Article Abstract:
Substantive conflict is natural within top management teams as executives struggle with making high-stakes choices under conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty. Yet, many top management teams fail to sufficiently debate appropriate courses of action. This article reports on a field study of top management teams and examines four managerial levers that can help executives overcome the cognitive, emotional, and political barriers to engaging in conflict. These levers are: build a heterogeneous team; create frequent interactions within that team; cultivate a distinct symphony of roles such as Counselor, Futurist, and Ms. Action around fundamental tensions within managing; and use multiple-lens tactics such as competitor role playing and multiple alternatives to provide unexpected vantage points on key issues. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
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Article Abstract:
Decision making processes are examined in industries where the rate of change is so rapid that market information is often unavailable, strategic windows are only briefly open, and the cost of error is involuntary exit. Hypotheses induced from field observation of four microcomputer firms are reported. The results are in the form of a set of paradoxes that successful firms resolve and that unsuccessful firms fail to resolve: major decisions must be made carefully, but quickly; a powerful, decisive CEO and a simultaneously powerful top management team are needed; the firm must seek risk and innovation, but it must execute innovation through safe, incremental implementation.
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Article Abstract:
Ventures hanging in the limbo between clear success and abject failure are known as Silicon Valley's "living dead." This article compares the decision processes of one of these ventures to those of success stories and failures, and it concludes that attempts to build consensus or to await adequate information may be hazardous in this fast-paced environment. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
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