Showing papers in "Administrative Science Quarterly in 2006"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors unpack four characteristics often associated with the term virtuality and argue that each hinders innovation through unique mechanisms, many of which can be overcome by creating a psychologically safe communication climate.
Abstract: To understand why the virtual design strategies that organizations create to foster innovation may in fact hinder it, we unpack four characteristics often associated with the term ‘virtuality’ (geographic dispersion, electronic dependence, structural dynamism, and national diversity) and argue that each hinders innovation through unique mechanisms, many of which can be overcome by creating a psychologically safe communication climate. We first tested the plausibility of our arguments using in-depth qualitative analysis of interviews with 177 members of 14 teams in a variety of industries. A second study constituted a more formal test of hypotheses using survey data collected from 266 members of 56 aerospace design teams. Results show that the four characteristics are not highly intercorrelated, that they have independent and differential effects on innovation, and that a psychologically safe communication climate helps mitigate the challenges they pose. We discuss the implications of these findings for th...
920 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined how emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence are associated with job performance and developed and tested a compensatory model that posits that emotional intelligence becomes more positive as cognitive intelligence decreases.
Abstract: This paper examines how emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence are associated with job performance. We develop and test a compensatory model that posits that the association between emotional intelligence and job performance becomes more positive as cognitive intelligence decreases. We report the results of a study in which employees completed tests of emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence, and their task performance and organizational citizenship behavior were assessed by their supervisors. Hypotheses from the model were supported for task performance and organizational citizenship behavior directed at the organization, but not for organizational citizenship behavior directed at individuals. We discuss the theoretical implications and managerial ramifications of our model and findings.
806 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a qualitative investigation of the leadership of extreme action medical teams in an emergency trauma center revealed a hierarchical, deindividualized system of shared leadership, where senior leaders' rapid and repeated delegation of active leadership role to and withdrawal of the active role from more junior leaders of the team was found to enhance extreme action teams' ability to perform reliably and build their novice team members' skills.
Abstract: This paper examines the leadership of extreme action teams—teams whose highly skilled members cooperate to perform urgent, unpredictable, interdependent, and highly consequential tasks while simultaneously coping with frequent changes in team composition and training their teams' novice members. Our qualitative investigation of the leadership of extreme action medical teams in an emergency trauma center revealed a hierarchical, deindividualized system of shared leadership. At the heart of this system is dynamic delegation: senior leaders' rapid and repeated delegation of the active leadership role to and withdrawal of the active leadership role from more junior leaders of the team. Our findings suggest that dynamic delegation enhances extreme action teams' ability to perform reliably while also building their novice team members' skills. We highlight the contingencies that guide senior leaders' delegation and withdrawal of the active leadership role, as well as the values and structures that motivate and ...
627 citations
TL;DR: Based on comparative longitudinal case analyses of six new biotechnology firms, the authors explores how the configuration, management, and evolution of entrepreneurial firms' social capital affect the performance of these firms.
Abstract: Based on comparative longitudinal case analyses of six new biotechnology firms, this paper explores how the configuration, management, and evolution of entrepreneurial firms' social capital affect
616 citations
TL;DR: The authors developed a theory to explain how individual compassion in response to human pain in organizations becomes socially coordinated through a process called compassion organizing, which is called "compassion organizing" (CAP).
Abstract: We develop a theory to explain how individual compassion in response to human pain in organizations becomes socially coordinated through a process we call compassion organizing. The theory specifie...
538 citations
TL;DR: In this article, audience reception of U.S.-produced feature film projects from the period 2000-2003 was analyzed and the authors developed insight into the trade-off assumed in organizational ecology theory between an organization's niche width and its fitness.
Abstract: Through analyses of audience reception of U.S.-produced feature film projects from the period 2000–2003, I develop insight into the trade-off assumed in organizational ecology theory between an organization's niche width and its fitness. This assumption, termed the principle of allocation, holds that the greater the diversity in regions of resource space targeted by an organization, the lower the organization's capacity to perform well within them. Using data at both the professional critic and consumer levels, I demonstrate the empirical validity of this principle: films targeting more genres attract larger audiences but are less appealing to those audience members. Moreover, I find that audiences' perceptions of a film's fit with targeted genres drive this trade-off, as multi-genre films are difficult for audiences to make sense of, leading to poor fit with tastes and lowered appeal. These findings highlight the key role audiences' perceptions play in the trade-offs associated with different niche strat...
511 citations
TL;DR: This article found that top managers who engage in ingratiatory behavior toward their CEO, with ingratiation comprising flattery, opinion conformity, and favor-rendering, will be more likely to receive board appointments at other firms where their CEO serves as a director and at boards to which the CEO is indirectly connected in the board interlock network.
Abstract: Using survey data on interpersonal influence behavior from a large sample of managers and chief executive officers (CEOs) at Forbes 500 companies, we examine how ingratiatory behavior directed at individuals who control access to board positions can provide an alternative pathway to the boardroom for managers who lack the social and educational credentials associated with the power elite. Findings show that top managers who engage in ingratiatory behavior toward their CEO, with ingratiation comprising flattery, opinion conformity, and favor-rendering, will be more likely to receive board appointments at other firms where their CEO serves as director and at boards to which the CEO is indirectly connected in the board interlock network. Further results suggest that interpersonal influence behavior substitutes to some degree for the advantages of an elite background or demographic majority status. Our findings help explain why norms of director deference to CEOs have persisted despite increased diversity in ...
306 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used data from the U.S. film industry from 1982 to 2001 to analyze the effects on box office performance of prior relationships between film producers and distributors, finding that not only do distributors exhibit a preference for carrying films involving key personnel with whom they had prior exchange relations, but also they tend to favor these films when allocating scarce resources.
Abstract: This study uses data on the U.S. film industry from 1982 to 2001 to analyze the effects on box office performance of prior relationships between film producers and distributors. In contrast to prior studies, which have appeared to find performance benefits to both buyers and sellers when exchange occurs embedded within existing social relations, we propose that the apparent mutual advantages of embedded exchange can also emerge from endogenous behavior that benefits one party at the expense of the other: actors offer better terms of trade and allocate more resources to transactions embedded within existing social relations, thereby contributing to the ostensible advantages of such exchange patterns. Findings show that not only do distributors exhibit a preference for carrying films involving key personnel with whom they had prior exchange relations, but also they tend to favor these films when allocating scarce resources (opening dates and promotion effort). After controlling for the effects of these deci...
227 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the effects of network ties over time on growth of non-profits and found that networks are more beneficial to organizations that depend on donations and gifts than on earned income.
Abstract: The paper examined the effects of nonprofit organizations' network ties over time on growth. Donative non-profits, which relied heavily on contributions and volunteers, grew at a faster rate if they had high status, more ties to urban elites, and greater interorganizational network centrality. In contrast, commercial nonprofits, which depended on fees and/or sales and employees, grew at faster rates if they had fewer ties to other nonprofits and local elites. Also, as nonprofits became more dependent on fees and/or sales, they moved to the periphery of the interorganizational resource exchange network. The findings contribute to the social capital literature by suggesting that networks are more beneficial to organizations that depend on donations and gifts than on earned income.
205 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on what affected client defections from Arthur Andersen during its dramatic collapse in 2002, and propose that accountability-induced status anxiety is an important factor in the dissolution of interfirm relationships.
Abstract: Focusing empirically on what affected client defections from Arthur Andersen during its dramatic collapse in 2002, this study proposes that accountability-induced status anxiety is an important factor in the dissolution of interfirm relationships. Status anxiety—concerns about being devalued because other actors question the quality of a firm's partners—can motivate firms to disassociate themselves from their compromised high-status partners to protect their own status position. I hypothesize that accountability triggers status anxiety when firms are directly accountable to important audiences, when firms are surrounded by other firms that already have disassociated themselves from common partners, and when firms have committed themselves to a particular level of partner quality. Event-history analyses provide strong support for the accountability perspective on status anxiety: firms surrounded by stronger audiences, more defecting firms, and stronger commitments to audit quality were themselves more like...
194 citations
TL;DR: In the diffusion-of-innovation literature as discussed by the authors, the innovation that spreads remains relatively invariant as it diffuses from adopter to adopter, and the choice mechanism may shift during diffusion, but only once.
Abstract: What a difference two theoretical assumptions can make! Two assumptions underpin the North American diffusion-ofinnovation literature, with its innovators and the innovations that diffuse across adopters, who adopt and occasionally reject them. As Rogers (1986) put it, we assume that little “reinvention” of the innovation takes place as it diffuses: the first and the last adopter are adopting or rejecting the same thing for the same reason. Or, more succinctly: Assumption 1: The innovation that spreads remains relatively invariant as it diffuses from adopter to adopter. To explain the diffusion of such invariant innovations, we need a second assumption: Assumption 2: Diffusion vectors channel the innovation from actors to other actors that adopt it for the same reason. Social networks, systems with perfect information, or a point of broadcast, can become diffusion vectors for adopters. Adopters’ need for adopting can be the same economic, political, social, or cultural need. They can make rational, boundedly rational, or imitative choices. On occasion, the choice mechanism may shift during diffusion—but only once—as with the often replicated finding that all the early adopters make rational choices, whereas all the later adopter imitate them blindly (Tolbert and Zucker, 1983).
TL;DR: In this article, the authors combine insights from organizational ecology and social network theory to examine how the structure of relations among organizational populations affects differences in rates of foundings across geographic locales, and hypothesize that symbiotic and commensalistic interpopulation relations function as channels of information about entrepreneurial opportunities.
Abstract: Combining insights from organizational ecology and social network theory, we examine how the structure of relations among organizational populations affects differences in rates of foundings across geographic locales. We hypothesize that symbiotic and commensalistic interpopulation relations function as channels of information about entrepreneurial opportunities and that differing access to such information influences the founding rate. Empirical analyses of U.S. instruments manufacturers support this argument. The founding rate of instruments manufacturers rises with the densities of organizational populations that have symbiotic and commensalistic relationships with instruments manufacturers. These factors encourage the initial foundings of instruments manufacturers in areas where such organizations were not previously found. The dominance of organizational populations tied to instruments manufacturing by symbiotic or commensalistic relations increases the rate of foundings of instruments manufacturers,...
TL;DR: The Oxford Handbook of Work and Organization as mentioned in this paper provides a solid and well-balanced collection of papers that will do much to codify the disparate bodies of literature generated by scholars in this highly fragmented field.
Abstract: The study of work and organizations is itself a fiercely contested terrain, with scholars in multiple disciplines bringing widely divergent approaches to bear on the field in ways that too often obscure the complex changes impinging on work, employment, and economic institutions. In such a context, the publication of the Oxford Handbook of Work and Organization is a welcome event. Although this volume contains little in the way of paradigmatic innovation, it does provide a solid and well-balanced collection of papers that will do much to codify the disparate bodies of literature generated by scholars in this highly fragmented field.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assess the factors affecting national administrative rationalization in the context of the current worldwide movement for governance reforms, focusing on national linkages to world society rather than internal socioeconomic development.
Abstract: We assess the factors affecting national administrative rationalization in the context of the current worldwide movement for governance reforms, focusing on national linkages to world society rather than internal socioeconomic development. We conduct cross-national longitudinal analyses of a multiple-indicator measure of rationalized governance for the period 1985–2002. Overall, there is only a very modest growth in the measure worldwide, with the most substantial changes occurring in developing countries. Change is mostly on an indicator of investment openness. National change tends to reflect links with global society: expanded trade, the penetration of science, and embeddedness in world organizations play prominent roles. The rationalization of national governance, like other dimensions of modernization, is not simply or principally a consequence of endogenous national development or social complexity. Rather, it directly reflects trade and institutional linkages with wider rationalizing movements in t...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine contracting between a principal and an agent from the perspective of both social exchange theory and rational choice theory and find that exchange theory appears to provide a better basis for deriving principles of organization design than rational choice.
Abstract: This paper examines contracting between a principal and an agent from the perspective of both social exchange theory and rational choice theory. Two experiments were conducted that tested competing predictions from the two theories. The first study examined effort decisions made by an agent under a series of contracts that varied in social context and compensation structure. The second experiment examined the negotiation of a compensation scheme between a principal and an agent and the agent's subsequent contract fulfillment, to test the mediating effects of verbal communication between parties on contracting and contract fulfillment. Both studies yielded results consistent with social exchange theory. Exchange theory appears to provide a better basis for deriving principles of organization design than rational choice.
TL;DR: The 13member Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) released its 248-page report on August 26, 2003, after analyzing evidence supplied by its staff of 120, 400 NASA engineers, and about 25,000 debris searchers.
Abstract: On February 1, 2003, seven astronauts died when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere. A 1.68-pound piece of insulating foam, which broke off during liftoff, hit the orbiter and left a three-inch crack in its thermal protection system on the left wing. On reentry, superheated air drawn through the crack melted its aluminum structure, and that aerodynamic instability and loss of control shattered the orbiter. Like known troubles with Orings, which brought down Challenger and its seven astronauts on January 28, 1986, on 14 flights since 1981, including Columbia’s first, there had been significant damage to the thermal protection system (TPS) or major foam loss. The 13member Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) released its 248-page report on August 26, 2003, after analyzing evidence supplied by its staff of 120, 400 NASA engineers, and about 25,000 debris searchers. Of its 29 recommendations, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was obliged to complete 15 before shuttle flights could resume.
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of the Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation is used to examine how a mass-movement social organization has been able to avoid the consequences of an oligarchic leadership structure, which previous scholars have claimed leads inevitably to loss of membership commitment, "becalming", and goal displacement.
Abstract: A case study of the Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation is used to examine how a mass-movement social organization has been able to avoid the consequences of an oligarchic leadership structure, which previous scholars have claimed leads inevitably to loss of membership commitment, “becalming,” and goal displacement. The case describes this network of community organizations, which has a very strong and self-perpetuating authority structure but has nonetheless maintained the commitment and involvement of its membership for many decades as it addresses issues such as school reform, living wages, training programs, health insurance, and physical community infrastructure. The case shows how the organization maintained its membership commitment and a clear focus on its original objectives by enhancing the membership's sense of capacity and agency and building a culture of contestation within the organization that encourages the membership to push back against the elite who dominate the organization.
TL;DR: This article developed a framework for defining the boundaries of within-population market segments, differentiated based on type and level of resources, and proposed a theory of the moves between market segments of all firms in an organizational population across its evolution.
Abstract: We develop a framework for defining the boundaries of within-population market segments, differentiated based on type and level of resources. Using this framework, we propose a theory of the moves between market segments of all firms in an organizational population across its evolution. Focusing on commensalistic interdependence within a segment, we adapt density dependence theory to predict that processes of mutualism and competition operate concurrently, even across high counts of density, and affect firms' propensity to desert their segment. Analyses of moves between market segments by firms in the U.S. auto industry between 1895 and 1981 confirm our predictions and suggest the operation of a basic ecological process that shapes the evolution of population structure.
TL;DR: A stock-taking conversation with the Administrative Science Quarterly's broad community of scholars about the criteria that organization studies scholars use in evaluating one another's work is described in this article, where the authors argue that we should remain open to diverse modes of inquiry, but also acknowledge significant challenges to doing so.
Abstract: This essay initiates a stock taking conversation with the Administrative Science Quarterly's broad community of scholars—its editors, editorial board members, reviewers, authors, submitters, and readers—about the criteria that organization studies scholars use in evaluating one another's work. I review ASQ's founding editors' vision for the field of organization studies, as articulated in essays by Edward Litchfield and James Thompson that appeared in the first issue of the journal in 1956. Then I outline seven concerns that have been voiced about the state of the field or ASQ in the subsequent 50 years, indicating how ASQ's content in recent years stacks up vis a vis these concerns. Then I offer my own thoughts on these concerns. I argue that we should remain open to diverse modes of inquiry, but I also acknowledge significant challenges to doing so. I close with a list of questions to which readers might respond, in the hope of generating a dialog that can make ASQ's role in the social construction of t...
TL;DR: Blair-Loy as discussed by the authors studied a sample of 81 elite women workers: 56 of them were executive-level employees in the finance field, and 25 were a snowball sample of women who had left high-powered business careers to rear children.
Abstract: Competing Devotions provides a welcome addition to the literature on the intersection of and conflict between two “greedy institutions”: work and family. Blair-Loy studies a sample of 81 elite women workers: 56 of them were executive-level employees in the finance field, and 25 were a snowball sample of women who had left high-powered business careers to rear children. A combination of questionnaire, observational, and interview evidence constitutes the empirical basis for the study, with the interview evidence providing the most compelling insights into how these women negotiate their lives.
TL;DR: Although as of this writing at the beginning of 2006, there has been no significant new act of terrorism in the U.S. since September 11, 2001, the risk of an attack on a major city with weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, or biological) remains terrifying.
Abstract: Although as of this writing at the beginning of 2006, there has been no significant new act of terrorism in the U.S. since September 11, 2001, the risk of an attack on a major city with weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, or biological) remains terrifying. One might even see the danger that Western countries face now as greater than during the bleakest years of the Cold War. Then, there was the unimaginable risk of a holocaust that might end life on earth, but it was hard to imagine this would come about by other than ghastly error, while now there is probably no risk of extinction, but there are those who wish consciously to unleash mass destruction. Many sober observers (e.g., Allison, 2004) believe it is very possible that an entire city might be annihilated by a terrorist nuclear blast.
TL;DR: Chandrasekaran et al. as mentioned in this paper explored the phenomenon of the multinational corporation (MNC) in the round, emphasizing their scope, history, development, culture, social implications, and governance problems.
Abstract: Any book by Alfred Chandler is a publishing event. In this case, he has teamed up with Bruce Mazlish to explore the phenomenon of the multinational corporation (MNC) in the round. Their ambition is to emphasize their scope, history, development, culture, social implications, and governance problems. In this way, they have set out to add a fresh perspective to the already voluminous literature on the multinationals and to reflect on the wider processes of globalization.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the sought-after change as system streamlining: reducing bureaucracy and focusing more closely on the missions of the federal agencies involved, and explain how successful change was accomplished and, more normatively, provide advice for leaders wishing to promote change in the front line of organizations.
Abstract: The author sets out to explain how successful change was accomplished and, more normatively, “to provide advice for leaders wishing to promote change in the front line of organizations” (p. 2). He characterizes the sought-after change as system streamlining: reducing bureaucracy and focusing more closely on the missions of the federal agencies involved. The reform is accounted a success mainly because two large surveys of staff in the buying offices gave it positive ratings, but also because of other evidence indicating that, post reform, buying offices worked more quickly and in a way that focused more on satisfying their customers and less on following a rule book that had been weighted toward control and procedural correctness.
TL;DR: This book builds on seven core projects and various case studies within these projects that involve different regional health authorities in the United Kingdom (U.K.), some dealing with how information was used to make purchasing decisions in various clinical areas, and others exploring the implementation of effectiveness evidence in normal working conditions across a range of clinical topic areas.
Abstract: Evidence-based health care (EBHC) has come of age. Dopson and Fitzgerald and their colleagues provide an integrating framework to improve our understanding of what makes information credible and why clinicians and managers use new knowledge in making decisions. The book builds on seven core projects and various case studies within these projects that involve different regional health authorities in the United Kingdom (U.K.), some dealing with how information was used to make purchasing decisions in various clinical areas, and others exploring the implementation of effectiveness evidence in normal working conditions across a range of clinical topic areas.
TL;DR: In this article, Darr compared the day-to-day activities of salespeople in two illustrative markets of the electronic component industry in the United States: the older mass market for capacitors and resistors and the newer emerging market of real-time computing.
Abstract: Darr argues in Selling Technology that salespeople, or at least some of them, are not who we might think they are. Specifically, in “cutting-edge industries,” trained engineers are increasingly represented in sales. To document the changing nature of sales, and short of engaging in a historical analysis of salespeople, Darr contrasts the day-to-day activities of salespeople in two illustrative markets of the electronic component industry in the United States: the older mass market for capacitors and resistors and the newer emerging market of real-time computing. Capacitors are electronic devices that store energy, and resistors are used, for instance, to absorb power. Most electronics manufacturers require capacitors and resistors. Real-time computing products enable “the transfer, storage, and processing of digital signals in real time” (p. 10) and run many Internet applications. Buyers of these latter products are mainly large companies, the military, and government agencies. Relying on seven months of observations of the sales and R&D work of an engineering boutique, sixty-two interviews, observations of trade shows, training sessions, and field visits, as well as small surveys and archival data, Darr’s in-depth comparative ethnography of salespeople in these two markets provides insightful and compelling reading for those interested in markets, occupations, and the meaning of social interactions.
TL;DR: Local Players in Global Games as discussed by the authors is a case study of a multinational firm from its formation to its dismantlement, where a number of previously autonomous firms from different countries, each with their own historically constituted identities, routines, and capabilities, come together inside a single multinational corporation.
Abstract: The title of Local Players in Global Games captures very well its content, that is, the strategic and organizational tension experienced by the different units within a multinational firm (MNC) due to the often conflicting or non-aligned interests between the local economic and political environment of its subsidiaries and the global context in which they operate as well as their role as part of a larger multinational. The book addresses a critical question in the international business literature, “What happens when a number of previously autonomous firms from different countries, each with their own historically constituted identities, routines, and capabilities, come together inside a single multinational corporation?” (p. xiii). To answer this question, the authors engage in a rigorous, detailed, and rich historical case study of an “actually existing” MNC from its formation to its dismantlement.
TL;DR: A handbook is not a page-turner of a novel, or a research monograph that elaborates a sustained argument, but a reference compendium, an encyclopedia devoted to a special topic as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Do not read this book like I did, that is, beginning with chapter 1 and continuing through chapter 32, cover to cover. It requires a herculean effort, with lots of coffee and no small measure of self-discipline. A handbook isn’t a page-turner of a novel, or a research monograph that elaborates a sustained argument. Rather, it is a reference compendium, an encyclopedia devoted to a special topic. One should dip into a handbook on an as-needed basis, in pursuit of a summary treatment of a particular topic or an up-to-date overview of a literature. And since handbooks are composed of a large number of stand-alone chapters, one can read such books chapter by chapter, in any particular sequence. Precisely because the chapters are so exhaustive in coverage, they are also exhausting to read all at once.
TL;DR: The Business of Culture, Lampel, Shamsie, and Lant's new edited volume on the strategic management of cultural industries, is worth readers' attention for a variety of reasons.
Abstract: The Business of Culture, Lampel, Shamsie, and Lant’s new edited volume on the strategic management of cultural industries, is worth readers’ attention for a variety of reasons. Typically, readers associate cultural industries with such products as films, books, building designs, fashion, and music, products that appeal to aesthetic or expressive tastes more than to the utilitarian aspects of customers’ needs. While Scott, in chapter 2, notes the proliferation of work on how cultural industries produce culture, Lampel, Shamsie, and Lant cut a fresh angle that focuses on the strategic management of cultural industries. Why is this important to the fields of cultural sociology, organization theory, and business strategy?
TL;DR: The Chosen as discussed by the authors is a dispiriting book for a college professor to read, not only because it recounts a history of anti-Semitism that was blatant, deliberate, and well known, but also because so many intellectual leaders of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were not merely complicit in discrimination, but architects of it, and perhaps most of all, because much of the system originally designed to keep Jews out of Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale is still in place, at those Ivy League schools and across the country.
Abstract: The Chosen is a dispiriting book for a college professor to read, not only because it recounts a history of anti-Semitism that was blatant, deliberate, and well known, not only because so many intellectual leaders of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were not merely complicit in discrimination, but architects of it, but perhaps most of all, because so much of the system originally designed to keep Jews out of Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale is still in place, at those Ivy League schools and across the country. The Chosen does not make me proud to have taught for nearly 20 years at Princeton and Harvard, schools that have yet to foreswear admissions practices originally designed to keep Jews out. But The Chosen does make me proud to share a discipline with its author.