What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Historically, management theory has ignored the constraints imposed by the biophysical (natural) environment. Building upon resource-based theory, this article attempts to fill this void by proposing a natural-resource-based view of the firm—a theory of competitive advantage based upon the firm's relationship to the natural environment. It is composed of three interconnected strategies: pollution prevention, product stewardship, and sustainable development. Propositions are advanced for each of these strategies regarding key resource requirements and their contributions to sustained competitive advantage.

A natural resource-based view of the firm

Commitment in the workplace

J. Richard Harrison University of Texas at Dallas Glenn R. Carroll University of California at Berkeley To study the conditions under which culture can be transmitted effectively in formal organizations, where members of the system come and go rapidly and in large numbers, we develop a model of the cultural transmission process. The model includes the following variables: entry rate and exit rate of workers, growth rate of the organization, selectiveness of organizational recruiting, intensity of socialization (by managers and by coworkers), and the rate at which socialization decays if not reinforced. Findings from a computer simulation of the model show that cultural systems in organizations are highly robust and reach equilibrium even with high turnover and rapid growth. We also find that culture is stronger during decline than growth. Moreover, some alleged behavioral effects of culture might be explained by demographic processes rather than by psychological reactions to cultural content. In general, the model provides insights into the tradeoffs involved in cultural management.'

Keeping the faith: A model of cultural transmission in formal organizations

A number of recent research studies have demonstrated the presence of a positive link between customer-contact employees’ work satisfaction and customer satisfaction However, existing studies have largely neglected describing conditions under which the link between these two constructs is stronger or weaker The authors of this study argue that certain customer characteristics (such as customer trust, customer price consciousness, and the importance of product/service to the customer) and salesperson characteristics (such as empathy, expertise, and reliability) moderate the relationship between salespeople’s work satisfaction and customer satisfaction Balance theory is used to justify the hypotheses of the study Tests of the hypotheses are based on a dyadic data set collected across manufacturing and services industries in a business-to-business context Results reveal that the link between work satisfaction and customer satisfaction is systematically moderated by the salesperson and customer characteristics under consideration © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Exploring the Conditions Under Which Salesperson Work Satisfaction Can Lead to Customer Satisfaction

Antecedents of adaptive selling among retail salespeople: a multilevel analysis

Purpose




This paper aims to undertake a simultaneous assessment of interdependence in the behaviours of front-line and back-office employees and their joint effect on customer-related organisational performance. It also tests for a moderating influence of the emotional intelligence of front-line salespeople and back-office employees.




Design/methodology/approach




The sample comprises 105 front-line sales employees and 77 back-office employees. The customer-related organisational performance data come from a UK business-to-business (B2B) electronics company. With these triadic data, this study uses partial least squares to estimate the measurement and structural models.




Findings




Salespeople’s customer orientation directly affects customer-related organisational performance; the relationship is moderated by salespeople’s emotional intelligence. The emotional intelligence of salespeople also directly affects the customer-directed citizenship behaviour of back-office employees. Furthermore, the emotional intelligence of back-office staff moderates the link between the emotional intelligence of salespeople and back-office staff citizenship behaviour. Back-office staff citizenship behaviour, in turn, affects customer-related organisational performance.




Originality/value




The emotions deployed by employees in interactions with customers clearly shape customers’ perceptions of service quality, as well as employee-level performance outcomes. However, prior literature lacks insights into the simultaneous effects of front-line and back-office employee behaviour, especially in B2B settings. This paper addresses these research gaps by investigating triadic relationships – among back-office employees, front-line employees and customer outcomes – in a B2B setting, where they are of particular managerial interest.

/pdf/emotional-intelligence-in-front-line-back-office-employee-3cx59t86pv.pdf

Emotional intelligence in front-line/back-office employee relationships

This study investigates the effect of alignment between employee and firm customer orientation (FCO) on the organizational commitment of frontline service employees. Furthermore, the study examines how the size and nature of the discrepancy between employee customer orientation (ECO) and FCO affects organizational commitment. The results suggest that organizational commitment is stronger when employee and FCO are matched than when they are not. Furthermore, organizational commitment is slightly stronger when ECO exceeds FCO than when the reverse is the case. The results suggest that efforts expended by firms in hiring and retaining customer-oriented service workers will be unlikely to yield optimal commitment benefits without simultaneous investments to improve firm-level customer orientation.

/pdf/customer-orientation-of-frontline-employees-and-30z50b8zn6.pdf

Customer orientation of frontline employees and organizational commitment

https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa40976/Download/0040976-13072018183914.pdf

How service quality and outcome confidence drive pre-outcome word-of-mouth

Salesperson characteristics as well as managerial approaches have been found to play an important role in the development of positive attitudes by salespersons towards an organisation. This study integrates these two research areas to investigate the personal and contextual antecedents of affective organisational commitment of retail salespeople. Fit theory and the literature on person–situation interaction provide the theoretical bases for explaining how salesperson selling skills, job liking, and empowerment individually and jointly influence affective commitment. A multilevel modelling approach is used to analyse data from 105 sales managers and 419 salespeople. Findings reveal that salespersons' affective commitment is influenced by their selling skills, degree of job liking, tenure, and empowerment. The results also indicate that the impact of selling skills on affective commitment is higher when empowerment is high. Based on the study's findings, implications for managing salespeople as wel...

Kemefasu Ifie

Papers

Antecedents of adaptive selling among retail salespeople: a multilevel analysis

Emotional intelligence in front-line/back-office employee relationships

Customer orientation of frontline employees and organizational commitment

How service quality and outcome confidence drive pre-outcome word-of-mouth

Individual and contextual influences on the affective commitment of retail salespeople