CBS professor wins prize

Robert Austin from Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy wins this year’s Richard Beckard Memorial Prize

The editors of the MIT Sloan Management Review have just announced Rob Austin and Richard Nolan as winners of this year's Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize for their outstanding article on planned change and organizational development published from Fall 2006 through Summer 2007.

Struggle between creators and stewards

The article deals with the issue between highly skilled, specialized technological visionaries, referred to as creators, and results-oriented managers, referred to as stewards. The differing world views of these two groups, both of which are vitally critical to business innovation, may lead to acrimony and inefficiencies. Risk-averse stewards care most about allocating resources efficiently and responsibly, whereas creators care most about the vision and higher purpose, often seeing business concerns as secondary.

The true Professor Richard Bechard spirit

- The article addresses a management issue that is at the heart of success or failure of innovation in high-technology firms. Dick Beckhard would appreciate the authors' attention to the motivational and behavioral differences between stewards and creators, each filling an essential role in such firms. He would second the advice to their managers to recognize the inevitable conflict between the two types, and the specific advice offered on how to both alleviate and benefit from their differences, says the judges.

Richard Beckard Memorial Prize

The prize was established in 1984 by the faculty of the MIT Sloan School of Business upon Professor Beckhard's retirement and renamed the Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize after his death on December 28, 1999.