Abstract

Many technology-intensive companies today depend on
employees with specialized technical skills, and
managers may not fully understand the work these
employees do. Moreover, managers and technical
employees may have very different worldviews, and
their worldviews may conflict during the process of
business innovation.

After researching the movement of Internet and
computing pioneers among various organizations during
a period between the early 1960s and the mid-1990s,
the authors identified two distinct personality types
that are both vital to successful technological
innovation—but whose mindsets often clash. The authors
dub these two types stewards and creators. An
organization's stewards are usually managers; their
goal is the careful allocation of the organization's
resources, with an aim of achieving an optimal return
on investment. Creators, on the other hand, are often
skilled, specialized employees, and their focus is on
a grand vision and mission; they frequently view
business concerns as secondary. According to the
authors, conflict between stewards and creators is, to
some extent, inevitable. However, when such conflict
is managed poorly, the organization's capacity to
innovate effectively may be impaired.

The authors suggest eight guidelines for managing
steward-creator conflict more successfully. These
guidelines include (1) Keep talented creators around,
although they can be difficult to manage; (2) balance
the influence of stewards and creators in the
organization, so neither group always wins; (3)
cultivate people who have credibility with both
creators' and stewards and can help resolve conflicts;
(4) use peer review to more accurately evaluate
creators specialized technical work; (5) structure the
innovation process so that creators produce tangible
artifacts regularly; (6) realize that there will
always be some conflict between an organization's
creators and its stewards; (7) avoid overly
prescriptive control mechanisms that may alienate
creators; and (8) ensure that closure on projects is
achieved neither too quickly nor too slowly.

Authors:        Robert D. Austin and Richard L. Nolan
Periodical:     MIT Sloan Management Review 48, no. 2
(winter 2007): 29-36


 
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