An approach to measure who is belonging to the dominant coalition in Top Management Teams of profit-oriented companies based on the analysis of organisational structures.
Defining the typology of the company according to the Miles & Snow typology will
help us to identify the center of gravity in regards to the constellation of the dominant
coalition. The table enumerates the 10 perspectives in which Miles and Snow
have categorized their typologies of Defenders, Prospectors, Analyzers and Reactors.
In one sentence: The Typology of a Company is giving some Departments a naturally given advantage.
The findings of the literature review have resulted in three main parameters defining
the members of the Top Management Team; Age, Education and Tenure with the
Company. The three parameters are to some extent independent however it is clear
that a certain age is required in order to be endowed with a likewise education. But
the same could be said about the qualifications of being Member of the Top
Management Team at all. Finally this might be different from company to company
and only gets its importance when compared among other members of the same
team.
In one sentence: Constellation measures the fit of one Manager into the Top Management Team.
Comparing the six most relevant characteristics of a Manager with his or her peers in the Top Management Team. Four of the characteristics being named to be important in horizontal and vertical relationships (Reliability,Archetype, Communication and Competence) plus one characteristic which is
named in vertical (Network) and one which is named in horizontal (social competence). One characteristic cannot compensate another. Also there are different values for each characteristics.
In one sentence: Rating Top Management Team Members by their Characteristics.
Span of Control, should be understood separately from the other aspects; Typology, Constellation and Manager
Characteristics. Depending on the size of a company paired with the complexity of the corresponding team a limitation is given upon which one team leader can keep the overview. Once this limitation is reached, there is a reasonable ground to assume that a second force, an influencer, is officially
or unofficially installed to support the team leader.
It is fundamental to understand that we are only searching for a potential influencer
of a department which is achieving more than 16%. Only those departments are
strong enough to form a dominant coalition with the CEO (34%).
In one sentence: In a situation where a CEO is deciding on a recommendation of his or her strongest department and exactly that department is headed by someone who has exceeded his or her span
of control, it would mean that decision taken by the CEO is based ultimately by the
influencer of that specific department.