Agency theory is an important, yet controversial, theory. This paper reviews agency theory, its contributions to organization theory, and the extant empirical work and develops testable propositions. The conclusions are that agency theory (a) offers unique insight into information systems, outcome uncertainty, incentives, and risk and (b) is an empirically valid perspective, particularly when coupled with complementary perspectives. The principal recommendation is to incorporate an agency perspective in studies of the many problems having a cooperative structure.

http://strategy.sjsu.edu/www.stable/pdf/Eisenhardt,%20K.%20M.,%201989,%20The%20Academy%20of%20Management%20Review%2014(1)%2057-74.pdf

Agency Theory: An Assessment and Review

This paper differs from previous examinations of organizational learning in that it is broader in scope and more evaluative of the literatures. Four constructs related to organizational learning knowledge acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, and organizational memory are articulated, and the literatures related to each are described and critiqued.

The literature on knowledge acquisition is voluminous and multi-faceted, and so the knowledge acquisition construct is portrayed here as consisting of five subconstructs or subprocesses: 1 drawing on knowledge available at the organization's birth, 2 learning from experience, 3 learning by observing other organizations, 4 grafting on to itself components that possess knowledge needed but not possessed by the organization, and 5 noticing or searching for information about the organization's environment and performance. Examination of the related literatures indicates that much has been learned about learning from experience, but also that there is a lack of cumulative work and a lack of integration of work from different research groups. Similarly, much has been learned about organizational search, but there is a lack of conceptual work, and there is a lack of both cumulative work and syntheses with which to create a more mature literature. Congenital learning, vicarious learning, and grafting are information acquisition subprocesses about which relatively little has been learned.

The literature concerning information distribution is rich and mature, but an aspect of information distribution that is central to an organization's benefitting from its learning, namely how units that possess information and units that need this information can find each other quickly and with a high likelihood, is unexplored. Information interpretation, as an organizational process, rather than an individual process, requires empirical work for further advancement. Organizational memory is much in need of systematic investigation, particularly by those whose special concerns are improving organizational learning and decision making.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2634941.pdf

Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures

Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Managerial Work Chapter 3. Effective Leadership Behavior Chapter 4. Leading Change and Innovation Chapter 5. Participative Leadership and Empowerment Chapter 6. Leadership Traits and Skills Chapter 7. Contingency Theories and Adaptive Leadership Chapter 8. Power and Influence Tactics Chapter 9. Dyadic Relations and Followers Chapter 10. Leadership in Groups and Teams Chapter 11. Strategic Leadership in Organizations Chapter 12. Charismatic and Transformational Leadership Chapter 13. Ethical, Servant, Spiritual, and Authentic Leadership Chapter 14. Cross-cultural Leadership and Diversity Chapter 15. Developing Leadership Skills Chapter 16. Overview and Integration

/pdf/leadership-in-organizations-7uklakdk5o.pdf

Leadership in Organizations

This article applies the convergent insights of institutional and resource dependence perspectives to the prediction of strategic responses to institutional processes. The article offers a typology of strategic responses that vary in active organizational resistance from passive conformity to proactive manipulation. Ten institutional factors are hypothesized to predict the occurrence of the alternative proposed strategies and the degree of organizational conformity or resistance to institutional pressures.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/258610.pdf

Strategic responses to institutional processes

Investigates the patterns of technological evolution and their impact on environmental conditions. Seven hypotheses are offered in order to demonstrate that technology is a central force in shaping the environments within which organizations operate. These hypotheses are: (1) technological change within a product class will be characterized by long periods of incremental change punctuated by discontinuities; (1a) technological discontinuities are either competence enhancing (build on existing skills and know-how) or competence destroying (require fundamentally new skills and competences); (2) the locus of innovation will differ for competence destroying and competence-enhancing technological changes. Competence-destroying discontinuities will be initiated by new entrants, while competence-enhancing discontinuities will be initiated by existing firms; (3) competitive uncertainty will be higher after a technological discontinuity than before discontinuity; (4) environmental munificence (i.e., resource availability and support for growth) will be higher after a technological discontinuity than before the discontinuity; (5) competence-enhancing discontinuities will be associated with decreased entry-to-exit ratios and decreased interfirm sales variability (thus strengthening product leaders and increasing barriers to entry). These patterns will be reversed for competence-destroying discontinuities; (6) successive competence-enhancing discontinuities will be associated with smaller increases in uncertainty and munificence; and (7) those organizations that initiate major technological innovations will have higher growth rates than other firms in the product class. Data were collected from U.S. firms in three product classes, domestic scheduled passenger airline transport, Portland cement manufacture, and minicomputer manufacture, from the year of the niche market's inception through 1980. Results indicate that after the three niche openings, there were six competence-enhancing technological discontinuities and two competence-destroying discontinuities in total. Each of these discontinuities had a far greater impact on a key measure of cost or performance than more incremental technological events. In addition, except for the period following the introduction of semiconductor memory in minicomputers, the ability of experienced industry observers to predict demand following technological disruptions was far worse than prior to the disruption. Demand growth following the discontinuity was significantly higher than it was immediately prior to the discontinuity, which had an enormous impact on product-class demand. Also, the ratio of entries to exits was higher in each of the five years before a competence-enhancing discontinuity than during the five subsequent years, though none of the differences is statistically significant. Though market variability in sales growth was expected, it was found that some firms' sales grew explosively while other firms experienced sales declines. It is also suggested that as technology matures, successive competence-enhancing discontinuities increase both uncertainty and munificence, but not as much as those discontinuities that preceded them in establishing the product class. Finally, early adopters of technology were found to experience more growth than other firms. Using three different product types, with a wide range of years from inception, it is shown that technology does evolve through long periods of incremental change punctuated by relatively rare innovations that radically improve the state of the art. Although these incidences of change are rare, they stand out clearly and have significantly altered competitive environments. (SFL)

/pdf/technological-discontinuities-and-organizational-yqzhlxgbc2.pdf

Technological Discontinuities and Organizational Environments

The literature indicates that dysfunctional individual and organizational consequences result from the existence of role conflict and role ambiguity in complex organizations. Yet, systematic measurement and empirical testing of these role constructs is lacking. This study describes the development and testing of questionnaire measures of role conflict and ambiguity. Analyses of responses of managers show these two constructs to be factorially identifiable and independent. Derived measures of role conflict and ambiguity tend to correlate in two samples in expected directions with measures of organizational and managerial practices and leader behavior, and with member satisfaction, anxiety, and propensity to leave the organization.

Role Conflict and Ambiguity in Complex Organizations.

Foreword - Harry Triandis Preface - Robert J. House Part 1 Introduction Chapter 1 Introduction - Robert House Chapter 2 Overview of the Globe Research Program - Robert House and Mansour Javidan Part 2 Literature Chapter 3 Literature Review - Mansour Javidan and Robert House Chapter 4 Cultures and Leadership - Peter Dorfman and Robert House Chapter 5 The Impact of Societal Culture and Industry on Organizational Culture - Marcus Dickson, Renee BeShears, and Vipin Gupta Part 3 Project GLOBE: Research Methodolgy - Overview by Paul Hanges Chapter 6 Research Design - Robert House, Paul Hanges, and Peter Dorfman Chapter 7 The Linkage Between GLOBE Findings and Other Cross Cultural Information - Mansour Javidan and Markus Hauser Chapter 8 The Development and Validation of the GLOBE Culture and Leadership Scales - Paul Hanges and Marcus Dickson Chapter 9 Multi-source Construct Validity of GLOBE Scales - Vipin Gupta, Mary Sully de Luque, and Robert House Chapter 10 Regional and Climate Clustering of Social Cultures - Vipin Gupta, Paul Hanges, Peter Dorfman, and Robert House Chapter 11 Rational for GLOBE Statistical Analysis: Societal Rankings and Test of Hypotheses - Paul Hanges, Marcus Dickson, and Mina Sipe Part 4 Empirical Findings - Intro by Mansour Javidan Chapter 12 Performance Orientation - Mansour Javidan Chapter 13 Future Orientation - Neal Ashkanasy, Vipin Gupta, Melinda Mayfield, and Edwin Trevor-Roberts Chapter 14 Cross-Cultural differences in Gender Egalitarianism: Implications for Societies, Organizations, and Leaders - Cynthia G. Emrich, Florence L. Denmark, and Deanne Den Hartog Chapter 15 Assertiveness - Deanne Den Hartog Chapter 16 Individual and Collectivism - Michele J. Gelfand, D.P.S. Bhawuk, Lisa H. Nishii, & David J. Bechtold Chapter 17 Power Distance - Dale Carl, Vipin Gupta with Mansour Javidan Chapter 18 Humane Orientation in Societies, Organizations, and Leader Attributes - Hayat Kabasakal and Muzaffer Bodur Chapter 19 Uncertainty Avoidance - Mary Sully de Luque, Mansour Javidan, and Ram Aditya Chapter 20 Societal, Cultural, and Industry Influences on Organizational Culture - Felix Brodbeck, Paul Hanges, Marcus Dickson, Vipin Gupta, and Peter Dorfman Chapter 21 Leadership and Cultural Variation: The Identification of Culturally Endorsed Leadership Profiles - Peter Dorfman, Paul Hanges, and Felix Brodbeck Part 5 Conclusion Chapter 22 Conclusions, (theoratical and practical) Implications, and future directions - Mansour Javidan, Robert House, Peter Dorfman, Vipin Gupta, Paul Hanges, and Mary Sully de Luque Appendix A Correlations GLOBE Scales - Paul Hanges Appendix B Response bias Outliers - Paul Hanges Appendix C Hierarchical Linear Modeling - Paul Hanges, Mina Sipe, and Ellen Godfrey Appendix D Confidence Internval Demonstration - Paul Hanges

Culture, leadership, and organizations : the GLOBE study of 62 societies

The empirical literature on charismatic or transformational leadership demonstrates that such leadership has profound effects on followers. However, while several versions of charismatic leadership theory predict such effects, none of them explains the process by which these effects are achieved. In this paper we seek to advance leadership theory by addressing this fundamental problem. We offer a self-concept based motivational theory to explain the process by which charismatic leader behaviors cause profound transformational effects on followers. The theory presents the argument that charismatic leadership has its effects by strongly engaging followers' self-concepts in the interest of the mission articulated by the leader. We derive from this theory testable propositions about a the behavior of charismatic leaders and their effects on followers, b the role of followers' values and orientations in the charismatic relationship, and c some of the organizational conditions that favor the emergence and effectiveness of charismatic leaders.

The Motivational Effects of Charismatic Leadership: A Self-Concept Based Theory

An explanation of the effects of leader behavior on subordinate satisfaction, motivation, and performance is presented. The explanation is derived from a path-goal theory of motivation. Dimensions of leader behavior such as leader initiating structure, consideration, authoritarianism, hierarchical influence, and closeness of supervision are analyzed in terms of path-goal variables such as valence and instrumentality. The theory specifies some of the situational moderators on which the effects of specific leader behaviors are contingent. A set of general propositions are advanced which integrate and explain earlier fragmentary research findings. Several specific predictions are made to illustrate how the general propositions can be operationalized. The usefulness of the theory is demonstrated by showing how several seemingly unrelated prior research findings could have been deduced from its general propositions and by applying it to reconcile what appear to be contradictory findings from prior studies. Results of two empirical studies are reported that provide support for seven of eight hypotheses derived directly from the general propositions of the theory. A third study designed to test three of the original eight hypotheses is also reported. Two of these three hypotheses are successfully replicated. In the light of these results and the integrative power of the theory, it is argued that the theory shows promise and should be further tested with experimentallas well as correlational methods.

Robert J. House

Papers

Role Conflict and Ambiguity in Complex Organizations.

Culture, leadership, and organizations : the GLOBE study of 62 societies

The Motivational Effects of Charismatic Leadership: A Self-Concept Based Theory

A Path-Goal Theory of Leader Effectiveness

The Social Scientific Study of Leadership: Quo Vadis?