In pursuit of physician/organization linkage

A friend of mine once said that medical staff/administrative relationships are the Bermuda Triangle of health care management. The Bermuda Triangle, as I recall it, is an area of the Atlantic Ocean into which ships and planes disappear without a trace, for no apparent reason. Sometimes, especially late at night on reruns of "Twilight Zone," these planes reappear years later, crew intact and youthful. Sometimes, salt and sharks get the ships, planes, and voyagers. In a like manner, problems in medical staff/administrative relations draw consultants into a vortex. Sometimes, the consultants and their reports float to the surface a long afterward. Sometimes, they are digested by the organization and become a part of its mythology. Sometimes, they vanish forever. This is the story of three consultations. All were intended to make recommendations concerning the structural relationship of management to the physicians and their groups in our HMO: How to link the physician organization to the corporate structure. Like any narrative, this story is constructed to provide a context for reflection and is not intended to question the value of the contribution of specific individuals or companies.     

Framing Effects in Narrative and Non‐Narrative Risk Messages

Narrative messages are increasingly popular in health and risk campaigns, yet gain/loss framing effects have never been tested with such messages. Three experiments examined framing in narrative messages. Experiment 1 found that only the character's decision, not framing, influenced judgments about characters in a narrative derived from a prospect theory context. Experiment 2 found that a framing effect that occurred when presented in a decision format did not occur when the same situation was presented as a narrative. Using a different story/decision context, Experiment 3 found no significant difference in preference for surgery over radiation therapy in a narrative presentation compared to a non‐narrative presentation. The results suggest that health and risk campaigns cannot assume that framing effects will be the same in narrative messages and non‐narrative messages. Potential reasons for these differences and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

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.     

Approaches to Equity Management and their Relationship to Women in Management

Developing equitable practices that provide fair access for all individuals to the benefits and burdens within an organization remains a dilemma for management both in policy and in practice. Research continues to show that the employment status and representation for members of some groups is significantly less than in relation to those of other groups. Addressing the issue of disparity has resulted in a number of different approaches. The main aim of this paper is to explore the ability of a typological theory of equal employment opportunity implementation to account for the differences in the numbers of women in management and in management tiers. This paper identifies and analyses four ideal-typical equity management approaches to achieving workplace parity: traditional (non-compliance), anti-discrimination, affirmative action and equal employment opportunity. While the objective of these approaches may be to ensure equity management in order to encourage equal outcomes the results tell a different story. Results show that an affirmative action approach to equity management predicts increases in women in management across all tiers of management.     

Narratives as Sources of Stability and Change in Organizations: Approaches and Directions for Future Research

Although narrative analysis has made significant advances in organization and management studies, scholars have not yet unleashed its full potential. This review provides an understanding of key issues in organizational narrative analysis with a focus on the role of narratives in organizational stability and change. We start by elaborating on the characteristics of organizational narratives to provide a conceptual framework for organizational narrative analysis. We elaborate on three key approaches to narrative analysis on stability and change: realist, interpretative, and poststructuralist. We then review several topic areas where narrative analysis has so far offered the most promise: organizational change, identity, strategy, entrepreneurship, and personal change. Finally, we identify important issues that warrant attention in future research, both theoretically and methodologically.     

Colonel Urwick and “organization”

This paper examines Urwick's view that confusion of two meanings of the term “organization”, due to social scientists, has diverted attention from the study of organization structure and the task oriented nature of management. It is maintained that this view is not an adequate characterization of Organization Theory. The relationship between social science and management theory is examined, and the approaches are held to be symbiotic, not, as Urwick suggests, competitive.     

Modular Network Design: Using Information and Communication Technology to Allocate Production Tasks in a Virtual Organization*

The increased interest in customer service and the trend towards customization gives rise to new organizational forms such as the virtual organization. This paper introduces the Modular Network Design (MND) approach to complement Mowshowitz' (1997) theory of virtual organization. This theory focuses on metamanagement of the virtual organization and consists of four activities: (1) determine and analyze customer requirements, (2) track the possibilities for satisfying these requirements, (3) develop and allocate production tasks among the members of the virtual organization, and (4) assess and adjust tasks and allocation procedures. The MND approach elaborates on this theory by breaking down both the requirements and the production tasks into modular entities, and by measuring the performance of the resulting virtual network in terms of operating costs and throughput time. The major contribution of the MND approach lies in its ability to support the assessment of alternative allocations of production tasks among the members of a virtual organization, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as enabler. The assessment of such alternative designs is illustrated by an application of MND in the air cargo industry. The results show how the virtual organization and its members can realize significant improvements in operating costs and throughput times when applying ICT to link and reallocate their modular production tasks in response to customized orders.     

组织管理学科的理论形态与创新途径

在论述成熟学科理论形态的基础上,以组织行为学为例,系统地分析了当前组织管理理论存在的问题,并提出了理论创新的途径与策略建议.研究结果表明,一门成熟的学科通常有多种不同的理论形态,揭示事物本质的理论、揭示概念间关系的理论、揭示事物演变规律的理论,以及元理论等抽象程度高的理论形态应该居于更重要的地位,但这些理论形态恰恰是当前组织管理学科比较缺乏的.     

Managing Through Networks: Some Issues and Implications for the NHS

Hierarchies, markets and networks have been described as three alternative styles of organizing, each of which may call for distinctive managerial orientations and styles. The question arises as to whether there is now a deep-seated shift underway from organizational forms based on markets and hierarchies and towards more network-based forms of organization.
This paper assesses the significance of these broader developments with reference to changing managerial practice within a major UK organization (the NHS). It seeks to access the developing theory of network-based organizations; to assess empirically the significance of these developments for managerial practice within public-sector organizations such as the NHS; and to consider the organizational and managerial implications, for example, Human Resource Management (HRM) strategy. There have so far been few studies which have taken public-sector settings for study or which have sought to connect network theory to practice, and this paper can make a useful contribution in these regards.     

A review and reconceptualization of organizational commitment.

This paper argues that current, global conceptions of organizational commitment may be deficient in several respects. A review of macro approaches to the nature of organization, as well as research on reference groups and role theory, indicates that a multiple commitments approach may be more precise and meaningful. It is suggested here that employees experience several different commitments to the goals and values of multiple groups. Some implications of this perspective are presented.     

Coping with the ultimate deprivation: narrative themes in a parental bereavement support group

Support groups are often used to help individuals cope with challenging and unusual life circumstances through narration. Yet, little is known about specific meta-communication within a support group setting and in what ways these interactions may benefit participants. This study uncovers narrative themes that were expressed during a series of support group meetings specific to bereaved parents. Three central narratives were revealed in the analysis including the death story narrative, coping/negotiating narrative, and connecting through communication with others narrative. This research underscores the vital outlet that the support group serves for participants and the communicative means by which subjective healing can occur.     

The possibilities of leadership: revisiting J.C. Rost’s leadership writings

In the 90s, J.C. Rost highlighted the possibilities for leadership to become inclusive, participative, and socially responsible. He explicitly questioned the leadership paradigm of the previous two centuries encouraging a new paradigm for the twenty-first century. His contribution to leadership studies was recognized through the International Leadership Association’s lifetime achievement award in 2008. However, his work has largely been overlooked within management and organization studies and today’s dominant leadership paradigm remains largely unchanged from that of the previous century. In this paper, the major elements of Rost’s approach; influence relationships, real intended change, and mutual purpose and their implications for developing good leadership are revisited and explained. Rost was unable to shift the dominant leadership paradigm which he encountered, but he was able to highlight the possibilities of what leadership could become. Conclusions are drawn with regards to the enduring separation between leaders and followers, the vested interests of stakeholders in leadership and the influence of a mythical leadership narrative.     

Nostalgia and the Narrativization of Identity: A Turkish Case Study

This paper offers an interpretation of the collective identity‐narrative of a Turkish faculty of vocational education. Particular attention is focused on the importance of nostalgia in acts of collective self‐authorship. Nostalgia, it is argued, is key to the understanding of the dynamics of individual and organizational identity‐construction in several ways: it can be a means of maintaining a collective sense of socio‐historic continuity, a source of resistance to hegemonic influence and a defence against anxiety. The research contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it illustrates how groups assemble shared storylines that subjectively constitute their collective identity. Second, it analyses the different ways in which acts of collective nostalgia can inform the stories by which individuals and groups understand their present circumstances, preserve self‐esteem, and react to perceived threats. Third, it theorises nostalgia as giving access to a shared heritage of apparently authentic and identity‐relevant values and beliefs, as an emotional support during periods of organizational change, and as a form of uniqueness claim central to processes of individual‐organization identification.     

Double Trouble: Sibling Rivalry and Twin Organizations in the 2008 Credit Crisis

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and explore the novel idea of highly similar ‘twin organizations’. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory in his formulation, the author argues that the closeness of organizational identities in twin organizations may lead to increased rivalry, narcissism and a tendency for greater risk‐taking and vulnerability. Four of the biggest casualties of the 2008 credit crisis – two UK banks (HBOS and RBS) and two large US financial institutions (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) – are used to illustrate this conceptual development. The contribution of this paper is fivefold. First, this paper contributes the theoretical innovation of the idea of twin organizations to the organization studies literature. Second, it casts a fresh light on four of the organizations that got most deeply into trouble in the credit crisis. Third, it contributes to other areas of organizational scholarship, specifically the theory of risk and the theory of organizational identity. Fourth, this paper acts as a warning by identifying similar phenomena in the ongoing Eurozone crisis, and fifth, it contributes to the understanding of risk‐management practice and organizational consultancy.     

Zwischen den Zeilen der Organisation

Between the lines of an organization. On postmodern thinking and its impact on organization theory and consultancyFollowing the discursive concept of postmodernism introduced by Jean-François Lyotard, this paper focuses on the impact of postmodern thinking (understood as a theory of difference) for organization theory and consultancy. Crucial for an application are basic organizational differences, like the relationship between formal and informal organization. By drawing on this difference this paper exemplifies that the main interest of postmodern thinking for our conceptual idea of organizations lies in a modified understanding and analysis of such fundamental organizational distinctions. Finally the implications of this postmodern understanding of organizations are outlined for the field of organization consultancy.     

基于制销供应链产品安全责任的消费者投资决策

本文运用博弈论的基本思想,从产品的安全性能(企业社会责任的一个方面)对消费者偏好的影响入手,对基于制销供应链联盟产品安全责任的消费者投资决策进行了研究。结果表明:要使g类制销联盟对履行安全责任的要求作出必要的反应,消费者应向消费者组织做出贡献,以确保g类制销联盟被选作为施压的目标;低产品安全责任满意度的消费者既不持有g类制销联盟的股票也不对消费者组织做贡献,而是选择个人捐赠产品安全事业;高产品安全责任满意度的消费者选择持有g类制销联盟的股票或者对消费者组织做贡献是对个人捐赠产品安全事业较好的替代;消费者的产品安全责任满意度与消费者是否选择持有b类制销联盟的股票无关。本文的研究成果能够对基于制销供应链联盟产品安全责任行为的消费者投资决策提供重要指导。     

Relativity Without Relativism: Reflexivity in Post-Paradigm Organization Studies

This paper shows how organization studies controls the subject through its use of representational devices. Different theoretical and methodological approaches may appear to offer epistemological guarantees concerning the validity of data about the research subject but they remain representations, beyond which we can know nothing except through representation. Research is not about wrenching truth from a recalcitrant 'reality': the devices it uses to represent its research subject create and control in the way they silence to give voice to aspects of that subject. All data are 'collaborative products' created in accordance with 'the practical procedures and background assumptions of the participating actors' (Knorr-Cetina, 1981). Thus the relations between research subject, researcher and the protocols that comprise the research process both embody and obscure power. For this reason, it is important that theory strives for a high degree of reflexivity (Marcus, 1994) in accounting for its own theorizing, as well as whatever it is that it theorizes about.
In this paper, we critically examine different research approaches, including those of Aston, to show the dangers that can arise when research is carried out without regard to reflexivity. We offer some criteria for carrying out reflexive research which, we believe, is one of the major challenges facing post-paradigm organization studies. As we shall see, reflexivity shows us how far we have come in the thirty years since Aston.     

Geschichten erzählen als Beratungsintervention

If the coach tells a story during a coaching then it is far more than just entertainment. But what is it then? The author reveals the basics of this rarely discussed form of intervention. He points to important aspects of the narratology, theory of cognition and theory of coaching. He makes clear what can be achieved through stories in this context and gives pragmatic tips for a successful input of this form of intervention. He also tells the story of how he has been disappointed by his son.     

Psychiatrisierung, Personifizierung und Personalisierung Zur personenzentrierten Beratung in Organisationen

Psychiatrization, personification and personalization. Individual-centred consulting in organizations The individual-centred consulting already achieved high popularity in supervision and coaching. Based on system theory this article aims to define the functions of individual-centred consulting approaches — such as supervision and consulting — for organizations. The function of person-centred consulting is less an obvious manifest function of human resources development and more an invisible one for isolating conflicts in special interactional contexts. The organization achieves protection of its structure through coaching and supervision, because it is able to isolate its conflicts interactionally and therefore these conflicts remain to a large extent without any consequences for the organization.     

Examining the Antecedents and Consequences of CIO Strategic Decision‐Making Authority: An Empirical Study*

Despite the strategic importance of information technology (IT) to contemporary firms, chief information officers (CIO) often still have varying degrees of strategic decision‐making authority. In this study, we apply the theory of managerial discretion to define CIO strategic decision‐making authority and argue that the CIO's level of strategic decision‐making authority directly influences IT's contribution to organization performance. We also draw on the power and politics perspective in the strategic decision‐making literature to identify the direct antecedents to the CIO's strategic decision‐making authority. A theoretical model is presented and empirically tested using survey data collected from a cross‐industry sample of 174 matched pairs of CIOs and top business executives through structural equation modeling. The results suggest that organizational climate, organizational support for IT, the CIO's structural power, the CIO's level of strategic effectiveness, and a strong partnership between the CIO and top management team directly influence the CIO's level of strategic decision‐making authority within the organization. The results also suggest that the CIO's strategic decision‐making authority in the organization directly influences the contribution of IT to firm performance and that effective CIOs have a greater influence on IT's contribution when provided with strategic decision‐making authority.