Leader personality, managerial attention, and disruptive technologies: the adoption of the battlecruiser concept in the Royal Navy, 1904–1918

dc.contributorAalto-yliopistofi
dc.contributorAalto Universityen
dc.contributor.authorTikkanen, Henrikkien_US
dc.contributor.departmentDepartment of Marketingen
dc.date.accessioned2018-12-21T10:33:58Z
dc.date.available2018-12-21T10:33:58Z
dc.date.issued2017-03-31en_US
dc.description.abstractManagerial attention to the leader’s strategic designs has been identified as a key prerequisite for success in the adoption of new technologies. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how the battlecruiser concept as an organizational gestalt was developed, adopted, and assessed in the British Royal Navy (RN) in 1904–1918 from the perspective of the top leader’s personality and managerial attention. The battlecruiser was a pet project of the controversial Admiral Sir John Fisher, who instituted a thorough technological, organizational, and cultural turnaround in the RN before the First World War (WWI). The battlecruiser, ‘The Greyhound of the Sea’, was the largest and most expensive type of capital ship in the WWI era. It was developed to hunt down enemy commerce-raiding cruisers all around the globe, and to act as a powerful scouting arm of the Grand Fleet. In action, however, it proved more vulnerable than expected. The contribution of the article is threefold. First, it explicates the key personal characteristics and effectuation mechanisms of top leaders in persuading the organizational adoption of a novel concept such as the battlecruiser. Second, it describes the process of adoption and change when the technology is gradually proving less efficient than predicted. Finally, it posits that the evolving organizational gestalts strongly moderate the process of adoption and correction.en
dc.description.versionPeer revieweden
dc.format.extent29
dc.format.extent47-75
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.citationTikkanen, H 2017, ' Leader personality, managerial attention, and disruptive technologies : the adoption of the battlecruiser concept in the Royal Navy, 1904–1918 ', MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 47-75 . https://doi.org/10.1080/17449359.2017.1308259en
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/17449359.2017.1308259en_US
dc.identifier.issn1744-9359
dc.identifier.otherPURE UUID: fb2ea152-c8fb-4717-90b2-e78e52faa03den_US
dc.identifier.otherPURE ITEMURL: https://research.aalto.fi/en/publications/fb2ea152-c8fb-4717-90b2-e78e52faa03den_US
dc.identifier.otherPURE LINK: http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85016478439&partnerID=8YFLogxKen_US
dc.identifier.otherPURE FILEURL: https://research.aalto.fi/files/30333475/Leader_personality_managerial_attention_and_disruptive_technologies_MOH_resubmission_final_version.pdfen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/35728
dc.identifier.urnURN:NBN:fi:aalto-201812216737
dc.language.isoenen
dc.relation.ispartofseriesMANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORYen
dc.rightsopenAccessen
dc.subject.keywordAdmiral John Fisheren_US
dc.subject.keywordattention-based viewen_US
dc.subject.keywordbattlecruiseren_US
dc.subject.keywordLeadershipen_US
dc.subject.keywordorganizational gestalten_US
dc.subject.keywordthe Royal Navyen_US
dc.titleLeader personality, managerial attention, and disruptive technologies: the adoption of the battlecruiser concept in the Royal Navy, 1904–1918en
dc.typeA1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessäfi
dc.type.versionacceptedVersion

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