Vital Approach to Transition: Slovene Multiple Case Study Suzanne Winbauer Catana This paper uses a multiple case study to suggest the effectiveness in application of an integrated model for the design of sustainable change strategies in high velocity environments and organizations. The model integrates awareness of current organizational cultural characteristics with leadership intent and strategy formation. The cultural analysis provides a lens through which diverse organizational values are exposed and stakeholders can assess organizational alignment with the external environment, organizational mission and future vision. Using the inherent differentiation of values as creative tensions, strategies are formulated for purposeful change to improve alignment. Leadership inquiry is used to suggest an alignment of personal intent with the strategic initiatives to project sustainable change. This Values, Inquiry, and Tensions Alignment for Leadership model (vital) is applied as an intervention sequence which provides information, direction, and motivation for sustainable change in transition organizations and environments. Context of the Study The recently formed democratic nation of Slovenia is scheduled to join the European Union in 2004. This independent state, as a part of the former socialist federation of republics of Yugoslavia, is undergoing evolutionary changes in its social, economic, governance and educational systems and structures. There are fundamental shifts from its socialist history toward globalization, modernization and evolution of leadership and management practices. While change in the business environment has been moving forward at a rapid pace, public administration and non-profit sectors lag in capacity development and implementation of participatory practices. This paper provides a review of a multiple case study of three non-profit sector organizations and an in-depth analysis of one of the cases. The intent of the paper is to consider the cases in the context of complex societal changes taking place in Slovenia and to suggest a practical model for designing change strategies based on the Dr Suzanne Winbauer Catana is adjunct instructor at State University of New York, Plattsburgh, usa. Managing Global Transitions 1(1): 29–48 30 Suzanne Winbauer Catana tenets of democratic values and grounded in organizational and management theory. The results of the study are indicative of the potential for effective and sustainable change strategies based on aligning organizational culture, leadership intent, and strategy development. The in-depth study demonstrates the use of inquiry, analysis, and problem solving to suggest an integrated developmental path. As a result of the comparative case study and the in-depth study, a model was developed suggesting evolutionary change processes for organizations in transition in the midst of societal change. The application of three analytical tools in a holistic model, Values + Inquiry + Tensions Analyses and Leadership (vital), can provide a set of high leverage strategic change options for leaders. The holistic focus provided by analysis of organizational culture, the perspective variety elicited from two institutions and one non-profit organization, the integral nature of the models fitting together to form a whole picture, and the action research application of each of the tools collectively generate a syncretic result. The data composite can initiate new perspectives and changes in mental models as well as make deep patterns of organizational behaviour and cultures possible. Embracing the values of openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness, and coherence (Commission of the European Communities 2001) involves profound changes which require radical changes in values, beliefs, behaviours and modes of organizing for learning for Slovene managers and leaders. A common and fundamental attribute of non-participative, ruled societies is that ruling authorities have power over, control of, or decide for others who are perceived in some way as less important, less valued, less able or less entitled. This deeply embedded attribute and belief structure is characteristic of the historic leadership, management, and educational practice in the Eastern and Southeastern European region. As a fundamental principle of leadership based on democratic values, participation in collaborative processes from common core values, while sustaining the power of diverse perspectives, is key. To accomplish a shift in values, to move from prior paternalistic and authoritarian styles, to promote inclusion and solidarity for inclusive policy design, decision-making, and action, changes in the educational infrastructure for leadership development are essential. To reflect ‘new’ democratic values, institutions of higher education must be accountable for establishing and sustaining an integrity of doing what they say leaders and managers must do to avoid an inherent misalignment between val- Managing Global Transitions Vital Approach to Transition 31 ues in action and the voice of espoused values. Just as former oppressed societies must undergo deep cultural change, institutions responsible for the development of future leaders must consider deeply embedded patterns which sustain an alignment with values of a socialist society. Leadership and management approaches and belief structures must be examined and patterns modified in order to enable the development of vibrant, 21st Century leaders and managers in a diverse and integrated society. This study examined the status of this shift in three organizations charged with the education of leaders and managers in school administration, business and economics, and youth development. The study looked at the alignment of organizational culture, leadership intent and environmental conditions to posit strategies for effective change. It is against this backdrop of analysis of the emergence of the democracy of Slovenia, its transition from authoritarian rule and its consolidation toward greater maturity in evolving its democratic form, that this paper is situated. In his comentary on Slovenia, Rizman (2001) suggests shifting of these mental models is a technical (p. 5) development need. Given the history of this country, a hesitancy to trust authority is an apparent undeveloped attribute of Slovenia in its emergence as a civil society. It could be argued that these attributes are reflected in any society in conditions where patriarchy and authoritarian rule have been normalized into management and leadership practice (Northouse 2000). In post industrial era America many organizations and populations could be described in similar ways. This stage of evolution is an illusion, projecting the image of stability on the surface that is sourced and maintained through more subtle forms of dominance and control, carrying forward residuals of patriarchy and patronage. As shifts in environment and humanistic thought occur in industrialized and emergent civil societies, one can see similar patterns change through developmental stages toward more complexity and integration of more diverse forms and processes of organizing. In considering patterns of alignment between environment, organizational forms and processes and leadership, leaders in stable environments mirror the attributes of an organization in stable environments. The emergent globalizing and interconnected world and organizational environment of the 21st Century is fluid, open-ended, turbulent, and subject to the rapid change and complexity fostered by the information driven knowledge society and the transition to service-based economies. It is clear in the organizational literature that organizations in general, Volume 1 · Number 1 · Spring 2003 32 Suzanne Winbauer Catana regardless of democratic maturity, face similar issues (Mintzberg and Quinn 1992). In the organizational cultures that have emanated from industrial based organizational knowledge and capitalistic values, managers and leaders face the same challenges as those in emerging democracies. The difference maybe in the scale, scope, and depth of the paradigm being challenged. Any environmental shift which presents challenges to historic patterns or belief structures, those closely held paradigms which are known and from which we have from antiquity found our solidarity, beckons the emergence of a corollary shift in leadership attributes, skills and tools (Quinn 1996). The change facing former ruled societies as they move toward democratic participation in governance, suggests deep cultural, organizational and psychological shifts. To begin addressing the best practice methods for preparing leaders and managers challenged with facilitating these deep shifts, this paper examines the results of a pilot study of two related test case institutions of higher education infrastructure in Slovenia. These institutions are in a state of flux. Each is in a major transition process as an organization, moving from dependency on established universities to interdependency, in relationship as peers with official designation and acceptance as university level institutions within the structure of the education system of Slovenia. The third case examines the cultural typology of a national youth service organization that has existed and thrived in Slovenia during the time of former Yugoslavia until the present day. In comparing these three cases, it is interesting to note the patterns that suggest current states of alignment or misalignment between organizing, leading and interacting with their environment. These institutions additionally provide a potential microcosm of the status of leadership competency development and process of change that mirror the transitions occurring in the larger Slovene society. The cases provide a snapshot of the key teaching and learning environments and the competencies currently viewed as foundational for leadership and management in the business, non-government, and educational sectors. Slovene Cases Modern day philosopher Ken Wilber calls for higher, wider and deeper understanding of the world in which we live and towards whose evolution we contribute (Wilber 1998). In response to this call as a research and theoretical challenge, three Slovene organizational cases were studied between January and February 2002. A pilot and follow-up studies Managing Global Transitions Vital Approach to Transition 33 were conducted to determine the possible developmental status of leadership and management preparation in a society in transition, Slovenia. The pilot study was conducted to raise the awareness of the potential information available from institutional and leader self-analysis, to raise the level of trust between the researcher and institutional members to enable a full study, and to test the value of the syncretic triangulation of the three analytic methods. The study gives institutional leaders and members an opportunity to consider to what extent their organizational culture reflects historic models of bureaucratic and mechanistic characteristics associated with stable and known environments consistent with old world and industrial societal forms (Daft 1983). Leaders and managers of organizations can determine whether the institutionalized culture reflects attributes of more evolutionary, organic and open cultures of inclusion and flexibility consistent with rapidly changing and complex external environments (Daft 1983; Morgan 1986). Information collected can be used to determine the appropriate and desired organizational cultural characteristics on which to focus a developmental change process (Cameron and Quinn 1998). The institutions involved in the study can strategically plan for organizational and personal development. Change can be planned to be consistent with the emerging environments, roles and identities of their new organizational status and their emergent potential for shaping the developmental, educational and credentialing infrastructure for Slovene society and the management and leadership of its organizations. Two higher education institutions in Slovenia and one youth service organization were studied. Case 1 is a college that has an educational focus on economics and management. Case 2 credentials master degree students in educational administration. Case 3 provides educational and leadership development programmeming for youth and is part of the international scouting movement. The analysis of the educational programmes for future leaders and managers of Slovene society provides information with which to intentionally modify teaching methodology, organizational attributes and curricula. An analysis of the current preparation of leaders in secondary and primary education provides information about what new educational programmes or course content will be needed to prepare students to enter into the European Union or other environments that embrace pluralistic democratic values and principles. An analysis of a youth development organization provides a benchmark against internationally guided programmeming for youth from which Volume 1 · Number 1 · Spring 2003 34 Suzanne Winbauer Catana to view the institutions of higher education and to speculate about the larger societal development. If these organizations and their respective leadership are congruent with their environment, with the requisite variety of a holographic organization (Morgan 1986) the organizations and the training provided would align with and reflect cultural environments in which deep societal transitions are occurring. Quinn’s (1990) Competing Values approach has been applied as a comprehensive analysis tool for organizational effectiveness, leadership role assessment (Quinn 1990) and as an organizational culture analysis tool (Cameron and Quinn 1998) by practitioners and theorists since the mid 1980s. The Competing Values Model (cvm) identifies distinctions in personal and organizational tendencies and patterns of behaviour based on certain inherent values and underlying psychological archetypes. Its reliability and validity as a typological, action research, and diagnostic tool are well established. Key dimensions of the model, with a cultural focus, are noted in Figure 1. The first analysis tool, the Competing Values Model (Quinn 1990), was applied as an organization culture assessment (Cameron and Quinn 1998). The Competing Values Model organizational culture assessment instrument was administered to full time staff in all three organizations and to full time faculty in the institutions of higher education. An analysis was completed of the programmes of study offered by the institutions of higher education. The results of the organization culture analysis for each organization indicated unique cultural attributes for most of the cultural dimensions, with one exception. The leadership component was similar for both institutions. In both cases, leadership was perceived to be congruent with hierarchical values and a hierarchical culture. In the management institution case, the perception of hierarchical leadership was clearly the dominant one; in the educational leaders institution case there was also an opposite tendency towards perception of leadership as consistent with an adhocracy culture. The overall culture profile and the profile of the leadership dimension for each of the institutional cases is depicted in Figure 2. In their research, Cameron and Quinn (1998) found a need for congruence between the different components of an organization’s culture as well as a need for alignment of the organizational culture with the environmental conditions. Intuitively, there follows the imperative for leadership competence to align with both the environmental conditions and organizational culture. For both institutional cases, hierarchical leader- Managing Global Transitions Vital Approach to Transition 35 Flexibility a nd discretion Culture: CLAN ADHOCRACY Leadership: Facilitator Innovator Mentor Entrepreneur Parent Visionary Effectiveness Criteria: Cohesion Cutting-edge output Morale Creativity Development of Human Resources Growth Management Theory: Participation fosters Innovativeness fosters new commitment resources Quality Strategies: Empowerment, Teams Create new standards Employee involvement Creative solution finding Open communication Continuous improvement Internal maintenance External positioning and integration and differentiation Culture: HIERARCHY MARKET Leadership: Coordinator Hard-driver Monitor Competitor Organizer Producer Effectiveness Criteria: Efficiency Market share Timeliness Goal achievement Smooth functioning Beating competitors Management Theory: Control fosters efficiency Competition fosters productivity Quality Strategies: Error detection Measuring customer preferences Measurement Improving productivity Process control Enhancing competitiveness Applying quality tools Involving customers and suppliers Systematic problem solving Stability a Creating partnerships nd control Figure i: Key Dimensions of the Competing Values Model (adapted from Cameron and Quinn 1999) Volume 1 · Number 1 · Spring 2003 36 Suzanne Winbauer Catana Case 1: Management Market Culture Case 2: Education Hierarchy Leadership Dimension Figure 2: Case Specific Culture and Leadership Dimension using Competing Values Model ship is inconsistent with the needs of organizations based on their dominant cultures (Cameron and Quinn 1998) and the nature of the environments in which they find themselves (Daft 1983). The cultural analysis of both institutions noted by the dotted line in Figure 2, reflects stakeholder experiences as more balanced in each of the quadrants than the leadership competency analysis. Environmental aspects of change, complexity and turbulence discussed in the context of the study suggest that successful performance of the institutions would require leadership competence that is high on adaptability, innovation, stakeholder brokering, and resource acquisition. As noted in Figure 2, the leadership competencies identified in both cases by the solid line are consistent with environments and organizations that are stable, simple, and with behaviour demonstrating historic patterns tending toward security and control, indicating a mismatch between leadership competence, the internal culture and environmental conditions. In both institutional cases, leaders’ and managers’ effectiveness will depend on their competence in operating in an open system characterized by high turbulence, rapid change, high diversity of involved stakeholders, and open information flow or transparency. Instructional Programmes Analysis The instructional programmes in the institutions of higher education were analysed by sorting required and elective course topics using the Managing Global Transitions Vital Approach to Transition 37 Case 1: Management Clan Adhocracy *••• ** ****** •• ********** •••••••••• * **** ••••• Hierarchy Market Case 2: Education Clan Adhocracy * *** * ** ** ****** Hierarchy Market * Graduate Courses A Elective Courses -k Required Courses Figure 3: Course Distribution in Institutional Cases cvm. Instructional emphasis and inferences about competency development were determined by considering the number and distribution of courses offered in each of the quadrants. Also considered in the analysis of instructional programmes was the distribution of required as compared to elective courses. The analysis of the programme of study for managers in Case 1, at undergraduate level, revealed there was an emphasis on hierarchical, stability seeking oriented courses. There was a lighter relative distribution of required courses available to provide competency development for more flexible, open organizations and market driven organizations. The majority of both required and elective courses at graduate level are oriented towards capacity building with an assumption of stable environments and hierarchical organizations. At graduate level, the clan and market organization competency courses are not as available as the other two quadrants. In the analysis of the education administrators’ curriculum, the most notable revelation of the distribution was no required coursework related to a market culture with a productivity and quality customer service orientation. This case also demonstrated a lack of curricular balance. In both cases the current curricula emphasis is incongruent with the prevailing environments of change, complexity, and turbulence. Figure 3 provides a view of the distribution of course offerings. Based on decades of leadership in management education at the Wharton School, Russell Ackoff (1974) suggests that there are significant problems with management education programmes in the United Volume 1 · Number 1 · Spring 2003 38 Suzanne Winbauer Catana States and abroad. Because of their focus on teaching content rather than enabling students to learn how to learn, using the content as the medium for learning rather than the end goal of teaching, graduates of management programmes are ill equipped to manage (Ackoff 2002). The Case 1 programme was modelled after programmes in the us and the Case 2 programme was modelled after a programme in the uk. The fundamentals of both programmes are focused on the functions, analysis, and techniques of business management and administration, respectively. This is consistent with recent reflections on the evolutionary or developmental status of education programmes that indicate that current programmes are designed from knowledge of 1908 business forms and 1950s business strategies (Mintzberg and Gosling 2002). Pfeffer and Fong further review the research on curriculum in business schools siting that the content of what is taught in business schools is not correlated with business success (Pfeffer and Fong 2002). Consistent across the literature is a call for a learning focus, live and real application of theoretical material, focus on interpersonal and leadership development and active engagement by the student in the process of interaction and learning in the classroom. Competing Values Model Summary The analysis allows the institutions to take a more comprehensive or wider look at institutional cultural attributes and the scope of course-work or competencies being offered for the leaders and managers of corporations, government agencies, non-profit orgnisations and schools in Slovenia in the next ten to twenty years. Curriculum development might be geared to fill in the gaps and shift emphasis from functional content to improving skill development that reflects the open systems forms of emerging democracies and aspirations of the European Union. Using this analysis tool, the institutions have a greater awareness of how their organizations fit within the context of the current transitional environments they face and can make strategic decisions with a more tangible sense of appropriate and congruent action which will support their effective development. In consideration of the institutional cases in comparison with the youth service organization case, one can make the observation that there is organizational variability within the same culture, simply by considering the different shapes of the culture and leadership profiles. The Youth Service organization represents an organization not under the same political and educational restrictions as the institutions of higher education. This provides a within the culture yet an ‘outside Managing Global Transitions Vital Approach to Transition 39 Figure 4: Youth Service Organization Cultural and Leadership Analysis Culture Leadership Dimension Clan Adhocracy 1 \ '¦¦¦/! 1 \ /: 1 1 \/ •/ Hierarchy 1 /\:' Market the system’ perspective which offers insights about the organization itself and is useful as a comparative reference. When the organizational culture of the institutions is compared to the youth service organization, there is a clear difference in the shape of the culture in its demonstration of greater orientation toward humanistic values and a lesser emphasis than the institutions on open interaction with the environment. In comparing the leadership attributes between the institutions and the youth service organization it is noted that there is a similar lack of focus on the values of network management and similar lack of production orientation. There appears to be a less hierarchically oriented style of the leadership in the youth service organization compared with that which exists in the institutional cases. Figure 4 shows the two profiles of the youth organization case. The intent of this study was to introduce a new, integral and comprehensive action management tool that the leaders of the organizations could use to make more informed strategic choices and to consider critical change paths. Further research with more cases would enable a depiction of the national culture of schools of management and educational administration. It is one thing to cognitively understand cultural attributes and leadership styles, it is a different challenge to determine strategically an appropriate change emphasis. While the cvm provides a perspective of gaps, current and potential cultural attributes, and methods for developing competencies (Quinn and Faerman 1996; Cameron and Quinn 1998), a different model can provide leaders and managers with an effective method for engaging the dynamics of different values within the same organization. In order to apply, in action, the results of the culture analysis in the institutions studied, a strategic analysis and Volume 1 · Number 1 · Spring 2003 40 Suzanne Winbauer Catana action planning tool was used to determine, given the culture, leadership and environmental conditions, a reasonable strategic agenda for each of the institutions. Consideration was given to the best possible change initiative to potentially pursue that had the greatest alignment with the organization’s mission and vision. This tool was used only with the institutions of higher education with which there was direct access to the leadership of these organizations. Tension Model Analysis The Tension Model (Nutt and Backoff 1992) uses inherent polarities of values, behaviour patterns and cultural norms within organizations as a means of suggesting generative or creative, inclusive, collaborative strategies. The Tension Model was used to determine whether the orientation of the leaders’ strategic intents aligned with environmental and cultural conditions of Slovene society and the specific organizations of which the leaders are a part as the process of complex transition unfolds. The inherent tension between the normative tendencies represented by the quadrants of the cvm suggest the real life interplay between the mental models, embedded patterns of leadership and management practice, and organizational culture. The recognition of these natural differences serves as a catalytic force for change (McWhinney 1997), inviting the discovery of a higher order of potential developmental strategies by integrating the apparent paradoxical tensions. By framing the apparent paradoxes within a higher order potential, or holon as Wilber (1998) would suggest, and embracing the paradox, more powerful and influential strategies can emanate from the creative tension. Higher order strategies are required for the organizations to break the historic and deeply embedded patterns of leadership and management in Slovene society (Rizman 2001). This break from embedded patterns would allow accelerated movement toward and alignment with a preferred organizational culture while effectively meeting the demands of transitional societal and institutional environments. Leadership practice would need to shift from the hierarchical mode to incorporate more humanistic and consumer focused attention. Because of the inherent tensions and comprehensive robustness of the Competing Values Model, it is used as an orientation backdrop for applying the Tension Model (Nutt and Backoff 1992). The Tension Model was applied as an analytical tool to the cvm cultural dimension of leadership. Both institutional cases examined had similar leadership profiles. Managing Global Transitions Vital Approach to Transition 41 Human Relations Concern, Commitment, Morale, Dialogue, Participation, Openness: THE CLAN The Tension Model Flexibility Internal Focus •'- External Focus "