The shifting landscape of LGBT organizational research

Over the past generation, sexual minorities—particularly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons—have gained increased visibility in the public arena. Yet organizational research has lagged behind in recognizing and studying this category of organizational members. This article offers a critical review of this growing body of research. More specifically, we identify and discuss four dominant scholarly frames that have informed LGBT organizational research from the late nineteenth century to date. The frames include a “medical abnormality,” “deviant social role,” “collective identity,” and “social distinctiveness” view of sexual minorities. We argue that these frames have profoundly shaped the scope and range of organizational scholarship devoted to sexual minorities by showing that scholars using such contrasted frames have been drawn to very different research questions with respect to sexual minorities. We document and discuss the main and contrasted questions asked within each of these frames and show how they have both enabled and constrained LGBT organizational research. We conclude by calling for more attention to the frames organizational scholars adopt when studying sexual minorities, but also for more research on both minority and majority sexual orientations in organizations.     

The social construction of strategic coherence: Practices of enabling leadership

The construction of “strategic coherence,” defined as the development of a system of mutually compatible meanings among organization members about desirable organizational directions, is clearly a crucial issue for organizations. Yet, how to achieve it is in part an open question. While previous studies have considered how strategic coherence may emerge across top levels of management through strategic planning activities and negotiations among senior leaders, we know much less about the contribution of other actors and processes behind the scenes (in non-strategy roles). Drawing on an ethnographic study of a public hospital's planning and project management practices, this paper therefore focuses on the bundles of practices, people and tools through which strategic coherence can emerge across different levels and sectors in mundane activities. We build on the concept of “enabling leadership”, grounded in practice theories of leadership, as our analytical lens. The study reveals how strategic coherence is socially constructed by practices of ‘fueling’, ‘shaping’ and ‘entwining’ mutually compatible meanings, in interactions among diverse people and tools. We propose a grounded model of the construction of strategic coherence as the progressive socialization of meanings about organizational direction that is not just administered from the top, nor naturally emergent from the grass-roots, but that is a collective and inherently socio-material accomplishment of enabling leadership.     

Resist or Comply: The Power Dynamics of Organizational Routines during Mergers

The role of power and agency in the development of organizational routines is under‐theorized. In this paper, we draw on an in‐depth qualitative case study of a merger between two academic institutions, a college of art and a university, and examine the diverging responses of two organizational routines (admissions and budgeting) during the course of the merger to understand how power dynamics contribute to resistance/compliance of routines. Our findings suggest that the differences in routines’ responses to a merger initiative can be explained by applying Bourdieu's theory of practice and by employing the concepts of field and symbolic capital to unpack power relations in the context of organizational routines, and to disclose why some routine participants can exercise their agency while others cannot. We find that (a) the field within which a routine operates and (b) the actors’ symbolic capital and position‐taking during change implementation shape routines’ responses to organizational change initiatives.     

Die Organisation des Verdachts und „Das Leben der Anderen“

The film “The Lives of Others” relates two worlds to each other – the world of the Stasi (State Security Service of the GDR) and the world of arts, theater and literature in the mid-eighties during the GDR. A chief of Stasi eavesdrops and spies on life of an initially party-loyal playwright. Step by step the “operative process” transforms not only the life of the one, but also of the Stasi-chief himself, who becomes a secret accomplice of the opposition. The film gives an insight into the process of organizational erosion of surveillance and of cultural change, which by the end encompasses the entire political system. It emphasizes the question of a “good person”, the corruption and dependence on a power, and finally of resistibility against it by the good and the beautiful.     

An organizational climate regarding ethics: the outcome of leader values and the practices that reflect them

In this article, we argue that the organizational climate regarding ethics — the shared perception of what is ethically correct behavior and how ethical issues should be handled within an organization — is an outgrowth of the personal values and motives of organizational founders and other early organizational leaders. We begin by arguing that one common label for the climate regarding ethics construct — “ethical climate” — is inappropriate. We also argue that climate regarding ethics has an impact on organizational outcomes, including organizational outcomes that do not have explicit ethical components. We propose that this impact largely occurs through the mediating mechanisms of organizational cohesion and morale. We conclude by discussing the variety of antecedents and outcomes related to climate regarding ethics.     

组织惯例概念界定及其结构模型：基于扎根理论的研究

近年来，得益于组织惯例的再定义和惯例二维观的提出，组织惯例在组织任务完成以及组织创新和发展中的根本性作用已经得到广泛的认同，相关研究随之呈现繁荣景象。但组织惯例所代表的集体行为模式由哪些方面构成或组织惯例的具体内容是什么，尚未得以揭示，使整个研究领域呈现出根基不稳的状态。 在梳理有关组织惯例的基本概念及其二维构成理论的基础上，选择天地华宇定日达惯例、宏康针织订单完成惯例和上海移动投诉处理惯例作为研究对象，通过访谈、观察和文档资料等方式获取相关数据，采用扎根理论方法，按照开放性编码、主轴编码和选择性编码的路径，对组织惯例的概念进行有效界定，析出各维度之间的相互关系，并构建组织惯例结构模型。 研究具体化组织惯例概念的构成，得出组织惯例由显性规范、共享基模、共倾行动、专业能力和执行异动5个维度构成；构建组织惯例概念模型，验证组织惯例由启示面和执行面构成以及两者之间的互动关系，即代表执行面的执行异动和代表启示面的其他4个维度之间存在互动关系；代表组织惯例基本原则和思想的启示面除了已有研究提出的集体层面的共享基模和共倾行动，还包括组织层面的显性规范以及个体层面的专业能力，且4个维度之间相互依存。 研究旨在具体化组织惯例的概念，深化组织惯例二维观理论，为该领域的深入研究创建基础，改变该领域当前对组织惯例概念的理解仅停留在单一、抽象层面的局面，并指导组织实践者深入理解组织惯例的内涵和意义。受扎根理论编码过程主观性的限制，有必要对调研资料进行反复比较和编码对比，进一步完善和检验所构建的概念模型。     

An organizational approach to undoing gender: The unlikely case of offshore oil platforms

This case study of two offshore oil platforms illustrates how an organizational initiative designed to enhance safety and effectiveness created a culture that unintentionally released men from societal imperatives for “manly” behavior, prompting them to let go of masculine-image concerns and to behave instead in counter-stereotypical ways. Rather than proving how tough, proficient, and cool-headed they were, as was typical of men in other dangerous workplaces, platform workers readily acknowledged their physical limitations, publicly admitted their mistakes, and openly attended to their own and others’ feelings. Importantly, platform workers did not replace a conventional image of masculinity with an unconventional one and then set out to prove the new image—revealing mistakes strategically, for example, or competing in displays of sensitivity. Instead, the goal of proving one's masculine credentials, conventional or otherwise, appeared to no longer hold sway in men's workplace interactions. Building on West and Zimmerman's (1987: 129) now classic articulation of gender as “the product of social doings,” we describe this organizationally induced behavior as “undoing” gender. We use this case, together with secondary case data drawn from 10 published field studies of men doing dangerous work, to induce a model of how organizational cultures equip men to “do” and “undo” gender at work.     

新企业组织学习对惯例的影响研究——组织结构的调节作用

 组织惯例广泛存在于成熟企业之中,然而学者对新企业惯例以及影响惯例的因素并未展开深入的探讨。聚焦于分析新企业中组织学习对组织惯例的影响,并考虑到组织结构的调节作用;基于组织学习理论和组织惯例的研究成果,在组织学习过程中,知识会被存储在组织记忆,并与组织记忆共同存储在惯例中,进而决定惯例表现形式。而组织结构会影响学习过程中知识在组织中的传递。        新企业在走向成熟的过程中必然伴随着组织运行的惯例化过程,在这个过程中,企业会通过实践和观察行业中其他企业获取运行和发展的知识。由于组织惯例的核心内容是存储在惯例中的知识,以知识的内外部获取为划分依据,研究替代式学习和体验式学习两种不同的组织学习方式;以惯例存储的知识的显性和隐性特征为划分依据,研究显性惯例和隐性惯例两种不同的组织惯例;基于对知识传递的影响作用不同,将组织结构划分为机械型组织结构和有机型组织结构;构建受组织结构调节影响的新企业组织学习影响组织惯例的理论模型,进行定量研究,采用SPSS 20.0软件对来源于长春地区的188家新企业的数据进行分析,并检验相关假设。        研究结果表明,替代式学习和体验式学习对新企业的显性惯例有正向影响,体验式学习对新企业的隐性惯例有正向影响,替代式学习对隐性惯例有负向影响。机械型组织结构中,体验式学习对显性惯例和隐性惯例的正向影响更大,机械型组织结构和有机型组织结构对替代式学习影响显性惯例和隐性惯例的调节作用并不显著。        研究结果揭示了新企业中组织学习影响惯例的作用机理,进一步细化了二者之间关系的研究,为新企业规范化和制度化运行提供了借鉴意义。     

Cognition and Capabilities: A Multi-Level Perspective

Research on managerial cognition and on organizational capabilities has essentially developed in two parallel tracks. We know much from the resource-based view about the relationship between capabilities and organizational performance. Separately, managerial cognition scholars have shown how interpretations of the environment shape organizational responses. Only recently have scholars begun to link the two sets of insights. These new links suggest that routines and capabilities are based in particular understandings about how things should be done, that the value of these capabilities is subject to interpretation, and that even the presence of capabilities may be useless without managerial interpretations of their match to the environment. This review organizes these emerging insights in a multi-level cognitive model of capability development and deployment. The model focuses on the recursive processes of constructing routines (capability building blocks), assembling routines into capabilities, and matching capabilities to perceived opportunities. To date, scholars have focused most attention on the organizational-level process of matching. Emerging research on the microfoundations of routines contributes to the micro-level of analysis. The lack of research on capability assembly leaves the field without a bridge connecting the macro and micro levels. The model offers suggestions for research directions to address these challenges.     

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.     

The Use of Anthropomorphizing as a Tool for Generating Organizational Theories

Abstract

Despite admonishments that anthropomorphizing represents a serious error in scientific thinking, this review shows that anthropomorphizing has been a critically important tool for developing influential theories in organization studies. Analyzing the literatures related to organizational identity and organizational knowledge reveals how organization theorists build on their rich and highly accessible understanding of humans (i.e. the self and others) to (1) make guesses and sense of organizational anomalies, (2) articulate theoretical mechanisms to build stronger theories, and (3) create plausible stories that facilitate sensegiving. Our review shows how some theorists by using particular approaches were able to use anthropomorphizing to generate new organizational theories, yet anthropomorphizing does not always lead to such salutary outcomes. Anthropomorphizing is less likely to enhance theorizing in organization studies when the theorist does not sufficiently doubt their guesses about organizational phenomena, fails to develop stronger explanations of the “how” and “why” of the theory thereby only partially exploring the social mechanisms underlying the proposed relationships, and fails in their attempts to tell the theory's “story”. We conclude with a discussion of the conditions under which anthropomorphizing is more or less effective.     

History in Organization and Management Theory: More Than Meets the Eye

Abstract

There has been a growing debate about the role of history in management research with several authors making suggestions on how to bring the two (back) together and others even highlighting the need for a “historic turn”. What we argue in this paper is that, while history was indeed sidelined by the scientization of management since the late 1950s, it started to make a comeback from the 1980s onwards and is increasingly employed in a number of research programs. We stress that the crucial question for management scholars engaging with history (or wanting to do so) is how it relates to theory. First of all, we present a systematic overview of the way history has been used—both at the micro (organizational) and macro-levels of analysis—distinguishing between what we refer to as “history to theory” and “history in theory”. In the former, we consider those research programs, such as (neo-)institutionalism, where history serves as evidence to develop, modify or test theories. In the case of “history in theory” we identify research programs where history or the past are part of the theoretical model itself as a driver or moderator, with “imprinting” as a prime example. Second, we also identify a growing number of studies that go further by displaying what we call “historical cognizance” in the sense of incorporating period effects or historical contingencies into their theorizing efforts. Finally, drawing on our broad overview, we make more specific suggestions for increasing the visibility and influence of history in organization and management theory.     

Chemicals,companies, and countries: The concept of diffusion in management research

In the field of organizational behavior, the term “diffusion” has come to be implicitly paired with the concept of innovation and a peculiar set of conceptual choices. We explore how this came about, and examine the evolution of the concept “diffusion” from its inception in the English language through its use in the natural and social sciences to its current meaning in organizational research. A sensemaking perspective on researchers’ cognition helps us explain the changing meaning of the concept, and alerts researchers to the subtle but far-reaching effects of revisions in a field's conceptual language. Even though the field of organizational studies ostensibly treats diffusion as a neutral phenomenon, it implicitly narrates diffusion as a mechanical and positive process that should be welcomed and encouraged. The implications of this reframing become even more important with the increasing focus on innovation in recent diffusion studies. The diffusion of new products among consumers and the diffusion of market institutions around the world are things of a rather different nature and consequence, but treating them as implicitly equivalent “innovations” that “diffuse” naturalizes and hence legitimates them. We conclude by noting implications of our findings for exploring the evolution of meaning for other concepts, and their utilization in research on organizations.     

Three Lenses on Occupations and Professions in Organizations: Becoming,Doing, and Relating

Management and organizational scholarship is overdue for a reappraisal of occupations and professions as well as a critical review of past and current work on the topic. Indeed, the field has largely failed to keep pace with the rising salience of occupational and professional (as opposed to organizational) dynamics in work life. Moreover, not only is there a dearth of studies that explicitly take occupational or professional categories into account, but there is also an absence of a shared analytical framework for understanding what occupations and professions entail. Our goal is therefore two-fold: first, to offer guidance to scholars less familiar with this terrain who encounter occupational or professional dynamics in their own inquiries and, second, to introduce a three-part framework for conceptualizing occupations and professions to help guide future inquiries. We suggest that occupations and professions can be understood through lenses of “becoming”, “doing”, and “relating”. We develop this framework as we review past literature and discuss the implications of each approach for future research and, more broadly, for the field of management and organizational theory.     

Learning in and from projects: the learning modes and a learning capability model

Abstract

The notion of ‘project delivery’ is well embedded in and across the management and organizational sciences literature – generating a narrative that reflects and recognizes the instrumental nature of projects and programmes in strategy execution. Project management, as a distinct and well-established body of research enquiry, has increasingly sought to focus our attention on the impacts of complexity, risk and uncertainty in projects; the corollary being a desideratum to strengthen our theoretical understanding of how insight and learning from projects may influence improvements to organizational efficiency. The wider literature suggests that organizational learning remains a challenging proposition, particularly in the context of organizations operating in environments of high complexity. In this paper, we enhance the conversation on organizational learning through a series of case studies, generating evidence of thirteen ‘learning modes’. The paper proposes that mature organizations tend to exhibit a greater number of learning modes and that there is a tendency to capture and socialize knowledge with a greater emphasis on the context of the learning situation rather than the learning artefact in isolation. The empirical evidence gathered in this paper forms the basis of a capability model, characterized by the thirteen modes of learning. The model intimates that learning occurs, and is more effective, when knowledge and information are enacted in practice through the learning modes which form a nucleus of the organizational learning capability. The research concludes with a 'call to action' that emphasizes the strategic importance of learning practices and routines in project oriented-organizations.     

Mentalisierung in der Teamsupervision

The present article focuses on mentalization in the context of team supervision. First, we elaborate on mentalization “breakdown”. We describe the different prementalizing modes by referring to the example of a team supervision, and we explain when and how they are activated. Beyond the general, stress-related model of mentalization, we identify factors in the organizational context that may impact mentalization positively and negatively. Afterwards, we illustrate how mentalization can be used in (team) supervision and how the general approach of and interventions from mentalization-based therapy (MBT) may be translated in the context of team supervision.     

The Role of Clinical and Process Quality in Achieving Patient Satisfaction in Hospitals

Managers constantly struggle with where to allocate their resources and efforts in managing the complex service delivery system called a hospital. In the broadest sense, their decisions and actions focus on two important aspects of health care—clinical or technical medical care that emphasizes “what” the patient receives and process performance that emphasizes “how” health care services are delivered to patients. Here, we investigate the role of leadership, clinical quality, and process quality on patient satisfaction. A causal model is hypothesized and evaluated using structural equation modeling for a sample of 202 U.S. hospitals. Statistical results support the idea that leadership is a good exogenous construct and that clinical and process quality are good intermediate outcomes in determining patient satisfaction. Statistical results also suggest that hospital leadership has more influence on process quality than on clinical quality, which is predominantly the doctors' domain. Other results are discussed, such as that hospital managers must be mindful of the fact that process quality is at least as important as clinical quality in predicting patient satisfaction. The article concludes by proposing areas for future research.     

Beyond Make‐Buy: Internalization and Integration of Design and Production

Much recent attention in industrial practice has been centered on the question of which activities a manufacturing firm should complete for itself and for which it should rely on outside suppliers. This issue, generally labeled the “make‐buy” decision, has received substantial theoretical and empirical attention. In this paper, we broaden the scope of the make‐buy decision to include product design decisions, as well as production decisions. First, we examine independently the decisions of whether to internalize design and production, and then we consider how design and production organizational decisions are interdependent. The specific research questions we address are: (1) How can design and production sourcing decisions be described in richer terms than “make” and “buy”? (2) Do existing theories of vertical integration apply to product design activities as well as production decisions? (3) What is the relationship between the organization of design and the organization of production? (4) What organizational forms for design and production are seen in practice? After developing theoretical arguments and a conceptual framework, we explore these ideas empirically through an analysis of design and production sourcing decisions for bicycle frames in the U. S. mountain bicycle industry.     

Positive Chair-CEO work relationships: Micro-relational foundations of organizational capabilities

With the increasing separation of the of the roles of the CEO and Chairperson, the interplay between them has been attracting considerable interest in both communities of scholarlship and practice. We examine the ways in which the work relationships between these two supreme executive functions may help in developing organizational processes and outcomes. In so doing, we shift the discussion from a corporate governance lens to examining how micro-level mechanisms, which are rooted in individual actions and interactions involving behavioral, cognitive and emotional mechanisms, may help cultivate higher-level processes and outcomes. Using a qualitative methodology in which pairs of Chairpersons and CEOs were interviewed, we developed a conceptual model which specifies how the nature of Chairperson-CEO work relationships may be conducive to cultivating organizational capabilities of knowledge creation and cultivate collective resilience, through the shaping of a supportive organizational communication climate. In so doing, we extended a micro-foundation framework by advancing a micro-relational lens to the corporate governance research and theory and more broadly to the literature on strategic leadership.