Abstract
Decades of change in the media landscape and technological innovation have brought several uncertainties to media leadership. In this study, we build on the upper echelons theory to discuss the possible isomorphic behaviour of media leaders. Based on a survey of 372 Swedish media leaders, our results indicate that while innovation is considered to be a strength at media companies, innovation work may still stand in contrast to the institutional perspective. We found that Swedish media leaders perceive innovation as highly important and something they are good at. The perceived ability to work with innovation inside the organizations (rather than introducing knowledge from outside expertise) is undermined by the fact that, during the average work week, the majority of leaders set aside very little time for developing their own competences, individual talks with their employees, and time to reflect on their own work. Thus, in line with upper echelons theory, we find a paradox of trust in in-house innovative strength and, at the same time, media leaders fall back on their own experiences, limiting the inflow of new ideas into their strategic work.
Highlights
One of the core strategic challenges for the media industry is adaptation (Küng, 2011, p. 44); the current need to adapt can be linked to when media companies first created product portfolios
Our results suggest that managers who do not have time for skill development tend to work at companies where the staff is expected to work with innovation inside their regular tasks (Table 7), while managers who have an hour a week or more to develop their skills tend to work at organizations where resources are reallocated so that staff have more time for innovation projects
In this study, we found that innovation is considered to be a strength at media companies
Summary
One of the core strategic challenges for the media industry is adaptation (Küng, 2011, p. 44); the current need to adapt can be linked to when media companies first created product portfolios. With the introduction of digital technology in newsrooms and the widespread use of the Internet, media companies had to produce and offer more than one product. These required changes created substantial managerial challenges (Picard, 2014). Lowrey (2011) found that changes in news organizations are prompted by coercion from owners and investors or by signals found in audience data Such changes may, at times, lead to the journalists fearing that their autonomy is reduced, because the normative ideals of the journalism collective – involving working independently in the public interest – clash with management strategies (Waldenström, Wiik, & Andersson, 2018). Even though these clashes create resistance to change, studies show that editors-inchiefs have changed their perception of the journalistic product and increased their awareness of mar-
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