Peak performing organisations

The literature on organisational performance is riddled with measurement problems that cannot easily be solved. In contrast we argue that elite theory in terms of performance can be more easily measured by the win record of sports organisations. Accordingly, this article argues that certain organisational peak practices are key to understanding how peak performance is sustained. Through data collected from the top ten sports organisations in the world we introduce the embryonic theory of Peak Performing Organisations (PPO). Sustained PPO practices offer more robust outcomes than the genre of High Performing Organisations.     

International organisations and development studies documentation

The Library of the Institute of Development Studies was founded in 1966 and has built an extensive collection of international organisation documentation. This article surveys the Library's collection but does not include major United Nations agencies.     

Feedback quality and performance in organisations

The provision of feedback is fundamental for promoting employee performance in modern organisations; however, little is known about how the quality of feedback affects performance. We report an experiment where subjects perform a real-effort task repeatedly in a flat-wage environment which varies the quality of feedback across treatments. In the baseline treatment, subjects receive no feedback about their rank in their group. In the two main treatments, feedback quality varies in that subjects know (“High-Quality Feedback”) or do not know (“Low-Quality Feedback”) their exact rank in their group. We show that the quality of feedback is an important driver of productivity. Average performance is significantly higher for high-quality feedback than for low-quality or no feedback, where no significant overall performance differences are observed. Our results have significant implications for designing and implementing cost-effective policies within organisations.     

The bureaucratic side of computers: Memory,evocation and management information

Management information systems fail to support management because they are not flexible enough to keep pace with the unstructured nature of decision making processes. Observations made in four welfare management information systems suggest that computerization improves evocation—the means by which decision makers pool data from the collective memory, only to the extent that choices and the relevancy of data are predetermined. Facing rigid procedures and irresponsiveness to irregular data needs, managers of all ranks duplicate the computerized memory with manual records and files so as to retain access to their memory under their terms.     

Communication and its constraints on the structure of organisations

Control of organisations is one of the principal concerns of management. Day to day control is frequently mainly achieved by oral or verbal communication. It is suggested that loss or distortion of information during its passage through a chain of command can impose a major constraint on the effectiveness of an organisation. An experiment was devised in order to determine the information loss and distortion likely to occur when verbal information is passed through a series of people. It was found necessary to develop a method of coding and classifying verbal and written information before the data could be analysed. Some 21 different types of verbal information ‘bit’ were eventually isolated. It was found that there were some unexpected effects in the information loss process, and that distortions could frequently take place which created an exactly opposite effect to that required. It was also noted that critical loss levels existed, and that the believed ability to act on the information was related to this level. The results are described in the paper and losses and distortions are quantified so that the reliability of the human command system can be evaluated. The losses are then related to the deduced and observed limitations of the size and structure organisations.     

Leadership in organisations: Meta,macro and micro

The study of leadership suffers from too many definitions, not too few. Much of this confusion springs from the fact that there are two fundamentally different perspectives on leadership. From these arise three common usages of the word. This article suggests that we recognise this diversity and abandon the search for a unique definition.The first perspective views leadership as “influence on individuals” without using power or authority. This “meta” leadership relates individuals to their environment through “visioning” — a complex interaction of perception, articulation, conviction and empathy (PACE).The second perspective views leadership as the “shaking and moving” of an organisation to face the future, cope with change and achieve results. It includes both the creation of a successful organisation, through “macro” leadership, and the accomplishment of specific jobs or tasks, through “micro” leadership.These three types of leadership — meta, macro and micro — are examined from the two perspectives. It is suggested that all three should be exercised by managers at all levels - no matter how junior.     

Successfully integrating organisations and cultures: A case study

Several years ago, facing up to the need to be a global trader, Borg-Warner Chemicals developed a long-term strategy based on diversification and growth. This type of strategy, particularly where growth comes through acquisitions, joint ventures and possible greenfield site development, has a profound effect on the human resources function of any company. This article is intended as a route map around some of the more obvious minefields, and details the actual experience of Borg-Warner Chemicals (BW) as the majority shareholder of a joint-venture operation in Europe.In this case-study of the role of human resources in a joint-venture or takeover environment the company referred to is in rural France, but it could be logically anywhere around the world - the same basic rules apply.     

Bureaucracy,decision-making and leadership in private and public organisations

Starting from the current political discussion of privatization, a comparison is made between private and public organizations, focusing on the degree of bureaucracy and the processes of decision-making and leadership in the organizations. The comparison is based on empirical data published in the literature of organizational research, including some fresh material from a recent comparative study of strategic decision-making in British and Swedish organizations. On the basis of these empirical data, it is concluded that many of the arguments put forward in the discussion of privatization do not seem to be grounded in facts, and that the results of organizational research do not confirm the great differences that are said to exist between private and public organizations.     

Riley and Cohen: Investment managers

Riley and Cohen, a new, small firm of investment managers, is facing a series of ethical dilemmas. In each case the members of the firm must choose between taking an action which will help insure their survival as a firm or rejecting the action because of moral considerations. One group of such actions may involve the possibility of direct unethical behavior by the new firm, as payment of a bribe, providing a client with an escort service, and making an undesirable political contribution. Another group of problems deals with how their investment decisions should be influenced by their personal values and those of their clients. These cases include investments in firms which produce condoms or cigarettes, practice abortion, discriminate against women and religious groups, do business with South Africa or the Soviet Union, or are involved in gambling. A consultant will make recommendations to Riley and Cohen about what to do, but ultimately the decision is theirs.     

A model of information activity in organisations

This article describes a computer model of the information activity in an organisation and its evolution over time. The model can be tuned to particular organisations and used to explore the impacts of strategies for the introduction of new information technology. The model structure is described and its applications are outlined. Some conclusions are drawn on the usefulness of computer models in this context.     

Why middle managers quit

The current trends in organizational downsizing may be causing the involuntary loss of high-performing, middle-level managers. This article reports on the perceived causes of turnover and how managers at differing levels of the organization have dramatically differing perceptions. Lower- and middle-level managers place greatest importance on lack of control and input on the job, while upper-lever managers see dissatisfaction with rewards and interpersonal conflicts as the critical causes of middle manager turnover.     

Codes of conduct in Hong Kong organisations

This paper first reviews the literature on the role of codes of conduct for organisations in Hong Kong in their attempts to manage increasingly complex ethical problems and issues. It shows that, although valuable foundations exist upon which to build, research and understanding of the subject is at it's embryonic stage. Social Psychology literature is examined to investigate what lessons those concerned with the study of ethics may learn and the work of Hofstede, as seminal in the area of work-related values, is emphasised in this context.Following Hofstede's proposals for strategies for operationalizing¹ constructs about human values, a content analysis² was conducted on a pilot sample of codes provided by Hong Kong organisations. The results show three clearly identified clusters of organisations with common formats. The first group, described as Foreign Legal, emphasises legal compliance, has criteria for invoking penalties and consists of foreign-owned, large multinational organisations. Companies in the second cluster have codes which, except in the case of a couple of larger organisations, mainly follow the Independent Commission Against Corruption's (ICAC) standard format. The third cluster, described as the Bank Network, also appear to largely conform to a format: the Hong Kong Banking Association's guidelines.Further analysis conducted here of the Hong Kong codes indicates the important role of emic teleological values³, such as trust and reputation, amongst indigenous organisations, rather than the amorality suggested by an earlier study (Dolecheck and Bethke, 1990). These results support the proposition that Hong Kong ethical perspectives are culture bound⁴, as there appear to be different emphases than revealed in an American study (Stevens, 1994), which identified an emphasis in the US codes upon introverted organisational issues and a failure to espouse deontological values⁵.The conclusion is that designing a research programme on business values in Hong Kong requires reference to studies of values in cross-cultural psychology generally and to Hofstede's work in particular. It also supports the need for indigenous research and models in this field which avoid the ethnocentrism inherent in much Western theory and research.     

Complexity leadership in bureaucratic forms of organizing: A meso model

We consider Complexity Leadership Theory [Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R., & McKelvey, B. (2007). Complexity Leadership Theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era. The Leadership Quarterly.] in contexts of bureaucratic forms of organizing to describe how adaptive dynamics can work in combination with administrative functions to generate emergence and change in organizations. Complexity leadership approaches are consistent with the central assertion of the meso argument that leadership is multi-level, processual, contextual, and interactive. In this paper we focus on the adaptive function, an interactive process between adaptive leadership (an agentic behavior) and complexity dynamics (non-agentic social dynamics) that generates emergent outcomes (e.g., innovation, learning, adaptability) for the firm. Propositions regarding the actions of complexity leadership in bureaucratic forms of organizing are offered.     

Why some managers fail.

Among modern societies, the American culture is one of the most competitive. And within that culture, physicians are among the most success-oriented professionals. This is easy to understand, in that, for our patients, success is equated with well-being and continuance of life. This emphasis upon success is also finely honed in the physician executive. Commonly, our institutional goals revolve around providing a high-quality health care product in a cost-effective manner. For the physician executive, success is based largely upon the extent to which institutional goals have been attained or, in the present environment, if it has survived. But the actual ingredients for the physician executive's success will depend upon a variety of diverse factors, both personal and environmental.     

Why acting managers rarely survive

Can acting managers win the job? Or are the scales tipped so far in the outside candidates' favor that it's not worth venturing into this shaky territory? If you want to be your former boss' successor, take note of the cautionary tales offered here. From power and control issues to strategies for protecting yourself if the unmentionable happens--you lose the position to some outsider--insights are offered on why you should think twice about accepting the acting manager job.