The management expert is a PhD philosopher who initially worked in personnel development. The 68-year-old management author’s credo: Real motivation does not come from incentives, but from our own initiative.
(Photo: Stefan Kröger)
Creeds belong in the church. Reinhard Sprenger is convinced of this with a view to the growing crowd of New Work disciples. But in essence the management author agrees with them: a change of entrepreneurs is necessary in order to react to market demands.
Mr. Sprenger, does “New Work” make managers superfluous?
In fact, it’s about a lot more than just new forms of collaboration that could potentially cost some executives the job.
What exactly?
It is about the fundamental realization that companies have to change their work organization and management structure because market dynamics force them to do so.
Because customer requirements change, new competition arises and sales channels collapse, should companies also get rid of their tried and tested hierarchy? Isn’t chaos looming then?
The time of unambiguity and clear announcements is coming to an end. Anyone who understands this is open to ideas for solutions outside of the line organization. And so it expands its scope to find new answers to the challenges you mentioned. Above all, however, he is reacting to the exploding Asian performance, which is still not understood in this country.
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So is that the end of the hierarchy?
No. Hierarchy has immense advantages in terms of speed when making decisions. But that alone will not be enough to remain competitive. In the future, there will be an “as well as” in most companies instead of just an “either / or”. The Asians are way ahead of us in this regard.
So don’t decide everything top-down, but also no egalitarian cuddling culture at any price?
Companies should not let themselves be driven by ideologies, but should think about alternatives where traditional ways of working and management do not bring enough horsepower to the streets.
Sounds abstract. Can you give an example?
It can be wise to give up the classic role of manager and instead rely on cross-departmental, self-organizing team structures if customer requests cannot be converted into new products quickly enough in the hierarchically organized development department. Then hierarchy and start-up working method exist side by side.
Some will perceive this as wild growth.
The challenge is that established companies have to change while operations continue. There is then no longer any “normal operation”. In the future, it will be about constant commuting between classic and agile working methods. And it is a major management task to mediate between the traditionalists in the company and the innovators and to create common ground. Because we need both.
How can this be done?
Perhaps with the help of this picture: We have a standing and a free leg. One cannot do without the other.
And what does that mean for the individual manager?
In the best sense of the word, they are contradiction acrobats.
Sounds a bit like New Work lyrics. What does that mean in concrete terms?
You must first learn to tolerate ambiguity yourself. You have to deal professionally with the fact that there is no clear answer to many new questions, but that a solution is approached through trial and error. And that it may be necessary to constantly reorganize so that everyone can learn quickly from failed experiments.
More on the subject:
Not an easy task …
Yes, because most managers have not been shaped in this way in their professional lives. In addition, they experience an unprecedented explosion of complexity and communication around them. This must also be controlled in order to create common orientation maps from diffuse signals. So, as you can see, there is still a lot of leadership to be done. I therefore believe that there will not necessarily be fewer managers. Even if they may be called differently in flexible structures.
Is New Work suitable for the family business from the Swabian Alb?
Necessarily. In medium-sized companies it should even be easier to solve problems experimentally than in a listed company, where stock corporation law already sets limits. The family entrepreneur, on the other hand, can be more flexible. Germany is in the process of relegating to the second division in the prime disciplines of mechanical engineering and automotive engineering. In this respect, I am not exaggerating when I say that it is by organizing the unorganizable that we decide our future prosperity.
Mr. Sprenger, thank you very much for the interview.