Large Systems Change. Integrated Leadership Development and Reflexible Machnineries

Abstract

To start with a caricature and physical metaphor, this text is about how to turn a supertanker by the force of a mixmaster. More literally, it is about how a project group varying in size between two and five researchers has been working for a period of six years on organizational change in the production units of the largest Oil Company in Norway -- a company whose contribution constitutes approximately 10% of the Norwegian BNP. When what you need to be is a set of tug boats but what you have is a mixmaster, simple engine tuning is not enough; so this text is about experiences of interventions, small as well as large, in a large scale system. The text outlines and highlights glimpses of the actions taken during this period and experiences of what works; it offers theoretical conceptualisations of leadership and organizational change; and it represents an indirect shift in perspective of project actions which entailed moving from organizational development interventions, toward the integration and institutionalisation of leadership development for the purpose of organizational development.