The more things change, the more they stay the same

A new book by UQ Business School's Professor Jörgen Sandberg explains why most contemporary organisations talk the talk, but many don’t walk the walk.

Professor Sandberg said significant socio-economic changes over the last two decades had resulted in the need for a different kind of management.

“But despite all the talk and huge investment in cultural change programs and competence and learning, change on the ground is very slow," he said.

“Practicing managers and academics agree that the rationalistic, top-down management approach that developed alongside the industrialisation of the Western world is no longer appropriate.

“Management gurus everywhere are advocating a shift from management by prescriptive rules to management by ideas and visions, and consultative rather than autocratic leadership.

“But because organisations have mostly failed to understand the critical importance of managing employees’ understanding of the organisation’s mission and their own contribution to its success, much of the hoped-for change hasn’t happened.

“It takes more than just a new or revamped mission statement and a few workshops.”

Professor Sandberg said "understanding understanding" was the key to moving past the limitations of the persistent rationalist thinking that still dominated many organisations.

“The book explains how understanding works and how it forms the basis for people’s work performance.

“Co-author Axel Targama and I examine common management methods for influencing human understanding and explain how these approaches can be modified and applied in practice.

“The book also addresses the issues involved in redefining leadership and management at the global level.”

Managing Understanding in Organisations by Jörgen Sandberg and Axel Targama is published by Sage.

Media inquiries: Cathy Stacey (07 3365 6179 or 0434 074 372).