It is with great pleasure that we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first edition of Becoming a Master Manager by publishing this enhanced fifth edition. Before the publication of Becoming a Master Manager, few texts emphasized the importance of developing management skills or admitted that learning about management concepts was not the same as learning how to apply those concepts in practice. In the intervening years, more attention has been paid to the knowing-doing gap (Pfeffer & Sutton, 2000) and today, the plethora of skill-focused texts available (e.g., Aldag & Kuzuhara, 2005; Baldwin, Bommer & Rubin, 2008; Caproni, 2004; de Janasz, Dowd & Schneider, 2009; Hunsaker, 2004; Whetton & Cameron, 2010) attests to the value of our original emphasis on developing management skills.
Although we are pleased to see so much more attention being paid to management skills, we remain concerned about the lack of attention that has been paid to the theory behind the identification of critical managerial and leadership competencies. Many skills texts rely on a laundry-list approach and offer little in the way of explanation of why particular competencies are important or how different competencies fit together.
In contrast, Becoming a Master Manager has always been built on a solid foundation of both theory and empirical evidence that provide a compelling case for why specific competencies are important. The framework offers managers an enduring foundation for analyzing what types of behaviors are most appropriate to achieve organizational goals in light of the existing environment. At the same time, the framework is flexible enough to make it suitable for identifying new competencies that may help managers adapt to changing external circumstances and internal conditions.
Most significantly, the competing values framework recognizes that management is fundamentally paradoxical. Prior to the development of the competing values framework, the main approach to coping with apparently conflicting goals was to immediately begin considering tradeoffs—do we want higher quality OR lower costs? Better conditions for our employees OR faster response times for our customers? Take-charge leaders who have their own vision for the organization OR leaders who invite participation and value the ideas of others? Today, more people have come to recognize that a sustainable competitive advantage is more likely to result if we can find ways to transcend paradoxes, rather than simply accepting the conventional wisdom that tradeoffs are necessary. We need to find ways to improve quality AND lower costs; we should look for ways to improve conditions for employees AND increase customer satisfaction; we need leaders who are visionary AND participative. Not surprisingly, if we can move from an "either-or" to a "both-and" approach to management, then we are much more likely to find solutions that support all our goals.
Going forward, we believe that even more attention needs to be paid to complex paradoxes that pull us in multiple directions at the same time. It is encouraging to hear the corporate mantra, "faster, better, cheaper" because it implies the need to achieve goals that have traditionally been seen as requiring tradeoffs. From the competing values perspective, however, this mantra is incomplete. The rational goal model tells us we need to Compete faster, the open systems model tells us we need to Create better goods and services, and the internal process model tells us that we need to Control costs to make things cheaper. The human relations model, however, is absent from this mantra—despite the fact that we know that the most successful organizations often point to the commitment, cohesion, and positive morale of their employees as a key factor in their success. One of the benefits of using the competing values framework to identify critical management competencies is that it includes all four of these perspectives. Drawing on the insights of the human relations model, we know that we need to Collaborate to ensure that employees are committed to all the organization's goals, including not just making things "faster, better, and cheaper" but also acting in a socially responsible and environmentally sustainable way.
The competing values framework presented in this text is designed to help readers understand the complex and dynamic nature of the organizational world. Since the early 1980s, the framework has been used in management education programs based in academic settings, as well as in organizationally-based management and executive development programs. Because the competing values framework is grounded in paradoxical thinking, it forces us to think about the competing tensions and demands that are placed on managers in new ways. As a result, it can help current and future managers develop their capacity to act quickly, confidently, imaginatively, and ethically when faced with the paradoxes that are ubiquitous in organizations around the world.
Our approach has grown out of nearly 30 years of research and instructional experimentation. The authors of this text have been involved in doing research that has helped to shape the metatheory. We have worked with these materials in our university classrooms with undergraduate and graduate students, as well as in management and executive development programs. We have also helped major organizations in both the public and private sectors design large-scale programs to improve the competencies of professional managers. Several thousand professional managers have completed programs that have used the competing values framework as an underlying foundation and integrating theme. The results have been gratifying and instructive—gratifying because both our students and we were transformed in the process. We hope that the use of this textbook will lead to similar outcomes for you.
In preparing this revision, we faced our own paradox—while we wanted to incorporate as much new material as possible and make a significant intellectual contribution, we also realized that for instructors who have used the book in the past, change for the sake of change was not desirable. Wrestling with our own competing goals of being innovative while at the same time retaining a sense of continuity further reinforced for us the importance of looking for ways to transcend paradox, before accepting that tradeoffs must be made. We hope that readers will find that the changes from the fourth to the fifth edition, as outlined below, are consistent with both of our goals.
Because we wish to emphasize the fundamental paradoxes that make the practice of management so complex, we have chosen to reorganize the text in terms of the theories that contribute to our understanding of why different competencies are important, rather than organizing the text by managerial roles. We selected this approach because master managers must be able to shift seamlessly between different "roles" and must apply different competencies at the same time if they are going to be successful in the long run. In fact, the 21 competencies included in this version of the text can all be used to help a manager achieve the goals of any of the four management models. Although we have placed competencies in quadrants based upon on findings from empirical research, we would never suggest that a competency such as "communicating honestly and effectively" was only important for organizations whose goal is to build and sustain employee commitment. Rather, the key point of the competing values framework is that ALL these competencies contribute to positive and sustainable organizations. We were concerned that students were not receiving sufficient reinforcement of that fact when specific roles were identified in the text. Instructors who wish to emphasize roles can still do so—the Instructor's Manual includes a comparison of the roles and competencies as presented in the fourth edition alongside the modules and competencies in the fifth edition and provides our rationale for the changes.
Our decision to focus more on the underlying theory rather than specific roles, resulted in several changes to the structure of the fifth edition. Rather than having eight different chapters for specific managerial roles, we now use four modules, each of which essentially combines two of the chapters from the fourth edition. Each module begins with:
Organizational Goals: a reminder of the criteria of effectiveness, means-ends theory, and emphasis of the management model associated with that quadrant of the framework
Paradoxes: examples of some fundamental paradoxes managers face when trying to achieve the types of goals typically associated with that management model
Competencies: five key competencies that can help the manager transcend or contend with those paradoxes
To provide consistency with prior editions, we continue to use many of the same competencies and activities that have proven effective in the past. Based on student feedback, we now include a portion of the Evaluation Matrix assignment that previously appeared at the end of the last chapter at the end of each module. This allows students to begin working on their strategy for mastery much earlier in the course. Consistent with recent research, we have added some new competencies and modified some of the competencies used in earlier versions of the text. These changes are described in the following pages.
The introduction explains the competing values framework and how it integrates four contrasting perspectives on organizational effectiveness by describing the evolution of management models. In this edition, we have not identified specific managerial roles, so the material is organized into four modules instead of eight chapters. We have also associated a color with each quadrant of the framework to be consistent with how the model is presented in other sources (e.g., Cameron, Quinn, DeGraff & Thakor, 2006). Although we have retained the action imperative labels (Collaborate, Control, Compete, Create) when referring to the quadrants of the framework, we have attempted to emphasize that these terms are a shorthand convenience and thus oversimplify what managers need to do to be successful. Instead, we encourage readers to keep in mind the criteria of effectiveness and means-ends theories associated with each quadrant of the model to better appreciate the competing values embedded in the framework and the need to master and then to balance and blend competencies in each area.
We now briefly introduce the idea of using the competing values framework to analyze organizational culture in the introductory chapter (previously this was not done until Chapter 6). We have found that having information about how the competing values framework can be used to diagnose organizational culture is particularly useful for students who are currently employed. Instructors may, if they wish, have students complete an organizational culture assessment at the beginning of the course so students can think throughout the course about how their skills fit with the culture of their current employer.
Next we explain the structured approach to learning used in the text. Each competency section follows the ALAPA approach to learning that has been used in all previous editions of the text. Competencies begin with a preliminary Assessment activity followed by the Learning material. Most competencies include separate exercises for Analysis, Practice, and Application, and conclude with a Reflection. This last element, Reflection, was always included implicitly in our own understanding and use of the ALAPA framework. We discovered, however, that making this part of the process more explicit was especially helpful for those students with Activist learning styles (Rodwell, 2005) and/or those who approach tasks with Control or Compete orientations. These types of student often focus on checking assignments off their to-do lists, and do not gain as much from the activities as students who approach tasks with more flexible orientations that value introspection and creativity. To provide students with an example of the ALAPA approach, we conclude the Introduction with the Thinking Critically competency that was moved to the first chapter in the fourth edition.
MODULE 1—CREATING AND SUSTAINING COMMITMENT AND COHESION
As in the fourth edition, we begin with the human relations model, which focuses on creating and sustaining commitment, cohesion, and positive morale. This perspective is consistent with the Collaborate action imperative that was introduced in the fourth edition and focuses on the desired outcome of those collaborative efforts.
Paradoxes. From the perspective of the competing values framework, the main paradox of seeking commitment and cohesion is the need to allow for individuals to express their individuality, while needing some level of conformity in order for the organization to move forward. Whether seeking commitment and cohesion in work organizations, clubs, or voluntary organizations, leaders face a number of paradoxes. Three that are discussed in this module include:
Increasing our self-awareness and self-knowledge also increases our capacity to change, so in the process of learning who we are, we become someone new.
Involving people in decision-making processes can increase the effectiveness of the decision, but decrease the efficiency of the process.
Building an effective team may (temporarily) lead to reduced productivity or effectiveness as individuals are given the opportunity to develop new skills and abilities.
Competencies. All six of the competencies included in the fourth edition for the mentor and facilitator roles have been retained, although we now combine the material from Building Teams and Participative Decision-Making into a single competency—Managing Groups and Leading Teams.
MODULE 2—ESTABLISHING AND MAINTAINING STABILITY AND CONTINUITY
Module 2 covers the internal process model and focuses on establishing and maintaining stability and continuity, consistent with the Control action imperative introduced in the fourth edition.
Paradoxes. From the perspective of the overarching competing values framework, the primary paradox of seeking stability and control is the need for adaptability and external support. Paradoxes that are especially salient in the internal process quadrant include:
Getting the details right by measuring and monitoring performance and keeping an eye on the big picture without getting bogged down in too many rules and procedures.
Working on cross-functional teams and special projects to help make improvements in organizational processes and still accomplishing day-to-day job objectives.
Following corporate policies and procedures and reinventing policies and procedures to be more effective and efficient.
Competencies. Module 2 retains two of the three competencies from both the monitor and coordinator roles from the fourth edition. We have kept some of the material from the other two competencies, but included this information with other competencies. Managing Information Overload has been renamed Organizing Information Flows and expanded to cover both inflows and outflows of information. Some of the information from Chapter 4—Analyzing Core Processes has been incorporated into Module 2— Planning and Coordinating Projects (formerly Chapter 5—Managing Projects). The information on the job characteristics model formerly found in Chapter 5—Designing Work has been moved to Module 3—Motivating Self and Others. A new competency, Encouraging and Enabling Compliance, was added to the text based on recent research by Lawrence, Lenk, and Quinn (2009) that suggests managers must also serve as regulators, emphasizing and clarifying policies. Including this new competency seems particularly appropriate due to increased public scrutiny and expanded legal liability under regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley.
MODULE 3—IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY AND INCREASING PROFITABILITY
Module 3 builds on the assumptions of the rational goal model and the Compete action imperative. It emphasizes the importance of vision, goal setting, and execution for competing effectively.
Paradoxes. As noted earlier, the main tension for the rational goal model occurs because of the apparent opposition between increasing productivity and profitability while creating and sustaining employee commitment. Other paradoxes that hard-driving managers face include:
Expecting the leader to provide a clear vision for the organization while wanting the vision to be based on participative processes.
Making decisions and moving ahead while taking enough time to ensure that all the relevant facts have been appropriately analyzed.
Using performance measurement systems to align individual goals with organizational goals without spending too much time on setting goals and reviewing performance.
Competencies. Five of the six competencies associated with the director and producer roles from the fourth edition have been retained in this module. Two earlier competencies, Working Productively and Fostering a Productive Work Environment have been combined under the new title—Motivating Self and Others. A new competency, Managing Execution and Driving for Results, has been added based on research by Lawrence et al. (2009). This new competency includes the topic of time management, which was previously included in a competency related to managing time and stress.
MODULE 4—PROMOTING CHANGE AND ENCOURAGING ADAPTABILITY
The final module covers the open systems model, which focuses on change, adaptability, and external support, consistent with the Create action imperative.
Paradoxes. Promoting change and encouraging adaptability seems to run directly counter to the focus on stability and control identified as so critical by the internal process model, but we also consider more subtle paradoxes in this module. For example:
Expecting leaders to be powerful and at the same time being distrustful of powerful leaders.
Using routines and habits to improve creativity and innovation.
Increasing resistance to change by increasing pressures to change.
Competencies. Five of the six competencies in the fourth edition have been retained in the fifth edition. Due to space constraints, we removed Living with Change as a separate competency and incorporated some of the material from that section in Implementing and Sustaining Change (formerly called Managing Change). We have also expanded the competency on presenting ideas to include more information about different types of management communication.
The conclusion returns to the overall competing values framework. We begin with a discussion of integration and behavioral complexity. We have included a discussion of "Negative Zones" to the text based on instructor feedback. Rather than including this topic in the introductory chapter as in an earlier edition of the text, we chose to include it at the end of the fifth edition. This allows students to focus on the positive aspects of the competing values framework when the model is first introduced and throughout the text. New to the conclusion is a discussion of the concept of "lift" as proposed by Quinn and Quinn (2009). Because the four psychological states that are required for "lift" to occur are consistent with the four quadrants of the competing values framework, this new model adds value without overwhelming students with a completely new approach at the end of the text. We conclude the text with a discussion of the steps in the developmental process, the importance of life-long learning, and an agenda for self improvement. Our goal is to remind students that becoming a master manager is a process that will continue as long as they open themselves to new growth experiences.
This book may be used in several ways. It can be employed alone as the main text in a course that is specifically designed to develop competencies, or it can be used with a more traditional text to accomplish the same objective. It can accompany more traditional texts in either an organizational behavior or a management principles course. The text has been used in schools of business, as well as in departments and programs of public and nonprofit management. In addition to the material available in the textbook, there are additional supporting materials available online:
Competing Values Competency Questionnaire
Test Bank
Instructor's Manual and Powerpoint Slides
We encourage instructors and students to contact the authors with questions, comments, and suggestions about the text and ancillaries.
Many of the ideas for this book were originally developed in 1983, and elaborated in 1985, in conjunction with two professional development programs designed for New York State. Funding for those programs and for the first edition of this book was provided by the negotiated agreements between the state of New York and the Civil Service Employees Association, Inc., and the Public Employees Federation, AFL-CIO, and made available through New York State's Governor's Office of Employee Relations, Program Planning and Employee Development Division (now Division for Development Services). We particularly thank Don Giek, former Director of the Division for Development Services. Don truly is a master manager, and we respect and appreciate the enormous efforts he made for us and for so many people in and outside of New York State. Laurie Newman DiPadova was also instrumental in the original development of the first edition of this text, coauthoring the innovator chapter and authoring the original instructor's manual. We are most appreciative of her efforts. We also would like to thank people who contributed to the Instructor's Manual with creative and novel essays on alternative teaching methods: Alan Belasen, Meg Benke, and Andrew DiNitto, SUNY-Empire State College; Dan Denison, University of Michigan; David Hart, Brigham Young University; Bill Metheny, Montana State University at Billings; Larry Michaelsen, The University of Oklahoma; and Deborah L. Wells, Creighton University.
We greatly appreciate the time and energy donated by all of the reviewers of Becoming a Master Manager. A number of people were asked to review earlier versions of the book, including: Vijay Mathur, San Jose State University; Michael Shaner, St. Louis University; Robert Sosna, Golden Gate University; Arnon Reich-ers, Ohio State University; Meg G. Birdseye, University of Alabama; John D. Bigelow, Boise State University; David E. Blevins, University of Mississippi; Allen Bluedorn, University of Missouri; Kent D. Carter, University of Maine at Orono; Paul D. Collins, Purdue University; Daniel Denison, University of Michigan; Laurie N. DiPadova, University of Utah; Dennis L. Dossett, University of Missouri-St. Louis; Stuart C. Freedman, University of Lowell; Walter Freytag, University of Washington at Bothell; Richard A. Grover, University of Southern Maine; Ester E. Hamilton, Pepperdine University; Steve Inian, California State Polytechnic University; Richard B. Ives, Tarrant County Junior College; Marcia Kassner, University of North Dakota; Kimberlee M. Keef, Alfred University; Gerald D. Klein, Rider University; Mark Lengnick-Hall, Wichita State University; David M. Leuser, Plymouth State College; William E. McClane, Loyola College; Edward J. Morrison, University of Colorado at Boulder; Paula C. Morrow, Iowa State University; Ralph F. Mullin, Central Missouri State University; Joseph Petrick, Wright State University; Gerald Schoenfeld, James Madison University; Tim Schweizer, Luther College; Gregory Stephens, Texas Christian University; William E. Stratton, Idaho State University; David Szczerbacki, Alfred University; Fred Tesch, Western Connecticut State University; Charles N. Toftoy, Golden State University; Barry L. Wisdom, Southwest Missouri State University; Joseph Weiss, Bentley College; and Mark Wellman, Bowling Green State University. We appreciate their many helpful comments and insights.
Many others also contributed to the work of this and/or the earlier editions, and we would like to thank Debbi Berg, Bill Bywater, Chris Dammer, Rachel Ebert, Pauline Farmer, Bruce Hamm, Bill LaFleur, Warren Ilchman, Kary Jablonka, Tom Kin-ney, Chuck Klaer, Katherine Lawrence, Vicki Marrone, David McCaffrey, Ted Peters, Norma Riccucci, Michael Roberto, Steven Simons, Onnolee Smith, Eugene Thompson, Ben Westery, Angela Wicks, and John Zanetich. All contributed significantly and we are grateful.
Our publisher, John Wiley & Sons has been an incredible partner through all five editions of this text. The publishing team for this fifth edition has been especially patient with us as we struggled to balance the many competing demands on our time. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Lise Johnson, Sarah Vernon, as well as Carissa Marker Doshi for their assistance. They have our heartfelt gratitude.
Finally we thank our families for their continuous support.
Robert E. Quinn
Sue R. Faerman
Michael P. Thompson
Michael R. McGrath
Lynda S. St. Clair
Aldag, R. J., & Kuzuhara, L. W. (2005). Mastering management skills: A manager's toolkit. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.
Baldwin, T. T., Bommer, W. H., & Rubin, R. S. (2008). Developing management skills: What great managers know and do. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Cameron, K. S., Quinn, R. E., DeGraff, J., & Thakor, A. V. (2006). Competing values leadership: Creating value in organizations. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Caproni, P. (2004). Management skills for everyday life: The practical coach (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
de Janasz, S. C., Dowd, K., & Schneider, B. Z. (2009). Interpersonal skills in organizations (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Hunsaker, P. L. (2004). Management: A Skills Approach (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Lawrence, K. A., Lenk, P., & Quinn, R. E. (2009). Behavioral complexity in leadership: The psychometric properties of a new instrument to measure behavioral repertoire. Leadership Quarterly, 20, 87–102.
Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. (2000). The knowing-doing gap. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Quinn, R. W., & Quinn, R. E. (2009). Lift: Becoming a positive force in any situation. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
Rodwell, J. R. (2005). The assessment of formal management development: A method, a baseline and the need to incorporate learning styles. Journal of Management Development, 24, 239–252.
Whetton, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2010). Developing management skills (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.