Taming the Survey: Managing the Employee Survey to Create Space for Change Oriented Leadership

ABSTRACT

Often, the space for agency and leadership for middle managers is understood to depend on their capacity to escape standardized controlling systems. In this paper, we challenge this view, and instead explore the possibility for middle managers to engage with and make systems enabling rather than constraining, thereby supporting locally relevant change initiatives. We specifically explore how managers engage with employee surveys, as organization wide standardized systems, and work to make these enabling. Based on interviews with 48 managers and observations of 10 meetings in 5 different organizations, we identify three main strategies: reinterpretation, prioritization, and embedding. Drawing on complexity leadership theory, we argue that through these strategies, the managers succeed in creating a temporary adaptive space, thereby facilitating development and innovation. Our findings contribute to the literature on middle managers by developing a detailed understanding of the possibility for enabling leadership in this position.

MAD statement

Standardized measurement and control systems are often expected to drive change and development, but risk constraining rather than enabling middle managerial leadership. Our study of how managers engage with an organization wide standardized employee survey reveals that through their work, the system can be ‘tamed’ and made to facilitate rather than hinder development. The study suggests that to make the survey useful for change and development, aligned with organizational goals but at the same time adapted to local needs, the managers’ extensive effort is a critical factor.

KEYWORDS:

• Middle managers
• leadership
• employee survey
• complexity leadership

Acknowledgement

An earlier version of this article was presented during EGOS 2012.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 It is to be noted that we are not focusing on change in the sense of implementing organization wide systems, such as electronic patient journals, but on more local initiatives, for instance, quality development projects or improving efficiency and reducing stress levels.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Forskningsrådet om Hälsa, Arbetsliv och Välfärd [Grant Number 2008-00573].

Notes on contributors

Magnus Larsson

Magnus Larsson, Associate Professor, works at the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School. His primary research fields are leadership and leadership development. His recent publications include articles in the journals Human Relations, Leadership, International Journal of Business Communication, Journal of Management Development, Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, as well as a book chapter in the Routledge Companion to Leadership.

Robert Holmberg

Robert Holmberg, Assistant Professor, is senior lecturer in work- and organizational psychology at the Department of Psychology, Lund University, Sweden. His research interests include human resource management, leadership studies, leadership development, implementation and knowledge utilization in human service organizations. Recent publications include articles in Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Leadership, BMC Research Notes and Journal of Management Development.