Leadership

Change is necessary for companies to maintain their competitive edge—both digital and ecological change. But while external support is at hand, the drive for change must come from companies themselves. In this issue of Industry 4.0 Science, experts of the Academic Society for Work and Industrial Organization discuss how the real-world application of innovative technologies lead to resource-efficient manufacturing.

Transformative forces present companies with enormous challenges. At the same time, new forms of collaboration and new roles and responsibilities are emerging. Due to the risks associated with change, many employees hold on to old habits and work processes, which can slow down positive developments. The challenge for managers is to recognize this resistance, prevent it and turn it into acceptance or even proactive support.

In the digital transformation, managers are facing changed requirements. They are important actors in the design process of the digital transformation, for which they must change their leadership behavior and acquire the corresponding competencies. In corporate practice, it is necessary to address these issues systematically in leadership training. However, such a qualification is a major challenge for companies. The article shows demands on leadership in the digital transformation and presents an innovative procedure for the competence development of managers at a provider of professional training.

In recent years hierarchy in organisations came under criticism. It was a received opinion that hierarchy is a confining and dictatorial characteristic. Although a clear structure has many benefits. It is time to disband the hang-up opinions. Hierarchy not only gives a determined scope of action to executive but also incentives employees and gives them a save feeling. Either of these are important factors for a successful motivation of employees.

Achieving lean structures and principles in a company means taking care that a cultural change takes place through all the parties everyone, including the leaders and employees, should be convinced that it is sensible, necessary and the correct thing to establish Lean. Lean should not be considered to be a foreign object in an environment where old habits persist. Cultural changes can be brought when thoughts about Lean are internalized by the people in the company, which become a part of the corporate philosophy. This article shows which measures the decision makers in management can take to develop Lean and make it an everyday practice.

Increased productivity is a fundamental paradigm of successful business. No wonder management efforts are focused primarily on this “golden calf” of the market economy. There are enough scientific publications dealing with this topic to fill libraries. Never before have we seen so many students educated in the field of Economics at university level. Despite knowing a great deal about tools, methods and procedures, at the place where value is created we continue to think about the same questions and the same productivity deficits: Why is it that companies continue to lose the ability to maintain lean, productive processes in spite of having access to all instruments in the field of Economics? Why do many companies permit the growth of unproductive performance even though they have just introduced controlling instruments to prevent this from happening? Why is it so difficult to achieve significant, sustainable productivity growth even though companies often have access to a broad ...

Suggestions, techniques, strategies and ideas for optimizing time management are dime a dozen. But not all of these general methods can really change the long-term and structured way of utilizing time. One fails mostly because the method is not implemented consistently or the technique cannot be transferred to the daily routine. In order to change in the long run, prior knowledge and customization to the individual requirements are essential. This is shown by new findings of scientific research. The bottom line is that there are some really helpful techniques when it comes to time management but that the problem mostly is not starting new strategies but maintaining them.

Reacting quickly to rapidly changing market needs is, unsurprisingly, a basic requirement for profitable manufacturing. Why turn what is common sense into a science? Agility is the new buzzword. But is it merely „old wine in new bottles“ like so many things in the field of logistics or is it an interesting or even the decisive approach towards ensuring profitable production? Agility in its final perception is an organizations’ ability to swiftly and specifically utilize all available forces in order to fulfill an order. That is to meet requirements with agility. Agility and the excessive focus on detail and planning are oxymorons which are frequently found in both individuals and scientific literature. Agility is the manifestation of good leadership and is pretty much the opposite of planning optimization, high detailing and comprehensive forecasts which is why it is so difficult to describe it within the classic mainstream of logistics research. What really makes production ...

No longer does the shortage of qualified employees represent a regional or sector specific problem. It has become an issue impacting the whole economy - in particular in times of an economic recovery. In today’s knowledge society, people are the most important asset as they determine corporate performance as well as the capability of an organization to innovate and change. Thus, the anticipation and proactive response to future qualification needs is crucial and defines the capability to outpace the competition in a time-based environment. The capability to learn and to unlearn faster than others defines the ability to change - this, however, is not an issue of technology but culture - a culture that nurtures the role of leaders as teachers.