The Aston Programme Contribution to Organizational Research: A Literature Review

This paper reviews the literature about the Aston Programme of organizational research, in particular, its studies of organizational structure. The intellectual commitments of the Aston Programme are explicated and contrasted with the then dominant traditions of organizational research. The methodology is explained, with its emphasis on quantitative variables, reliable scales and statistical methods. The way successive studies confirmed or challenged Weberian bureaucracy is discussed. The major structural scales and their short forms are described. The relationships among the structural variables and between them and the contextual variables of size, technology and public accountability are outlined. The generalizability of these relationships in organizational research across countries is considered. The paper offers a roughly chronological narrative in three phases: the original Aston study, the National study and then on to the many subsequent replication and extension studies and reviews of them. Some cognate organizational research studies are brought in that confirm the Aston Programme. The need to continue the Astonian Cartesian approach rather than the configurational approach is emphasized. In closing, the Aston legacy is briefly summated and a vision for a future Aston Programme is offered in an Epilogue.     

A Structured Literature Review for Risk Assessment: EMF and Human Health Risk

The volume of publications on any given topic makes it difficult to select an appropriate subset of publications for review by an expert panel. This paper proposes a method for selecting a subset using a protocol that attempts to order publications based upon good research methods. The protocol was followed by graduate students with no expert knowledge of the area they were reviewing. They reduced 11730 articles on the topic of EMF and Health risk to 68 articles that were reviewed by an expert panel. The interrater reliability was 96% and 94% of the relevant articles were captured by this process.     

Critical Theorist,Postmodernist and Social Constructionist Paradigms in Organizational Analysis: A Paradigmatic Review of Organizational Learning Literature

In an effort to clarify alternative approaches to organizational analysis, this paper is concerned to stimulate the debate on how an inquiry into organizational phenomena, in general, and organizational learning, in particular, can be accomplished. Encouraging attention to different aspects of various paradigmatic approaches, the paper focuses on critical theory, postmodernism and social constructionism and how these paradigms have contributed and can contribute to the research in the subject domain of organizational learning. To this end, a paradigmatic review of the literature on organizational learning is offered in this paper. Organizational learning, as the study of learning processes of, and within, organizations, has attracted significant attention in academe since the early 1980s. There is a plethora of studies on organizational learning, which offer rich material for a paradigmatic review. This study highlights the need for further development of the field from alternative paradigmatic perspectives, with a view to generating more insights into the multifaceted, complex and changing nature of learning in contemporary organizations.     

组织文化定量分析方法研究述评和展望

首先,对组织文化定量分析方法从量表构建及应用、量表属性、定量测量方法、时间序列等方面进行全面回顾和梳理;然后,针对现有研究的不足从计量对象、计量途径、集结模型、数据采集、计量效度和数理模型等方面进行述评和展望;最后,进一步阐述了组织文化定量分析方法可能的不足和研究的意义.     

Self-Esteem Within the Work and Organizational Context: A Review of the Organization-Based Self-Esteem Literature

On numerous occasions it has been suggested that an individual’s self-esteem, formed around work and organizational experiences, plays a significant role in determining employee motivation, work-related attitudes and behaviors. We review more than a decade of research on an organization-based conceptualization of self-esteem. It is observed that sources of organization structure, signals about worth from the organization, as well as, success-building role conditions predict organization-based self-esteem. In addition, organization-based self-esteem is related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, motivation, citizenship behavior, in-role performance, and turnover intentions, as well as, other important organization-related attitudes and behaviors. Explanations for these effects and directions for future research are discussed.     

Risk Perception and Movies: A Study of Availability as a Factor in Risk Perception

Media effects on risk perception have often been explained by Tversky and Kahneman's availability principle, but research has not consistently supported it. What seem like media effects based on availability may be effects of new information. In an experimental study, entertainment movies depicting dramatic risk events were shown. They were found to produce no average effects on perceived risks in spite of large mood effects and being perceived as credible. We found, however, evidence of idiosyncratic effects of the movies, that is, people reacted immediately after the movies with enhanced  or  diminished risk beliefs. These reactions had faded after 10 days. Implications for the availability heuristic and risk perception are discussed.     

Probability Information in Risk Communication: A Review of the Research Literature

Communicating probability information about risks to the public is more difficult than might be expected. Many studies have examined this subject, so that their resulting recommendations are scattered over various publications, diverse research fields, and are about different presentation formats. An integration of empirical findings in one review would be useful therefore to describe the evidence base for communication about probability information and to present the recommendations that can be made so far. We categorized the studies in the following presentation formats: frequencies, percentages, base rates and proportions, absolute and relative risk reduction, cumulative probabilities, verbal probability information, numerical versus verbal probability information, graphs, and risk ladders. We suggest several recommendations for these formats. Based on the results of our review, we show that the effects of presentation format depend not only on the type of format, but also on the context in which the format is used. We therefore argue that the presentation format has the strongest effect when the receiver processes probability information heuristically instead of systematically. We conclude that future research and risk communication practitioners should not only concentrate on the presentation format of the probability information but also on the situation in which this message is presented, as this may predict how people process the information and how this may influence their interpretation of the risk.     

Organizational Improvisation: A Consolidating Review and Framework

Organizational improvisation is increasingly recognized as a relevant area of management research. However, the cumulativeness of research on improvisation in organizations remains low. This paper organizes existing contributions on organizational improvisation within a new consolidating framework combining degrees (minor, bounded and structural) and levels (individual, interpersonal and organizational) of improvisation. The proposed degree/level framework allows for reviewing the existing literature on organizational improvisation in the management disciplines of strategy, organizational behaviour, organizational theory, innovation and marketing in a systematic manner. It also exposes potential areas for future research across management disciplines, research areas, organizational settings and industries, and beyond existing metaphors, most notably of jazz and improvisational theatre.     

企业衍生研究述评

通过对企业衍生领域已有典型研究成果的回顾,从企业衍生的概念、分类、动因、衍生企业发展阶段、成功要素及其与母体组织和集群发展的关系等方面评述了已有研究的成就与不足,剖析了研究热点与主要观点,给出了完善相关研究的具体建议。     

Information and Risk Perception: A Dynamic Adjustment Process

It is common in catastrophic food-contamination events that consumers fail to adjust instantaneously to a normal consumption level. One explanation is that consumers only gradually accept new positive information as being trustworthy. The gradual establishment of the trustworthiness of the released information depends on both positive and negative media coverage over time. We examine the individual trust effects by extending the prospective reference theory (Viscusi, 1989) to include a dynamic adjustment process of risk perception. Conditions that allow aggregation of changes in risk perceptions across individuals are described. The proposed model describes a general updating process of risk perceptions to media coverage and can be applied to explain the temporal impact of media coverage on consumption of a broad range of goods (food or nonfood). A case study of milk contamination is conducted to demonstrate consumer demand adjustment process to a temporarily unfavorable shock. The results suggest that effects of positive and negative information to adjustment of consumption and risk perception are asymmetric over time.     

Risk Perception Among Smokers: A Qualitative Study

The aim of this qualitative study is to identify the dimensions people used to assess the risk of smoking and then compare them with those used by health professionals in primary healthcare. Five discussion groups were conducted. The field work was carried out in Barcelona (Spain), from February 2005 to January 2006. Data were analyzed following a semantic‐thematic categorical content analysis (ACC‐ts). Results showed that people tend to employ stereotypical discourses when evaluating the risk of smoking. Similarly, they reassess the risk in the context of their life experience and incorporate new nuances to the arguments sustaining their behavior. Once this reassessment takes place, the decision to continue smoking emerges, and smokers come up with additional arguments justifying their habit (i.e., age, benefits related to costs). Professionals are aware of this process and its multidimensional nature. Nevertheless, their discourse loses this multidimensional feature when discussing the strategies they use at smoking cessation interventions. This qualitative study increases the understanding of various meanings that people attribute to their life experience. These assumptions may be useful for developing health practices that are closer to people. As a practical utility of these results, it would be interesting to apply a preliminary assessment of the different meanings that people attribute to smoking from their life context in risk communication.     

A Review of Organizational Stress Management Research:

Evaluation studies of worksite stress management training (SMT) are reviewed and methodological considerations are offered regarding (1) program orientation, (2) experimental design, (3) worker participants, (4) outcome measures, and (5) duration of training effects and worker compliance. Suggestions for additional research include the need to (1) employ additional comparison groups in order to detect training-specific effects, (2) evaluate SMT in blue-collar settings, (3) expand the scope of outcome measures to include employee behaviors, and (4) assess long term effects of SMT and factors associated with worker maintenance of learned skills. It is concluded that SMT has value as a prevention activity in work settings but its use as a treatment strategy for troubled workers is not supported conceptually or empirically. Companies and practitioners are encouraged to view SMT not as an isolated activity but as one component of occupational health and safety activities. A holistic approach which incorporates stress management into company health and safety philosophies is viewed as the optimal strategy.     

Aviation Risk Perception: A Comparison Between Experts and Novices

This article describes an exploratory investigation of the risk perceptions of experts and novices in relation to helicopter operations, under conditions where the participants are matched on various characteristics previously found to affect perceptions, such as demographic, gender, and background factors. The study reports considerable evidence of perceptual differences between the two participant groups (i.e., expert pilots and candidate pilots). We find that the experts' perceptions of relative risks are more veridical, in terms of their higher correlation with the true relative frequencies. A significant positive correlation between the flight hours and the contextual risk-taking tendency is also shown, leading the experienced pilots' choices toward risky alternatives in scenarios--a potential result of their overconfidence based on superior task performance. Possible explanations are offered for the findings and potential avenues for future research are identified.     

Rule Violations and Organizational Search: A Review and Extension

Whether they are formally prescribed or informally agreed upon, rules delineate the types of behavior deemed acceptable or appropriate within organizations. Studies often find that negative outcomes such as decreased group cohesion and higher turnover result when rules are broken. However, research rarely examines the potential positive effects of rule violations. Rules describe expectations about behavior within routines, or patterns of activity in organizations. When rules are violated by individuals, it could be an indication that the associated patterns of activity are no longer appropriate and that changes to the routines are needed. Organizations may learn from these violations if the violations trigger a search for new ways to organize activities, but this connection between violations and the search for new routines is affected by several factors. Drawing from a review and discussion of rules, routines, and research on organizational search and learning, this paper develops propositions regarding how rule violations motivate the search for new routines. This perspective integrates the literatures on rule‐breaking and organizational search, and also suggests that managers who attend to patterns of rule‐breaking within their organizations may detect drift from their environments and take corrective action earlier than suggested by other organizational learning research.     

全球战略:一个文献综述

全球战略是国际商务和战略管理领域的一个重要研究问题。本文通过对相关文献进行考察,试图提出一个对全球战略的综合认识。我们的文献回顾显示:(1)全球战略包含多种要素,这些要素可能单独存在,也可能同时存在并起作用;(2)组织设计、组织协调和战略制定过程的公正程度影响全球战略的执行;(3)全球战略对企业绩效的影响受到全球战略类型、企业层面因素和外部环境因素的调节;(4)竞争环境的变化影响全球战略的演变,在一定条件下,全球战略也会向多国战略和地区战略转变。     

A Discourse on the Incorporation of Organizational Factors into Probabilistic Risk Assessment: Key Questions and Categorical Review

This article presents a discourse on the incorporation of organizational factors into probabilistic risk assessment (PRA)/probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), a topic of debate since the 1980s that has spurred discussions among industry, regulatory agencies, and the research community. The main contributions of this article include (1) identifying the four key open questions associated with this topic; (2) framing ongoing debates by considering differing perspectives around each question; (3) offering a categorical review of existing studies on this topic to justify the selection of each question and to analyze the challenges related to each perspective; and (4) highlighting the directions of research required to reach a final resolution for each question. The four key questions are: (I) How significant is the contribution of organizational factors to accidents and incidents? (II) How critical, with respect to improving risk assessment, is the explicit incorporation of organizational factors into PRA? (III) What theoretical bases are needed for explicit incorporation of organizational factors into PRA? (IV) What methodological bases are needed for the explicit incorporation of organizational factors into PRA? Questions I and II mainly analyze PRA literature from the nuclear domain. For Questions III and IV, a broader review and categorization is conducted of those existing cross-disciplinary studies that have evaluated the effects of organizational factors on safety (not solely PRA-based) to shed more light on future research needs.     

变革型领导对组织创造力和创新影响研究述评

组织创造力和创新对一个组织乃至整个社会的重要性毋庸置疑,而变革型领导是影响组织创造力和创新的重要因素.本文在阐明变革型领导、组织创造力和创新的概念与维度的基础上,对研究变革型领导与组织创造力和创新关系的文献进行回顾,简述变革型领导对组织创造力和创新的直接作用和间接影响,对主要的中介变量和调节变量予以分类汇总,并分析这些变量产生作用的机理,最后得出研究结论并提出未来研究方向.尽管现有文献的研究结果不甚一致,但是大多数研究结果揭示:变革型领导与组织创造力和组织创新之间既有直接关系又有间接联系,在个体、团队、组织三个层面以及组织外部环境中的诸多变量可以起到中介或调节作用.     

Cross-Cultural Differences in Risk Perception: A Model-Based Approach

The present study assessed cross-cultural differences in the perception of financial risks. Students at large universities in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and the U.S., as well as a group of Taiwanese security analysts rated the riskiness of a set of monetary lotteries. Risk judgments differed with nationality, but not with occupation (students vs. security analysts) and were modeled by the Conjoint Expected Risk (CER) model.⁽¹⁾ Consistent with cultural differences in country uncertainty avoidance,⁽²⁾ CER model parameters of respondents from the two Western countries differed from those of respondents from the two countries with Chinese cultural roots: The risk judgments of respondents from Hong Kong and Taiwan were more sensitive to the magnitude of potential losses and less mitigated by the probability of positive outcomes.     

SMEs and Marketing: A Systematic Literature Review

This paper presents a systematic review of recent academic literature analysing the role, organization and management of marketing activities in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end, 310 articles published between 2006 and 2015 in 69 main journals devoted to small firms/entrepreneurship and management/marketing fields were analysed. This review shows that SMEs’ marketing has received great attention in both management and marketing literature in recent years. Findings reveal, on the one hand, the emerging role of networks and information and communication technologies in marketing behaviour by SMEs, and on the other hand a research gap in terms of specific marketing practices. Entrepreneurial marketing has been used as the main conceptual framework in reviewed studies, even if findings overall still point out a distance between the theoretical bases of reviewed contributions and the study of SMEs’ marketing behaviour and practices. Therefore, future research on the role of resources, relationships and networks could benefit from the combination of theories developed within the field of entrepreneurship with other approaches such as the resource‐based view, the dynamic capabilities theory and the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) framework.     

Anesthesia Patient Risk: A Quantitative Approach to Organizational Factors and Risk Management Options

The risk of death or brain damage to anesthesia patients is relatively low, particularly for healthy patients in modern hospitals. When an accident does occur, its cause is usually an error made by the anesthesiologist, either in triggering the accident sequence, or failing to take timely corrective measures. This paper presents a pilot study which explores the feasibility of extending probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) of anesthesia accidents to assess the effects of human and management components on the patient risk. We develop first a classic PRA model for the patient risk per operation. We then link the probabilities of the different accident types to their root causes using a probabilistic analysis of the performance shaping factors. These factors are described here as the "state of the anesthesiologist" characterized both in terms of alertness and competence. We then analyze the effects of different management factors that affect the state of the anesthesiologist and we compute the risk reduction benefits of several risk management policies. Our data sources include the published version of the Australian Incident Monitoring Study as well as expert opinions. We conclude that patient risk could be reduced substantially by closer supervision of residents, the use of anesthesia simulators both in training and for periodic recertification, and regular medical examinations for all anesthesiologists.