Unraveling quantity discounts

We consider the situation in which a buying organization deals with a discrete quantity discount schedule offered by a selling organization. Furthermore, the buying organization can negotiate with the selling organization about the lot size and purchase price, but does not know the underlying function that was used by the selling organization to determine the quantity discount schedule. In this paper, we provide an analytical and empirical basis for one general quantity discount function (QDF) that can be used to describe the underlying function of almost all different quantity discount types. We first develop such a QDF analytically. Among other things, this QDF enables buying organizations to calculate detailed prices for a large number of quantities. We subsequently show that the QDF fits very well with 66 discount schedules found in practice. We discuss that the QDF and related indicators can be a useful tool in supplier selection and negotiation processes. It can also be used for competitive analyses, multiple sourcing decisions, and allocating savings for purchasing groups. Additionally, the QDF can be included in research models incorporating quantity discounts. We conclude the paper with an outlook on further QDF research regarding the characterization of commodity markets from a demand elasticity point of view.     

Organization without actorhood: Exploring a neglected phenomenon

Most scholars explicitly or implicitly build on the assumption that organizations have to be externally recognized as actors to become constituted as organizations. Although recently some scholars have reported on instances of organization without actorhood, the phenomenon still remains widely neglected. Moreover, so far, organization without actorhood is seen as something very limited in terms of complexity and permanency. In this paper, we will draw a different picture. Drawing on the concept of degrees of organizationality (Dobusch & Schoeneborn, 2015) and a decision-based understanding of organization (Ahrne & Brunsson, 2011; Luhmann, 2003), we develop a framework that allows us to explore how much organization is possible without actorhood. Drawing on a qualitative case study of an inter-organizational collective concerned with ensuring public safety, we illustrate that highly complex organization is possible without constituting an actor. Our study presents evidence contradicting the common assumption that complex organization relies on the external attribution of actorhood. We also add to debates on responsibility of organizations and inter-organizational relations by pointing out that organization without actorhood has certain implications, i.e. it allows for a specific avoidance of responsibility.     

Externe Organisationsberatung und Schulentwicklung

External organization counseling and school development Modernizing schools by internal school development is an important issue in Germany. This article discusses the conditions for successful processes in school development from the view of organization counseling. Which conditions for external counseling are necessary, how does a professional process steering function, and which tasks external counselors have to fulfil in the development process? Because of the very high demands on external counselors and coaches, an competence profile is presented and the necessary frame conditions for the setup of a counseling system are discussed.     

转型背景下企业有效应对组织复杂性的机理研究

如何借助不同类型的组织复杂性为企业创造效能已成为当前理论界及实践界研究的热点.本文基于文献研究提出了不同组织复杂性与组织效能的关系及影响这一关系的复杂适应性机理的假设.实证研究表明,转型经济环境下,结构复杂性与组织效能存在倒U型曲线关系,战略复杂性与组织效能存在U型曲线关系,目标复杂性与组织效能存在倒U型曲线关系;在复杂适应性的五个维度中,动态适应在组织复杂性与组织效能关系中起完全中介作用;自组学习及自主创新在这一关系中起部分中介作用;自发变革和柔性协作的中介作用不显著.研究结论对企业有效应对组织复杂性有重要指导意义.     

动态环境下变革型领导行为对探索式技术创新和组织绩效的影响

现有针对变革型领导行为的研究多数是从中基层领导者所影响的个体或团队层次展开的,从高层领导者及其所处的组织层次来进行探讨的研究成果相对较少.目前数量有限的关于变革型领导行为与组织绩效之间关系的研究,普遍忽略了对中介机制和调节影响因素的深入探讨.基于对现存研究缺口的认识,本文构建了包含中介环节的调节效应概念模型,并通过中国297家企业样本的实证检验,得出了以下结论:企业高层领导者的变革型领导行为对组织绩效具有正向的影响,且探索式技术创新在其中承担部分中介的作用;环境动态性对变革型领导行为与组织绩效之间的关系具有调节作用,但在这种调节作用产生效应过程中,探索式技术创新起了完全中介的作用.本研究证明了中介调节效应模型能更好解释变革型领导行为对组织绩效作用的机理,同时也对拓展现属于组织行为学领域的领导理论的研究范围和角度提出了建议.     

Merit Payment in France: Towards New Forms of Wage Determination?

ABSTRACT Wage policies in France were substantially renewed in the 1980s; this renewal was reflected in two phenomena: profit-sharing and merit payment. Merit payment is analysed here in relation to the emergence of new forms of organization of production. The need for higher-skilled labour, the relative decline of execution work and Taylorism have led to the setting up of systems of individual assessment and a more coherent organization of internal labour markets. Thus, merit payment should be seen as a very different practice from piece work: rather, it is the first attempt to establish a system of payment which could serve as a basis for renewing the entire wage bargaining set-up.     

Leader–member exchange and organizational dehumanization: The role of supervisor’s organizational embodiment

This research examined the negative relationship between leader–member exchange (LMX) and organizational dehumanization (i.e., employees’ perceptions that their organization treats them like tools), and specifically the consequences of this LMX–dehumanization relationship on employees’ emotional exhaustion, affective commitment, and voice behaviors. Further, given that supervisors act as representatives of the organization, we argued that these relationships would be stronger for employees identifying their supervisor with the organization (i.e., high supervisor’s organizational embodiment). Across two samples, results showed that high-quality LMX was negatively associated with organizational dehumanization. Further, organizational dehumanization was found to mediate the relationships between LMX and outcomes (i.e., emotional exhaustion, affective commitment, and voice behaviors). Finally, the mediation model was moderated by supervisor’s organizational embodiment. More specifically, the negative effects of LMX on organizational dehumanization and its subsequent outcomes were stronger when leaders were perceived as sharing many characteristics with their organization. This research expands the recent and scarce knowledge on the determinants, boundary conditions and outcomes of organizational dehumanization. Our findings suggest that interpersonal relationships at work and, in particular, very common supervisor-related perceptions should be considered when examining organizational dehumanization.     

基于基金组织模式的生物质燃料供给研究

生物质燃料收集难是制约生物质发电产业发展的主要因素之一,生物质燃料供给模式对生物质发电产业的发展有着重要作用。本文建立传统模式下经济效益最大化的农户、经济组织、电厂三者的动态博弈模型;并引入基金组织,即村委会组织农户收集燃料,销售收入部分归农户,部分用于村基础设施建设,构建考虑效用最大化的农户、基金组织、电厂三方的博弈模型。结果表明,农户生物质燃料供给量、组织提供给农户的价格同上网电价呈正相关关系,同燃料的运输、存储及预处理成本呈负相关关系。另外,基金组织模式下,效用函数系数对生物质燃料供给量和基金组织给农户的经济利益有一定影响。对两模式进行比较发现,基金组织模式下,农户的生物质燃料供给量和收益均高于传统模式。政府实施激励后农户的效用、组织的效用、电厂的经济利益均增加。     

Environmental forecasting and non-profit professional organizations

To undertake any kind of realistic planning activity, it is useful to have a long-term environmental forecast which provides the planner with an overall perspective. The planner will be functioning over the next decade in a very dynamic, complex and challenging political, economic, technological and social environment, and will require very effective planning efforts to cope with such changing environment. This article presents an approach and methodology that a planner could use in his/her organization's planning process. To the best of our knowledge, very few organizations—profit and non-profit oriented—undertake a formal long-term environmental forecast. This article might encourage several planners to examine this area of long range planning in their respective organizations. The long- term environmental forecasting approach presented in this article could be applied by planners in all types of organizations—small or large, profit oriented or non-profit oriented, old or new. This article, however, is based on a study which the authors did for a non-profit organization.     

High technology organizations: Context, organization and people

Firms in global high technology industries face key challenges. This paper presents an integrative framework that delineates aspects of their context, organization and human resources. It also identifies tensions within the firm that can only be resolved by increasing the capacity of the firm to deal with multiple and conflicting pressures. High technology firms muct be adept at resolving tensions and learning in a very fast paced and changing world.     

Perception of learning culture and concerns about the innovation on its use: a question of level of analysis.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between organizational members' perception of learning culture and the concerns about the innovation, and the influence of these factors on the use of one innovation (ISO 9000) in the Malaysian public sector. This study was guided by the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall and Hord 1987) and the dimensions of the learning organization (Watkins and Marsick 1993, 1996b). The study involved 628 people from eleven government agencies that had been using the new system for at least a year. The study provided a model for operationalizing the assertions and theories of both organizational development and learning organization scholars especially that a more adaptive learning-oriented culture would facilitate the implementation of change. The examination of learning culture facilitated the understanding of how members within the organization perceived their learning culture, and subsequently its relationship to their use of the innovation. The analysis of concerns illustrated the fit between the innovation and feelings and perceptions of the individual members about the innovation. On an individual organizational basis, the regression analyses showed that the model was able to explain the variance in use of innovation in each organization. However, a comparison of regression weights across the organizations told a very different story. The results showed that the combination of variables that explained the use of innovation varied radically from organization to organization. The findings raised questions about appropriate levels of analyses for such studies. The study suggests that theories that try to explain organizational innovation implementation be tested across organizations and take into account organizational context. Otherwise, they could lead to inaccurate conclusions.     

Critical Success Factors for Strategic Alliances in the Information Technology Industry: An Empirical Study*

Intense competition in the marketplace is forcing organizations to examine different ways by which they could enhance or retain their competitive edge. Strategic alliance is one such option through which an organization can leverage its resources to emerge as an effective competitor. Such alliances are burgeoning in the information technology industry, which is characterized by rapid change and short innovation cycles. Successful management of alliances has proved to be very elusive for the most part, and there is a lack of theoretical and empirical work in this area. Literature on critical factors was synthesized, and then a parsimonious set of critical factors was identified using a combination of interview and survey methodologies. Our study has implications for both practice and future research.     

网络组织风险传导的动态演化路径研究

网络组织是一个对风险高度敏感的交叉复杂系统,一方面风险具有客观必然性,另一方面风险极易在网络组织内部传导,各种风险在内外力的交互作用下会迅速扩张,因而风险传导机理如何、其动态演化路径如何等就成为能否实现协同效应的关键。本文基于网络组织风险传导具有路径依赖性的特征,利用泛函分析从时间维度推演风险传导的动态演化过程,构建网络组织风险传导路径模型,并运用具有典型网络组织特征的企业集团网络数值算例进行验证,为更好地控制风险、探寻疏通渠道、实现资源的有效配置提供新的洞察。     

Rich Ties and Innovative Knowledge Transfer within a Firm

We show that contacts in formal, informal and especially multiplex networks explain transfer of innovative knowledge in an organization. The contribution of informal contacts has been much acknowledged, while that of formal contacts did not receive much attention in the literature in recent decades. No study thus far has included both these different kinds of contacts in a firm, let alone considered their combined effect. The exact overlap between formal as well as informal contacts between individuals, forming multiplex or what we call rich ties because of their contribution, especially drives the transfer of new, innovative knowledge in a firm. Studying two cases in very different settings suggests these rich ties have a particularly strong effect on knowledge transfer in an organization, even when controlling for the strength of ties. Some of the effects on knowledge transfer in an organization previously ascribed to either the formal network or the informal network may actually be due to their combined effect in a rich tie.     

An acyclic outranking model to support group decision making within organizations

A model to support group decision making within the board of any organization to select an alternative from a short list is proposed using a pairwise relation: consensus relation.This relation avoids elementary cyclicity which is a general shortcoming of previous models and satisfies transitivity under special conditions (weak transitivity). This relation is represented by a triangle-free graph and has important implications for Public Choice Theory such as the special relevance of the 2/3 majority rule and for Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) to improve outranking models.The proposed model can be easily applied as shown by the example presented.The contributions obtained from this model do not only include the selection of the recommended alternative(s) but also very useful representations and measures of the level of cultural consensus and dissent of the board members which can be used to improve their composition and behavior.     

From Global Knowledge Management to Internal Electronic Fences: Contradictory Outcomes of Intranet Development

This paper considers the adoption of intranet technology as a vehicle for encouraging organization-wide knowledge sharing within a large, global bank. Ironically, the outcome of intranet adoption was that, rather than integrate individuals across this particular organization, the intranet actually helped to reinforce the existing functional and national boundaries with 'electronic fences'. This could be partly explained by the historical emphasis on decentralization within the bank, which shaped and limited the use of the intranet as a centralizing, organization-wide tool. This is possible because the intranet can be described as an interactive and decentred technology, which therefore has the potential for multiple interpretations and effects. Thus, while the intranet is often promoted as a technology that enables processes of communication, collaboration and social coordination it also has the potential to disable such processes. Moreover, it is argued that to develop an intranet for knowledge-sharing requires a focus on three distinctive facets of development. These different facets may require very different, sometimes contradictory, sets of strategies for blending the technology and the organization, thus making it extremely difficult for a project team to work effectively on all three facets simultaneously. This was evidenced by the fact that none of the independent intranet-implementation projects considered actually managed to encourage knowledge-sharing as intended, even within the relatively homogeneous group for which it was designed. Broader knowledge-sharing across the wider organizational context simply did not occur even among those who were working on what were defined as 'knowledge management' projects. A paradox is that knowledge-sharing via intranet technologies may be most difficult to achieve in contexts where knowledge management is the key objective.     

How Will We Know It When We See It? Conceptualizing the Ethical Organization

How might one conceptualize the ethical organization? The argument presented here is that the truly ethical organization accentuates three main components. First it must be law-abiding in its basic execution of its organizational ethical responsibility. Second, the organization must exercise strong ethical leadership in its day-to-day operations and policies. Finally, at the organizational level, there must be ongoing monitoring processes ensuring compliance of the organization. Specific techniques for consistent, ongoing monitoring and enforcement of ethical compliance by an objective party are described.     

New contracts: The key to change

Successfully managing change in an organization is very difficult. Paul Strebel sets out a new way of doing this, based on contract theory which states that stakeholders have both an explicit and implicit individual contract with their companies. These contracts must be modified if corporate change is to proceed.The author develops five propositions about the role of contracts in change management. Change can only succeed if these five propositions are satisfied and the operational implications fully understood and implemented.     

Approaching management and organization paradoxes paradoxically: The case for the tetralemma as an expansive encasement strategy

The field of paradox studies keeps struggling to put the notion of paradox into the very centre of organizational life and managerial decision-making, with mixed success. We argue that this research ambition can be realized much more effectively by anchoring the field in three interrelated conceptual approaches which build on paradox as the paradigmatic point of departure. These approaches include Spencer Brown’s form calculus, Niklas Luhmann’s systems and organization theory, and the traditional Indian logical construct of tetralemma. In the proposed argument, paradox constitutes the very identity of organizations as (re-entries of) distinctions drawn in the environment; it is actualized in every act of organizational decision communication, as well as in the process of the continual vanishing and renewal of such acts. In this conception of organizational life, the key challenge is to debunk false distinctions by using tetralemmatization strategies that entail a radical questioning of the problematic observational perspectives.     

A performance measurement paradigm for integrating strategy formulation: A review of systems and frameworks

Measuring organizational performance plays a very important part in translating corporate strategy into results. Various emerging (non-traditional) performance systems have recently been devised to aid firms in selecting and implementing measures. This paper discusses the strategy/measurement initiatives and compares ten emerging performance measurement systems with respect to a list of performance dimensions, the characteristics of performance measures, and the requirements of development process. Although these systems have constraints borne with their own application domains, they stand by themselves empirically and/or theoretically, and provide guidance about what to measure and how to design performance measures that could be linked to the corporate strategy and objectives of an organization. This paper concludes that there is a need to develop a paradigm for integrating strategy formulation and performance measurement in organizations.