von Michael v. Kutzschenbach
Many established businesses are facing the challenge of being transformed by massive changes in advanced information technologies, the availability of cheap money, and the emergence of groups of buyers. In order to successfully scope with these new paradigms, organizations need to establish a permanent 'innovation capability' that goes far beyond existing Research and Development (R&D) and Ideas Management activities.
According to our understanding, innovation capability, often referred to as business innovation, complements an organization's transformation capability, in order to remain vital. To survive and remain competitive, organizations must master both capabilities and the underlying logic in parallel. In our paper, we use the term antithetic leadership to describe this duality in management behavior. We define antithetic leadership as:
„Antithetic leaders comply with requirements from both worlds and apply the specifics of each without losing the respect, credibility and reputation of their stakeholders“ (von Kutzschenbach et al., 2017, p. 99).
Thus, antithetical leadership is not an additional variant of cooperative leadership, but is rather the deliberate and purposeful practice of managing the paradox of stability (continuity) and instability (change).
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