No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Shaping and Being Shaped: How Organizational Structure and Managerial Discretion Co-evolve in New Managerial Roles
Abstract
As new roles emerge in organizations, it becomes critical to understand how organizational structure can impede or enable the managerial discretion available to role incumbents. We leverage the rich context provided by the emergent role of sustainability managers to examine the interplay between the top-down forces of structure and the bottom-up influences of managerial discretion in shaping new organizational roles over time. We analyzed qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews with sustainability managers in 21 case study organizations in India and Australia, supplemented with archival and observational data. We identified three organizational configurations, with varying levels of top-down structural and bottom-up managerial discretion dynamics at play. Each configuration had different implications for the manager’s role. Our analysis suggests that the third configuration—with semi-structured formalization and a decentralized sustainability program—provided the most conducive conditions for managers to use their discretion to champion innovative sustainability initiatives. New managerial roles in the other configurations, however, do not have to be static. With the maturation of organizational programs and active championing by managers, the structuring of organizational functions and managerial roles can co-evolve. Our findings describe a process of “shaping and being shaped,” as structure and managerial discretion co-evolve over time.
... RBV can thus identify PAO resource deficiencies caused by external shocks, prompt internal organizational restructuring and the development of new role incumbents to meet changing organizational needs (Raffo et al., 2016;Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). Restructuring of organizational roles inevitably impacts philanthropy, in terms of which part of the organizational structure to position it in and which tasks and responsibilities to assign. ...
... We analyzed data as we collected it, making multiple iterations between data and emerging theoretical arguments (Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). ARs and interview data were analyzed in three stages, following previous qualitative studies (Sandhu & Kulik, 2019;Pratt et al., 2006): ...
... We analyzed data as we collected it, making multiple iterations between data and emerging theoretical arguments (Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). ARs and interview data were analyzed in three stages, following previous qualitative studies (Sandhu & Kulik, 2019;Pratt et al., 2006): ...
Taking a management perspective in the field of philanthropy, this study examines 12 Australian major performing arts organizations over 19 years (2000–2018), which were identified as vulnerable and struggling with overreliance on public grants. Underpinned by theories that integrate understandings of external and internal resource management—resource dependence theory and the resource-based view—we uncover insights into what drives the increase in their philanthropic income. Using data from 228 annual reports and interviews, we present an original taxonomy that identifies organization-donor relationships and organizational efforts in nurturing philanthropy. We uncovered the interplays between donor engagement and positioning philanthropic staff in terms of organizational structure. Longitudinal financial and narrative data demonstrate that external resource management through donor engagement and internal resource management through organization structure emphasizing philanthropy have a significant impact on the growth of organizational philanthropic income.
... However, he (2009) pinpointed several theoretical arguments in his new view as people, information, and action planes. Various researchers have recently studied the details of roles in various organizations, including educational institutions and educators (Fink, 2011;Lavigne, 2019;Sandhu and Kulik, 2019;White, 2020). In addition, those are discussed with variables such as knowledge sharing (Bock et al., 2005), leadership (Kruse, 2020;Saah, 2017), and teachers' trust (Dogan, 2019). ...
... It was found that the relevant variables are generally in relationship with each other. That confirmed one of the critical realities in organizational life regarding managerial implementations, climate, and employees' emotions (Aslam et al., 2021;Pritchard and Karasick, 1973;Sandhu and Kulik, 2019;Tengblad, 2006). Analyzes showed that elements such as interaction, effectiveness, and collaboration, which are components of managerial roles, organizational climate, and emotional labor variables, were linked (Saah, 2017;Tsui, 1984). ...
... In light of a thorough review of the literature review, no analysis has been spotted concentrating upon managerial roles in and outside Turkiye in the way the study does. Although the close relationship between the dimensions of managerial roles stated in recent studies (Madanayake, 2014;Sandhu and Kulik, 2019;White, 2020) coincides with this study on a theoretical plateau, the managerial roles were based on the early period. This significantly increases the originality of the study. ...
Educational researchers have recently focused on the relationships between various organizational variables. The managerial roles of the principals are also one of the issues discussed in this context. Because these roles are closely related to the school atmosphere and teachers’ feelings. The current study examined the mediation of organizational climate in the relationship between the roles of principals and teachers’ emotional labor. For this, a structural regression model designed by the authors was tested. Data were collected from 535 teachers working in elementary schools in Kahramanmaras (Turkiye) and analyzed with MPlus 8.3. The findings show statistically significant and positive correlations between managerial roles-organizational climate, organizational climate-deep acting, and organizational climate-genuine emotions. Surface acting has a statistically significant, negative correlation with genuine emotions, and no statistically significant correlation exists with other variables. The structural regression model shows that organizational climate predicted by managerial roles predicts deep acting and genuine emotions. However, surface acting is not predicted by the organizational climate in the model. According to these results, the fact that the principals fulfill their roles contributes to the climate in the schools and thus the teachers’ feeling of deep and genuine emotions. It is expected that the study will make original contributions to the managerial roles revised approach and the approach’s school/educational management framework. The authors suggest that scholars investigate the managerial roles of principals in their future studies by designing multi-level procedures with different variables.
... In Section 2, firstly, we consider that literature about time which, focusing on its objective and subjective dimensions, has provided insights on how the interplay between these dimensions can improve the firm/environment/society relationship (Shipp and Jansen, 2021). Secondly, we consider the management literature about organizational adaptation (Sarta et al., 2021), highlighting how the perspectives about co-evolution (Sandhu and Kulik, 2019;Breslin et al., 2021) have reduced the long-standing dichotomy between environmental determinism and strategic voluntarism (Astley and Van de Ven, 1983;Hrebiniak and Joyce, 1985). Accordingly, in Section 3, we develop a framework centred on the concept of "co-evolutionary time", which we explain through a narrative-based style (Cornelissen, 2017) featured by a business example from the tourism industry. ...
... Conceptualized, at the beginning, as the combined effect of firms' proactivity and environmental determinism (Lewin and Volberda, 1999), in the management literature co-evolution has gradually given birth to different theoretical developments (Spisak et al., 2015;Breslin et al., 2021) and empirical analyses (Avila-Robinson et al., 2019;Sandhu and Kulik, 2019). In particular, the study by Langton (1984) of the pottery industry in the UK is one of the first analyses embracing co-evolution, whose adoption has then become prosperous from the 1990s. ...
Purpose
How does the interaction between time and knowledge affect the evolution of organizations? Past research in organizational evolution has mostly investigated time and knowledge as two separate variables. In contrast, theoretical perspectives integrating these variables are still seemingly scant. The authors believe that filling this literature gap needs attention. Thus, this study aims to contribute by developing a conceptual framework.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual study. The framework is centred on the concept of “co-evolutionary time”, which the authors explain through a business example from the tourism industry. Supported by a narrative-based style, from a methodological point of view the framework is featured by the attempt to synthesize specific, extant literature into new theoretical development.
Findings
As its main theoretical contribution, the co-evolutionary time suggests how firms can adapt in a way that, from an evolutionary perspective, proves fitting both in terms of contents and methods, thus opening possibilities for new long-term social construction and reconstruction. As its main practical contribution, co-evolutionary time can constitute not only a temporary source of organizational success and competitive advantage but also an agent of enduring change and long-term business survival.
Originality/value
As its main novelty, the framework is developed through merging two literature streams. In particular, the authors first consider the literature about time, with a focus on its objective and subjective dimensions. The authors then consider the literature about organizational evolution, with a focus on the co-evolutionary nature of the firm/environment relationship.
... Organizational design research thus holds great potential to inform HR management on the promises of decentralized decisionmaking. Yet despite its long-standing tradition, the organizational design literature is largely inconclusive on whether decentralization achieves its purpose of improving organizational performance (Dalton et al., 1980;McEvily et al., 2014;Porter & Lawler, 1965;Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). Still, many organizations engage in costly and often painful company-wide decentralization efforts (Bernstein et al., 2016). ...
... By developing a fully articulated multilevel model of the consequences of organizational decentralization (Felin et al., 2015;Molloy et al., 2011;Porter & Schneider, 2014), we make three notable contributions. First, our study addresses a long-standing debate in organizational design research on whether decentralized structures benefit organizational performance, and the conditions under which this might occur (Aiken & Hage, 1966;Porter & Lawler, 1965;Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). We hope this gives new momentum to a field that has been characterized as "stagnating" in recent years (McEvily et al., 2014). ...
As organizations strive for more flexibility, decentralized decision‐making has been at the core of many modern HR approaches. Yet, on a company‐wide scale, it remains unclear whether decentralized decision‐making structures improve organizational performance. Our study aims to illuminate prior ambiguous evidence by examining an employee‐level mechanism underlying the organizational‐level relationship between decentralization and performance, and scrutinizing the critical role of formal leaders for empowering employees in decentralized structures. Integrating the perspective of organizational structure as opportunities and constraints with social information processing theory, we argue that transferring decision‐making authority to lower organizational levels positively affects employees' emergent leadership, but only to the extent that direct supervisors engage in empowering leadership and guide employees' behaviors in decentralized structures. Our predictions are supported by a multilevel, multisource field study of 5807 individuals across 144 companies. We further find that emergent leadership yields a positive effect on organizational performance. By developing a multilevel model that explicates both an employee‐level mechanism and a contingency of the decentralization–organizational performance link, our study enriches understanding of the key role that formal leaders play for achieving the strategic goals of decentralized decision‐making in organizations.
... communicating with the aim to make CSP identical to strategy), relational coupling (i.e., altering the links between the actors involved in the making of strategy), and material coupling (i.e., incorporating CSP into strategic performance indicators) (Gond et al., 2018). Second, Sandhu and Kulik (2019) analyzed the interplay between the organization structure and the level of managerial discretion in dealing with tensions in the organization, emphasizing the process of "shaping and being shaped'' and showing how structure and managerial discretion in solving tensions co-evolve over time. Third, Soderstrom and Weber (2020) showed that employees, through their behaviors, shaped formal organizational procedures and overcame separations across departments by developing novel structures ('structuring') to enact the multiple logics incorporated in CSP. ...
... executives' incentives and board monitoring (Filatotchev and Nakajima, 2014), but they do not consider organizational mechanisms as key antecedents of managerial behavior. There are still few exceptions such as the work by Sandhu and Kulik (2019). These authors emphasize the co-dependence and co-evolution of organizational structure and managerial behavior, but they do not identify the link between organizational design and the level of managerial discretion in dealing with competing demands. ...
Studies on corporate social performance advocate that interrelated yet conflicting goals, such as sustainability and profitability, give rise to specific dynamics and inherent tensions, and call for more research to investigate how the duality of goals is managed by specific individuals in organizations. Through a micro-foundational view of ambidexterity for corporate social performance, and by relying on a qualitative data analysis of 41 interviews with sustainability managers and their immediate stakeholders, both internal and external to their organization boundaries, we developed a multilevel model of sustainability managers' responses to conflicting goals. We discovered how sustainability managers enacted internal and external, long term and short term brokering behaviors, enabled by their individual values, multidisciplinary knowledge, and relational abilities and skills, although constrained by their organizational and institutional contexts. By taking into account simultaneously contextual forces and individual cognitive characteristics, we thus advance our understanding of sustainability managers' behaviors towards ambidexterity for corporate social responsibility and of microfoundations for ambidexterity.
... However, these time frames can only be applied after an organization has settled on the appropriate performance metric for a given role. Organizations are constantly creating new roles to address their biggest challenges, and the "right" performance metrics attached to those roles evolve over time (McGregor, 2022;Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). Sustainability managers may initially be rewarded for collecting a "bag full" of unrelated initiatives, but as the organizations' sustainability programs mature, sustainability managers deliver greater value by pursuing a smaller number of large-impact initiatives (Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). ...
... Organizations are constantly creating new roles to address their biggest challenges, and the "right" performance metrics attached to those roles evolve over time (McGregor, 2022;Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). Sustainability managers may initially be rewarded for collecting a "bag full" of unrelated initiatives, but as the organizations' sustainability programs mature, sustainability managers deliver greater value by pursuing a smaller number of large-impact initiatives (Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). At early stages of product development, more lines of code might identify the most productive software programmers (Joo et al., 2022 Appendix A); when it is time to refine and optimize a software product, fewer lines of code identify the programmers who are implementing simpler and faster algorithms (Circei, 2021;Hertzfeld, 1982). ...
... Managerial discretion is known to have a significant impact on the uptake of sustainability issues in an organisation (Sandhu and Kulik, 2019). Li and Tang (2010) found organisational risk-taking behaviour was stronger in organisations with high managerial discretion. ...
... Li and Tang (2010) found organisational risk-taking behaviour was stronger in organisations with high managerial discretion. Sandhu and Kulik (2019) argue that organisations, where the managerial discretion is low, tend to observe reputational strategies, whereas the organisations where the managers enjoy moderate to high levels of discretion observe business case and long-term and normative strategies, respectively. This shows a clear link between managerial discretion manifesting in a strong sustainability strategy or otherwise. ...
The research aimed to explore the sustainability actions in the Australian horticulture and dairy industries and the influences on firms adopting sustainability. The research adopted a neo-institutional lens and examined the environmental, social, and economic issues faced by these two industries in their operations and their supply chains. The research adopted a qualitative approach with four case studies. Interviews were conducted with decision-makers in the focal firms as well as those in key supply chain partners. One key finding was that motivations differed in the take up of environmental and social sustainability actions, with business imperatives and mimetic influences found in the former, whilst reputation and normative influences were evident in the latter. Environmental actions focused on actions to reduce their carbon footprints such as environmentally friendly packaging, water efficiency, managing waste, and monitoring spray programs. In the dairy industry environmental actions are also related to animal welfare. Social actions predominantly focused on “giving back to the community”. And the adoption of automation was the main economic action. The horticulture sector demonstrated more concern about sustainability in its supply chain, especially in regard to environmental considerations due to economic interdependencies and industry and competitive pressures.
Another key finding was regarding sustainability challenges. A key social sustainability challenge was found to be the treatment of temporary backpacker labour which has the potential to seriously damage Australia's clean and green image. In terms of environmental sustainability, severe water shortage and the associated costs were found to be the most challenging. International competitive pressures were highlighted as a key challenge and the need to be sustainable economically was at the forefront of many concerns. In terms of the supply chain, processing firms (upstream) were found to exert a positive and substantial pressure in terms of sustainability practices of their supply chain, whereas, in the dairy sector, the duopoly of retail giants had a significant albeit negative influence on the supply chain's uptake of sustainability practices. Managers' values and links to the local and regional communities played an important part in the adoption of sustainability initiatives and their influence on the supply chain.
... The expansion of expertise, coupled with changes in the organization of work, has created practical problems around which specialists should perform which tasks or speak on which issues. For example, a committee for designing corporate sustainability policies may involve different specialist domains, forms of expertise, and conceptions of sustainability policies (see on the multiplicity of approaches to sustainability in organizations Lounsbury, 2001;Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). Research investigations should, therefore, focus not just on the social arrangements that make the expert performance of a task possible (Eyal, 2013) but also on the organizational structures that make expertise (in)visible and (mis)match it to a given task. ...
The changing nature of work and organizing makes matching individuals to tasks an increasing challenge. Consequently, there is a growing interest in mapping a workforce's expertise to manage it more strategically. Yet, systems for mapping and matching are often based on an individualist view of expertise and overlook the fact that expert knowledge is a particular resource. Drawing on research on knowledge and professional work, this paper foregrounds a social view of expertise, pointing to the fact that multiple forms, diverse versions, and varying conceptions of expertise coexist and intersect. The paper discusses how mapping systems that overlook the plural, multidimensional, and dynamic properties of knowledge create expertise invisibilities-flattening, eclipsing, and marginalizing it-and can thus generate faulty matching between workers and tasks. By showing that invisibility and incompetence are important dimensions in expertise dynamics, this paper contributes to research on expertise development, recognition, and mobilization. Further, it suggests that beyond the debate on a potential crisis of expertise in society, at the workplace level, competent expert work hinges on designing and managing organizational structures that appropriately make expertise visible and link it to work.
... Our findings show that even though CSR managers are no longer in a nascent occupation and have climbed the organizational ladder, structural and resource challenges are issues in both the public and corporate sectors. On the one hand, the organizational embedding of the position is likely to minimize the position's influence, such as when CSR departments are isolated (Sandhu and Kulik, 2019), lacking in power and resources compared with other departments (Bourguignon et al., 2020). On the other hand, a better organizational embedding could aggravate the challenges, given that different departments often develop distinct subcultures, influenced by professions or market segments (Kok et al., 2019), which may encourage a refusal to cooperate, though cooperation is particularly critical for CSR. ...
Organizations often leverage corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their efforts to gain external legitimacy, and yet CSR managers – the very people responsible for implementing CSR initiatives – often struggle to achieve internal legitimacy and, thus, their objectives. This qualitative research seeks insights into CSR managers’ need for legitimation (why) and the strategies they use to overcome challenges and establish legitimacy within their organizations (how). A set of six distinct challenges CSR managers face reveals the complex reality of their roles and the factors that drive their quests for legitimacy. In turn, CSR managers draw on a repertoire of eight legitimation strategies to navigate the challenges, each reflecting a different legitimacy dimension. Notably, CSR managers’ occupational self-perception influences their perceptions of challenges and choice of legitimation strategies, indicating the importance of individual characteristics (when) in shaping CSR practices. These nuanced insights into the micro-level dynamics of legitimacy advance literature on both legitimacy and micro-CSR by offering a personalized approach that accounts for the unique perspectives and strategies of CSR managers.
... If CEO overconfidence does affect a firm's negative environmental activities, which may cause man-made environmental disasters and hurt various stakeholders and ultimately, the shareholders, the contingent factors that may curb this effect have to be identified [31]. According to UET, the level of managerial discretion to some extent determines the impact of managers' psychological characteristics on corporate behavior [64]. Managerial discretion is interpreted as the scope of decision-making power [65]. ...
Enterprises are drawing growing criticism for violating environmental rules. The research examines whether and how top executives’ mental bias leads to corporate environmental misconduct (CEI). Drawing on upper echelon theory (UET) and agency theory, we link CEO overconfidence with CEI, and explore the boundary conditions from the perspective of management discretion at the governance level. Using a data set covering the Chinese listed enterprises from 2004 to 2016, the empirical results demonstrate that CEO overconfidence positively and markedly influenced CEI. Moreover, shareholder concentration and CEO duality reinforce the relationship between overconfidence and CEI, whereas board independence is the opposite. The findings clarify ecological outcomes of CEO overconfidence and have remarkable significance in theory and practice.
... Organizations put in place structures (e.g. centralization, formalization), roles, tasks and activities to either limit or expand managerial discretion, (Finkelstein & Peteraf, 2007;Sandhu & Kulik, 2019;Wangrow et al., 2015), which is typically defined as 'latitude of managerial action' (Hambrick & Finkelstein, 1987: 371). Given that managerial discretion can effect a variety of positive and negative organizational outcomes (Finkelstein & Boyd, 1998), it also appears relevant for strategic leaders' communication activities. ...
This chapter discusses both the benefits and risks of social media for strategic leaders, and develops a framework of leader social media engagement through a strategic lens. It first identifies key individual, organizational, and environmental attributes influencing the goals leaders may pursue through social media. It subsequently considers the impact of these goals on five social media engagement choices, and theorizes the impact of these choices on cognitive, affective, and relational strategic processes. The resulting framework aims to inspire future research at the intersection of social media and strategic leadership, as well as equip practitioners with a deeper understanding of the potential drivers and outcomes of their social media activity.
... Therefore, organizational design of this basic research has enormous potential to communicate the benefits of decentralized decision-making to HR management. However, in spite of its detailed lengthy history of working the parameters, the organizational structure in majority of design literature is equivocal about whether decentralization fulfils its objective of raising organizational effectiveness (Sandhu & Kulik, 2024). Organizational performance is a broad concept encompassing various dimensions such as financial outcomes, operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and strategic goal achievement. ...
The aim of current research is to check the impact of HRM practices on organizational performance. The current study uses incentives, employee training, recruitment, and job security as the main HRM practices. The current study considers the officer-rank employees of Shukkar as target population. The current research used a purposive sampling technique for data collection. Around 379 questionnaires were distributed to employees 315 complete questionnaires were used for final analysis. Data was analyzed with the help of SPSS 24. Reliability, Correlation, and Regression analysis are tests that are employed. Results indicate that incentives, employee training, recruitment, and job security have positive and negative impacts on organizational performance. Incentives for Employees and Job Security have a negative impact on organizational performance. This means that Recruitment and employee training has a positive impact on organizational performance. In the future, more HRM practices like teamwork, and leadership style may also be included. For generalizability, data will be collected from other sectors like the education sector, telecom sector, textile sector, and engineering sector.
... Organizations with flat organizational structure tend to give some managerial tasks to experienced staff to keep those staff challenged (Ali & Anwar, 2021;Noorazem, Md Sabri & Mat Nazir, 2021;Riyanto, Endri & Herlisha, 2021). Jobs can also be rotated on a temporary basis, in which employees are given the opportunity to work in a different area of the organization (Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). The employee can still keep his existing job while filling in for other employees or exchanging responsibilities with another employee. ...
Skills and knowledge of business and management are essential for enterprise growth and business survival, to a point where entrepreneurs regard them as indispensable qualities desired in business management. These qualities are not the only ones necessary in business and management, as there are many determinants of business growth. However, there are numerous instances where a business enterprise fails despite its human resources having received high quality training in business skills, and sometimes even having adequate resources. The purpose of this study was to design an innovative way to incorporate attitudes and behaviour in the training of entrepreneurs to stimulate high performance. Evidence was produced to show that some small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which were on the verge of collapsing/failing can be revived by training on aspects of ‘attitude’ and ‘behaviour’. This paper demonstrated how an existing training on skills development can be improved by adding content that focuses on attitudes and behaviour to reduce their failure. The findings of this study have potential to enable business schools and colleges offering entrepreneurship courses to incorporate ‘attitude’ and ‘behaviour’ which could aid in the survival of the SMEs that are so critical for the economy of the country.
... As a distinctive approach to the review, our analysis of these paradoxes is conducted by adopting a co-evolutionary lens (e.g., Breslin, Kask, Schlaile, & Abatecola, 2021), which, in the management literature, is to date well-accepted when studying organisation-environment and inter-organizational relationships (e.g., Murmann, 2013;Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). As one main value of our study, we argue that considering the logics and types of co-evolution can be helpful to shed novel light on these paradoxes. ...
How can studying paradoxes in business networks help understand the networks' adaptation and survival? IMP identifies three central paradoxes influencing business networks: i) Development of Relationships vs. Inability to Change, ii) Controlling vs. Effectiveness, and iii) Stability vs. Change. Studying them seems critical to knowing how interdependent participants in business networks adapt to one another. To do that, we use a co-evolutionary lens to review 41 articles dealing with business network paradoxes from an IMP perspective. Results of the Reflexive Thematic Analysis underline that salient tensions mainly originate from weak coordinating norms, resource misallocation, the relationship of newness and aging, and Machiavellian behaviour. As the main value of our work, we then advance that embracing a co-evolutionary perspective can help shed novel light on these paradoxes by contrasting the factors that make the tensions salient with those able to overcome them. Specifically , we identify moral behaviour, structuration of the network, network capability development, and co-adaptation as four main factors that mitigate the paradoxes and help networks' adaptation and survival. Accordingly, we advocate a co-evolutionary conceptual framework regarding paradoxes and outline five co-evolutionary claims as implications for research and practice.
... Researchers further ensured reliability by clarifying points such as the meaning of quotes and by building on the identified themes during the data analysis stage. A holistic approach to concept development was taken, categorizing raw data into first-order empirical themes which were put into second-order conceptual categories, and which were then converted into theoretical dimensions (Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). This lent richer insight, engagement, and nuance to this study through a better understanding of the phenomenon explored (Johnson & Parry, 2016). ...
Among all the sectors, the hospitality and tourism sector has been detrimentally affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research aimed to determine how changes have been experienced specifically in the Turkish tourism higher education and tourism sector. Twenty-seven academics from the hospitality and tourism education departments were interviewed. Most agreed that restrictions have limited student access to hands-on practical courses and internships, which are crucial to developing necessary competencies. Moreover, the results showed the curriculum does not always meet the needs of the hospitality industry for a trained and skilled workforce. The challenge is to decide what else should be taught and what methods and teaching approaches should be used. As a result, industry-academia cooperation is necessary to reassess the curriculum programs to meet sector needs considering the pandemic impacts.
... There are top-down pressures for change (Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). A top-down approach was required for changes to take place in a highly formalized system such as the bank. ...
... Administrative law, where it is subject to judicial review, is similarly "deferred to, " meaning that if the administrative rules promulgated by a regulator are not egregious violations of the authorizing law, they are valid, thus allowing administrator discretion. The same concept of discretion applies to complex organizations (Sandhu and Kulik 2019). Discretion implies protection: a discretionary act is protected from review by higher authorities and, indeed, any authority. ...
This volume brings together investigations from social scientists, philosophers, and legal scholars into the political dimensions of expertise. It is motivated by the sense that growing mistrust in experts represents a danger to democratic politics today, insofar as science and experts are integral to the checks and balances on which liberal democracies depend for their health and functioning. At the same time, the contributions to this handbook recognize that some of the processes that undermine expert authority, including the diversification and socialization of expertise, have had the salutary effect of democratizing expertise. This tension—between the erosion of democracy and the democratization of expertise—animates The Oxford Handbook of Expertise and Democratic Politics, which explores the current debates and new directions in the field. Among the topics considered here are the value and relevance of the boundary between experts and laypeople, causes and consequences of mistrust in experts, meanings and social uses of objectivity, and the significance of recent transformations in the organization of the professions.
... Administrative law, where it is subject to judicial review, is similarly "deferred to, " meaning that if the administrative rules promulgated by a regulator are not egregious violations of the authorizing law, they are valid, thus allowing administrator discretion. The same concept of discretion applies to complex organizations (Sandhu and Kulik 2019). Discretion implies protection: a discretionary act is protected from review by higher authorities and, indeed, any authority. ...
This volume brings together investigations from social scientists, philosophers, and legal scholars into the political dimensions of expertise. It is motivated by the sense that growing mistrust in experts represents a danger to democratic politics today, insofar as science and experts are integral to the checks and balances on which liberal democracies depend for their health and functioning. At the same time, the contributions to this handbook recognize that some of the processes that undermine expert authority, including the diversification and socialization of expertise, have had the salutary effect of democratizing expertise. This tension—between the erosion of democracy and the democratization of expertise—animates The Oxford Handbook of Expertise and Democratic Politics, which explores the current debates and new directions in the field. Among the topics considered here are the value and relevance of the boundary between experts and laypeople, causes and consequences of mistrust in experts, meanings and social uses of objectivity, and the significance of recent transformations in the organization of the professions.
... Informal social influence has long been established as a subtle yet powerful force to guide human behavior. Based on our findings of interactive effects of normative forces from different sources at different levels, future research in environmental sustainability can continue to employ the normative approach to explore the complex and reciprocal social dynamics that involve the full range of relevant actors throughout organizations and beyond their boundaries (e.g., see Sandhu & Kulik, 2019;Starik & Rands, 1995). For instance, as social activists, employees' insider knowledge may enable them to effectively frame environmental issues to fit the company's values and organizational culture, leverage resources such as informal social structures like cliques and friendship networks, and lobby executives who are accountable and have authority over relevant resources (Briscoe & Gupta, 2016). ...
As environmental concerns draw worldwide attention, the so-called green behavior of employees is recognized as important for successful implementation of environmental management policies. We develop and test a conceptual model that describes how the normative cues sent by leaders and work team members in combination with country culture norms influence employees' discretionary green workplace behavior and work team green advocacy. Data from 1,605 individuals in 19 firms located in five countries indicate that power distance moderates the positive relationship between the discretionary green behavior of leaders and their subordinates. In addition, the observed positive relationship between team green advocacy and the green behavior of individual employees held across both individualistic and collectivist cultural contexts, contrary to our predictions. By taking macro-level cultural contexts and its interplay with lower-level work team norms, this study makes a significant contribution to improving our understanding of discretionary green workplace behavior.
... This dichotomy has, over time, increasingly assumed much more moderated lenses (Cafferata 2016;Sarta, Durand, and Vergne 2021), with which we concur, also because of the fast-growing literature about co-evolution. Initially conceived by strategy scholars as the joint, dynamic result of firms' intentionality and environmental/institutional effects (Lewin and Volberda 1999;Fleck 2000), over the years, the co-evolutionary perspective has given birth to a number of middleground, dialectical accounts aimed at explaining why, especially over the long term, some firms win and some others lose in the competitive arena (Weber 2017;Sandhu and Kulik 2019). ...
How do environmentally-driven and firm-specific factors influence business innovation and adaptation? How can the analysis of their co-evolutionary relationship help explain firm survival or failure over time? To address these key questions, this article focuses on the study regarding the 20-year performance (1997–2017) of the Fiat (later Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) group in the automobile industry. The analysis primarily deals with three historical phases: crisis (1997–2002), turnaround (2003–2007), and expansion (2008–2017). As a key contribution, the study combines elaborations from a robust dataset comprising both industry characteristics and executive team features, with historical events both at the environmental and the firm’s strategy levels. Results suggest that when executive team diversity and a wide breadth of product portfolio are concurrently present, they positively affect corporate performance.
... As new roles arise in organizations, it becomes basic to comprehend how organizational structure can hinder or enable the managerial discretion available to role officials. The study influences the rich context provided by the developing role of sustainability managers to inspect the interplay between the top-down forces of structure and the base up influences of decision-making will in molding new organizational roles over time (Sandhu and Kulik, 2019). This study examined the connection between the important scopes of organizational structure which are formalization, centralization and complexity; and environmental responsiveness in a sample of 109 companies in the European air passenger transport industry. ...
... Informal social influence has long been established as a subtle yet powerful force to guide human behavior. Based on our findings of interactive effects of normative forces from different sources at different levels, future research in environmental sustainability can continue to employ the normative approach to explore the complex and reciprocal social dynamics that involve the full range of relevant actors throughout organizations and beyond their boundaries (e.g., see Sandhu & Kulik, 2019;Starik & Rands, 1995). For instance, as social activists, employees' insider knowledge may enable them to effectively frame environmental issues to fit the company's values and organizational culture, leverage resources such as informal social structures like cliques and friendship networks, and lobby executives who are accountable and have authority over relevant resources (Briscoe & Gupta, 2016). ...
To understand the conditions that support employee green behavior across cultures, we develop and test a conceptual model that describes how normative cues from work team leaders and peers in combination with country cultural norms shape discretionary green workplace behavior. Data from 1,605 employees in five countries indicate that power distance moderates the positive relationships observed between the discretionary green workplace behavior of leaders and their subordinates. In addition, an observed positive relationship between team green advocacy and individual discretionary green workplace behavior held across both collectivistic and individualistic cultures, contrary to our predictions. By taking macro-level cultural context into account and examining its interplay with lower-level work team norms, the study makes a significant contribution to understanding and intervening employees’ discretionary green behavior at work.
... Analysis through tracking between and within the raw data generated theoretical arguments (Strauss & Corbin, 1997). The first-order empirical themes were initially generated by a close reading of each interview and secondary archival data and the careful categorisation of common statements (Sandhu & Kulik, 2019). In our coding, we constantly compared each line of text being coded with other lines of coded text (between different interviewees and within the same interviewee) and the corresponding initial transcripts. ...
This paper explores the challenges that consulting firms and client firms are facing in knowledge sharing in the context of the Arab management consulting industry, and how local culture works in solving these challenges. Taking knowledge sharing and the cultural embeddedness perspective as the theoretical lens, the study adopts a comparative case study design to explore how mechanisms of cultural contextualisation affect knowledge-sharing behaviours. The findings highlight the benefits of cultural embeddedness in knowledge sharing between consulting firms and client firms through identifying the importance of Wasta (a social network of interpersonal connections) in skill-set formation, follow-on consultancy, niche specialist cultivation, and the establishment of network consulting. Our study provides industry players with a holistic framework to leverage Wasta to achieve knowledge sharing, which sheds light on a neglected cultural aspect in the management consulting industry.
Firms can achieve trinomial sustainability goals if they can constantly build and rejuvenate their capabilities to adapt to new situations. However, few studies consider the interrelationships between the distinct capabilities pertinent to sustainable development and the impact of these capabilities on firm performance under diverse contexts, especially in emerging economies. Drawing on dynamic capability theory, we developed a model to test the links between dynamic sustainability capability, theorized as a higher order capability, and relational and managerial capabilities, theorized as lower order capabilities, to the firm's sustainability performance. Data collected from 210 large Indian manufacturing firms is analyzed using PLS‐SEM. Results confirm that dynamic sustainability capability has facilitating effects on environmental and social performance directly and indirectly through managerial capability. Although relational capability partially mediates the link between dynamic sustainability capability and social performance, it does not impact environmental performance. Further, the aforementioned relationships are affected by forces in the firms' environment. Most of the direct and indirect relationships are negatively moderated by organizational inertia and positively moderated by environmental turbulence. By investigating the hierarchically structured capabilities, this study guides firms to make strategic choices regarding resource calibration for sustainability. The study recommends that organizations looking to integrate dynamic sustainability capability as part of their strategic management should look at the sequential combinations of existing resources to achieve different sustainability targets. The study's findings also urge policymakers to consider environmental conditions while developing sustainability reforms.
Structures involve a patterned regularity of interactions and frameworks that guide what individuals work on, with whom, and who influences those decisions. A deeper understanding of structures that exist within organizations has begun to emerge and illuminate new forms of structures (over 100 of them) that drive behavior in organizations. In this scoping review, we organize the fragmented insights on structure within organizations into a unifying framework that provides a coherent foundation for the domain by identifying nine topic domains and offering a summary of each (i.e., authority structures, cognitive structures, communication structures, coordination structures, leadership structures, motivational structures, social structures, task structures, and temporal structures). Next, as multiple structures co-occur within organizations, we explore the connections across topic domains, including their combinations. Understanding the separate topic domains and their combinations enables researchers and practitioners to understand why employee behaviors are inconsistent with the behaviors endorsed by a particular structure and better navigate the inherent complexity of structures within organizations. Finally, we outline implications for future work featuring structure combinations as well as emergent areas from the topic domains, such as the potential for change. Given the ubiquity of structures in organizations and their links with a variety of theoretical domains, this article’s implications have the potential to benefit a wide range of scholars and managers.
Concerns about imprecise concepts and incoherent theories have long plagued management studies. Though systematic categorizing was once proposed as a remedy for those concerns as it had resolved similar ones in other scientific disciplines, conversation about that potential ceased decades ago. This integrative review revives and refocuses that conversation by systematically categorizing how management scholars categorize in four phases. Phases 1 and 2 (conceptual-mapping and etymological reviews, respectively) together yield a framework encompassing three general approaches—classical, commonsense, and contemporary—scholars across all scientific disciplines, including management studies, historically have taken to categorize concepts and phenomena. Phase 3 (a qualitative review) determines that management scholars seldom use formal methods to categorize. Finally, Phase 4 (another qualitative review) yields a second framework which more meaningfully differentiates the ways management scholars currently categorize. The results indicate that categorizing in management studies remains unsystematic due to scholars predominantly relying on intuitive methods and introducing idiosyncratic categorial schemes instead of rigorous methods to improve extant ones. Unexpected findings from each phase provide insights into the changes scholars must make to categorize systematically as well as how doing so would foster more precise conceptualizing and coherent theorizing in the field.
The articles examine how well-read the present collection is in the libraries at University of Karachi and how frequently the personnel rotate in order to fulfil the library's duties. The study also paid close attention to the important causes of the problems and challenges facing library employees. For this study, a survey research approach was chosen, and primary data were gathered using a standardized questionnaire. The study's conclusions stated that 100% of libraries have frameworks and procedures in place for managing their human resources, and 100% of librarians were aware of these resources. Furthermore, the departmental Library does not have more print journals comparatively. The survey revealed that neither library's whole staff faced employment instability because of funding crisis from funding agency and government, it was analyzed that both the libraries cycled their whole personnel on a yearly basis. Additionally, there was an enormous workload for the whole staff of both libraries.
This study examines the mediating effects of open innovation and autonomy on the relationship between the entrepreneurial orientation of subsidiary CEOs and subsidiary performance in an emerging market context. The result suggests that not only CEO characteristics but also organizational characteristics are important factors affecting subsidiary performance. This study is based on a survey conducted on Korean firms exporting to the Middle East and China, and 305 valid samples were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The findings indicate that, first, subsidiary CEO entrepreneurship orientation has a positive impact on subsidiary performance. Second, subsidiary autonomy did not mediate the relationship between subsidiary CEO entrepreneurship orientation and subsidiary performance. Third, open innovation mediated the relationship between subsidiary CEO entrepreneurship orientation and subsidiary performance. This study extends the existing literature by confirming the impact of CEO characteristics in subsidiaries and demonstrating the mediating effect of organizational characteristics. Furthermore, this study reveals the importance of CEO characteristics of subsidiaries and provides guidelines on how headquarters should select subsidiary CEOs, and suggests open innovation as a way to improve subsidiary performance in emerging markets.
This chapter discusses both the benefits and risks of social media for strategic leaders, and develops a framework of leader social media engagement through a strategic lens. It first identifies key individual, organizational, and environmental attributes influencing the goals leaders may pursue through social media. It subsequently considers the impact of these goals on five social media engagement choices, and theorizes the impact of these choices on cognitive, affective, and relational strategic processes. The resulting framework aims to inspire future research at the intersection of social media and strategic leadership, as well as equip practitioners with a deeper understanding of the potential drivers and outcomes of their social media activity.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors involved in the success of a ‘first-time first-line Manager’ (FTFLM), and establish a model for the success of a FTFLM using these identified factors.
Methods: Empirical factors influencing the success of a first-line manager were gathered through the literature review and an experience survey of managers. Based on these factors, a questionnaire for primary research was developed and used for the survey. An exploratory factor analysis of the collected data yielded a nine-factor model which was validated using confirmatory factor analysis.
Findings: A major portion (74%) of the FTFLM’s success factors are under the direct control of the FTFLM. The remaining portion (26%) are influenced by the organization’s procedures and policies for grooming the FTFLM and the attitude and behaviour of management towards the FTFLM.
In the development of a country, education is an important aspect and a good management system is an important factor for achieving an educational goal. Indonesia and Malaysia have similar backgrounds but these two countries have differences in terms of providing education management of elementary school. Reflecting on it, this study raises the topic of a comparison of elementary school educational management in Indonesia and Malaysia. This paper aims to compare the elementary school educational management in Malaysia and Indonesia. A qualitative approach was used in this research. Data were obtained through literature studies of books and scientific journal articles that pay attention to their relevance. Data analyzed by comparative analysis. The results show education management planning, organizing, actuating, and controlling in both countries that have differences and similarities. This study shows the actualization of elementary educational management in these two countries and hopefully this study can recommend improvements in terms of education management.
Drawing on data from an ethnographic study of the introduction and implementation of a flexible work policy intended in part to improve gender equality at a STEM professional organization, I develop grounded theory on how managers’ gender shapes their implementation of such initiatives. I identify an equality policy paradox in which women managers, who openly support gender equality, are more likely than men managers to limit the policy. This apparent contradiction between intentions and actions is reconciled through an interactional role-based mechanism. Specifically, in this setting women managers encounter barriers to developing technical expertise, client relations, and respected authority. They respond by engaging extensively with subordinates, which allows them to effectively manage by brokering information (as an alternative to technical and client-facing tasks) and cultivating cooperation (as an alternative to formal authority). The policy undermines these interdependent activities; reflecting this, women managers generally oppose it. Men managers tend not to experience these constraints, and they focus on technical and client-related tasks that are largely independent of subordinates. The policy maintains these activities; reflecting this, they implement it. By identifying the equality policy paradox and the mechanism underlying it, this study advances theory on managers’ implementation of equality-related practices and policies as well as theory on gender and management.
Purpose
This study aims to explore the mechanism of the relationships between financial and non-financial outcomes and gender equality through a case study of a Japanese bank that has consistently pursued gender equality.
Design/methodology/approach
A single case study was adopted to explore the outcomes of promoting gender equality. Primary data were collected from 12 semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed by rereading and coding the interview responses coded to generate themes.
Findings
Through governance reform in Company A, women have been placed in top management positions and the number of female managers has increased, allowing frontline intentions to be reflected in decision-making. The increased number of female managers has led to a decrease in female turnover, men taking parental leave, improved training of female managers and the recruitment of excellent new graduates. The appropriate allocation of jobs to female managers and employees also meets customer needs and has led to increased sales. Finally, involvement of female employees in product development in male-dominated workplaces brings women’s experiences and perspectives to product development, resulting in the development of products that are favoured by customers.
Originality/value
This study determined the mechanism behind the relationships between financial and non-financial outcomes and gender equality, based on agency, upper echelons, resource dependence, institutional and social role theories. It also contributes to gender equality research methodology by providing compelling qualitative stories of gender equality outcomes to increase a company’s commitment to promoting gender equality.
Although scholarship has highlighted how stakeholders can influence business outcomes, few studies have examined how simultaneous, different tactics interact to impact firms. Critical to understanding this interaction is the radical flank effect, which asserts that the moderate and radical elements of social activist tactics can interact to either enhance or diminish a movement’s ability to accomplish its goals. However, research is unclear about when and whether the radical flank effect enhances or diminishes activist influence, nor has it empirically analyzed factors that influence the direction of the effect. To address these limitations, we explore one such factor—regulatory agency discretion, or regulators’ flexibility to interpret and implement public policies. Drawing on management and political sociology studies, we argue that discretion affects the salience of regulatory accountability to the public and thereby alters the radical flank effect on business outcomes in regulated markets. We analyze stakeholder opposition to U.S. hydroelectric power facilities from 1987 to 2019. The results show that high discretion enhances the radical flank effect and detrimentally affects business outcomes, whereas low discretion reverses the radical flank effect and favorably affects business outcomes.
Funding: This work was supported by the Kauffman Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship and the Harvard Business School Division of Research.
Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.16104 .
Although scholarship has highlighted how stakeholders can influence business outcomes, few studies have examined how simultaneous, different tactics interact to impact firms. Critical to understanding this interaction is the radical flank effect, which asserts that the moderate and radical elements of social activist tactics can interact to either enhance or diminish a movement’s ability to accomplish its goals. However, research is unclear about when and whether the radical flank effect enhances or diminishes activist influence, nor has it empirically analyzed factors that influence the direction of the effect. To address these limitations, we explore one such factor—regulatory agency discretion, or regulators’ flexibility to interpret and implement public policies. Drawing on management and political sociology studies, we argue that discretion affects the salience of regulatory accountability to the public and thereby alters the radical flank effect on business outcomes in regulated markets. We analyze stakeholder opposition to U.S. hydroelectric power facilities from 1987 to 2019. The results show that high discretion enhances the radical flank effect and detrimentally affects business outcomes, whereas low discretion reverses the radical flank effect and favorably affects business outcomes.
Funding: This work was supported by the Kauffman Foundation and the Harvard Business School Division of Research Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.
Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.22.16104 .
Owing to the heterogeneity between functional units and resource scarcity, manufacturing firms have been struggling with intra-organizational coordination for productivity and innovation. Traditional organizational structures, such as linear-functional and matrix, may cause responsibility division and independent goals (Shahani, 2020), and are more difficult to be adopted by large-sized innovative manufacturing firms for quantity production. This is based on a review of several new forms of organization (i.e., network organization, multiteam system, and platform organization) compared with the traditional forms of organization (i.e., linear, matrix, and business unit organization, among others). This study proposes a three-dimensional (3D) magic-cube organizational structure, considering the product dimensions, business, and administration. Moreover, the characteristics, propositions of system operation, system dynamic model, and working model of the 3D magic-cube organization are described. Finally, the 3D model is applied in a Chinese manufacturing firm to test its effectiveness. By redesigning the post and pay system, the pilot organization establishes a project-driven and cross-functional coordination mechanism, positively affecting the firm’s financial profit, output value, labor productivity, and income of per capita. The proposed 3D model can be adopted by large- or medium-sized manufacturing firms for product development and innovation. The implications of both practice and theory are also discussed in this study.
In order to deeply analyze the way and effect of informal group factors in workplace on the safety behavior of grassroots employees, a conceptual model of the informal group factors influencing the safety behavior of grassroots employees is constructed through theoretical and literature analysis, and the model and hypotheses are empirically tested by structural equation model. The research results show that informal group factors not only influence employee safety behavior directly, but also influence employee safety behavior indirectly through some factors of extra-role safety behavior of co-workers. Besides, extra-role safety behavior of workers plays a partially mediating role between group cohesion, group infectivity and employee safety behaviors. Meanwhile, group pressure plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between the demonstration effect of co-workers and the employees’ safety behavior.
By the end of this chapter the reader will understand how the organization’s strategic variables are configured by managers in order to achieve the best outcome with the adoption of the Management by Business Process (M-B-BP) approach.
Subject. The article deals with the formation of organizational structure of the banking ecosystem. Objectives. The aim is to develop the organizational structure of the banking ecosystem as a set of formally distributed responsibilities among divisions, designed to implement efficiently functional processes, facilitate management, and encourage innovation. Methods. The study employs the methodology for organizational management that considers external and internal conditions of the financial institution. The design method involves the determination of core elements of the organizational structure based on the approved system of objectives for the banking ecosystem. Results. The paper underpins the "Six Ps"organizational structure of the banking ecosystem, consisting of six conditional organizational modules: "Board", "Platform", "Partnership", "Processes", "Products", "Support". The structure reflects the optimal resource delegation arrangements within the banking ecosystem, ensuring the required integrity and coordination of activities, and facilitating the rapid response to changes in the external environment. Each module, with its technological resources, performs a set of procedures and functions that can constitute the final set of operations. The relative autonomy of modules creates prerequisites for reducing the distance between management levels and shapes conditions for increased accountability. Conclusions. The application of the "Six Ps"modular organizational structure enables efficient allocation of functions and responsibilities of commercial bank’s divisions as part of the implementation of the banking ecosystem model.
Dynamic capabilities (DCs) are organizations' ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure competences, on which they draw to adapt to changes. Despite a significant stream of literature exploring DCs, the following question remains: how do dynamic capabilities allow organizations to adapt to changes and succeed? To fill this gap, this paper outlines a theory of DCs, based on an analysis of strategic behavior (micro)formation at the individual and collective levels. This theory conceptualizes an evolutionary paradigm in which the intentions of organizational agents are intertwined with environmental influences. It defines DCs as ‘instruments able to entrepreneurially solve problems of evolutionary fitness of organizations.’ In doing so, it advances theoretical conceptualization of DCs and their microfoundations to provide insights into how an entrepreneurially led organization may confront and solve problems and ultimately prosper.
Purpose
This paper provides a review of the academic literature on organizational structure (OS) in family firms, highlighting the contribution to knowledge and identifying research gaps and possible avenues for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
Different databases were used to search the relevant literature on OS in family firms, including Scopus, ABI/Inform Global, Business Source Complete, and Emerald Insight. The systematic literature review presents an analysis of 52 studies on OS in family firms.
Findings
The literature largely reveals inconsistent findings in terms of the characteristics and outcomes of OS in family firms. The majority of the studies (21) are either survey-based or employ a case study approach (18), with relatively fewer studies (8) being conceptual in nature. A large number of the studies (34) were conducted in developed countries, whereas only nine were undertaken in developing countries. Moreover, 23 studies examine characteristics of OS, 23 studies explore the outcomes, while 15 investigate the antecedents of OS in family firms. The characteristics of OS in family firms relate to the degree of centralization and formalization. The antecedents or factors affecting OS in family firms include cultural values, family influence, need for succession, and ownership and management changes. The positive outcomes of OS include legacy building, enhancing entrepreneurial orientation, and efficiency. The negative outcomes of OS include exploitation of fewer opportunities, maintaining the status quo, and adverse effects on sustainability initiatives.
Originality/value
Existing reviews generally explore the highest level of OS in family firms. The current review complements this debate and reviews OS in family firms from the perspective of the lower and operational levels. As such, the current review is both timely and relevant, as it identifies limitations of the available literature as well as suggests avenues for future research.
I examine how different distributions of ownership and governance rights in firms affect the optimal organization of cross-functional project teams for knowledge-intensive work. I analyze multi-method data from two competing automated manufacturing equipment engineering firms with contrasting formal power structures, one a worker cooperative with ownership and governance rights distributed across occupations and the other a conventional firm with ownership and governance rights concentrated in the hands of several senior workers in one occupational group. Contrary to prior research, my findings suggest that when collective tasks are uncertain and complex, the benefits of cross-functional interactions depend on organizations’ formal power structure: cross-functional interactions improve teams’ productivity in the context of concentrated ownership and governance rights but not when ownership and governance rights are widely distributed among workers. Fieldwork at the two firms revealed three mechanisms by which dispersed formal power decreases the productivity benefits of cross-functional interaction: it reduces status distinctions among team members, increasing the labor hours required to resolve conflicts; boosts participation in oversight and coordination processes outside teams so that workers have more access to information and less need for cross-functional interactions; and increases the distribution of knowledge-management technology, which increases workers’ autonomy and reduces the value of cross-functional interactions.
Through a six-year qualitative study of medical residents, we build theory about professional identity construction. We found that identity construction was triggered by work-identity integrity violations: an experienced mismatch between what physicians did and who they were. These violations were resolved through identity customization processes (enriching, patching, or splinting), which were part of interrelated identity and work learning cycles. Implications of our findings (e.g., for member identification) for both theory and practice are discussed.
Drawing on the strategic issue interpretation literature, this study examined links between managerial interpretations of environmental issues and corporate choice of environmental strategy among 99 firms in the Canadian oil and gas industry. Environmental strategies ranging from conformance to regulations and standard industry practices on the one hand to voluntary actions for environmental preservation on the other were found to be associated with managerial interpretations of environmental issues as threats or as opportunities. Differences in managerial interpretations were influenced by certain factors in the organizational context, including the legitimation of environmental issues as an integral aspect of corporate identity and the discretionary slack available to managers for creative problem solving at the interface of the business and the natural environment.
This research builds on theory about how identification develops when members differ in which organizational values they hold to be important. It is relatively well established that conflict and dis-identification arise under such conditions. In the socially responsible retail company I studied, in contrast, I found identification as well as dis-identification. Both outcomes emerged from members' interactions with others whose values and behaviors differed from their own. Identification arose when managers interpreted and enacted organizational values for frontline employees by developing integrative solutions, removing ideology, and routinizing ideology. Dis-identification developed in the absence of these practices. The resulting process model suggests a relational ecology of identification, in which identification emerges from the combination of bottom-up interactive processes among organizational members and top-down interpretations and enactments by managers. This model advances understanding of the relational dynamics of identification, offers new insight into how organizations can benefit from multiple identities, and illuminates the double-edged sword of ideology in organizations.
This paper reports on a study of structural antecedents to team learning. In a study of self-managed pharmaceutical research and development teams, we first find that more team-level structure is associated with more internal learning as well as more external learning. We then establish that more organizational-level structure is negatively associated with both internal and external learning. We find that psychological safety mediates the positive relationship between team structure and team learning, and that task autonomy constraints mediate the negative relationship between organizational structure and team learning. Investigating the interaction effect between team and organizational structure, we find, unexpectedly, that organizational structure supports external team learning under conditions of less team structure. Specifically, when teams have less team structure, the relationship between organizational structure and external team learning is positive. This structure substitutability finding suggests that although more organizational structure, on average, hurts external team learning, there are situations in which it helps. An important implication of the study is that multiple levels of structure, and their interactions, should be taken into consideration when assessing structural effects on team learning.
For all its richness and potential for discovery, qualitative research has been critiqued as too often lacking in scholarly rigor. The authors summarize a systematic approach to new concept development and grounded theory articulation that is designed to bring “qualitative rigor” to the conduct and presentation of inductive research.
While strategic alliances have emerged in recent years as common and important structural vehicles for business development, surprisingly little is known about how collaborative activities are organized and administered within these governance structures. We see classic organizational scholarship as useful insofar as it both provides clear classifications that distinguish alternative intraorganizational designs and explicates how they affect the inner workings of organizations. Existing alliance classification schemes based on type of collaborative activity, partner characteristics, or legal structure, on the other hand, rarely delineate important differences of how collaborative work is organized among partners. We seek to redress this shortcoming by developing a framework of alliance structural parameters based on classic organizational design considerations. Specifically we identify and discuss five key design parameters for alliances: the structural interface between partners, the structural “intraface” within partners, and the specialization, formalization, and centralization of the alliance organization. We show how consideration of these five parameters provides a deeper understanding of alliance governance and suggest how partner organizations can achieve differential levels of connectivity and steering for their collaborative ventures.
The idea that managerial discretion-defined as latitude of action-may be an important determinant of CEO compensation has been recognized for some time. However, in spite of considerable work that has implicitly invoked related ideas on the sources of potential managerial contribution, a formal test of the discretion hypothesis has yet to be conducted. In addition, few studies have tested the performance consequences of CEO pay. In a sample of Fortune 1,000 firms, we found support for both a main effect of managerial discretion on CEO pay and a contingency effect, whereby firm performance is higher when discretion and pay are aligned than when they are not.
It is argued that (a) social identification is a perception of oneness with a group of persons; (b) social identification stems from the categorization of individuals, the distinctiveness and prestige of the group, the salience of outgroups, and the factors that traditionally are associated with group formation; and (c) social identification leads to activities that are congruent with the identity, support for institutions that embody the identity, stereotypical perceptions of self and others, and outcomes that traditionally are associated with group formation, and it reinforces the antecedents of identification. This perspective is applied to organizational socialization, role conflict, and intergroup relations.
This paper develops a model of how organizations influence the temporal flexibility of professional service workers. The model starts by identifying a key source of temporal inflexibility for these workers: an inability to hand clients off among one other. Hand-offs are impeded by high levels of client-to-worker specificity, stemming from three common characteristics of professional service work. The organizational processes that reduce that specificity, and therefore facilitate hand-offs, function by (a) reshaping client participation and expectations about the nature of their service interactions, (b) partly standardizing client-related work practices, and (c) facilitating the sharing of knowledge about clients between workers. The presence of these organizational processes represents greater bureaucracy—an interesting twist, given that they create more temporal flexibility for workers. The model is grounded in field research conducted with primary care physicians, and is also evaluated using a unique survey data set of physician organizations. Implications are drawn for the study of temporal flexibility across professional services in general, as well as for recent attempts to rethink the meaning of bureaucracy for workers.
We examined how managers' perceptions of different types of stakeholder influences in the Canadian forestry industry affect the types of sustainability practices that their firms adopt. Both influences involving withholding of resources by social and ecological stakeholders and those involving directed usage of resources from economic stakeholders were found to drive such practices. We found that the industry and its stakeholders have moved beyond a focus on early stages of sustainability performance such as pollution control and eco-efficiency. However, more advanced practices, such as those involving the redefinition of business and industrial ecosystems where firms locate in a region so that they can exchange and utilize wastes generated by other firms, are in their infancy. Stakeholders and firms in the industry are focused on the intermediate sustainability phases involving recirculation of materials and redesign of processes including sustainable harvesting of lumber. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In this article, we analyze the relationship between the main dimensions of organizational structure (i.e., formalization, centralization, and complexity) and ecological responsiveness in a sample of 109 firms in the European air passenger transport industry. Broadly confirming our hypotheses, the results show that high formalization of routine tasks favors ecological responsiveness. Structures characterized by high decentralization and low complexity also favor ecological responsiveness. Furthermore, decentralization has a significant, positive relationship with ecological responsiveness among firms with low vertical complexity. Overall, the results indicate that organizational structure plays a major role in ecological responsiveness.
Purpose
Managers develop psychological contracts (PCs) with staff as part of their people management responsibilities. A second-stage mediated moderation model explains how a manager’s personality influences the content and fulfillment of PCs in different organizational contexts. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data from 749 managers at Australian organizations were collected and regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. The Edwards and Lambert (2007) approach was used to analyze conditional indirect effects.
Findings
Managers high on agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion are more likely to establish relational PCs with their staff than managers low on these personality traits. The effects of agreeableness and conscientiousness on the fulfillment of the PC occur through the “relational PC” variable. Once a relational PC is established, a manager’s ability to fulfill the PC is constrained by the extent to which polices and practices are formalized.
Research limitations/implications
Organizations may need to delegate more power and discretion to managers to enable them to fulfill employer obligations toward their staff, and/or clearly communicate to managers their boundaries in employment promises. In turn, managers need to be aware of personality’s influence on the creation and fulfillment of promises. Causality cannot be inferred because of the study’s cross-sectional data.
Originality/value
Research has focused on employees’ personality and perceptions of the PC. This study is the first to focus on managers’ personality and PC creation and fulfillment.
- This paper describes the process of inducting theory using case studies from specifying the research questions to reaching closure. Some features of the process, such as problem definition and construct validation, are similar to hypothesis-testing research. Others, such as within-case analysis and replication logic, are unique to the inductive, case-oriented process. Overall, the process described here is highly iterative and tightly linked to data. This research approach is especially appropriate in new topic areas. The resultant theory is often novel, testable, and empirically valid. Finally, framebreaking insights, the tests of good theory (e.g., parsimony, logical coherence), and convincing grounding in the evidence are the key criteria for evaluating this type of research.
This paper explores how organizations dealing with institutional complexity manage internal tensions triggered by environmental turbulence. Based on a longitudinal, comparative study, we extend previous research that has identified collaboration and formalization as possible mechanisms to reconcile organizational tensions in such situations. We show that neither of these mechanisms is sufficient in itself to resolve tensions. Rather, it is the structured interaction between collaboration and formalization that allows organizations to successfully blend logics and reconcile their conflicting demands. On the basis of our findings, we develop a process model that explains how organizations change in response to environmental turbulence.
This article addresses what is distinct about existing business and the natural environment (B&NE) research and provides the multiple directions in which the field is going. It first describes in broad terms the history of B&NE. It also introduces the central themes in the field as they exist today. Then, it reports what are found to be common and overarching themes and, therefore, fruitful areas of future research. The waves of corporate environmentalism recognize that corporate environmental issues were a problem necessitating regulatory controls, treat the environmental protection as a strategic concern, and concentrate on sustainability. A shift to a systems view of the B&NE relationship offers greater opportunities for optimizing social and environmental systems, but also greater complexities and challenges in managing them to predictable ends. B&NE research forces the kind of problem-based, temporally relevant research that critics and business practitioners demand from business schools.
This study linked CEO hubris to firm risk taking and examined the moderating role of managerial discretion in this relationship. Drawing on upper echelons theory and behavioral decision theory, we developed and tested hypotheses using original survey data from 2,790 CEOs of diverse manufacturing firms in China. The positive relationship between CEO hubris and firm risk taking was found to be stronger when CEO managerial discretion was stronger: when a firm faced munificent but complex markets; had less inertia and more intangible resources; had a CEO who also chaired its board; and had a CEO who was not politically appointed.
Contents: A.P. Brief, J.P. Walsh, Series Editors' Foreword. Preface. Roles and Role Transitions. Role Identities. Psychological Motives Aroused by Role Transitions. Attributes of Role Transitions. Role Exit. Role Entry: Situational Context. Role Entry: Individual Dynamics. With M. Fugate, Role Transitions and the Life Span. With G.E. Kreiner, M. Fugate, S.A. Johnson, Micro Role Transitions. Epilogue: Summary and Major Themes.
The problem of authority has been selected as the critical dimension through which various theories and practices of organizational behavior are expressed. Following a discussion of the confusions and lacunae in leadership theory, a review of philosophies, ideologies, and practices is presented that identifies two major movements: the traditional theorists and the human relations proponents. Some attention is given to the contemporary revisions and models that endeavor to ameliorate the tensions between the aforementioned movements. Finally, an explication of leadership is presented that attempts to account for the efficacy of certain leadership propositions with respect to a priori criteria of organizational effectiveness.
The present study establishes the reliability and validity of short forms for the measurement of four previously established dimensions of organizations: two contextual-technology and dependence-and two structural-structuring of activities and concentration of authority-based on information obtained from the chief executive in an interview lasting about one hour. A replication study was carried out using the abbreviated measures on a sample of 40 organizations in the English Midlands. The findings supported the relationships previously found between context and structure. Structuring of activities was found to be primarily related to organization size and to a lesser extent to technology; concentration of authority was found to be related to dependence. A restudy using these measures on 14 organizations after a period of four to five years gxxxenerally supported the hypothesis that forms of workflow bureaucracy show a trend over time in the direction of increased structuring of activities coupled with decreased concentration of authority.
A review of literature on structural determination is accompanied by discussion of recent attempts to incorporate managerial discretion into the existing structural model. Lacunae in current conceptual formulations are highlighted. An expanded choice model is proposed which incorporates prior empirical research and contemporary theoretical developments into a conceptual paradigm of the strategic decision-making process.
This paper examines two different ways of measuring the distribution of power in sixteenth health and welfare organizations. Participation in decision making about the allocation of organizational resources and the determination of organizational policy was strongly related to the degree of complexity as measured by (1) the number of occupational specialities, (2) the amount of professional training, and (3) the amount of professional activity and was weakly related to the degree of formalization as measured by the degree of job codification and the amount of rule observation. Except for rule observation, hierarchy of authority or the reliance on the chain of command for work decisions was not as strongly related to each of these measures of organizational structure. A partial correlational analysis between each measure of the distribution of power and the five structural properties indicates that participation in decision making retains an association with the first two indicators of complexity and the first indicator of formalization even when the other five variables are controlled simultaneously. The hierarchy of authority retains an association with the amount of professional activity and the amount of rule observation. At the same time, it is important to recognize that these two measures of the distribution of power are themselves strongly interrelated. When decisions about the allocation of organizational resources are centralized, then there is a centralization of work decisions as well.
A persistent theme in discussions of professionals in organizations concerns the alienating effect of formalization. It is traditionally argued that structural formalization arouses conflict between administrative imperatives and professional norms. A case is presented for possible compensatory effects, and thus a more benign view, of formalization. Path analysis of data from 247 engineers and scientists in three organizations supported this notion. The effects of formalization in reducing role ambiguity and in enhancing identification with the organization offset the effect of inducing role conflict: the net effect of formalization was to reduce alienation.
Studies of work behavior have been primarily processual as opposed to factorial. There has been a great concentration on the one-case study and little systematic attempt to relate behavior to contextual and organizational settings. A survey of the literature on bureaucracy leads to an analysis of organizational structure in terms of a set of variables (specialization, standardization, formalization, centralization, configuration, and flexibility) that are capable of empirical verification. Comparative studies will establish organizational "profiles" along these variables and relate them to contextual variables such as size, ownership and control, charter, and technology. The profiles will also allow comparative studies of individual and group behavior to be undertaken in clear relation to organizational settings.
Despite calls for more visual methodologies in organizational research, the use of photographs remains sparse. Organizational research could benefit from the inclusion of photographs to track contemporary change processes in an organization and change processes over time, as well as to incorporate diverse voices within organizations, to name a few advantages. To further understanding, the authors identify researcher choices related to the use of photographs in organizational research, clarify the advantages and disadvantages of these choices, and discuss ethical and other special considerations of the use of photographs. They highlight several organizational areas of research, primarily related to the management discipline, that could benefit from the inclusion of photographs. Finally, the authors describe how they used photographs in a study of one organization and specifically how their intended research design with photographs changed over the course of the study as well as how photographs helped to develop new theoretical insights. Photographic research methods represent a viable—but underleveraged—method that should be more fully incorporated in the methodological tool kit of organizational scholars.
Drawing on an upper-echelons framework to study the effects of top-management-team tenure and modeling managerial discretion as a moderating variable, this study examined the relationship between managerial tenure and such organizational outcomes as strategic persistence and conformity in strategy and performance with other firms in an industry. In a sample of 100 organizations in the computer, chemical, and natural-gas distribution industries, executive-team tenure was found to have a significant effect on strategy and performance, with long-tenured managerial teams following more persistent strategies, strategies that conformed to central tendencies of the industry, and exhibiting performance that closely adhered to industry averages. Consistent with the theory, results differed depending on the level of managerial discretion, with the strongest results occurring in contexts that allowed managers high discretion.
The theoretical importance of formalization has often been obscured in empirical investigation. This article discusses two outcomes of formalization: administrative efficiency, and influence. As formalization contributes to administrative efficiency, it also bestows upon the administrator power and influence. While some theoretical attention has been paid to the efficiency theme, influence has been largely ignored. The article suggests that formalization as code, as channel, and as standard can be best understood in the context of the organizational life cycle. Formalization (as efficiency) is likely to contribute to effectiveness early in an organization's history. Later in the life cycle, however, formalization (as influence) may contribute to organizational ineffectiveness and decline.
Five primary dimensions of organization structure were defined and operationalized; (1) specialization, (2) standardization, (3) formalization, (4) centralization, (5) configuration. From comparative data on these dimensions, in fifty-two different work organizations in England, scales were constructed to measure sixty-four component variables. This made it possible to construct a profile characteristic of the structure of an organization and to compare it directly with that of other organizations. Principal-components analysis was used to help in the interpretation of intercorrelations among the scales. The resulting factors suggested four basic dimensions of structure, conceptualized as structuring of activities, concentration of authority, line control of workflow, and size of supportive component. This multifactor result was considered to demonstrate that the concept of the bureaucratic type is no longer useful.
The study of organizations is rife with competing vocabularies and perspectives. Taking a specific and traditional focus - organizational structure - the authors argue for a more unified theoretical and methodological analysis that is adequate at the levels of meaning and causality. They break with the typical conception of structures as a formal framework counterposed to the interactive patterns of organizational members. Drawing upon Bourdieu and Giddens, they stress the way structures are continually produced and recreated by members so that the structures embody and become constitutive of their provinces of meaning. Such an analysis must incorporate not only relations of meaning and power but also the mediation of contingent size, technology, and environment. The creativity of members in the face of contextual constraint can only be assessed by setting the analysis in a temporal, historical dimension.
Role theory concerns one of the most important features of social life, characteristic behavior patterns or roles. It explains roles by presuming that persons are members of social positions and hold expectations for their own behaviors and those of other persons. Its vocabulary and concerns are popular among social scientists and practitioners, and role concepts have generated a lot of research. At least five perspectives may be discriminated in recent work within the field: functional, symbolic interactionist, structural, organizational, and cognitive role theory. Much of role research reflects practical concerns and derived concepts, and research on four such concepts is reviewed: consensus, conformity, role conflict, and role taking. Recent developments suggest both centrifugal and integrative forces within the role field. The former reflect differing perspectival commitments of scholars, confusions and disagreements over use of role concepts, and the fact that role theory is used to analyze various f...
We investigated contextual organizational ambidexterity, defined as the capacity to simultaneously achieve alignment and adaptability at a business-unit level. Building on the leadership and organization context literatures, we argue that a context char- acterized by a combination of stretch, discipline, support, and trust facilitates contex- tual ambidexterity. Further, ambidexterity mediates the relationship between these contextual features and performance. Data collected from 4,195 individuals in 41 business units supported our hypotheses. A recurring theme in a variety of organizational literatures is that successful organizations in a dy- namic environment are ambidextrous—aligned and efficient in their management of today's busi- ness demands, while also adaptive enough to changes in the environment that they will still be around tomorrow (Duncan, 1976; Tushman & O'Reilly, 1996). The simple idea behind the value of ambidexterity is that the demands on an organi- zation in its task environment are always to some degree in conflict (for instance, investment in cur- rent versus future projects, differentiation versus low-cost production), so there are always trade-offs to be made. Although these trade-offs can never entirely be eliminated, the most successful organi- zations reconcile them to a large degree, and in so doing enhance their long-term competitiveness. Authors have typically viewed ambidexterity in structural terms. According to Duncan (1976), who first used the term, organizations manage trade-offs between conflicting demands by putting in place "dual structures," so that certain business units—or groups within business units—focus on alignment, while others focus on adaptation (Duncan, 1976).
Defines what is meant by executive discretion, and discusses the major factors that are thought to enhance or restrict the discretion of chief executives. Some of the organizational effects of abundant and restricted chief executive discretion are portrayed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)