The Mean and Lean Firm and Downsizing: Causes of Involuntary and Voluntary Downsizing Strategies

Despite the longevity and pervasiveness of downsizing, our knowledge about this practice is inadequate for at least two reasons. One involves underanalysis of the historical context in which downsizing has evolved and the other involves the tendency to equate downsizings with layoffs even though layoffs represent only one of numerous downsizing strategies. I address the one inadequacy by identifying two institutional factors—the spread of economic competition and shareholder activism—that have motivated large firms to embrace the lean and mean conception of control and thus to implement downsizings. I address the other inadequacy by distinguishing between involuntary and voluntary downsizings and by testing the ability of a theory of downsizing strategies to explain these two kinds of downsizing among Fortune 100 firms from 1979 to 1995. The findings support the theory: Involuntary downsizings occur when firms face economic pressures and when social processes define these acts as natural; voluntary downsizings occur when firms are shielded from economic pressures and when there is a social preference for these acts. There also is support for the hypothesis that the effects of economic factors on downsizings should decrease over time while those of institutional ones should increase. Finally, I emphasize the role that analyses of institutional contexts, conceptions of the firm, and corporate strategies and structures can play in advancing our understanding of the powerful large firm in America.     

The Gestalt of Organizational Downsizing: Downsizing Strategies as Packages of Change

This paper develops and examines a framework ofdownsizing processes at the organizational level. Itbuilds on previous frameworks and literature byintroducing new variables found to be important in a field study and by bringing empirical evidenceto bear on conceptual underpinnings related toorganizational downsizing and change. The frameworkdeveloped identifies two general approaches thatorganizations use when undergoing downsizing and redesign, aswell as patterns of activities and changes thataccompany them. Downsizing driving redesign involvesincremental and low-level change, and is associated with less communication and systematic analysis,narrow participation in change efforts, and lowermagnitude change in other organizational attributes.Redesign driving downsizing involves more fundamentalorganizational change, and is associated with high-levelchanges that involve restructuring, more communication,broad participation in change efforts, advancesystematic analysis, and the use of interorganizationalrelationships to further downsizing efforts.     

Institutional Pressures and Organizational Capacity: The Case of Outcome Measurement1

A central claim of new institutional theory is that organizations in a field come to exhibit shared characteristics over time. Recent literature emphasizes variation across field members, but has yet to concur on why differences occur. This study tests institutional explanations for the uneven implementation of one organizational practice—outcome measurement, an evaluative technique used to assess the impact of an organization’s programs. We analyze data from a new survey investigating the practices of nonprofit organizations (N = 379) and argue for the inclusion of the concept of organizational capacity to account for the uneven implementation of outcome measurement. As predicted by new institutional theory, organizations are more likely to adopt outcome measurement if key actors promulgate its use. However, the implementation of outcome measurement is best explained by the addition of the concept of organizational capacity alongside variables drawn from new institutionalism. Nonprofits with adequate organizational capacity, operationalized—following Weber’s concept of bureaucracy—as the presence of written rules and members with specialized knowledge, are better able to respond to isomorphic pressures to implement a new organizational practice. Our findings expand scholarship that examines the intersection of institutional dynamics and organizational traits in accounting for patterns of implementation of practices across an organizational field.     

Executive Leadership and Social Innovation in Direct-Service Nonprofits: Shaping the Organizational Culture to Create Social Change

Direct-service nonprofits have taken on increasing responsibility in creating social change (operationalized through the concept of social innovation) within local communities. Qualitative interviews were conducted with executive directors to determine the factors within the intra-organizational environment that support an orientation toward social innovation. Findings show that aspects related to staff engagement and development and direction by the executive leadership team are particularly important. The findings provide a conceptual model of the varying intra-organizational dynamics that support the development of a social innovation-oriented organizational culture. This research offers a focus for social work education programs to equip practitioners with the skills needed in contemporary practice.     

Organizational Structure and Innovation in U.K. Voluntary Social Welfare Organizations: Applying the Aston Measures

This paper discusses the methodological issues involved in assessing the impact of organizational structure upon the innovative capacity of voluntary organizations. It reports the use of a specific methodological tool—the Aston measures—as an approach to these issues. In addition to the empirical findings reported, this paper argues for these measures as a useful addition to the methodological tool kit of voluntary sector researchers.     

Organizational Change and Representations of Women in a North American Utility Company

Using a critical sensemaking approach, this article explores the process that leads to the formation of different types of masculinity over time. In particular it looks at organizational change programmes, the subsequent representation of organizational men and women in corporate documents and the consequences this has on the gendering of organizational culture. Annual reports from a North American electrical company, Nova Scotia Power, which underwent significant changes between 1972–2001, are used to show how the company's masculinist cultures were reflected in company policies and portrayed in the images and text in these documents. The focus of this article is on how strategic change programmes influenced different notions of masculinity over time, how these understandings were enacted through organizational policies, how this identity was (unconsciously) portrayed in images and text and what effects this had on the gendering of organizational culture.     

Organizational Fields and Third Sector Housing in Ireland,North and South

This paper applies organizational field analysis to compare the structure of the third sector housing fields in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Following preliminary accounts of history, structure, funding, and regulation, four key dimensions of field structure are compared: interaction, subgroups, structural equivalence, and patterns of domination. In both fields studied, early steering by the state into specialist roles has been overtaken by state funded expansion in general needs housing--increasing the dominance of larger organizations and tensions around voluntary sector identity. However, differences remain in the extent of domination and tightness of field structure, with greater emphasis on whole organization regulation, and adherence to professional and trade bodies in Northern Ireland. It is also shown how cross-border activity and the espousal of a European model will influence future trajectories.     

Organizational Compatibility and Workplace Drug Testing: Modeling the Adoption of Innovative Social Control Practices

Few researchers have examined organizational variation in the adoption of workplace drug testing, but innovation theory suggests that adoption is more likely when it is compatible with an organization's values, previously introduced ideas, and needs. Using data from the 1997 National Employee Survey, this research models the effects of organizational compatibility, industry, and establishment size on the adoption of drug testing. The data reveal that compatibility, as measured by an organization's rules orientation, presence of an employee assistance program, and mechanization, is associated with the adoption of drug testing. As predicted, the adoption of drug testing varies across industries and by establishment size.     

Middle-Aged and Elderly Finnish Households Considering Moving,Their Preferences,and Potential Downsizing Amidst Changing Life Course and Housing Career

We examine the moving and housing preferences of middle-aged and older in Finland, a country where population composition and movement through the life course are changing. A logistic regression reveals that middle-aged, moderate income residents, renters, those who have lived in their houses only a short time, and residents who are generally dissatisfied are most likely to consider moving. Downsizing appeals to residents with lower incomes who live alone, and who have been in their current houses longer. All potential movers agree on the importance of transportation access and a neighborhood grocery store; however, those preferring to downsize are also interested in house and neighborhood design as well as services that will allow aging in place. Income limitations may create affordability problems for some potential movers.     

Information Technology,Adaptation and Innovation in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations

This report examines how two measures of performance—adaptation and innovation—can be predicted by the use of digital communication. It suggests that information technology in nonprofits offers strong leverage for adaptation but not for innovation. This suggests that (a) the two measures are dissimilar in both their nature and their relevance to organizational performance in nonprofit settings, (b) that service organizations are more likely to use information technology for adapting to change, and (c) it is probable that large and well-founded organizations will use IT for establishing innovations.     

Organizational interventions and the creation of gendered knowledge: US universities and NSF ADVANCE

Universities are sites of both elite knowledge production and reproduction of intersecting gendered inequalities. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) ‘Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers’ (ADVANCE) programme uses universities’ role as self‐reflective knowledge producers to design changes promoting gender equality. This knowledge is shaped by the institutional context of its production: NSF as a funder of scientific research; US universities as participants in highly competitive markets; managerialism as a condition of modern higher education systems; and separation of basic from applied research in the hierarchy of science. The tensions and underlying power dimensions of these contexts reveal local challenges that ADVANCE interventions navigate and the broader politics shaping what and how ADVANCE discovers. Yet, as a learning‐oriented intervention, ADVANCE changes over time to create and incorporate more gendered knowledge about inequalities, to legitimize feminist understandings of organizations, and to challenge the division between fundamental and applied knowledge.     

The Systems Psychodynamics of a Joint Venture: Anxiety, Social Defenses, and the Management of Mutual Dependence

Joint ventures, mergers and other forms oforganizational alliances are rapidly becoming a businessnecessity. However, on an almost daily basis, experiencesuggests that such alliances often pose critical dilemmas for those entering into them. Centralamong these are collaborating across differences inorganizational cultures and forging a new organizationalidentity. At a deeper level, there are also often paranoid concerns and fantasies about thelong-term lack of equity in the transfer of knowledgeand capability. This paper, therefore, outlines asystems psychodynamic perspective on intergroup andinterorganizational relationships for developing an in-depthunderstanding of some common irrational and emotionaldifficulties alliance relationships face. It then goeson to describe an illustrative case and concludes with an appraisal of the advantages of a systemspsychodynamic conceptual perspective — taking bothstructure and process into account — which hasbeen neglected or minimized in the literature onorganizational alliances.     

Organizational Elaboration as Social Movement Tactic: A Case Study of Strategic Leadership in the first US School-sponsored Program for Gay and Lesbian Youth

This research contributes to our understanding of two central and related problems in the study of social movements: tactical innovation and strategic leadership. Focusing on the leadership history (1984–2003) of the founder and director of the first US public school program for gay and lesbian youth, called Project 10 and located in the Los Angeles, California public school system, this case study illustrates the importance of leadership agency on the part of those ‘organizing from within’. Analyses herein indicate the significance of both institutional constraints and life course circumstances in determining leadership choices. This paper maps organizational obstacles and the tactical dilemmas they produced to explain how successful strategic choices get made. The case of Project 10 indicates that institutional constraints can be overcome tactically with organizational elaboration. Additionally, hybridity, assumed in the literature to produce organizational precariousness, is shown here to be a mechanism for stability, facilitating networks and resource acquisition over time.     

广州产业创新的特征、问题及对策研究

从产业技术创新积累的过程看,目前广州市产业发展正处于主导产业创新及产业替代升级的关键时期。但其产业发展和创新过程中依然存在着诸多突出问题,具体表现为:支柱和优势产业发展后劲不足、产业整体创新能力不高、技术商品化水平有待提升、产业核心技术创新能力不强、技术创新资源配置效率不尽合理、知识密集型服务业竞争力低等。上述问题正成为广州通过产业创新实现竞争力整体提升的瓶颈,以及通过技术变迁实现产业升级的阻碍。本文在对广州产业创新的现状和特征进行深入分析的基础上,针对目前产业创新存在的问题和难点,提出如何提升产业技术水平和创新能力,进而实现"创新驱动"式发展战略给出对策建议。     

Organizational Change,Politics, and the Official Statistics of Punishment

Most organizational researchers characterize politics as a force organizations experience from outside and administration as the practices managers adopt in response to the uncertain environment. To assess that approach, this paper examines a crisis that changed California criminal justice agencies' administrative practices and their communication of statistical information to outsiders. In 1976, managers and wardens supported conservative reform bills that effectively ended professional criminal rehabilitation and quantitative evaluation studies, and they shifted administration toward bureaucratic controls, using routine population counts. Changes in agency statistical activities clarify how members of government organizations act politically to maintain or change administrative practices.     

Transnational Movement Innovation and Collaboration: Analysis of World Social Forum Networks

In this article we first trace the ideological development and collective framing of the World Social Forum (WSF) as a non-hierarchical gathering for collaboration and networking within the global justice movement. We then analyze the consequences of organizational design, thematic resonance, and technological innovations implemented to produce more open and horizontal collaboration. We do this by conducting two-mode network analysis of organizations that facilitated sessions and workshops during two separate meetings (2003 and 2005) of the WSF in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Our findings indicate that organizational affiliations were less hierarchical in 2005, but we uncover mixed results from analyzing patterns of interaction produced by individual organizations and groups of organizations. Finally, we discuss the implications of such macro-level innovations on the dynamics of multi-organizational fields (collaboration, coalition building, and thematic resonance) and the contributions of such an approach to the study of transnational organizational networks.     

论制度创新与提升城市发展活力——以广州建设国家创新型城市为例

制度创新是引领社会发展进步的强大动力,是提升城市发展活力的基本前提和重要保证。广州得改革开放风气之先,如何在经济实力不断增强的同时提升城市发展的活力和后劲,是建设国家创新型城市和向国际先进城市看齐所面临的突出而紧迫的课题。为此,必须根据现代城市创新发展的新形势和新要求来探索和研究制度创新的策略问题。     

Boundary dimensions of social innovation: negotiating conflicts and compatibilities when developing a national agenda

In order to add to the existing knowledge on the complex institutional dynamics of negotiating conflicts and compatibilities in innovation processes that address societal challenges and social needs, this article scrutinizes the scientific and societal debate on the theoretical and practical application of “social innovation” by means of the concept “boundary object” linked to institutional theory. A participatory case study of the development of an R&I agenda for social innovation in Sweden, formulated through dialog between stakeholders from the public, private and non-profit sectors, is presented. The results show that the unpredictable, emergent, evolving and adaptable character of needs, challenges and solutions in social innovation processes is made more theoretically and practically manageable by acknowledging social innovation as a boundary object. This is since this concept, despite its ambiguous character, helps balance complexity and usefulness in a way that serves to expand existing knowledge on institutional dynamics.     

Leadership Style in Relation to Organizational Change and Organizational Creativity: Perceptions from Nonprofit Organizational Members

As the environment within which organizations act continues to change and becomes increasingly competitive, maintaining an organizational climate that supports change and encourages creativity is a key objective for organizational leaders. This article examines the relationship between leadership style (transformational, transactional, laissez‐faire) and members' perceptions of the psychological climate for organizational change readiness and psychological climate for organizational creativity. Results indicate that transformational leaders have a direct positive relationship with psychological climate for organizational change readiness and organizational creativity, while laissez‐faire leaders have a negative relationship.