Shaking up Mitwelt and Eigenwelt
Contents
Shaking up ›Mitwelt‹ and ›Eigenwelt‹
Ultimately, this move is intended to reproduce the essential increase in external complexity internally while maintaining the system’s boundaries. In this way, however, the still largely prevailing departmental principle within top management teams – but also within boards – is shaken. This basically requires a radical, critical and offensive internal orientation and an open discussion about the changing consequences of future cooperation. Within the ›Mitwelt‹, sometimes blatant, but mostly ›unspoken‹ changes in decision‐making processes and the composition of shared responsibilities are generated. Such conflicts are the consequence of the illusion of a frictionless implementation of an apparently inevitable strategy of increasing complexity due to the changed team composition.
Quite interesting, this has a significant retarding effect precisely where there is least open and common reflection on the way they work together: at the top management level and within boards.
»Heterogeneity and diversity may be called to mould an exhaustive and complex strategy but homogeneity and efficiency may be the critical factor in successfully executing what was formed.« (Menguc & Auh, 2005, p. 5)
So, despite the ostensible benefits of functional and cultural diversity in top management teams in terms of strategy development, it is not without challenges. And there’s ’no walk in the park‹: Greater functional and cultural and other diversity initially leads to less consensus. This result is consistent with the finding that emphasises that the side effects of functional and cultural diversity in top management teams and boards cause more interpersonal conflict. This means that the ›frictional costs‹ of diversity must be contrasted with its expected benefits and weighed up against each other well.
This is where the existentially fundamental and inescapable challenge of balancing emerging conflicts between ›Mitwelt‹ and ›Eigenwelt‹ becomes apparent: Creativity in an organisation is only effective if there is a collaborative environment that enables the generation of new ideas (cf. Mintzberg, 1983). A very high level of internal competition or multiple diversity can lead to a severe limitation and failure of communication, due to multiple contingencies and a reduced ability to brainstorm or share ideas successfully. (cf. Taggar, 2002). Such an organisational culture is likely to be associated with low levels of effective creativity and efficiency, and to rely on, for example, interconnecting values, goals and aspirations:
»The more similar the values that members have, the more likely it will mitigate tensions and potential conflicts that arise out of their differences« (Ofori‐Dankwa & Julian, 2014, p. 150). This applies, for example, in functional terms, affiliation to a different department, ethnicity, company affiliation, gender etc.
»An organization’s diversity absorptive capacity is a reflection or measure of the extent to which individuals with several differences have similar values, goals and aspirations. Such a capacity makes possible appreciation and utilization of diverse backgrounds and associated individual experiences. In so doing organisations are able to improve performance as all the relevant skills, abilities and experiences of its diverse workforce are effectively harnessed towards organisational goals.«(ibid).
The extent of value congruence and shared norms enables more effective use of the diverse experiences, insights and ideas that individuals from different backgrounds may have (Chatman & Flynn, 2001; Earley & Mosakowski, 2000). That is, a sufficient degree of homogeneity in terms of shared understanding of common responsibilities, seeking common ground and enrichment in the otherness of others, can be some critical factors in the successful implementation of what has been strategically decided:
»[O]rganizations carrying out diversity initiatives will be better off in terms of competitiveness and creativity levels if they devote resources to concurrently increasing the level of value congruence. In this respect, we can conceptualize the value congruence conditions acting in a diversity absorptive capacity.« (Ofori‐Dankwa & Julian, 2014, p. 154).
Consequently, the potential of diversity and heterogeneity in top teams requires the introduction of a mediating variable that ensures the company’s continuous and sustainable performance in implementation. And this is in the organisational sense understanding of a purposeful orientation of the ›Uberwelt‹ dimension.