The editors of the MIT Sloan Management Review are pleased to announce the winners of the Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize for the most outstanding SMR article on planned change and organizational development published in Volume 43 (Fall 2001 through Summer 2002).

Deborah Ancona
Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management
Henrik Bresman
Doctoral candidate, MIT Sloan School of Management Katrin Kaeufer
Research affiliate, MIT Sloan School of Management

 

"The Comparative Advantage of X-Teams"

Spring 2003, Volume 44, Number 3, pp. 33–39

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The panel of judges, composed of MIT Sloan School of Management professors, selected as this year’s winner an article that describes the rising prominence of an externally oriented, adaptive type of networked group — what Deborah Ancona, Henrik Bresman and Katrin Kaeufer call the “X-team.” The authors argue that traditional teams, hampered by inward focus and inflexibility, are increasingly less effective in today’s flatter organizations where tasks and teams are interdependent. In contrast, X-teams can manage across boundaries — lobbying for resources, connecting to new change initiatives, seeking up-to-date information and linking to groups inside and outside the company. The optimal conditions for X-teams mirror those common to modern societies, leading the authors to predict that more organizations will adopt the X-team as their modus operandi.

"This article brings together a multitude of research into a clear and coherent argument — that the team of the future must be structured quite differently to be effective in a globally networked world," commented Prof. Edgar H. Schein. "Not only do the authors link their conclusions to well-formulated, empirical research, but they also extrapolate to a number of practical principles that any manager can and should deal with." Prof. Lotte Bailyn labeled the article an outright winner: "This is important material for today’s manager, based on scholarly research and presented in wonderfully practical detail.” And Prof. Eleanor Westney remarked that "the authors provide invaluable insights on how X-teams work. … The article combines deep, research-based understanding of team processes with action-oriented recommendations for transforming traditional teams into X-teams."

 

Richard Beckhard

One of the founders and architects of the field of organizational development, Prof. Richard Beckhard was a member of the MIT Sloan School of Management faculty for more than 20 years. A longtime friend of the MIT Sloan Management Review, Beckhard was known for his efforts to help organizations function in a more humane and high-performing manner, and to empower people to be agents of change.

His books include "Organizational Development Strategies and Models," "Organizational Transitions: Managing Complex Change," "Changing the Essence: The Art of Creating and Leading Fundamental Change in Organizations," and his autobiography, "Agent of Change: My Life, My Practice."

The prize was established in 1984 by the faculty of the MIT Sloan School of Business upon Prof. Beckhardís retirement and renamed the Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize after his death on 28 December 1999.

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