Showing papers in "Administrative Science Quarterly in 1983"

Concepts of Culture and Organizational Analysis

Abstract: Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the International Communication Association/Speech Communication Association Conference on Interpretive Approaches to Organizational Communication, Alta, Utah, July 1981, and the Eastern Academy of Management meetings, Baltimore, Maryland, May 1982. I would like to express special appreciation to Mike Pacanowsky and Linda Putnam for organizing the Interpretive Conference, which provided the impetus as well as encouragement for the development of these ideas. Thanks also to Gareth Morgan, Linda Pike, Lou Pondy, and Karl Weick for their various forms of inspiration. This paper examines the significance of the concept of culture for organizational analysis. The intersection of culturetheory and organization theory is evident in five current research themes: comparative management, corporate culture, organizational cognition, organizational symbolism, and unconscious processes and organization. Researchers pursue these themes for different purposes and their work is based on different assumptions about the nature of culture and organization. The task of evaluating the power and limitations of the concept of culture must be conducted within this assumptive context. This review demonstrates that the concept of culture takes organization analysis in several different and promising directions.

Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880-1935

Abstract: The authors are jointly responsible forthe theoretical argumentand analysis. M. Craig Brown suggested the topic of civil service reform. Maureen J. McConaghy, Nancy Brandon Tuma, Glenn R. Carroll, and P. Y Liu provided methodological advice, Sharon Stevens aided early computational work. Both of us are grateful to Phillip Bonacich for his advice throughout the research, and to Marshall W. Meyer, John W. Meyer, William G. Roy, Herman Turk, Richard A. Berk, David McFarland, Oscar Grusky, and Jeffrey Pfeffer fortheir helpful comments on an eariner draft. This paper investigates the diffusion and institutionalization of change in formal organization structure, using data on the adoption of civil service reform by cities. It is shown thatwhen civil service procedures are required bythe state, they diffuse rapidly and directly from the state to each city. When the procedures are not so legitimated, they diffuse gradually and the underlying sources of adoption change overtime. In the lattercase, early adoption of civil service by cities is related to internal organizational requirements, with city characteristics predicting adoption, while late adoption is related to institutional definitions of legitimate structural form, so that city characteristics no longer predict the adoption decision. Overall, the findings provide strong support for the argument that the adoption of a policy or program by an organization is importantly determined by the extent to which the measure is institutionalizedwhether by law or by gradual legitimation.

Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values.

Abstract: In his bestselling book Culture's Consequences, Geert Hofstede proposed four dimensions on which the differences among national cultures can be understood: Individualism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance and Masculinity. This volume comprises the first in-depth discussion of the masculinity dimension and how it can help us to understand differences among cultures. The book begins with a general explanation of the masculinity dimension, and discusses how it illuminates broad features of different cultures. The following parts apply the dimension more specifically to gender (and gender identity), sexuality (and sexual behaviour) and religion, probably the most influential variable of all. Hofstede closes the book with a synthesizing statement about cultural values as they are linked to sexuality, gender and religion.

A Process Model of Internal Corporate Venturing in the Diversified Major Firm

Abstract: This paper is based on the author's doctoral dissertation, which received a Certificate of Distinction for Outstanding Research in the field of Strategic Management, Academy of Management and General Electric Company, 1980. L. Jay Bourgeois, Arthur P. Brief, David B. Jemison, Leonard R. Sayles, Stephen A. Stumpf, and Steven C. Wheelwright have made useful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. The constructive comments of three anonymousASQ reviewers have contributed significantly to this final version. Support from the Strategic Management Program of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business is gratefully acknowledged. My thanksalsoto Barbara Sherwood forexcellent administrative assistance. This paper reports findings of a field study of the internal corporate venturing (ICV) process in a diversified major firm. It presents a grounded process model of the interlocking key activities of managers at different levels in the organization, which constitutes the strategic process by which new ventures take shape. Successful ICV efforts are shown to depend on the availability of autonomous entrepreneurial activity on the part of operational level participants, on the ability of middle-level managers to conceptualize the strategic implications of these initiatives in more general system terms, and on the capacity of top management to allow viable entrepreneurial initiatives to change the corporate strategy.*

Central perspectives and debates in organization theory.

Abstract: We appreciate the helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper from Charles Fombrun, John Bryson, William Gomberg, and anonymousASQ reviewers. We also appreciate the support of the Center forthe Study of Organizational Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania and the Charles F. Kettering Foundation for release time to prepare this paper. The diverse schools of organizational thought are classified according to micro and macro levels of organizational analysis and deterministic versus voluntaristic assumptions of human nature to yield four basic perspectives: systemstructural, strategic choice, natural selection, and collective-action views of organizations. These four views represent qualitatively different concepts of organizational structure, behavior, change, and managerial roles. Six theoretical debates are then identified by systematically juxtaposing the four views against each other, and a partial reconciliation is achieved by bringing opposing viewpoints into dialectical relief. The six debates, which tend to be addressed singly and in isolation from each other in the literature, arethen integrated ata metatheoretical level. The framework presented thus attempts to overcome the problems associated with excessive theoretical compartmentalization by focusing on the interplay between divergent theoretical perspectives, but it also attempts to preserve the authenticity of distinctive viewpoints, thereby retaining the advantages associated with theoretical pluralism.*

Efficient Cultures: Exploring the Relationship between Culture and Organizational Performance.

Abstract: We gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of our colleagues, Kerry Patterson and Keith Warner, as well as the thoughtful comments of the editors of this special issue. This research was supported through grants from the Office of Naval Research, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, IBM, The General Electric Foundation, AMP, Inc., Westinghouse Corporation, and the Sperry Corporation. Contrary to currently popular notions of organizational culture, we claim that the existence of local organizational cultures that are distinct from more generally shared background cultures occurs relatively infrequently atthe level of the whole organization. We also argue that, with respect to organizational performance, particular properties of local organizational culture are more important than others and that local organizational culture will be more critical to performance in one range of organizations than in others. We conclude by applying our point of viewto the problem of changing organizational cultures and argue that they are more adaptive than is currently thought.

Native-view paradigms: Multiple cultures and culture conflicts in organizations.

Abstract: I would like to thank my colleagues who read an earlier draft of this paper and/or offered insights, critiques, and suggestions. In particular, I acknowledge Howard Becker, Mike Boehm, Douglas Chene, Adele Clarke, Joan Fujimora, Judith Remington, Helen Schwartzman, Leigh Star, Gwen Stern, Rachel Volberg, and Oswald Werner. Several anonymousASQ reviewers also made suggestions that were very much appreciated and led to some changes in the paper. I also gratefully acknowledge Eleanor Wynn's encouragement and assistance in gaining access to Silicon Valley research settings, and thank those who participated as interviewees. Tremont Research Institute, and especially its president, Eli hu Gerson, provided technical support during crucial early months that was very much appreciated. This paper is dedicated to the memory of James P. Spradley who introduced me to the cultural perspective presented here. The views expressed in the paper are, of course, my own. This paper describes and critiques organizational culture studies done in industrial settings, some of which were based on anthropological paradigms, including the structural-functional and configurationist holistic paradigms. Most failed to explore multiple "native" views. In this paper, a multicultural model is proposed for large organizations, and problems of "cross-cultural" contact are described. Native-view paradigms from anthropology, especially ethnoscience ethnography, are recommended for exploring multiple perspectives in detail. An illustration from a recent study of "Silicon Valley" technical professionals' "native" views is presented to demonstrate how ethnoscience methods, in particular, can be applied to the task of studying culture.

The uniqueness paradox in organizational stories.

Abstract: We wish to thank James Baron, Mary Douglas, Elisabeth Hansot, Meryl Louis, James March, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Edgar Schein, Art Stinchcombe, and Eugene Webb fortheir helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Organizational cultures, and in particular stories, carry a claim to uniqueness-that an institution is unlike any other. This paper argues that a culture's claim to uniqueness is, paradoxically, expressed through cultural manifestations, such as stories, that are not in fact unique. We present seven types of stories that make a tacit claim to uniqueness. We show that these seven stories occur, in virtually identical form, in a wide variety of organizations. We then suggest why these stories have proliferated while others have not.

Attributions in the Board Room: Causal Reasoning in Corporate Annual Reports

Abstract: The authors gratefully acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Harish Sujan and Mita Sujan in conducting the research. This study was supported in part by a grant from the Marketing Study Center at UCLA. The patterns of causal reasoning used to explain corporate performance outcomes were analyzed using data from Letters to Shareholders in 181 annual reports published in 1972 and 1974. These data were used to analyze the nature of self-serving attributions, and other attributional phenomena, and the factors affecting the amount of causal reasoning. The typical self-serving pattern of attributions found in studies of individual performance was also found in this study of corporate performance. Neither a purely informational nor a purely motivational explanation was supported by these attributions. Unfavorable outcomes were attributed more to external, unstable, and uncontrollable causes than were favorable outcomes. Attributions were most prevalent when a corporation did worse than expected and chose to talk mostly about unfavorable outcomes. These findings contribute new insights to several theoretical issues and support the use of annual report data in analyzing organizational phenomena.

Semiotics and the Study of Occupational and Organizational Cultures.

Abstract: : Semiotics offers an approach for researching and analyzing systems of meaning that undergrid occupational and organizational cultures. Following a synopsis of semiotic theory, this paper presents data from an ethnosemantic study of a funeral home and demonstrates that semiotically identical codes structure a funeral director's understanding of his various tasks. The analysis not only suggests that semiotic research captures the redundant themes which characterize insiders' interpretations of this work world, but that it is also sensitive to the mundane, but critical, aspects of a culture. Finally, the study shows how semiotic research can elucidate rules by which members of a work culture consistently and coherently generate meaning. (Author)

The justification of organizational performance.

Abstract: Barry M. Staw, Pamela 1. McKechnie, and Sheila M. Puffer Justification of organizational performance was investigated by testing for self-serving attributions in corporate annual reports. Letters to shareholders were found to show strong evidence of self-serving attributions, and these attributions took both an enhancing and defensive form. Self-serving attributions appeared to be convincing to the investing public, since the use of these attributions was associated with subsequent improvements in stock price. It also appeared that self-serving attributions were a form of impression management rather than a genuine expression of optimism, since enhancement was associated with subsequent selling of stock by corporate officers. Further analyses explored how performance information was communicated in shareholders' letters and examined additional determinants and consequences of self-serving attributions.

Populations, natural selection, and applied organizational science.

Abstract: ? 1983 by Cornell University 0001-8392/83/2801-01 01 /$00 75 This paper proposes that organizational science could be applied more widely if the field were more concerned with the conditions under which research findings are valid. Papers in the field generalize about organizations as if they were all alike, or refrain from generalizing at all, as if they were all unique. The population perspective presented de-emphasizes the all-alike and all-unique approaches, placing emphasis instead on research methods that improve the description and classification of organizational forms, define more homogeneous groupings, and specify the limited conditions under which predictions may be expected to hold true. The principles of the population perspective are reviewed, and an outline is presented for developing a classification of organizational forms. Suggestions are then made on how to use the perspective to increase and improve the application of organizational research.

Organizational Foundings: An Ecological Study of the Newspaper Industries of Argentina and Ireland

Abstract: This research was supported by NIMH Grant #2T232MH15149-03 to the Organizations Research Training Program at Stanford University (W. Richard Scott, Director) and by NSF Grant #SES-8109382 to Michael T. Hannan. We appreciate the comments of Mike Hannan and Jack Brittain on an earlier draft of this paper. Using nineteenth-century historical data on the Argentine press and the Irish press, we explore the plausibility of an environmental model of foundings in populations of organizations. We show that both internal population dynamics and events external to the press account for the quasi-cyclical patterns of newspaper foundings. Prior demises and prior foundings of newspapers both have curvilinear effects on current foundings; however, political turbulence at the national level accounts for the launching of most new press ventures. Institutional regime changes and economic cycles appear to have no effect on newspaper foundings. These findings suggest yet another mode of ecological influence on the change of organizational populations over time.*

The organizational context of human factors engineering.

Abstract: Human factors engineering concerns the design of equipment in accordance with the mental and physical characteristics of operators. Human factors engineers advise design engineers, but the organizational context limits their influence and restricts their perspective. The discussion of organizational context in this paper explains why military and industrial top management personnel are indifferent to good human factors design and shows how the social structure favors the choice of technologies that centralize authority and deskill operators and how it encourages unwarranted attributions of operator error. The role of equipment and system design in shaping cognitive maps and mental models is explored, and the technology-social structure paradigm is questioned.

More on Metaphor: Why We Cannot Control Tropes in Administrative Science.

Abstract: Gareth Morgan In the December 1982 issue of ASQ, Pinder and Bourgeois ("Controlling Tropes in Administrative Science") attempted to highlight dangers stemming from the use of metaphor and related tropes in administrative theory and research. Specifically, they argued that the use of tropes may be misleading and impede the development of administrative science and a body of knowledge useful to practitioners. Hence they suggested thatthe use of metaphorand related tropes should be severely constrained, that administrative science should avoid "borrowing" from other fields of inquiry, and that the discipline can best develop by using a "literal" language based on observable organizational characteristics (or characteristics of the individuals and groups within them). They suggested that administrative scientists should focus on the comparison of organizations and organizational phenomena to one another, using analytic taxonomy as a first step and using strategies and techniques suited to the study of organizations, rather than borrowing from elsewhere (1982: 650-651).

Broken Ties: Interlocking Directorates and Intercorporate Coordination

Abstract: For detailed comments on the most recent versions ot this paper, I wish to thank Ronald Burt, Maggie McLoughlin, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Jerry Ross, and an anonymous ASQ reviewer. For comments on earlier drafts, I wish to thank Charles Perrow, Michael Schwartz, Joanne Martin, Jon Bendor, Dick Scott, the participants of the NIMH Research Training Program at Stanford University, and the members of the MACNET Research Group at SUNY-Stony Brook For patience, I thank the union waiters and waitresses at Zim's. Little is known about the specific types of relationships that interlocking corporate directorates facilitate. This study examines the connective and directional continuity of all ties disrupted accidentally among 1,131 large U.S. corporations between 1962 and 1964to determinethe relative likelihood that different types of interlock ties facilitate relationships of formal coordination. In accordance with previous theory, the number and type of interlocks of which a tie consists was found to be related to the likelihood that it is a vehicle of formal coordination. However, previous assumptions aboutthe percentage of ties in thefull network that facilitate such relationships and the significance of interlock direction were not supported. The implications of these results for interpreting past results and directing future research are also discussed.@

A Communication-Rules Approach to Organizational Culture.

Abstract: Maryan S. Schall This paper suggests that organizations, cultures, and cultural "rules" can be synthesized as communication phenomena, using a communication-rules perspective. The synthesis is operationalized by an inductive, multifaceted method designed to test the effectiveness of describing an organizational culture through a composite of its operative communication rules. A feasibility study used the method to describe two work groups of a large organization as cultures. Findings from five sources were summarized to create group-culture descriptions that were then submitted to insiders for evaluation. Members of both groups evaluated the descriptions based on their own group's operative communication rules as the most accurate description of their group as culture and more accurate than descriptions based on the formally sanctioned rules espoused by top management.

Relationships between Office Characteristics and Employee Reactions: A Study of the Physical Environment.

Abstract: Greg R. Oldham and Nancy L. Rotchford This research examined the relationships between objective office characteristics (openness, office density, workspace density, accessibility, and office darkness) and several measures of employee reactions (satisfaction, behavior during discretionary periods, and spatial markers). In addition, the research examined the extent to which three sets of intervening variables explained these relationships. The intervening variables were interpersonal experiences (conflict, friendship opportunities, agent feedback), job experiences (task significance, autonomy, task identity), and environmental experiences (crowding, concentration, privacy). Data were collected from 114 clerical employees of 19 offices. Each of the office characteristics related significantly to one or more of the employee reaction measures. Moreover, office characteristics affected several employee reactions through their impact on the intervening variables.

Talk as the Work: The Accomplishment of School Administration

Abstract: An earlier version of this paper, under the same title, was presented at the annual conference of the Australian Communication Association, Sydney, 1981. The text that appears below is an extensive revision of the original. I should like to thank the threeASQ reviewers as well as my friends and colleagues Tom Greenfield, Alec McHoul, John Hunt, Philip Greenway, Alan Rice, Robin Small, Helen Praetz, Ray McCulloch, and Michael Norman for their helpful criticisms and advice during the writing of this article Thanks are also extended to Cath Henderson and Bev Schneider for typing the manuscript.

Introduction: A Code of Many Colors.

Abstract: I 1983 by Cornell University. 0001 -8392/83/2803-0331/$00.75 Kohlberg (1969) and Perry (1970) argued that moral reasoning develops as individuals move from simple imperatives ("do this; avoid that") through more complicated analysis ("there are criteria for analyzing moral situations") to the ambiguous, the uncertain, and even the paradoxical and contradictory as bases for moral decision. We propose that organizational analysis has been evolving in the same fashion, toward more complex, paradoxical, and even contradictory modes of understanding. Instead of monochromatic thinking, we suggest an interpretive framework more like a rainbow-a "code of many colors" that tolerates alternative assumptions. Like physicists in dealing with light, we can "explain" what we see as a flow of particles and gain some insights, or as a wave to gain others; but light itself seems to partake of both the one and the other, rather than either or. For organizational analysis, we need to be able to perceive and understand the complex nature of organizational phenomena, both micro and macro, organizational and individual, conservative and dynamic. We need to understand organizations in multiple ways, as having "machine-like" aspects, "organism-like" aspects, "culture-like" aspects, and others yet to be identified. We need to encourage and use the tension engendered by multiple images of our complex subject.

Administrative Theory and Practice in Developing Countries: A Synthesis.

Abstract: Support for this research was provided by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research and the Faculty of Management Research Committee, McGill University. The authors are indebted to Janice M. Beyer and three anonymous ASQ reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier draft. Over 70 percent of the world's population lives in developing countriesthatface challenging administrative problems in trying to survive. Therefore, what managers and administrators in these countries do, or fail to do, is of great significance for the building of a universal administrative science. Reviewing 94 articles on organizations in developing countries, the authors looked for patterns in the structure of the research described (i.e., methodology, theoretical topics, geographical coverage, authors' affiliations) and in its substance, with special attention to the degree of correspondence (or fit) between Western-based theory and data provided. The most important findings are: (1) there is a great deal of interest in the utilization of administrative theory and techniques in developing countries; (2) authors of articlesthatfocused onthetechnical core (organizational tasks and technology) were most likelyto find no significant problems in the use of conventional theory in developing countries (strong fit); and (3) those authors focusing on the organization's relationship with its environment were more likely to find serious difficulties (weak fit) in the use of Western ideas, necessitating major adjustments to conventional theory.

Communication to Self in Organizations and Cultures.

Abstract: ?a) 1983 by Cornell University. 0001 -8392/83/2803-0482/$00.75 Two modes of communication are defined that distinguish between cultural groups: The first mode is communication in the traditional sender-receiver sense; it adds quantitatively to the receiver's knowledge. The second mode is autocommunication, communication to oneself. Autocommunication is typical of artistic and religious texts, but any text can become autocommunicational. An autocommunicational text (e.g., a novel) may be read many times over; its function, however, is not to add information in the quantitative sense, but to enhance the ego. When texts are read in an autocommunicational way, they act like mantras, they enhance. Evidence of autocommunicational texts may also be found in corporate cultures. Strategic plans, it is argued, become in many cases such mantras. Unlike previous authors, who have considered as failures plans that were not implemented, we claim that such mythical, autocommunicational planning also has its purpose: focusing of mind, goal seeking, and generating enthusiasm.

A Rumpelstiltskin Organization: Metaphors on Metaphors in Field Research.

Abstract: ?) 1983 by Cornell University. 0001 -8392/83/2803-0377/$00.7 5 This paper describes the turbulent development of a new organization and the conditions that gave rise to members of one group describing their collective life in terms of Rumpelstiltskin, an old fairy tale. Theory is elaborated that explores how group-based ambivalence was transformed into deification of the leader, making him the repository of unrealistic fantasies and expectations that, as a result of his being caught in the middle between complex patterns of conflict that emerged from both those above and below him, eventually triggered his dismissal. It is argued that by paying attention to the symbols, tales, legends, and myths that organizational members use to describe their experience, the researcher can tune into operative dynamics that would otherwise remain very covert and inaccessible.

Toward an Integration of Organization Research and Practice: A Contingency Study of Bureaucratic Control and Performance in Scientific Settings.

Abstract: This is an equally coauthored study. We would like tothankJan Beyer, Carlos Kruytbosch, Anthony Cobb, and three anonymousASQ reviewers fortheir helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Portions of this paper were presented at the Albany Conference on Organization Theory and Public Policy, Albany, NY, April 1982. Three characteristics of utilizable research practical relevance, applicability of findings, and specificity -were identified and used as a basis for assessing the usefulness of the results from this study. The focus of the study was the contingency effect of bureaucratic control on organizational performance, and the organizations studied were scientific research units in universities. It was hypothesized that bureaucratic control, exercised through influence from national science policy on the choice of unit research themes, will have a positive effect on research-unit productivity in scientific fields with highly developed paradigms. This effect, however, will decline as paradigm development decreases and will become negative in fields with less developed paradigms. Data from an international sample (N = 288) of academic research units supported the hypothesis. Implications for designing national science policy to foster research productivity are discussed, and suggestions are made for the conduct of organization research that has practical utility for decision makers.