Showing papers in "California Management Review in 1997"

Motivating Creativity in Organizations: On Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do

Abstract: Creativity in all fields, including business, flourishes under intrinsic motivation—the drive to do something because it is interesting, involving, exciting, satisfying, or personally challenging This article presents the Componential Theory of Organizational Creativity and Innovation, which defines the factors—including intrinsic motivation—that determine a person's creativity This article also shows how the work environment can influence individual creativity

Managing Intellectual Capital: Licensing and Cross-Licensing in Semiconductors and Electronics

Abstract: Innovation and the management of intellectual capital are playing an increasingly important role in competition in high-technology industries. To operate in markets where innovation is cumulative, such as in electronics and semiconductors, firms frequently need to engage in extensive licensing and cross-licensing. This need is amplified by recent increases in the strength of patent protection and by the more active licensing stance of intellectual property owners. A high-quality patent portfolio not only reflects the firm's inventive capacity, but may significantly increase its crosslicensing bargaining ability and reduce royalty payments. In addition, it may directly contribute to its product and process innovation.

Multi-Technology Corporations: Why They Have “Distributed” Rather Than “Distinctive Core” Competencies:

Abstract: Technological diversity in corporations is a driving force behind four major features of contemporary business: corporate growth; increasing RD increasing external linkage for new technologies by various means and opportunities to engage in technology-related new businesses. Corporate technological competencies are dispersed over a wider range of sectors than their production activities, and this range is increasing. Technologies are not the same as products arid must be dealt with differently. Increases in technological diversity in both companies and products challenge conventional wisdom and a number of widely accepted management concepts. This article challenges four of these notions: first, that for every company there exists a narrow set of core technological competencies on which the company should focus; second, that major new innovations are often associated with major "competence destruction;" third, that companies should not only downsize but disintegrate and out-source technological competencies just like production; and fourth, that companies should focus or specialize on a narrow set of core businesses. These notions do contain some truth, and they do apply in sonic companies in some periods of their life. However, as with any simple concept, they can be dangerous when carried to extremes

Competing in the Age of Digital Convergence

Abstract: From the Publisher: The essays in this important collection examine the consequences of digital convergence on the participating companies and industries, their internal capabilities, the products and services they produce, and the way they compete. In the process, the authors reveal that the key to success for companies in this new environment will not be to engineer big technological breakthroughs or to execute grand acquisitions. Instead, the winners will be those companies that develop innovative products and services by creatively combining existing technologies with new managerial approaches. Timely essays place the computer industry in historical perspective; address prospects for industry convergence; identify economic, legal, and managerial obstacles to convergence; and examine the managerial challenges facing companies in rapidly changing hardware and software environments, particularly around issues of product and process development and interfirm alliances.

Achieving Success in Information Systems Outsourcing

Abstract: The conventional wisdom is that companies should never outsource core functions. This study of thirty-four large companies, which outsourced for at least two years, demonstrates that outsourcing can be successful even when information systems are viewed as core functions. However, outsourcing negotiations must reflect the role of the company performing the outsourced functions and the nature of the outsourced work. A critical key to success in outsourcing arrangements lies in having tight contracts, even when the outsourcing vendor is viewed as a strategic partner or the IS function is considered to be core. This article offers prescriptions for writing contracts and creating balanced arrangements to enhance outsourcing success.

Conflict and Strategic Choice: How Top Management Teams Disagree

Abstract: Substantive conflict is natural within top management teams as executives struggle with making high-stakes choices under conditions of ambiguity and uncertainty. Yet, many top management teams fail to sufficiently debate appropriate courses of action. This article reports on a field study of top management teams and examines four managerial levers that can help executives overcome the cognitive, emotional, and political barriers to engaging in conflict. These levers are: build a heterogeneous team; create frequent interactions within that team; cultivate a distinct symphony of roles such as Counselor, Futurist, and Ms. Action around fundamental tensions within managing; and use multiple-lens tactics such as competitor role playing and multiple alternatives to provide unexpected vantage points on key issues.

The Dynamics of Samsung's Technological Learning in Semiconductors:

Abstract: Samsung leapfrogged from a mere discrete device producer to the most vibrant and largest memory chip producer in the world. It managed effectively the two antecedents of technological learning: prior knowledge base and the intensity of efforts. Samsung used technology licensing and the recruitment of high calibre scientists and engineers in building its prior knowledge base and crisis construction as a strategic means for increasing the intensity of its efforts. Samsung also used internal competition and cooperation to accelerate technological learning.

Creating Lean Suppliers: Diffusing Lean Production Through the Supply Chain

Abstract: Honda of America has developed a comprehensive approach to teaching the principles of lean production to its suppliers in which Honda and the supplier work intensively on narrowly targeted improvement projects in the supplier's plant. Called BP (for "Best Process," "Best Performance" "Best Practice"), this approach has been quite successful in enhancing supplier performance; suppliers participating in the program in 1994 averaged productivity gains of 50% on lines reengineered by BP. However, Honda has found there is high variation in the extent to which suppliers were able to transfer the lessons taught beyond the line or plant where the BP intervention occurred. Drawing on case studies of three of Honda's U.S. suppliers, this article explores how the BP process interacts with the broader relationship between customer and supplier in terms of organizational learning, technology transfer, and the transplantation of Japanese management practices to the United States. These cases illustrate the dynamics of the learning process and the complex relationship that emerges between the "teacher" (provider) of valuable knowledge and the "student" (recipient).

Enhancing Creativity: Managing Work Contexts for the High Potential Employee

Abstract: While traditional approaches to maximizing employee creativity have focused on hiring creative people, more recent perspectives suggest that employees' work environments influence the creativity of their contributions. This article discusses the benefits of integrating these approaches. To ensure the most creative work from employees, managers need to assess the creative potential of each person and then place those with high potential into work contexts that stimulate and nurture it. When firms place people with high creative potential in contexts that offer complex job assignments, supportive and non-controlling supervision, and competitive coworkers, they reap the benefits of maximum employee creativity.

Managing Innovation: When Less Is More

Abstract: An analysis of many highly successful and "visionary" companies reveals the existence of corporate cultures that emphasize adherence to company goals and cohesiveness within the group. While such cultures can improve effort, morale, and productivity, they also tend to thwart innovation—limiting not only the expression of "originar ideas, but even their production. Research in social psychology suggests that flexibility to changing circumstances and innovation is better served by a "culture" that not only tolerates, but welcomes dissent and minority views. Such dissent—even when wrong—stimulates better decision making and innovation. Thus, the proper harnessing of dissent may provide a mechanism for creating unity without uniformity and for igniting the "spark" of innovation.

The New Task of R&D Management: Creating Goal-Directed Communities for Innovation

Abstract: How do firms manage research and development units to optimize their innovation capabilities? First, the most innovative RD relying much more heavily on intrinsic rewards than extrinsic rewards; building cohesive teams that preserve individuality; and assuring a continuous supply of slack resources.

When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work

Abstract: The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work, from which this article is excerpted, is based on the author's field work at "Amerco," the fictitious name for a Fortune 500 company headquartered in the midwestern town of "Spotted Deer" It describes how employees at all levels of the corporation have handled the conflicting demands of family life and the workplace This article demonstrates that even though Amerco has "family-friendly" policies, relatively few employees take advantage of them Many appear to want to spend more time not at home but at the office

The Myth of the Generic Manager: New Personal Competencies for New Management Roles

Abstract: Today, the most urgent challenge for most companies is to develop the managers who must operate in the new delayered, horizontal, networked organizations to deliver on their complex, multidimensional strategic priorities. It is here that most companies are facing the greatest difficulties. The reason lies in the historic "Russian doll model of management" in which managers at each level are expected to play similar roles and have similar responsibilities, only for a different size and scope of activities. The underlying premise that there is a generic management role is being further reinforced by many companies currently engaged in the new fad of identifying a set of desired personal competencies as the anchor for their management development initiatives. This article challenges this Russian doll model of management to argue that managers at different levels of the organization play distinctly different roles and add value in fundamentally different ways. Based on field research in twenty major corporations, the authors identify the roles of front-line, senior, and top-level managers in the new organizational form, and they describe how companies can develop these new managerial competencies.

A Silicon Valley of the East: Creating Taiwan's Semiconductor Industry

Abstract: A thriving semiconductor industry has been created in Taiwan over the course of the past two decades by the use of advanced organizational techniques of technology leverage and accelerated technology diffusion. By the mid-1990s, the industry had reached a level of output that placed it behind only the U.S., Japan, and Korea. Almost all of Taiwan's semiconductor industry is located in the Hsinchu Science-Based Industry Park, which was created in emulation of California's Stanford Research Park, but with more direct government involvement. This article explores the extent to which this emergent Silicon Valley in Taiwan shares the "industrial ecology" that has powered innovation in California and examines the extent to which the Taiwan industry suffers from weaknesses attributable to its rapid creation through technology leverage.

Green Schemes: Corporate Environmental Strategies and their Implementation

Abstract: Many corporations now recognize the importance of establishing a "proactive" environmental strategy. This article develops a framework for environmental strategy implementation based on case studies of three firms: Volvo, Polaroid, and Proctor & Gamble. The degree to which each firm's environmental strategy focuses on market or nonmarket areas reflects its existing core competencies. Effective implementation of this strategy often requires new environmental management systems, which need to be designed in ways that remove organizational buffers and integrate well with existing core activities. However, while tailoring programs to fit existing activities is useful in the initial stages of implementation, it sometimes creates its own set of problems as environmental programs mature.

Creativity as Investment

Abstract: This article describes an investment theory of creativity. It suggests that a creative person needs to defy the crowd to buy low and sell high in the realm of ideas, just as a successful financial investor defies the crowd and buys stocks when they are out of favor and sells them when they become popular. Creative ideas are often unpopular. To overcome the resistance to those ideas, creative people—as well as companies desiring to encourage creativity—need to invest in six resources: knowledgeintellectual abilities; thinking styles; motivation; personality; and environment. All of these resources need to be present for a creative enterprise to succeed.

The Trickle-Down Effect: Policy Decisions, Risky Work, and the "Challenger" Tragedy

Abstract: The Challenger disaster cannot be accounted for by reductionist explanations that direct attention only toward individual actors, nor by theories that focus solely on communication failure or the social psychological dynamics of the infamous eve-of-launch teleconference. The cause of the tragedy was rooted in historic organizational and environmental contingencies that preceded the launch decision. By tracing the connection between top policy decisions and decisions by engineers and managers assigned to do risky work, this analysis contradicts conventional understandings about what happened at NASA. As a consequence, this case contains new lessons for both managers and students of organizations.

Enterprise Logistics in the Information Era

Abstract: The emergence of the extended enterprise, a group of strategically aligned companies focused on new market opportunities, signals a fundamental change in the nature of competition, a rethinking of traditional supply chain relationships, and a new role for logistics. Because of its ability to span the multiple functions and boundaries of the organization, logistics is poised to become a critical core rather than support function, coordinating and integrating supply chain activities that create both corporate and customer value. This article describes an information-rich logistical environment for the extended enterprise in which transportation and manufacturing activities are fully integrated into a new product delivery process. This process is organized around economies of conjunction in much the same way that mass production is organized around economies of scale. Economies of conjunction derive from the way enterprise members share information and transact their business. Deep information exchange among enterprise members presents opportunities to build knowledge-based logistical tools that create innovative sources of competitive advantage.

Integrated Strategy, Trade Policy, and Global Competition.

Abstract: An integrated strategy captures the synergies between competitive strategies that seek superior performance in the marketplace and nonmarket strategies that shape the competitive environment. This article extends the conceptual and analytical foundations of integrated strategy to a competitive environment structured by international trade policy. The framework is illustrated by the international trade dispute between the Eastman Kodak Company and Fuji Photo Film Company regarding access to the Japanese market for consumer film and photographic paper. The analysis focuses on the synergies between market and nonmarket strategies in which governments act as agents of their companies. The framework incorporates competition between the two companies in their market environment, competition in the nonmarket environment to influence their government's bargaining position, and bargaining between the governments.

Contingent Workers in High Risk Environments

Abstract: Contingent workers, particularly independent contractors and temporaries, are increasingly performing high risk work across many industries. Based on a review of studies conducted in the mining and petrochemical industries, this article identifies the high risk factors associated with the use of contingent workers. The migration of contingent workers from peripheral (low risk) to core (high risk) tasks has been a major factor in increased accidents rates. Managers need to reduce accident risks from the use of contingent workers, create on-going relations with a limited set of contractors, orient strangers to the work setting, provide incentives for safe performance, create means for employing firms to monitor both contingent and core worker performance, and promote risk awareness at all organizational levels.

Risk Mitigation in Large-Scale Systems: Lessons from High Reliability Organizations

Abstract: This article argues that we should turn our attention from single organizations to systems of organizations if we are to manage in a way that reduces the potential for catastrophic outcomes in organizations. Risk mitigation measures for large-scale systems are derived from research on high reliability organizations (HROs). The article focuses on characteristics similar to both types of systems—which include simultaneous autonomy and interdependence, intended and unintended consequences of behavior, long incubation periods during which problems can arise, and risk migration—and shows how risk mitigation principles that evolved from HRO research can be applied to large-scale systems.

Lawyers Abroad: The Internationalization of Legal Practice

Abstract: Since the late 1960s, a number of U.S. and British law firms have quietly, and successfully, gone global. Traipsing after their far-flung corporate clients, these law firms have slowly but steadily established their own global networks. Unlike the manufacturing firms that preceded them abroad, law firms are essentially service firms, selling the ephemeral products of information, skills, and advice. As such, they rank among the first global providers of information-based services. This article takes a first cut at analyzing and underscoring the internationalization of the legal practice. It explores how law firms have entered the international economy and flags the issues that seem most relevant to their success and sustainability. The four factors that have contributed most directly to their success—size, reputation, "walking assets," and a balance between global and local interests—are not specific to the legal profession but are equally applicable to other information-based industries.

Business and International Environmental Treaties: Ozone Depletion and Climate Change

Abstract: The study of business interests adds an important dimension to our understanding of the development of international environmental agreements. The contrasting role of business interests in the cases of ozone depletion and climate change is critical to explaining why climate change is a much more difficult issue for the international community to tackle. In the case of ozone depletion, industry concentration and the technological factors provided incentives for industry leaders to invest in alternative products and processes. By contrast, fossil fuel substitutes present a long-term strategic threat to the major sectors that produce and use these fuels. Where relatively few actors were involved in ozone depletion, it will be much more difficult to craft an agreement that is acceptable to the broad range of industries affected by climate change. However, business does have substantial influence over the timing and shape of international environmental agreements, even when there is considerable disunity within the business ranks.

The Many Faces of Multi-Firm Alliances: Lessons for Managers:

Abstract: One of the most notable business trends in recent years has been the surge in alliance formation. Globalization, escalating R&D expenses, shortening product life cycles, and convergence of technologies are often cited as important factors that contribute to this phenomenon. This article develops a framework for multi-firm alliances. Multi-firm alliances can be classified on the basis of distinct payoff structures, leading to critical differences in their predicted development and final result. This article presents four multi-firm alliance game scenarios to describe the dynamics that underlie the interactions among firms and provides industry examples. It offers a number of lessons to help managers improve their ability to manage multi-firm alliance relationships.

Creativity doesn't require isolation: Why product designers bring visitors `backstage.'

Abstract: Most existing writings imply that creative work is best done in physical and social isolation from outsiders, including case studies of successful product development teams that worked in isolation and psychological research showing that novel responses are inhibited when observers are present. In contrast, this article describes how one organization, IDEO Product Development, innovates routinely even though it has a constant and diverse stream of backstage visitors. IDEO uses visitors9 knowledge to enhance its creative work. Other benefits of such visits include enhancing the organization9s reputation and improving the innovation process in client organizations. This case implies that creative work does not always require isolation and that visitors can be brought backstage in ways that help rather than hamper creative work.

Developing Skills and Pay through Career Ladders: Lessons from Japanese and U.S. Companies

Abstract: U.S. companies9 adaptations of Japanese training practices typically have been concerned with increasing formal classroom training for incumbent workers. Research in large companies in Japan and the U.S. indicates that Japanese training systems primarily take the form of structured on-the-job training, embedded in long career ladders that simultaneously increase skill and pay for Japanese workers over their careers. Meanwhile, training in U.S. companies tends to be informal and sporadic and is embedded in short job ladders. U.S. firms can improve the efficiency of their training for non-exempt employees by providing structured on-the-job-training and creating career ladders that improve skills and pay over their employees9 tenure. Such reforms can increase productivity, lengthen careers and increase pay for front-line workers without relying upon employment security policies or massive increases in firm or government expenditures.

Integrating Medical and Business Values in Health Benefits Management

Abstract: Contemporary health benefits management is forcing business to join the medical profession in judging what is valued in health care delivery. The judgments are particularly difficult, ranging from allowable treatments, including potentially lifeprolonging measures, to the use of sensitive medical data about employees and their personal behaviors. Although medical experts may advise them, corporations and their managers retain ultimate economic, moral, and, increasingly, legal responsibility for these decisions. This article shows that innovations in corporate health benefits make it imperative for business to integrate medical and business values considerations into the daily work of benefits planning and administration. To accomplish this goal, the article provides a six-step model senior managers can use to identify and respond to the unique nature of these concerns in their own companies. It also supplies a set of principles to help managers think more comprehensively and clearly about the values issues emerging in their health benefits programs.

Reinventing Workplace Regulation

Abstract: Workplace regulations are typically rigid and detailed, raising costs for business without effectively protecting workers. This article argues for giving employers the option of working with employees to solve their mutual problems. Under this proposal, employers have the option of creating plans that achieve the goals of the regulations. If these plans meet minimum standards, the employer would be exempt from many detailed command-and-control regulations. A key element of this proposal is that the workforce (or its representative) has the authority to ensure that each plan protects the employees.