After the slash-and-burn organizational restructuring of the past decade, one thing is becoming increasingly clear to managers: if a company is to proceed beyond the shrinking spiral of downsizing and rationalization to develop the ability of continuous self-renewal, its real battle lies not in reorienting the strategy, restructuring the organization, or revamping the systems, but in changing individual organization members’ behaviors and actions. A self-renewing organization can be built only on the bedrock of people who are willing to take personal initiative and to cooperate with one another, who have self-confidence and a commitment to the company, and who are able to execute relatively routine tasks with the same proficiency as they are willing to learn new skills and ways to take the company to the next stages of its ambition. In short, the most vital requirement for revitalizing businesses is to rejuvenate people.
What is not clear to many managers is whether it is possible to stimulate such behaviors in large global firms. Based on our recent research in twenty European, U.S., and Japanese companies, we believe that the answer is an unambiguous “yes.”1 A number of companies we studied demonstrated an ability to shape and protect the required individual attitudes and actions over decades, despite their growing size and diversity. We also found several in which a determined top management... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
Become a premium subscriber today to read this and all MIT Sloan Managmeent Review articles.
Buy this article. Purchase one or more copies of this article in PDF form.
Become a premium subscriber today to read this article and the entire archive of MIT SMR articles.
Upgrade your existing subscription to premium
Sign in if you are a premium subscriber.
Do you subscribe the MIT Sloan Management Review in print? Enter the email address and password you used when ordering. Don't remember? Lookup your subscription account information
- Register for free access to recent articles and the current issue of MIT Sloan Management Review.
- Subscribe and read articles from the past three years online.
- Premium subscription give you access to the entire archive of articles.
