We describe the development and validation of a new instrument, KEYS: Assessing the Climate for Creativity, designed to assess perceived stimulants and obstacles to creativity in organizational work environments. The KEYS scales have acceptable factor structures, internal consistencies, test-retest reliabilities, and preliminary convergent and discriminant validity. A construct validity study shows that perceived work environments, as assessed by the KEYS scales, discriminate between high-creativity projects and low-creativity projects; certain scales discriminate more strongly and consistently than others. We discuss the utility of this tool for research and practice.

Assessing the Work Environment for Creativity

Unstable market conditions caused by innovation and increasing intensity and diversity of competition have resulted in organizational capabilities rather than served markets becoming the primary basis upon which firms establish their long-term strategies. If the strategically most important resource of the firm is knowledge, and if knowledge resides in specialized form among individual organizational members, then the essence of organizational capability is the integration of individuals' specialized knowledge. This paper develops a knowledge-based theory of organizational capability and draws upon research into competitive dynamics, the resource-based view of the firm, organizational capabilities, and organizational learning. Central to the theory is analysis of the mechanisms through which knowledge is integrated within firms in order to create capability. The theory is used to explore firms' potential for establishing competitive advantage in dynamic market settings, including the role of firm networks...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2635098.pdf

Prospering in Dynamically-Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration

The Social Psychology of Organizations.

The field of strategic human resource management (SHRM) has been criticized for lacking a solid theoretical foundation. This article documents that, contrary to this criticism, the SHRM literature ...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/256713.pdf

Modes of theorizing in strategic human resource management: Tests of universalistic, contingency, and configurational performance predictions

We examine how social capital dimensions of networks affect the transfer of knowledge between network members. We distinguish among three common network types: intracorporate networks, strategic alliances, and industrial districts. Using a social capital framework, we identify structural, cognitive, and relational dimensions for the three network types. We then link these social capital dimensions to the conditions that facilitate knowledge transfer. In doing so, we propose a set of conditions that promote knowledge transfer for the different network types.

Social Capital, Networks, and Knowledge Transfer

Support for this research was provided in part by the Wisconsin Job Service Division of the Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations, the California Employment Department, and by the Program on Organizational Effectiveness of the Office of Naval Research under the contract number NOOO1 4-S4-K-001 6. This paper examines the selection, interaction, and systems approaches to fit in structural contingency theory. These are empirically examined as related to a taskcontingency theory of work-unit design in 629 employment security units in California and Wisconsin. Evidence was found to support the selection and systems approaches in these data but not the interaction approach. The generalizability of these findings is discussed in terms of using alternative approaches to fit to explain context-structureperformance relationships in contingency theory.

Alternative forms of fit in contingency theory.

In this article we explore assumptions about the levels of analysis embedded in the extant literature on creativity in organizations. Uncovering and then relaxing these assumptions allow us to extend the literature with an alternative but complementary model of how creativity unfolds in complex, large-scale, and long-duration organizational projects. We build on the paradigm of sensemaking and propose a multilevel model of creativity that, as its defining feature, examines how periodic organizational crises reframe the negotiated order of belief structures about creativity.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/259083.pdf

Multilevel Theorizing about Creativity in Organizations: A Sensemaking Perspective

: Contingency theories dominate scholarly studies of organization behavior, design, performance, planning and management strategy. While they vary widely in subject matter, they have the common proposition that an organizational outcome is the consequency of a fit or match between two or more factors. Fit is the key concept in this proposition, and the core problem common to contingency theories is not defining this term clearly. This paper examines three ways to define and test this concept of fit: Selection, Interaction, and Systems approaches. A critical discussion of these approaches will clarify much of the current confusion in the literature on contingency theories, and suggest ways that future theorizing and research can become more systematic and constructive. Originator supplied keywords include: Contingency theory; Organization structure; Organization design; Organization performance.

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The Concept of Fit in Contingency Theory.

Theorists have often acknowledged the importance of equifinality in organization design and, in recent years, several studies have demonstrated the concept empirically. This article exposes the assumptions regarding function and structure that underlie contingency theory and develops a functional equivalence view of design. By examining the degree of conflict in functional demands together with the latitude of structural options available, we reveal and describe three different types of equifinality: suboptimal. tradeoff, and configurational. The functional equivalence approach implies a different agenda and emphasis for research on structure and design and has normative implications for how managers should design to achieve performance.

Robert Drazin

Papers

Alternative forms of fit in contingency theory.

Multilevel Theorizing about Creativity in Organizations: A Sensemaking Perspective

The Concept of Fit in Contingency Theory.

Equifinality: Functional Equivalence in Organization Design

A stage-contingent model of design and growth for technology based new ventures