Shared Leadership in Tribe Organization in Agile Mode of Operation : case OP Financial Group

Abstract

The operational environment of organizations is changing rapidly, and the competition is fierce. Organizations need to transform their operations, develop their leadership approach and ways of working continuously. The objective of the thesis was to examine how the concept of shared leadership has been implemented in selected tribes and teams in OP Financial Group’s Central OP Cooperative tribe organization. The scope of the study is limited to three teams and specific role holders within the autonomous teams assigned by the Human Resource and Culture team. The selection of the teams is based on the Leadership Experience Query results conducted in December 2023. The aim of the thesis research was to find out by interviewing which shared leadership practices introduced through the OP tailored Agile Mode of Operation in the central tribe organization are in place and found useful, and whether there are practices that have proven to be unavailing. The interviews were conducted with 12 volunteers of the 18 suggested interviewees as Teams meetings. The purpose of the interviews was to shed light on the root causes of deficiencies in shared leadership practices.

Based on the analysis of Leadership Experience Query conducted in December 2023 in OP Financial Group, there are challenges in collaboration related to shared leadership especially among three Tribes. The OP FG organizational culture, tribal structure of the organization and the strategy-making processes are expected to support the OP Financial Group tailored agile mode of operation and shared leadership implementation resulting in effectiveness of operations and employee experience declared to be the objectives of the operational model. The key concepts of the thesis were selected accordingly to cover the features of the latest organizational models and culture, approaches to strategy-making alternatives and attributes of the agile mode of operations model in financial sector.

Apart from the aim to shed light on the root causes of deficiencies in shared leadership practices the development task of the thesis is to introduce some of the latest approaches and mindsets to leadership styles and strategy-making practices proven by research to improve organizational efficiency and employee experience. OP Financial Group has declared organizational efficiency and excellent employee experience to be the objective of their organizational transformation. The commissioner team has provided the Leadership Experience Query analysis and the key conceptual material related to the study. They have been studied carefully and used as a basis for the study. The demographics of the interviewees were confirmed to be relevant by the commissioner team.

The interview results confirm the Leadership Experience Query analysis that there are deficiencies in the collaboration and shared leadership between the selected three tribes. It should be noted that the study is limited to the selected tribes and the results may vary within the large organization. The main root cause for the deficiencies appears to be in the visibility to the strategy-making and strategic processes. The deficiencies are demonstrated as conflicting objective setting across the selected target organization and lack of shared view to operational models. It was stated by most of the interviewees that OP FG has development debt which together with fragmented business areas’ objectives setting is challenging. The recommendation is to review the strategy-making process and strengthen the essence of the operational model and organizational culture.