(7), 14............................................................................................................. 50
Article 2 - Shore, L. M., Cleveland, J. N., & Sanchez, D. (2018). Inclusive workplaces: A
review and model. Human Resource Management Review, 28(2), 176-189................... 52
Exam questions....................................................................................................................54
Question 1........................................................................................................................ 54
Question 2........................................................................................................................ 54
Question 3........................................................................................................................ 54
Question 4........................................................................................................................ 55
Question 5........................................................................................................................ 55
Question 6........................................................................................................................ 55
Question 7........................................................................................................................ 55
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,Week 1
Lecture 1: Leadership, Innovation and Learning
The Achievement Goal Theory (Elliot & McGregor, 2001)
Which explores why people are motivated in achievement settings.
2x2 Framework:
1. Mastery Goals: Focus on personal growth and self-improvement.
○ Approach: Aim to outperform yourself.
○ Avoidance: Avoid failing your own standards.
2. Performance Goals: Focus on comparison with others.
○ Approach: Aim to outperform others.
○ Avoidance: Avoid losing to others.
It highlights that motivation depends on whether goals are mastery- or performance-oriented
and whether the focus is on achieving success (approach) or avoiding failure (avoidance).
Achievement goals of leaders
Performance goals
● Focus on other-referenced competence issues.
● Relative competence may be an important and crucial factor.
● Leaders may feel threatened and criticized.
Mastery goals
● Develop and gain competence by acquiring new skills and mastering new situations.
● See creative input as a useful source of diagnostic information.
Leaders’ achievement goal → oppose creative ideas OR adopt creative ideas.
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,Conclusion
● Leaders play an important role for the fate of creative ideas.
● Employees should voice ideas considerately.
● Leaders should try to focus on content.
● Organizations should stimulate a mastery climate (self improvement and self referent
performance standards).
Leader expectations
Leader expectations = A leader’s assessment of an employee’s capability to learn
job-relevant knowledge and skills.
Leader expectations may activate certain leader behaviors, which in turn affect employee
attitudes and behaviors in the expected direction (self-fulfilling prophecy).
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,The green arrows are the hypotheses that are supported.
Leaders should stimulate engagement in employee learning.
- Set challenging goals.
- Set specific goals.
- Provide learning opportunities
Leaders should focus on behavior instead of expectations.
Stimulate all employees!
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,Article 1 - Bezuijen, X. M., van den Berg, P. T., van Dam, K., &
Thierry, H. (2009). Pygmalion and employee learning: The role
of leader behaviors. Journal of Management, 35(5), 1248–1267
The study titled "Pygmalion and Employee Learning: The Role of Leader Behaviors" by
Bezuijen et al. examines how leader behaviors mediate the relationship between leader
expectations and employee engagement in learning activities. Grounded in Rosenthal’s
Pygmalion model, it identifies five potential mediators: leader-member exchange (LMX), goal
specificity, goal difficulty, provision of learning opportunities, and feedback.
Key Findings:
1. Leader Expectations and Engagement: Leaders' expectations significantly influence
employee engagement in learning, defined as discretionary activities to acquire new
knowledge and skills.
2. Mediators of the Pygmalion Effect:
○ Goal Setting (Specificity and Difficulty): These were strong mediators,
highlighting that specific and challenging goals encourage learning
engagement.
○ Providing Learning Opportunities: Access to time, resources, and
learning-focused tasks also mediated the relationship.
○ Feedback and LMX: Contrary to expectations, feedback showed a negative
correlation with learning engagement. LMX, though positively influenced by
expectations, did not directly mediate learning engagement but indirectly
affected other mediators.
3. Organizational Context: The findings held across diverse organizations, suggesting
the broad applicability of these dynamics.
Implications:
● For Leadership Practices: Leaders should focus on setting specific, challenging goals
and providing learning opportunities to maximize engagement in learning activities.
They must also be cautious with feedback to avoid negative impacts on self-efficacy.
● Theoretical Contributions: This study extends Pygmalion theory to non-military,
real-world settings and identifies goal setting as a core mechanism behind the
Pygmalion effect in organizations.
● Practical Recommendations: Leaders should avoid biases in expectations and
provide equal learning opportunities to all employees, ensuring development for both
perceived high and low performers.
This research underscores the pivotal role of leaders in shaping learning behaviors through
strategic goal-setting and resource allocation, offering valuable insights for fostering a
continuous learning culture in organizations.
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,Article 2 - Sijbom, R. B. L., Janssen, O., & Van Yperen, N. W.
(2015). How to get radical creative ideas into a leader’s mind?
Leader’s achievement goals and subordinates’ voice of creative
ideas. European Journal of Work and Organizational
Psychology, 24, 279–296
The study explores how leaders react to radical creative ideas from subordinates, focusing
on how leaders' achievement goals and subordinates' mode of voice influence these
reactions. Three studies—field, experimental, and behavioral—investigate the factors
shaping leaders' tendencies to oppose or adopt innovative ideas.
Key Findings:
1. Achievement Goals:
○ Performance Goals: Leaders with performance-oriented goals (focused on
demonstrating superiority) are more likely to oppose creative ideas, viewing
them as threats to their authority or competence.
○ Mastery Goals: Leaders with mastery-oriented goals (focused on
self-improvement and learning) are more likely to adopt such ideas, seeing
them as opportunities for development.
2. Explorative Interest as a Mediator:
○ Mastery-oriented leaders show greater explorative interest in new ideas,
which mediates their willingness to adopt creative inputs.
○ Performance-oriented leaders tend to focus less on the content of ideas and
more on perceived threats to their competence.
3. Subordinates' Mode of Voice:
○ Aggressive Voice: Subordinates presenting ideas aggressively often provoke
defensive reactions from performance-oriented leaders, increasing
opposition.
○ Considerate Voice: Subordinates who voice ideas considerately reduce the
perceived threat to leaders’ competence, leading to higher chances of
adoption, particularly for performance-oriented leaders.
Practical Implications:
● Organizations can foster creativity by encouraging mastery goal orientations in
leaders, emphasizing growth and collaboration.
● Subordinates should be trained to present ideas considerately to reduce
defensiveness in leaders, especially those with performance goals.
● Training leaders to focus on the content of ideas rather than the manner of delivery
could enhance creative collaboration.
Conclusion:
The study demonstrates that leaders' motivational orientations and the interpersonal
dynamics of idea presentation critically influence whether radical creative ideas are
embraced or rejected. Cultivating a supportive environment for innovation requires aligning
leader motivations with organizational goals and equipping subordinates with effective
communication strategies.
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,Week 2
Lecture 2: Management Consulting
What is consulting and giving advice?:
● “ ... You are consulting any time you are trying to change or improve a situation but
have no direct control over the implementation...” (Peter Block, 1981)
● “ ... Management consulting is an advisory service contracted for and provided to
organizations by specially trained and qualified persons who assist, in an objective
and independent manner, the client organization to identify management problems,
analyze such problems, recommend solutions to these problems, and help, when
requested, in the implementation of solutions.” (Larry Greiner & Robert Metzger,
1983).
Goals of consulting according to Kubr (2002, p. 10)
● Help organisations achieve their goals
● Find solutions for management problems
● Identify and exploit new opportunities
● Enhance organisational learning
● Change implementation
Roles (Schein)
Consulting roles according to Schein (1990).
Three models of helping:
● Expert
● Doctor-patient
● Process consultation
Schein’s message: conditions for expert and doctor role rarely met, therefore more ‘process
consultation’.
Expert-role presupposes that:
● the client is fully aware of own problems, needs and objectives.
● the client can communicate them.
● the client knows exactly which consultant to hire.
● the client is able to implement solutions.
● the client defines the service the consultant has to offer.
Doctor-patient model presupposes:
● client may not be fully aware of own problems/objectives, yet identifies a ‘sick area’.
● client reveals all information required for diagnosis.
● after diagnosis consultant knows more than the client.
● after diagnosis the consultant tells the client how to reach the objectives (therapy).
● the client has to implement the solution (and can give wrong information).
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,Process consultant presupposes even less. Rather the ideal is:
● joint diagnosis.
● joint development of solution.
● client is the problem-owner throughout.
● the consultant does not know the answers ...
● ... but helps to find the right questions with client.
● facilitates and enhances learning rather than client-dependency.
● client needs time to get used to surprising results
(challenging/fearsome/rewarding/unpleasant).
Process consultant interventions:
● Explorative inquiry (Tell me ...; What do you have in mind ...).
● Diagnostic (Why do you think that ...).
● Action-alternatives (potential solutions done/considered by client already).
● Confrontive (bringing in new ideas without becoming expert/doctor, e.g. through
alternatives, hypotheses, possibilities→ Have you considered ...).
● Client stays in active problem-solving mode throughout.
● Multiple studies on roles of consultants exist with various roles identified. Optional
reading you have Saxton (1995) which offers an account that contains similarities
and differences.
● Understanding and exploring the various roles of third parties and the conditions
under which they are beneficial [or not] is the focus and contribution of this article
(Saxton 1995: 48).
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, Critical perspective
● Classical/functionalist perspective (e.g. Schein & Saxton)
○ Consultants develop and deliver professional/expert knowledge to help
organizations in addressing their problems.
○ Focus on effective and validated methods.
● Popular journalist criticism
○ Focus on revealing critical facts, opinions, experiences etc. of consultancy in
the broader society.
○ Critical newspaper articles and books showing danger of failures, negative
consequences for employees, while increasing MCs turnover.
○ These accounts are often playful and non-threatening. A form of cynicism that
rather than truly resists more confirms the status quo.
● Critical perspective
○ Problematization of (1) consultancy as a profession and (2) the nature of
knowledge for their services, (3) outcomes/results.
○ Focus on impression management and rhetorical strategies of consultants to
support their knowledge claims and enhance their business.
Sturdy (2009)
● Rationalizers (e.g. cutting staff numbers).
● Ideologues/imperialist (rational capitalist white male).
● Money wasters (comfort blanket and/or legitimator).
● Ideas lack substance & novelty (rhetorical witch doctors).
● Self-interested, arrogant and parasitic.
● Lack accountability and responsibility (who is/should be?).
● Transparency of power & legitimacy of responsibilities.
● “Consultocracy”.
Kieser (2002): “... it is pretty obvious that managers are becoming increasingly receptive to
management fashions and consulting” (2002: 182).
A fashion perspective: “... elements of culture do not spring forth full blown but are made
somewhere by someone” (Peterson, 1972: 152).
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