6 - Stakeholder Conversations

Question 1

Board is shaped by stakeholder system - describe need to advance psychological thinking

Answer 1

Individual psychology -> social psychology -> systems psychology

Question 2

How has company law evolved to consider stakeholders? (6)

Answer 2

s. 172:
(1) long term
(2) best interest of employees
(3) relationships with suppliers, customers and others
(4) impact of ops on community and environment
(5) rep for high standards of conduct
(6) need to act fairly as between members of company

Question 3

Describe “parallel process”

Answer 3

Therapist recreates or parallels their client’s problem while they discuss the problems with their counselling supervisor. This mirrors the boardroom.

Board behaviours can be understood as representative echoes of the wider stakeholder system.

Question 4

Framework to consider behaviours

Answer 4

(1) Individual lens (e.g. lack of emotional intelligence)

(2) Interpersonal lens (issues)

(3) team relationships (e.g. having an awayday)

(4) team tasks (lack of clarity over current purpose or direction)

(5) stakeholder interfaces (e.g. board purposes jarring with key customer group)

(6) wider systemic lens/context (e.g. wider challenges, regulatory change)

Question 5

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 5

“tendency to believe that what people do reflects who they are” - competency, commitment, character

Question 6

Peter Hawkins on systems perspectives

Answer 6

“No longer do the main challenges in organisations lie in the people or in the parts, but in the interfaces and relationships between people, teams, functions and different stakeholder needs”

Question 7

Katharina Pick (2007)

Answer 7

“I find that directors are first and foremost interested in bringing their professional expertise to bear on board activities”

[Expertise may silo a board director if they cannot also integrate their expertise into their role of being an equal member of the board team]

Question 8

2010 medical study on loneliness

Answer 8

influence of having poor social relationships on the likelihood of our dying is comparable to the elevated risks caused by smoking and alcohol consumption, and is greater than the influence of physical inactivity and obesity

Question 9

Maister et al définition of trust

Answer 9

trust = credibility + reliability + intimacy

Question 10

Levels of communication mode (Berne, 1950s)

Answer 10

1. ritual and cliche (hello/weather)
2. facts and info (agenda)
3. values and beliefs (personal values)
4. emotions and feelings (ups risk and vulnerability stakes)

Question 11

Donaldson & Warwick (2016) interviews - one charity trustee

Answer 11

How management respond to question indicative of level of trust.

“I was on a charity board where two members of the executive team were very nervous that the board was going to misunderstand their role and make decisions in excess of their responsibility. This created a dynamic in meetings in which what we got from the executives was defensive. There was a lack of trust and lack of openness.”

“You can create trust simply by the way you respond to a question”

Question 12

Transaction Analysis Theory (Berne)

Answer 12

1. Parent ego state (nurturing vs critical) (autocratic vs benevolent dictator - corrosive and engendering lower performance)
2. Adult - neutral and logical - required by chair and cosec
3. Child

Question 13

Tuckmans’ stages of group development (1965)

Answer 13

1. forming - task focussed - behave independently and tiptoe on eggshells
2. storming - people voice opinions - conflict
3. norming - being to resolve differences and coalesce
4. performing - establishing mission/visions/roles/norms
5. adjourning - mourning/transforming - completing tasks, breaking up and “turning light off”

Question 14

Lencioni Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002)

Answer 14

1. absence of trust
   (leader role: go first)
2. fear of conflict
   (mine for conflict)
3. lack of commitment
   (for clarity and closure)
4. avoidance of accountability
   (confront difficult issues)
5. inattention to results
   (force on collective outcomes)

Question 15

Niall Fitzgerald (chairman of Reuters) - challenging

Answer 15

“We must be prepared to challenge, confront, disagree and probe, but always in a way that is constructive and supportive of the business agenda. Nothing should be left unsaid within a team that is committed to success”

Question 16

Kantor - Four Player Model

Answer 16

1. Mover (provides direction)
2. Follower (provides completion)
3. Opposer (provides correction)
4. Bystander (provides perspective)

Isaacs added distinction between inquiry (between bystanding and following) and advocacy (between moving and opposing)

Question 17

According to Isaacs what features of high performing teams?

Answer 17

Connectivity
Advocacy:Inquiry balance
Other:Self - high balance
Positivity:Negativity - strongly positive

Question 18

What is the Losanda Line?

Answer 18

High performing teams exhibited at least three positive statements for every one engative statemeent (2.9:1 ratio)

Question 19

Conflict in teams can come from:

Answer 19

1. relationship conflict
2. task conflict - how go about
3. process conflict - use of resources - who has responsibility

Question 20

Jen & Mannix (2001) on different conflicts

Answer 20

Higher levels of relationship conflict likely lead to problems

higher levels of task and process conflict can be beneficial - depending on when they occur in team’s evolution. Beneficial to occur at start of task and when team forming - but if not resolved quickly, performance steeply decreases over time.

High levels of task conflict beneficial to quality f decision making and discussion up until midpoint of discussion.

Question 21

Drama Triangle

Answer 21

Three players: victim, persecutor and rescuer

Happens when we fall into the trap of being overly parental and rescuing others who should know better.

Question 22

Bvalco recommendations for challenging well in the boardroom

Answer 22

1. Chair should never start or finish a discussion with their opinion
2. Vital to listen, summarise views and encourage equal participation
3. Chair’s role in encouraging evidence-based rather than person-centred challenge
4. Notice and raise an overly aggressive approach - understand if style or confidence
5. Get to know directors individually
6. Verbally praise differences and thorough consideration of options
7. Use empathy and info search in equal doses
8. Encourage directors to agree single most important thing board must do
9. Expect input to the agenda, so directors arrive engaged
10. Instil sense of team authority
11. thinking and deciding require different brain processes - don’t let be intertwined
12. apportion time between informing, thinking and decision-making
13. use 3:1 ratio
14. In annual review, analyse quality of constructive challenge using content and behavioural analysis

Question 23

Dulewicz and Herbert (2004) 16 tasks of the board - what are the four categories?

Answer 23

Four areas:
1. supervision of management
2. accountability to shareholders
3. strategy and structure
4. longer-term vision

Question 24

Heuristic to summarise team tasks

Answer 24

4 Ps: purpose (mission and values); picture (vision); plan (strategy, objectives and targets, systems and processes, charter); parts (roles and responsibilities)

Question 25

ICSA “The stakeholder voice in board decision-making: strengthening the business, promoting long-term success” (2017) - 10 things to do

Answer 25

1. who key stakeholders are and why
2. board should determine which stakeholders need to engage with directly, rather than relying solely on management info
3. identify what stakeholder expertise is needed in the boardroom
4. nominations committee should take stakeholder perspective into account
5. chair and cosec should review adequacy of training
6. chair (and all) should determine how best decision-making can give consideration to stakeholders
7. ensure appropriate engagement with key stakeholders is taking place and kept under regular review
8. in designing engagement mechanisms - consider what most effective and convenient for stakeholders, not just company
9. report to shareholders who taken the impact on key stakeholders into account when making decisions
10. board should provide feedback to stakeholders with whom it is engaged - should be tailored to different stakeholder groups