Showing papers in "Administrative Science Quarterly in 1985"

Alternative forms of fit in contingency theory.

Abstract: 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.

Organizational Adaptation: Strategic Choice and Environmental Determinism.

Abstract: Lawrence G. Hrebiniak and William F. Joyce The prevailing assumption in recent literature is that strategic choice and environmental determinism represent mutually exclusive, competing explanations of organizational adaptation. The present paper, in contrast, argues that choice and determinism are independent variables that can be positioned on two separate continua to develop a typology of organizational adaptation. The interactions of these variables result in four main types: (1) natural selection, with minimum choice and adaptation or selection out, (2) differentiation, with high choice and high environmental determinism and adaptation within constraints, (3) strategic choice, with maximum choice and adaptation by design, and (4) undifferentiated choice, with incremental choice and adaptation by chance. These types influence the number and forms of strategic options of organizations, the decisional emphasis on means or ends, political behavior and conflict, and the search activities of the organization in its environment.

The Emergence of Norms in Competitive Decision-Making Groups.

Abstract: Kenneth Bettenhausen and J. Keith Murnighan This paper examines the development of norms in newly formed groups. The behavior of 19 decision-making groups provided the basis for a model of norm development, in which uncertainty over appropriate behavior leads members to use their past experiences in similar social settings as scripts for choosing behaviors in the current situation. Depending on the similarity of the members' scripts, a common basis for action is either taken for granted or negotiated within the group. As the members interact they either tacitly revise their beliefs about appropriate action, implicitly agreeing with the direction being taken by the group, or overtly attempt to pull the group toward their own interpretation through challenges to the implied norm. Data from the decision-making groups is used to illustrate the model, and implications for related research domains are discussed.

Administrative Science as Socially Constructed Truth.

Abstract: (?) 1985 by Cornell University. 0001 -8392/85/3004-0497/$1 .00. This paper argues that the body of knowledge that constitutes administrative science is a socially constructed product. Because empirical observations are inevitably mediated by theoretical preconceptions, our knowledge of organizations is fundamentally shaped by the subjective world views through which we perceive data. Truth is defined in terms of the theoretical constructs and conceptual vocabulary that guide research and mediate access to organizational phenomena. The chief product of research is, consequently, theoretical language, rather than objective data. The knowledge of administrative science is not built from objective truths but is, instead, an artifact-the product of social definition. Institutional mechanisms reinforce these social definitions of truth by investing them with the stamp of scientific authenticity.

Managing strategic change : technical, political, and cultural dynamics.

Abstract: Partial table of contents: A FRAMEWORK FOR STRATEGIC CHANGE. Strategic Change Management. Organizational Models. STRATEGIC ISSUES: DIAGNOSIS AND STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT. Diagnosis for Change. Application of Diagnostic Strategy. Change Strategy. Technical Change Strategies. Political Change Strategies. Cultural Change Strategies. IMPLEMENTING STRATEGIC CHANGES. Change Technologies. Transition Management. MONITORING CHANGE AND THE FUTURE OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT. Monitoring and Evaluating Strategic Change. Strategic Change in the Future. References. Author Index. Subject Index.

Institutional Environments and Resource Dependence: Sources of Administrative Structure in Institutions of Higher Education.

Abstract: Pamela S. Tolbert Two theoretical perspectives are combined to explain the pattern of administrative offices in public and private institutions of higher education. The first perspective, resource dependence, is used to show that the need to ensure a stable flow of resources from external sources of support partially determines administrative differentiation. The second perspective, institutionalization, emphasizes the common understandings and social definitions of organizational behavior and structure considered appropriate and nonproblematic and suggests conditions under which dependency will and will not predict the number of administrative offices that manage funding relations. The results of the analyses indicate that dependence on nontraditional sources of support is a strong predictor of administrative differentiation and demonstrate the validity of integrating these two theoretical perspectives.

The Two Ecologies: Population and Community Perspectives on Organizational Evolution.

Abstract: W. Graham Astley This paper distinguishes between two ecological perspectives on organizational evolution: population ecology and community ecology. The perspectives adopt different levels of analysis and produce contrasting views of the characteristic mode and tempo of organizational evolution. Population ecology limits investigation to evolutionary change unfolding within established populations, emphasizing factors that homogenize organizational forms and maintain population stability. Population ecology thus fails to explain how populations originate in the first place or how evolutionary change occurs through the proliferation of heterogeneous organizational types. Community ecology overcomes these limitations: it focuses on the rise and fall of populations as basic units of evolutionary change, simultaneously explaining forces that produce homogeneity and stability within populations and heterogeneity between them.*

Vicious circles in organizations.

Abstract: Michael Masuch This paper explores vicious circles in organizations. Departing from some elementary notions of action theory and cybernetics, it analyzes the dynamics, the clustering, and the survival chances of vicious circles. It argues that the action perspective, taken to its logical conclusion, implies that many structural suboptimalities of organizations, such as underperformance, stagnation, or decay, are caused by vicious circles.*

Communication and organizations : an interpretive approach

Abstract: The contributors to this volume study the ways in which employees create messages and symbols, and how they interpret the messages they receive. What do these messages and their symbols tell us about organizational culture? The contributors discuss the theoretical grounding of the approach and its relation to other perspectives. They also show it usefulness in studies that examine leadership, decision making, power, and organizational climate.

When friends leave: A structural analysis of the relationship between turnover and stayers' attitudes.

Abstract: David Krackhardt and Lyman W. Porter It is argued in this paper that macro and micro perspectives can each benefit from the other. To demonstrate this, a current research issue in micro organizational behavior is analyzed with the help of theories in psychology, social psychology, and sociology. The specific question is: What effect does turnover in an organization have on the attitudes of those who remain in the organization? A longitudinal investigation of three fast-food restaurants explored this relationship against the background of the social network structures in each site. Among the findings was that the closer the employee was to those who left, the more satisfied and committed he or she became. The results underscore the importance of the structural context in studying micro phenomena, while at the same time they demonstrate the richness of micro theory in understanding why these phenomena occur.*

A Meta-Analytic Review of the Relationship between Size and Performance: The Productivity and Efficiency of Organizations and Their Subunits.

Abstract: The authors thank Lawrence W. Foster for his collaboration and Michael K. Moch for his comments on earlier drafts of this paper. We also thank the Associate Editor and ASQ reviewers for their helpful guidance, and Sarah B. Dornbos for her diligent assistance. This paper presents a meta-analysis of 31 published field studies of the size-performance relationship. The metaanalysis indicates that the relationship between subunit size and performance differs from the relationship between organizational size and performance. Specifically, subunit size and subunit perfomance are nonsignificantly or negatively related, depending on the operationalization used to measure subunit performance. These results appear to be modestly consistent with free-rider and process-loss models of group behavior. However, organizational size and organizational productivity, defined as performance measured in absolute (nonratio) terms, are positively related to each other in contrast to review findings to date. Additionally, organizational size and organizational efficiency, defined as performance measured in relative (output-input) terms, are shown to exhibit no positive relationship to each other, casting doubt on the existence of a positive net relationship between organizational size and economies of scale.*

The Effect of Executive Succession on Stockholder Wealth

Abstract: Marc R. Reinganum This research explores the effects of executive succession on the stock prices of firms that traded on the New York and American stock exchanges during 1978 and 1979. The empirical results suggest that predictions about succession effects must be tempered by the organizational context of the change. In particular, the data indicate that one must control for the size of the firm, the origin of the successor, and the disposition of the predecessor. Empirically, the effects of these variables-do not appear to be independent of each other. Rather, the succession effects seem to be dependent on the interaction among these variables. Significant, positive succession effects were found around the time of the announcement of a change, but only for external appointments in small firms in which the departure of the former officeholder was announced along with the appointment of the new executives

The Performance-Maintenance (PM) Theory of Leadership: Review of a Japanese Research Program.

Abstract: . Kawazu, Yusuke, Nobuya Ogawa, and Jyuji Misumi 1974 "A psychophysiological study of leadership conditions: The interaction between placebo effects and leadership effects." Proceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Psychological Asso- ciation: 816-817 (in Japanese). Kerr, Steven, and John M. Jermier 1978 "Substitutes for leadership: Their meaning and measure- ment." Organizational Be- havior and Human Perform-

Power and Centrality in the Allocation of Resources in Colleges and Universities.

Abstract: Judith Dozier Hackman This work proposes a research-based theory about how colleges and universities allocate resources among units. The pivotal concept of centrality (how closely a unit's purposes match those central to the organization) affects how four other theoretical concepts interact: internal resource allocations, environmental power, institutional power, and resource negotiation strategies. A unit's environmental power, gained by its relative ability to acquire external resources needed by the institution, and a unit's institutional power combine with resource negotiation strategies to explain about half of the variance in internal resource allocations. The theory is developed from interviews at six varied institutions and is supported by analyses of data obtained from questionnaires completed by administrators of a state university, a liberal arts college, and a comprehensive college.s

The Interorganizational Network as a Resource: A Comparative Case Study on Organizational Genesis.

Abstract: We are grateful to Janet Abu-Lughod, Howard Becker, John Kretzmann, Janice Weiss, Gerald Salancik, and anonymous ASQ reviewers for their comments on various drafts and sections of this article. Based on a comparative case study analysis, this paper suggests how preexisting organizations within an environment constitute resources for the genesis of new, similar organizations and how this process may expand the level of resources available from the wider environment, while the absence of similar organizations may hinder organizational genesis. As a result of the three central processes of resource exchange, legitimation, and domain definition, the emergence of new organizations can be facilitated rather than hindered by the presence of a greater number of preexisting similar organizations in the organizational field. The article raises significant questions about the conceptualization of resources and environments and contributes to the specification of the "liability of newness" hypothesis.,

Network Position and Cognition in a Computer Software Firm

Abstract: Gordon Walker The present study examined the relationship between differences in cognition among the members of a software firm and the position a member occupied in the network of task relationships in the organization. Cognition was measured through judgments about means-ends associations relevant to software product success. The network was analyzed as a blockmodel, and positions in the network were defined as blocks of structurally equivalent individuals. Network position was found to be a stronger and more stable predictor of differences in cognition than the type of function an individual had and the type of product worked on. Both tenure in the industry and tenure in the firm also were found to have strong and stable effects. The generalizability of the findings is discussed in terms of the type of cognition studied and the firm's size, technology, and level of market uncertainty.*

The Macropolitics of Organizational Change: A Comparative Analysis of the Spread of Small-Group Activities.

Abstract: The data for the Japan portion of this paper were collected during my tenure as Fulbright Research Scholar 1977-78. I am indebted to the Fulbright Commission for their support and to the Japan Institute of Labour for providing research facilities. I also express my appreciation to the German Marshall Fund, which provided a research grant for collection of the Swedish data. Research facilities in Sweden were provided by the Department of Applied Psychology at Gothenberg University. Data collection for the U.S. portion was made possible by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. I am especially indebted to the countless number of business organizations and associations in all three countries that gave freely of their time in an attempt to educate me in the intricacies of organizational change. While I am grateful to the institutional benefactors, they are not responsible for my findings.

Determinants of Firm Internal Labor Markets in Large Law Firms.

Abstract: Douglas R. Wholey Professional labor markets, such as law, are often thought to be highly open occupational internal labor markets, in which promotion is rare and lateral entry is common. In the law firms analyzed in this study, however, promotion was much more common than lateral entry: three out of four partnership positions in law firms were staffed through promotion rather than lateral entry. Law firm growth, the number of major clients, and addition of major clients increased promotion, while promotions in prior periods decreased current promotion. Addition of major clients and promotions in prior periods led to lateral entry.

Effects of Competition on Members' Identification with Their Students.

Abstract: Noah E. Friedkin and Michael J. Simpson This paper examines the identifications of members of subunits when they evaluate policies specifying the amount of resources to be allocated to different subunits in their organization. We studied conditions affecting members' identification with their subunit, using a sample of 185 school principals. With the coalition model of organizations as our starting point, we expected a relatively high baseline probability of identification with the subunit. It was hypothesized that identification with the subunit would be countervailed by conditions that diminished subunits' competition for resources. The three conditions proposed were members' perceptions of (1) the availability of resources, (2) the existence of organization-level planning, and (3) the frequency of controversy about resource allocations. We found that members' identification with the subunit was weakened when they perceived that (1) the amount of resources available to subunits was increasing, (2) a plan or operating procedure governed the allocation of resources to subunits, or (3) controversy over resource allocations to subunits had been frequent.e

Allocating Information Costs in a Negotiated Information Order: Interorganizational Constraints on Decision Making in Norwegian Oil Insurance

Abstract: Carol A. Heimer Using as examples the insurance of large permanent installations and mobile oil rigs in the Norwegian North Sea, this paper describes how information is used in interorganizational decision making. What information is satisfactory for decision making is negotiated among insurers and is therefore partly determined by the bargaining power of participating organizations. The result is a negotiated information order that determines what information will be used in decision making and which organizations pay for collecting and using new information, allowing others to satisfice and therefore economize on information costs. The inflexibility of more powerful organizations forces dependent organizations to do the innovating. The case studies show that policyholders have been forced to act as external information buffers for oil insurers, so insurers could function satisfactorily without using all the relevant information. The negotiated information order is thus an interorganizational structure that helps determine when an organization will optimize and when it will satisfice, and what its satisficing rules will be.

Structural characteristics of medical group practices.

Abstract: This study of 247 medical group practices explores the structural characteristics of these emerging organizational forms. As size and complexity of services increase, group practices tend to increase the number of hierarchical levels of authority and become more formal and bureaucratic. Complexity of services was found to have more influence on the formation of subdivisions, while size was more influential in terms of levels of administration. Large group practices, and especially large multispecialty groups, appear to engage in a highly organized corporate style of medical practice. In these organizations, important professional decisions are shifted from the clinician to the administrator.