Interest in the problem of method biases has a long history in the behavioral sciences. Despite this, a comprehensive summary of the potential sources of method biases and how to control for them does not exist. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which method biases influence behavioral research results, identify potential sources of method biases, discuss the cognitive processes through which method biases influence responses to measures, evaluate the many different procedural and statistical techniques that can be used to control method biases, and provide recommendations for how to select appropriate procedural and statistical remedies for different types of research settings.

/pdf/common-method-biases-in-behavioral-research-a-critical-53ocysaemj.pdf

Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies.

Many formal organizational structures arise as reflections of rationalized institutional rules. The elaboration of such rules in modern states and societies accounts in part for the expansion and i...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2778293.pdf

Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony

The present research develops and tests a theoretical extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) that explains perceived usefulness and usage intentions in terms of social influence and cognitive instrumental processes. The extended model, referred to as TAM2, was tested using longitudinal data collected regarding four different systems at four organizations ( N = 156), two involving voluntary usage and two involving mandatory usage. Model constructs were measured at three points in time at each organization: preimplementation, one month postimplementation, and three months postimplementation. The extended model was strongly supported for all four organizations at all three points of measurement, accounting for 40%--60% of the variance in usefulness perceptions and 34%--52% of the variance in usage intentions. Both social influence processes (subjective norm, voluntariness, and image) and cognitive instrumental processes (job relevance, output quality, result demonstrability, and perceived ease of use) significantly influenced user acceptance. These findings advance theory and contribute to the foundation for future research aimed at improving our understanding of user adoption behavior.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2634758.pdf

A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Four Longitudinal Field Studies

Self-Reports in Organizational Research: Problems and Prospects

This article synthesizes the large but diverse literature on organizational legitimacy, highlighting similarities and disparities among the leading strategic and institutional approaches. The analysis identifies three primary forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, based on audience self-interest; moral, based on normative approval: and cognitive, based on comprehensibility and taken-for-grantedness. The article then examines strategies for gaining, maintaining, and repairing legitimacy of each type, suggesting both the promises and the pitfalls of such instrumental manipulations.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/258788.pdf

Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches

Among the most widely cited books in the social sciences, The External Control of Organizations has long been required reading for any student of organization studies. The book, reissued on its 25th anniversary as part of the Stanford Business Classics series, includes a new preface written by Jeffrey Pfeffer, which examines the legacy of this influential work in current research and its relationship to other theories.The External Control of Organizations explores how external constraints affect organizations and provides insights for designing and managing organizations to mitigate these constraints. All organizations are dependent on the environment for their survival. As the authors contend, "it is the fact of the organization's dependence on the environment that makes the external constraint and control of organizational behavior both possible and almost inevitable." Organizations can either try to change their environments through political means or form interorganizational relationships to control or absorb uncertainty. This seminal book established the resource dependence approach that has informed so many other important organization theories.

The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective

The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective.

The External Control of Organizations.

This article outlines a social information processing approach to explain job attitudes. In comparison with need-satisfaction and expectancy models to job attitudes and motivation, the social information processing perspective emphasizes the effects of context and the consequences of past choices, rather than individual predispositions and rational decision-making processes. When an individual develops statements about attitude or needs, he or she uses social information--information about past behavior and about what others think. The process of attributing attitudes or needs from behavior is itself affected by commitment processes, by the saliency and relevance of information, and by the need to develop socially acceptable and legitimate rationalizations for actions. Both attitudes and need statements, as well as characterizations of jobs, are affected by informational social influence. The implications of the social information processing perspective for organization development efforts and programs of job redesign are discussed.

A social information processing approach to job attitudes and task design.

Examines how external constraints affect organizations and how to design and manage organizations under such constraints. Taking a resource dependence perspective on organizations, the book discusses basic components of control, including the concentration and availability of resources, the role of managers, interdependence among organizations, the environment, and organizational structure. Two case studies, one on Israeli managers and one on American defense contractors, exemplify how governmental external control affects organizational choice. In the case of the Israeli managers, the managers' responses regarding the size of the return they would be willing to give up to invest in a government-created development area were positively correlated with the proportion of the firm's government sales. Similarly, the study of American defense contractors examined how willing they were to comply with affirmative action laws for employment of women, finding a strong correlation between positive replies to women seeking employment and government dependence. Dependence is not restricted to the government, however, as firms are heavily reliant upon resources made available to them from other organizations. Despite external control, the organization is able to achieve internal control to a certain extent, stabilizing activities by institutionalizing roles and patterns of behavior. The question of power within organizations requires further study, as organizations are coalitions of interest and only some interests and goals are accomplished at the expense of others. Organizations also serve to create and transact ideas and the influence these ideas create, so that influence and control are multidirectional. Conclusions show that organizations are not autonomous entities, but are reliant upon the larger network of organizations within the environment - through which they must strive to manipulate resources to survive. (CJC)

Gerald R. Salancik

Papers

The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective

The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective.

The External Control of Organizations.

A social information processing approach to job attitudes and task design.

The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective (Stanford Business Classics)