ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT,DIFFERENTIATION AND PERCEIVED ENVIRONMENTAL UNCERTAINTY1

Four propositions are derived from an a priori model which relates environmental characteristics, organizational differentiation, and perceived environmental uncertainty. The four propositions are: (P₁) the greater the magnitude of each of several task environmental dimensions confronting an organization, the greater the degree of organizational differentiation, (P₂) the greater the degree of task environment change, the greater the degree of organizational differentiation, (P₃) the greater the size of the organization, the greater the organizational differentiation, and (P₄) the greater the organizational differentiation, the less the degree of perceived environmental uncertainty seen by top administrators. These propositions were tested on 23 Employment Service District Offices with objective environmental and organizational differentiation measures and with self report indices of perceived environmental uncertainty. Zero-order correlational and regression analyses supported propositions P₁, P₃, and P₄. Based on the empirical findings, a revised model of environment, differentiation and uncertainty was developed. Suggestions for future research and theorizing are offered.     

ON PREDICTING COMPUTATIONAL TIME OF A BRANCH AND BOUND ALGORITHM FOR THE ASSIGNMENT OF FACILITIES

Experience with branch and bound algorithms indicates that computational time is a function of not only the size of the problem, but also the nature of the input data. This paper formulates statistically-based variables which describe certain characteristics of the input data and experimentally evaluates their ability to predict computational time for one branch and bound algorithm, the relative location of facilities or “plant layout” problem. Results suggest that the described experimental procedure may be useful for an a priori assessment of the computational difficulty of specific branch and bound problems.     

THE IMPACT OF TRADE LIBERALIZATION ON INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTIVITY

An empirical finding by Trefler (2004, “The Long and Short of the Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement”, American Economic Review, 94(4), 870–895) and others that industrial productivity increases more strongly in liberalized industries than in nonliberalized industries has been widely accepted as evidence for the Melitz ( 2003 , “The Impact of Trade on Intra‐Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity”, Econometrica, 71, 1695–1725) model. We show that under fairly standard assumptions a multi‐industry version of the Melitz model does not predict this relationship. Instead, it predicts the opposite relationship that industrial productivity increases more strongly in nonliberalized industries than in liberalized industries.     

Unlocking the mask: a look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors

The conceptual and empirical links between authentic leadership and follower attitudes, behaviors, and performance outcomes have not been fully developed. Although we have a number of articles developing the theory of authentic leadership and testing propositions that will appear in a forthcoming special issue of The Leadership Quarterly (Vol. 16, Issue 3, 2005), the focus of this article is to provide some of the initial foundation work for the broader theoretical framework of how authentic leaders influence follower attitudes, behaviors, and performance. Here, we draw from positive organizational behavior, trust, hope, emotion, identification, and identity theories to describe the processes by which authentic leaders exert their influence on followers' attitudes and behaviors. Research propositions based on the proposed theoretical model and implications for future theory building and research are presented.     

Values and behaviors of effective lean managers: Mixed-methods exploratory research

Lean Management is a managerial approach focused on enhancing customer value through the elimination of non-value adding steps from work processes. Lean Management is also enjoying a resurgence, largely because its ‘do more with less’ philosophy is particularly well-suited for the austere conditions of a 'Great Recession' recovery. Despite this resurgence with practitioners, however, academic research of Lean Management, in particular research on the leadership of lean initiatives, remains limited. In this study, we identify a constellation of lean values and behaviors of effective lean managers, based on extant research and the views of expert practitioners, and a field study of lean managers. In the first of two empirical studies, we produce an initial list of values and behaviors, derived from both the lean and leadership literature, and from three Delphi rounds with 19 expert lean practitioners. In study 2, we corroborate and refine the list with a sample of effective lean middle managers, through 18 interviews; a survey (N = 43); and fine-grained video-analyses of their in situ behaviors during meetings with subordinates. The values identified include: honesty, candor, participation and teamwork, and continuous improvement—all indicative of self-transcendence and openness to change. Regarding behaviors, we find that the effective lean middle managers of our sample, compared to other middle managers, engage significantly more in positive relations-oriented “active listening” and “agreeing” behaviors, and significantly less in “task monitoring” and counterproductive work behaviors (such as “providing negative feedback” and “defending one's own position”). To conclude, we put forward five new propositions intended to guide future research and a more successful practice of ‘lean leadership.’     

Institutional Predictors of and Complements to Industry Self‐regulation with Regard to Labor Practices

In recent years, there has been increasing managerial and academic attention given to a variety of mechanisms for companies to respond to stakeholder concerns about global business ethics. One area that merits further analysis is the role of industry‐level cooperation regarding issues in global business ethics such as labor practices. There are two main issues that we will address in this article: institutional pressures that predict when an industry will create a code of conduct and institutional complements for an industry‐level code of conduct to be “successful” with regard to responding to stakeholder concerns about international business operations. We offer a number of propositions—bringing together work from both the corporate social responsibility and (neo)institutional theory literatures—with regard to both predictors and complements of industry self‐regulation in reference to labor practices.     

Desired Risk: Broadening the Social Amplification of Risk Framework1

Recently Kasperson et al.⁽⁶⁾ have proposed a conceptual framework, “The Social Amplification of Risk,” as a beginning step in developing a comprehensive theory of public experience of risk. A central goal of their effort is to systematically link technical assessments of risk with the growing findings from social scientific research. A key and growing domain of public risk experience is “desired” risk, but this is virtually neglected in the framework. This paper evaluates the scope of the “Social Amplification of Risk Framework,” asking whether it is applicable to desired risks, such as risk recreation (hang gliding, mountain climbing, and so forth). The analysis is supportive of the framework's applicability to the domain of desired risk.     

FIELD EXPERIMENTS WHICH COMPARED THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DESIGN METHODS*

The influence of “method” on the design of services was investigated in three organizational settings. Models of “Systems,”“Behavioral,” and “Heuristic” design approaches were used to plan several service programs. These plans were compared using measures of their “quality,”“acceptance,” and “innovation.” Service plans designed by the Systems approach were found to have high quality (p < .05), and service plans designed by the Behavioral approach were found to be innovative (p < .05). These findings are employed to provide guides to select a Design Method and to suggest some research issues.     

A Practical Framework for the Construction of a Biotracing Model: Application to Salmonella in the Pork Slaughter Chain

A novel purpose of the use of mathematical models in quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) is to identify the sources of microbial contamination in a food chain (i.e., biotracing). In this article we propose a framework for the construction of a biotracing model, eventually to be used in industrial food production chains where discrete numbers of products are processed that may be contaminated by a multitude of sources. The framework consists of steps in which a Monte Carlo model, simulating sequential events in the chain following a modular process risk modeling (MPRM) approach, is converted to a Bayesian belief network (BBN). The resulting model provides a probabilistic quantification of concentrations of a pathogen throughout a production chain. A BBN allows for updating the parameters of the model based on observational data, and global parameter sensitivity analysis is readily performed in a BBN. Moreover, a BBN enables “backward reasoning” when downstream data are available and is therefore a natural framework for answering biotracing questions. The proposed framework is illustrated with a biotracing model of Salmonella in the pork slaughter chain, based on a recently published Monte Carlo simulation model. This model, implemented as a BBN, describes the dynamics of Salmonella in a Dutch slaughterhouse and enables finding the source of contamination of specific carcasses at the end of the chain.     

Reconciling identity leadership and leader identity: A dual-identity framework

Research exploring the powerful links between leadership and identity has burgeoned in recent years but cohered around two distinct approaches. Research on identity leadership, the main focus of this special issue, sees leadership as a group process that centers on leaders’ ability to represent, advance, create and embed a social identity that they share with the collectives they lead—a sense of “us as a group”. Research on leader identity sees leadership as a process that is advanced by individuals who have a well-developed personal understanding of themselves as leaders—a sense of “me as a leader”. This article explores the nature and implications of these divergent approaches, focusing on their specification of profiles, processes, pathways, products, and philosophies that have distinct implications for theory and practice. We formalize our observations in a series of propositions and also outline a dual-identity framework with the potential to integrate the two approaches.     

Organizational interventions: A research-based framework for the evaluation of both process and effects

Abstract

Organizational interventions are often recommended when organizations want to improve employee psychological health and well-being. Research, however, has revealed inconsistent results and reviewers have called for research on why interventions either bring about desired change or fail to do so. Answering the “how” and “why” of intervention outcomes requires a close examination of the elements that hinder or facilitate desired outcomes, thus moving beyond evaluation of only the overall effects. In this paper, we present an evaluation framework based on recent intervention research and process-oriented organization theory. The framework offers suggestions for which elements to include when evaluating organizational interventions. Within the framework, elements crucial to intervention evaluation are grouped into four overarching categories that we argue are crucial to evaluation over the five phases of an intervention programme. These categories are: the organizational “actors”; the mental models of those actors; the context of the intervention; and intervention design and process. Evaluation during the process as well as of the overall effects, as recommended by this framework, should throw light on what works for whom, why, how and under which circumstances.     

MODELING OF CONFIGURAL JUDGMENT PROCESSES AS A SERIES OF SUBSPACE HYPERPLANES

Past research in modeling human judgments has been accompanied by continuing debate as to the necessity and effectiveness of using “configural” models, vis-a-vis“first-order” models, to represent complex decision processes. The resounding power of first-order models adequately to represent apparently configural processes repeatedly has been demonstrated to the frustration of those researchers who intuitively feel that man decides in a complex and configural manner. This paper presents the theory that the apparent weakness of configural models may be attributed to the assumption that interaction effects are “continuous” phenomena when in fact they are “discrete” or local interactions. The definition of subspaces of the predictor set, over which “local” first-order hyperplanes may be used, is investigated as a viable means of representing “discrete” interactions while preserving some of the parsimony of the “continuous” formulations. The application of the Automatic Interaction Detection technique to define subspaces and local models is attempted with positive results for an installment loan officer. Then a comparison with the results from a recent study which used various “continuous” formulations shows a definite superiority of the “local” modeling approach.     

The stability of strategic alliances: Characteristics, factors and stages

This paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of strategic alliances. Using an integrated process model, we analyze the conceptual characteristics and antecedents of the stability of strategic alliances. The primary purpose of this study is to (1) conceptualize and characterize alliance stability to fill the academic gap in the literature, and (2) identify a range of endogenous factors underlying alliance stability across four developmental stages — partner selection, structuring/negotiation, implementation and performance evaluation — so as to fill the managerial relevance gap. From the discussion, we develop a number of propositions to facilitate future empirical testing of our conceptual model. Finally, we indicate some key implications for theoretical research and managerial practice.     

Design Principles for Flexible Systems

A fundamental aspect of designing systems with dedicated servers is identifying and improving the system bottlenecks. We extend the concept of a bottleneck to networks with heterogeneous, flexible servers. In contrast with a network with dedicated servers, the bottlenecks are not a priori obvious, but can be determined by solving a number of linear programming problems. Unlike the dedicated server case, we find that a bottleneck may span several nodes in the network. We then identify some characteristics of desirable flexibility structures. In particular, the chosen flexibility structure should not only achieve the maximal possible capacity (corresponding to full server flexibility), but should also have the feature that the entire network is the (unique) system bottleneck. The reason is that it is then possible to shift capacity between arbitrary nodes in the network, allowing the network to cope with demand fluctuations. Finally, we specify when certain flexibility structures (in particular chaining, targeted flexibility, and the “N” and “W” structures from the call center literature) possess these desirable characteristics.     

Admissibility in Games1

Suppose that each player in a game is rational, each player thinks the other players are rational, and so on. Also, suppose that rationality is taken to incorporate an admissibility requirement—that is, the avoidance of weakly dominated strategies. Which strategies can be played? We provide an epistemic framework in which to address this question. Specifically, we formulate conditions of rationality and mth‐order assumption of rationality (RmAR) and rationality and common assumption of rationality (RCAR). We show that (i) RCAR is characterized by a solution concept we call a “self‐admissible set”; (ii) in a “complete” type structure, RmAR is characterized by the set of strategies that survive m+1 rounds of elimination of inadmissible strategies; (iii) under certain conditions, RCAR is impossible in a complete structure.     

Revealed Altruism1

This paper develops a nonparametric theory of preferences over one's own and others' monetary payoffs. We introduce “more altruistic than” (MAT), a partial ordering over such preferences, and interpret it with known parametric models. We also introduce and illustrate “more generous than” (MGT), a partial ordering over opportunity sets. Several recent studies focus on two‐player extensive form games of complete information in which the first mover (FM) chooses a more or less generous opportunity set for the second mover (SM). Here reciprocity can be formalized as the assertion that an MGT choice by the FM will elicit MAT preferences in the SM. A further assertion is that the effect on preferences is stronger for acts of commission by FM than for acts of omission. We state and prove propositions on the observable consequences of these assertions. Finally, empirical support for the propositions is found in existing data from investment and dictator games, the carrot and stick game, and the Stackelberg duopoly game and in new data from Stackelberg mini‐games.     

Leadership and organizational learning: A multiple levels perspective

We review theoretical and empirical work relevant to the nexus of leadership with organizational learning. We build on the classic distinction between exploration and exploitation and the 4I framework of organizational learning [Crossan, M. M., Lane, H. W., & White, R. E. (1999). An organizational learning framework: From intuition to institution. Academy of Management Review, 24, 522–537.] to present previous research and offer research directions linking leadership constructs and processes of organizational learning at different levels of analysis. For each of these links, we discuss the mediating effect of organizational context and suggest future research directions. This review is integrated using a model and propositions that depict the role of leaders with regard to new and existing learning.     

Navigating the Life Cycle of Trust in Developing Economies: One‐size Solutions Do Not Fit All

Trust is critical to the development and maintenance of collaborative and cohesive relationships in societies, broadly, and in organizations, specifically. At the same time, trust is highly dependent on the social context in which it occurs. Unfortunately, existing research involving trust remains somewhat limited to a particular set of developed economies, providing a window to explore a culture's stage of economic development as a key contextual determinant of trust within organizations. In this article, we review the state of the scholarship on trust and identify those qualities of trust that are common in organizations at similar stages of economic development, referred to as its etic aspects. We then also distinguish those elements of trust that are, to the contrary, culturally specific or emic in nature. We structure our discussion around the “life cycle of trust” (i.e., the creation, maintenance, and postfracture repair of trust) and consider unique factors in its application to developing economies. In doing so, we ground our examination in expository examples through field experience in Haiti. We conclude with the proposal of a framework for future research oriented toward the resolution of remaining theoretical and empirical queries as they relate to trust in developing economies.     

Conceptualizing Effects of Office Information Systems: A Methodology and Application for the Study of Alpha,Beta, and Gamma Changes*

This article applies the concepts of alpha, beta, and gamma changes to test whether the implementation of a new office information system with networking capabilities changes the way organizational members conceptualize office work. The traditional approach (t-test) was used to measure alpha change and indicated little change in how effectively the respondents felt they performed eight generic office activities before implementation (T1) and nine months after implementation (T2). However, considerable change was detected between effectiveness reported at T1 and a retrospective assessment of T1 effectiveness reported at T2 (called “then” assessments). Strong change was also detected between “then” assessments and T2 effectiveness reported at T2, indicating beta change. Multiple hierarchical tests showed that most of the change was actually gamma change; the T2 and the “then” factor structures and covariances differed significantly. This study supports propositions that using computers to accomplish organizational work may be associated with different conceptualizations of work, which may create ambiguity and uncertainty if training and management policies do not respond appropriately. Finally, this study provides an expanded version of a prior solution to detecting alpha, beta, and gamma changes.     

The Role of Non‐structural and Informal Mechanisms of Integration and Coordination as Forces in Knowledge Creation

This study focuses on the analysis of the influence of organizational design variables on the creation of knowledge within the firm. The impact that enablers have on knowledge creation has been widely demonstrated and established by the relevant literature. Using this assumption as a starting point, this study will consider and explore the role that mechanisms of integration and coordination play in the creation of knowledge, considering enablers as intermediate variables. In this way, we can create a model of the relationships between these variables and contrast them with an empirical investigation of a quantitative nature, using a sample of 167 large Spanish firms. Despite the fact that the theoretical framework in question is characterized by a direct and positive connection between the standardization of work processes and knowledge creation, the results suggest that the relation is not significant. All the other coordination mechanisms, however, do have a significant influence on the creation of knowledge: standardization of skills through the autonomy enabler; standardization of outputs through intention; interventions for socialization through intention and trust and commitment; and, lastly, mutual adjustment whose influence is found in redundancy and variety.