Lateral leadership
The lateral leadership ( lat. Latus "side") describes the situation of leadership without direct authority . The influence on the formation of will and actions within an organization takes place without a direct hierarchical relationship. Due to the wide variety of organizational forms in social communities (as companies also represent), managers are confronted with a wide variety of leadership situations, including that of lateral leadership.
Clarification of the situation
While the hierarchical leadership can refer to the disciplinary authority to issue directives, the lateral leadership is mainly based on trust and understanding through the creation of a common framework in order to connect the possible different interests of the participants in a sustainable way. The disciplinary authority as a source of power no longer applies; other sources of power such as B. the expertise or the information control opened up and internal power games consciously used.
example
The project management or the business process management , for example, represent typical, lateral management situations, since organizational members of roughly equal hierarchy have to be coordinated and controlled for the goal-oriented processing of cross-departmental tasks. In sport, the role of the team captain or captain is faced with lateral leadership. From a hierarchical point of view, this person does not enjoy a special position in a team. However, in order to have a positive influence on the team, factors such as the aforementioned expertise, but also, for example, communication skills and charisma are important success factors for the positive execution of the management task.
Conflicts
Lateral leadership in cross-departmental or cross-organizational situations always harbors a certain potential for conflict. Conflicts of goals and interests of the organizational units involved, but also different ways of thinking and behaving among the people involved, cannot be ruled out. In project management, for example, dealing with conflicts is a main part of the project manager's work. Internally, these situations range from conflicts with department heads due to resource requirements ("You can't have my resources for this project!") To conflicts with team members by task delegation ("You do not have the authority to give me tasks!").
Handling
It therefore depends on whether the manager recognizes this potential for conflict and how he deals with it. Understanding, trust and power processes are the central mechanisms of lateral leadership. In an organization, these always run in parallel or in addition, but often in an informal framework. Conflicts must be recognized at an early stage in order to be able to initiate countermeasures and without causing great damage as a result. It is important to act without blame. Successful project managers see conflict resolution as tasks that contain learning potential and opportunities for improvement.
To develop the concept of lateral guidance
In organizational research it was noticed very early on that in companies, administrations, hospitals or non-governmental organizations, not only hierarchical, but often sideways management processes play a central role. With the term “lateral organizational relationships”, a term was also found from the sixties of the twentieth century that could be used to describe these relationships beyond hierarchies.
In a large number of case studies it was shown at the time that lateral cooperation relationships shaped very different types of organization. For a US textile company, for example, it could be demonstrated that a large part of the coordination takes place at the lateral level. A study on the coordination of two departments of a social welfare institution was able to show that the coordination usually took place without the hierarchy being involved, despite other formal instructions. Even for armies, actually prototypes of hierarchically structured organizations, it could be shown that lateral coordination mechanisms are often used for more complex requirements.
The early theoretical discussion of lateral cooperation relationships was shaped by the then dominant contingency approach in organizational theory, which focused on the search for the right fit between environmental conditions and organizational structure. The more diverse the environment of the organization, the faster the change in markets, knowledge and political framework conditions, the more organizations would have to decentralize, the weaker hierarchical opportunities for influence would be, and the stronger lateral cooperation relationships would develop.
The limitation of the contingency theoretical approach was that only (partly recommendatory) statements could be made about the number and intensity of lateral cooperation relationships. The approach never got much further than the statement “The more complex the environment, the more laterality in the organization”. There was obviously a lack of insights into how lateral cooperative relationships develop, what mechanisms worked in them, and even more there was a lack of ideas on how to change them.
Attempts to make lateral leadership tangible for organizational practice are often based primarily on individual recommendations for improved negotiation. The motto was: "Improve your ability to contribute to the group as a lateral leader by developing your personal skills". The concrete recommendations for action then came in the form of guiding principles such as “involve your colleagues in the planning of changes”, “remain receptive”, “ask your colleagues to contribute their thoughts”, “ask real questions” or “offer your thoughts on".
The paradigm shift in the concept of lateral leadership - and thus also the difference to communication seminars, presentation training or team workshops, for example - consisted in linking the concept more closely to organizational processes. The people involved in lateral leadership are seen as role bearers in the organization. Their interests and thought structures are - so the assumption - primarily an expression of their organizational position, and the concept of lateral leadership must therefore consistently start with the organizational integration of the "lateral leaders". The three coordination mechanisms “understanding”, “power” and “trust” are not analyzed as personality traits, but rather derived from the organizational structures observed.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Geoffrey M. Bellman: Getting Things Done When You're Not in Charge. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco 2001.
- ↑ a b Stefan Kühl, Thomas Schnelle, Wolfgang Schnelle: Leading without leadership. In: Harvard Business Manager. 01, 2004, pp. 70-79.
- ↑ R. Wunderer: Leadership and Cooperation - An entrepreneurial leadership theory. Luchterhand, Munich 2003.
- ↑ Sonja Radatz: Lateral leadership - leadership without leadership. Learning organization. 2008, p. 41.
- ^ Heinrich Kessler, Georg Winkelhofer: Project Management. Guide to controlling and managing projects. 2004.
- ^ Richard L. Simpson: Vertical and Horizontal Communication in Formal Organizations. 1959.
- ^ Peter M. Blau, WR Scott: Formal Organizations. Chandler, San Francisco 1962.
- ^ Morris Janowitz: Changing Patterns of Organizational Authority. In: The Military Establishment. Administrative Science Quarterly. 3, 1959, pp. 473-493.
- ↑ Roger Fisher, Alan Sharpe: Getting it Done. 1998, p. 23 ff.