The Role of Brokers and Social Identities in the Development of Capabilities in Global Virtual Teams

While organizations are increasingly relying on global virtual teams (GVTs) to carry out knowledge intensive activities, the understanding of how GVTs develop capabilities is still limited. We explore how GVTs adapt routines and build capabilities, and the role played by brokers and social identities in this process. We interviewed 49 professionals working in fifteen GVTs based in Europe, India, and US, and operating in IT and engineering consulting companies. Our multi-level grounded model highlights that, while brokers help in the creation of mutual knowledge, they reduce the accuracy of perceptions about distant co-workers. Mutual knowledge, combined with limited accuracy of perceptions, diminishes the need to adapt team routines over time. The negative effect of brokers on the creation of team capabilities is reduced when individual professional identities trigger the search for more accurate perceptions of distant colleagues and clients with the objective of adapting team routines and performing more stimulating work. On top of this, organizational identity further enables the process of adaptation of team routines. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical implications on the interplay between operational and social processes in GVTs and team capabilities, as well as practical implications for designing and managing GVTs.     

8. Information processing in traditional,hybrid, and virtual teams: From nascent knowledge to transactive memory

Virtual teams are increasingly common in organizations, yet explicit theory and research on virtual team processes and outcomes is relatively rare. In this chapter, we first place virtual teams in context and provide a two dimensional framework for understanding the range of virtualness. We then build from foundations of diversity, psychological safety, social identity, conflict, and transactive memory to provide a coherent model of traditional, hybrid, and virtual team outcomes. Fourteen propositions are derived from these foundations - covering knowledge availability, sharing, refinement, and storage. Teams whose members are separated by geographical or temporal distance can have considerable positive outcomes for organizations, if they are effectively managed and supported.     

Developing Absorptive Capacity Theory for Public Service Organizations: Emerging UK Empirical Evidence

A strong public policy focus on high performance means that utilizing management knowledge effectively is at a premium for UK public service organizations. This study empirically examined two English public agencies to explore the inter‐sectoral transfer of a strategic management model originally developed in the private sector – absorptive capacity – which is one way of conceptualizing an organizational competence in such knowledge mobilization. Two theoretical contributions are made. First, a new absorptive capacity framework for public service organizations is developed which recognizes the participation of public agency project teams during an innovation process proceeding over time with phases of co‐creation, testing, metamorphosis and diffusion. Second, our novel framework modifies an early influential model of absorptive capacity. Counter to this model, we argue that realized absorptive capacity requires agency from skilled and embedded actors to turn ‘curbing routines’ into ‘enabling routines’ in all four stages. Project (middle) managers have flexibility in their roles to seize episodic moments of opportunity to innovate and achieve service delivery goals, and to build absorptive capacity capability. Absorptive capacity capability develops organically over time. Future research directions are discussed.     

Replication of Routines in Organizations: Existing Literature and New Perspectives

Replication of existing routines in new contexts is an important value‐creating strategy for organizations. This paper synthesizes the state of research on replication and organizes the literature around two broad themes: forward knowledge flows (i.e. from a replicator to a replicatee) and reverse knowledge flows. The authors show that the theoretical assumptions of existing research leave important questions around the replication of routines unaddressed. More specifically, they identify research gaps in regard to micro‐level processes of replication. Little is understood about the performance of routines in practice and, related to that, the processes through which routines change during replication. Drawing on recent theorizing on organizational routines, in particular the relationship between the ostensive and performative aspects, helps the authors to unpack the micro‐level processes of forward and reverse knowledge flows. This paper opens two new trajectories for research on replication: (1) a focus on the actions of individual actors in the enactment of organizational routines provides new possibilities for understanding how replication is an inherently political process; (2) conceptualizing change as endogenous within the performance of routines offers a route to a more nuanced understanding of change and deviation in the process of replication. The paper closes with a summary of major theoretical arguments, questions for further research and implications for practitioners.     

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.     

10 Coordination in Organizations: An Integrative Perspective

Abstract

Coordination, the process of interaction that integrates a collective set of interdependent tasks, is a central purpose of organizations. In this review we begin by discussing the origins of interest in coordination, tracing some of the classic perspectives. We present a review of recent literature on coordination in organizations arranged according to the mechanisms that help achieve it. We then go beyond this review to provide a framework to understand what different coordination mechanisms and activities accomplish. We propose that coordination mechanisms (such as routines, meetings, plans, and schedules) impact the work of organizations by creating three integrative conditions for coordinated activity: accountability, predictability, and common understanding. We end by examining the implications of such a perspective for future research on coordination in organizations.     

Tacit Knowledge and Environmental Management

This article demonstrates tacit knowledge’s relevance in environmental management and explores how organisations can manage this knowledge. Through case studies it reveals how taking the tacit knowledge of employees into account can be particularly useful in three key areas of environmental management: the identification of pollution sources, the management of emergency situations and the development of preventive solutions. In order to take tacit environmental knowledge into account, firms must challenge the predominance of formal knowledge in the management of environmental problems and promote a climate of learning that encourages the recognition and sharing of employees’ experiences. The paper also presents a framework for the analysis of the creation, transfer and retention of tacit knowledge that is not limited to environmental knowledge management.     

5. The unfolding model of voluntary turnover and job embeddedness: Foundations for a comprehensive theory of attachment

In this chapter, a comprehensive approach to understanding voluntary employee turnover and retention is described. First, the literature on employee turnover is briefly reviewed because many of our ideas are grounded in existing theory and research. Second, our recent theory on why and how people leave the organization (called theUnfolding Model of Voluntary Turnover) is detailed. In particular, two empirical studies that confirm and refine the model's major propositions are summarized. Third, our analysis of why people stay is explained. This approach to understanding employee retention is grounded in the development, measurement and test of a construct called jobembeddedness. In addition, two empirical studies that competitively test and refine the embeddedness construct are summarized. Fourth, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of organizational attachment, our preliminary ideas about the integration of the unfolding model and job embeddedness are offered. In our last section, the implications of this work are discussed. More specifically, we identify a number of ways that our theoretical constructs and empirical research fundamentally change or challenge many basic assumptions about traditional theory and research on employee turnover and retention. Finally, our concluding comments focus on how an organization can apply these ideas to increase attachment through embeddedness and/or to reduce turnover by understanding the tenets of the unfolding model.     

Systems of organizational sensemaking for sustained product innovation

We map out the systems of sensemaking people use to link market and technology knowledge into new products, in innovative versus non-innovative organizations. Systems of sensemaking are organized “webs of meaning” that govern the knowledge people make sense of, and the sense they make. Innovative sensemaking systems link more knowledge because they: (1) frame linking as hands-on practices of value creation; and (2) loosely couple three tensions between tacit and articulated knowledge across organizational levels to draw in, exploit, and recreate knowledge for innovation. We contrast sensemaking systems in innovative versus non-innovative organizations, and draw implications for theory and practice.     

Generations in organizations

Despite a rich tradition of scholarship across many disciplines, organizational research on the topic of generations has been relatively scarce. In this article we develop a framework for studying generations in organizations that draws on multiple conceptualizations across multiple disciplines. Our framework distills two distinct critical elements that give ‘generations’ agency in organizational settings – chronology (the idea that a unique location in time creates a ‘generation’) and genealogy (the idea that generations are linked through the transmission/descent of ideas/values/skills/knowledge). After an historic overview of the evolution of the topic of generations, we review generational research across the fields of political sociology, family sociology, psychology, social anthropology, cultural sociology, demography, and gerontology. Our framework elucidates how linkages between generations, based on chronology and genealogy, can be characterized in organizations and how the nature of intergenerational contact and transfer predicts a wide range of organizational outcomes such as change/innovation, conflict, turnover, and socialization. We outline the implications of this framework for future research on generations in organizations.     

From Knowledge Engineering to Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is seen by many to be a prerequisite for the successful organization, and one that relies heavily, though not exclusively, on a sound technological infrastructure. A major drawback, though, with current technology (e.g. Lotus Notes and www) is its focus on information management and communication rather than on knowledge itself. What knowledge management needs is tools and techniques that are more oriented towards knowledge – its creation, mapping, transfer and use. We show how many of the methods and tools used in the branch of artificial intelligence known as knowledge engineering can be adapted to provide such a knowledge-oriented technology, and lead to significant benefits for organizations. A number of case studies are presented which illustrate our points, including decision-making at Andersen Consulting and best practice at Rolls-Royce. A more elaborated use is shown in the context of business process re-engineering, where a new software tool kit called SPEDE is being applied and validated within the aerospace and automotive industries.     

Darwinism,organizational evolution and survival: key challenges for future research

How do social organizations evolve? How do they adapt to environmental pressures? What resources and capabilities determine their survival within dynamic competition? Charles Darwin’s seminal work The Origin of Species (1859) has provided a significant impact on the development of the management and organization theory literatures on organizational evolution. This article introduces the JMG Special Issue focused on Darwinism, organizational evolution and survival. We discuss key themes in the organizational evolution research that have emerged in recent years. These include the increasing adoption of the co-evolutionary approach, with a particular focus on the definition of appropriate units of analysis, such as routines, and related challenges associated with exploring the relationship between co-evolution, re-use of knowledge, adaptation, and exaptation processes. We then introduce the three articles that we have finally accepted in this Special Issue after an extensive, multi-round, triple blind-review process. We briefly outline how each of these articles contributes to understanding among scholars, practitioners and policy makers of the continuous evolutionary processes within and among social organizations and systems.     

Network closure's impact on firms’ competitive advantage: The mediating roles of knowledge processes

This study draws on the knowledge management and social network disciplines to examine the effect of network closure on organizations’ competitive advantage. We hypothesize that the level of network closure affects an organization's capability of knowledge identification, knowledge transfer, knowledge protection and knowledge institutionalization; these capabilities in turn affect an organization's competitive advantage. Thus, we model network closure as indirectly affecting an organization's competitive advantage. A Partial Least Square (PLS) analysis of the survey data of 78 Chinese petrochemical firms shows that network closure can both enhance and decrease an organization's competitive advantage. Network closure enhances an organization's competitive advantage by facilitating knowledge protection and transfer (via institutionalization), but decreases competitive advantage by hindering knowledge identification. Environmental dynamics that the organizations encounter are observed to moderate the effect of network closure. Combining our results with the findings from the literature, we propose that organizations operating in a dynamic environment, where the domain knowledge is in a state of flux, need to place great importance on knowledge identification; such organizations should choose a sparse network that allows them to receive diverse knowledge. In contrast, organizations operating in a stable environment should opt for a dense network to protect their knowledge and facilitate transfer of required knowledge.     

Optimal and dysfunctional turnover: toward an organizational level model

Dysfunctional turnover is defined here as the level that produces a divergence between the organization's optimal balance of costs associated with turnover and the costs associated with retaining employees. Under this approach, the optimal level of aggregate turnover for most organizations will be (1) greater than zero and (2) variable across organizations, contingent on particular factors influencing retention costs and quit propensities. The model presented posits that individual, organizational, and environmental attributes influence individual quit propensities of employees and, hence, expected turnover rates for the organization.     

Turnover intention: the effects of core self-evaluations,proactive personality,perceived organizational support,developmental feedback,and job complexity

Despite extensive examination of predictors for turnover and turnover intention, most studies have focused on attitudinal and behavioural aspects of individual employees. Based on a study of knowledge workers in a Korean conglomerate, we investigated the effects of personal (i.e. core self-evaluations and proactive personality) and contextual factors (i.e. perceived organizational support, developmental feedback, and job complexity) on turnover intention. There were modestly negative but significant correlations between the contextual factors and turnover intention. In addition, core self-evaluations were found to be negatively related to turnover intention. Managers and human resource development professionals could play a pivotal role in retention of these knowledge workers by building better practices related to organizational culture, providing job redesign, and engaging in other employee developmental practices such as coaching.     

Structural determinants of team performance: the mutual influences of learning culture,creativity, and knowledge

This study examined the effects of supportive learning culture, team creativity, and collaborative knowledge creating practices on team performance. A survey was used to collect data from a total of 228 knowledge workers from nine Korean organizations. Analyses included measuring item internal consistency, validating proposed constructs, and examining structural relationships using Structural Equation Modelling. The proposed research model was validated in terms of item internal consistency and a model-fit in the Korean business context. Supportive learning culture had a positive and direct influence on team creativity and on the teams' collaborative knowledge creation practices; however, it had an indirect influence on the team performance through the variables of team creativity and knowledge creation practices. In the conclusion, limitations, implications, and further research suggestions are discussed.     

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。     

Participation in Strategic Decision Making: The Role of Organizational Predisposition and Issue Interpretation*

Each time managers are faced with a strategic decision they decide how to decide. Specifically, they make choices about who has necessary information and, therefore, who needs to participate in the decision. Such responses to strategic issues are believed to be affected by the way in which decision makers interpret issues. However, organizations develop habitual responses to issues and may be predisposed because of their attention to rules and routines, or because of past performance, to respond to strategic issues in certain ways regardless of how issues are interpreted. We examined the direct and indirect effects of predisposition (rule orientation and past financial performance) and interpretation of strategic issues on the participation of internal stakeholder groups in strategic decision making. Executives in 52 organizations indicated that rule orientation and performance are directly linked to participation in strategic decision making, and that interpretation and rule orientation are directly linked to each other. Implications for managers include the notion that any effort to improve decision-making effectiveness by shaping how organizational members frame and interpret issues will be constrained by the organization's existing routines as well as its past performance.     

Routines in International Business: A semi-systematic review of the concept

Routines are a crucial element in different streams of International Business (IB) research. This semi-systematic review examines articles published in top-ranked IB journals to analyze how the concept routines is used, in order to provide orientations for future research in the field. A systematic search process in three databases, followed by inductive text analysis and a cluster analysis, identifies three distinct research streams on routines in International Business: Global strategy, international organizational learning, and internationalization processes. A comprehensive analysis of the use of the concept in IB is presented by documenting qualities, types, dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of routines in the extant research. We integrate the fragmented and often implicit aspects ascribed to routines in IB research, so that future research can draw upon a defragmented, synthesized, and clarified concept. Opportunities for future contributions are highlighted in five broad areas: hierarchy and order in the MNE; agents, context, and time; distributing routines; distributed routines; and the non-routine.