APPLIED RESEARCH METHODS

Applied Research Methods

Applied Research Methods

Introduction

This paper examines the changing nature of leadership, in particular how a global pharmaceutical company addressed the development of leaders of highly complex multi-national teams.

Situation

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Max Weber (1947) described what he called a rational-legal authority system - a bureaucracy, where authority is exercised by a system of rules, procedures and the position within a hierarchy that an individual occupies. Weber posited that a bureaucracy was the most technically efficient form of organisation. However, by the 1970s bureaucracies were being criticized for stifling flexibility, innovation and creativity. By now most large, bureaucratic organisations have been subject to a series of hierarchical flattening and downsizing exercises that have produced far leaner structures designed to enable greater flexibility and responsiveness.

Many organisations have now moved, or are moving a stage further to a structure that is matrix and/or project based. In either case, cross-functional working is fast becoming the norm. In fact by 1995 a survey of US companies found that over 84 per cent of innovative product development projects used cross-functional teams (Griffin, 1997). Cross-functional teams in particular, would appear to offer a number of benefits, for example:

* Cost reductions.

* Improved ability to handle complexity.

* More entrepreneurial style.

* More customer focused.

* Increased speed in development.

The paper focuses on a global pharmaceutical company that had adopted cross-functional teams as a way of operating within its matrix-based environment.

As leaders in this organisation worked in this environment they became increasingly aware that traditional forms of leadership, such as command and control, were no longer adequate. They recognised that the teams they were leading, were now far more complex and virtual in nature, than the traditional “same place” teams they had previously experienced working in and leading. They also recognised that different, or at least more enhanced skills and techniques were required, to lead these teams successfully.

The term “complex virtual teams” (CVTs) evolved to describe these cross-functional teams. In short they are teams that are affected by one or more of the following factors:

* Geographically dispersed.

* Culturally diverse.

* Multi-lingual.

* Cross-functional.

* Multi-disciplined.

* Lacking direct line-management control.

An example of a CVT within this pharmaceutical company would be one tasked with the development of a new drug e.g. “X12345”. The team would consist of people involved in early research; those involved in clinical trials, pharmakineticists, statisticians, physicians, regulatory experts, and marketing. These people could easily be located at many different sites, in different parts of the world and obviously come from a range of different disciplines. Leading these teams is the basic challenge faced by leaders.

Complication

Technological change

The successful formation of cross-functional teams has only been possible thanks to many technical innovations that have fundamentally affected how we work and organize our lives e.g. mass air travel, e-mail, mobile phones, internet, video and teleconferencing. Such technical advances have allowed organisations and teams to operate in ways that would have been impossible 20 years ago - in ...