Lateral leadership: An organizational approach to change

Abstract

It is now rare that managers can rely on their superiors to intervene when conflicts with colleagues arise. Instead, they must resolve problems themselves. To enable executives to achieve their objectives under such circumstances, the authors have developed the concept of 'lateral leadership', in which one utilizes a processes of creating shared understanding, changing power games and generating trust for one's own purposes. In this way a manager can disrupt rigid patterns of thought, combine the divergent interests of the people involved and build trust. It is not necessary to address the three processes simultaneously. If managers are unable to make progress with one tool, they can substitute another. In the authors' view, this represents the concept's particular strength.