The Technology Takers by Flanding Jens P.;Grabman Genevieve M.;Cox Sheila Q.;

Author:Flanding, Jens P.;Grabman, Genevieve M.;Cox, Sheila Q.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Published: 2019-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

Technology-taking sponsors publicly endorse the idea of constant change and adaptation to new ways of working. In the digital era, leaders must also sponsor the adoption of technologies that best support value creation. Sponsors ensure that people match up with processes and that both people and processes change to meet the demands of technology.

Another characteristic of an effective sponsor is that she is willing to sustain her leadership and engagement over the course of the change project. 117 Yet the change in the digital era is never-ending; so too, a sponsor's role. Sponsorship cannot be an add-on to an executive's to-do list. Instead, being a sponsor for digital-era technology change becomes part of the executive's very job description. If the organization's leader was unaware she had signed up for this permanent work and sustained commitment, she may be unable to discharge her sponsorship duties effectively.

As organizations adopt more and more complex, digital-era technologies, sponsors may struggle to understand how these technologies operate and the depth of organizational behavior change they will cause. This challenge is partly a function of the fast-moving, modern age: as soon as we grasped Facebook, everyone jumped to Instagram; having mastered that, they moved onto Snapchat; we had just downloaded that app when they stampeded ahead to KiK. Technologies are being developed and implemented at the seeming speed of light.

The digital era's sponsorship difficulty also may be a function of the sponsors themselves. It takes time to assume the leadership, power, and authority necessary to be an effective sponsor. The average age of a Fortune 500 CEO is now 58 years old, having grown older, not younger, the recent tech boom notwithstanding. 118 Warren Buffett (who is now 85 years old) famously did not invest in the technology sector because he did not understand the science behind it. 119 Only recently, after the iPhone wave had crested and well after the dominance of desktop computers had settled, did Buffet invest in Apple and IBM stock. Unlike most Buffett investments, these have lost value. 120 Although the organization's interns may well be familiar with and adept at using the latest technologies, the people in the C suite may not.

Change Organizational Culture

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