Contingency theory

About: Contingency theory is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2586 publications have been published within this topic receiving 123516 citations.

Collaborative governance in theory and practice

Abstract: Over the past few decades, a new form of governance has emerged to replace adversarial and managerial modes of policy making and implementation. Collaborative governance, as it has come to be known, brings public and private stakeholders together in collective forums with public agencies to engage in consensus-oriented decision making. In this article, we conduct a meta-analytical study of the existing literature on collaborative governance with the goal of elaborating a contingency model of collaborative governance. After reviewing 137 cases of collaborative governance across a range of policy sectors, we identify critical variables that will influence whether or not this mode of governance will produce successful collaboration. These variables include the prior history of conflict or cooperation, the incentives for stakeholders to participate, power and resources imbalances, leadership, and institutional design. We also identify a series of factors that are crucial within the collaborative process itself. These factors include face-to-face dialogue, trust building, and the development of commitment and shared understanding. We found that a virtuous cycle of collaboration tends to develop when collaborative forums focus on ‘‘small wins’’ that deepen trust, commitment, and shared understanding. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of our contingency model for practitioners and for future research on collaborative governance. Over the last two decades, a new strategy of governing called ‘‘collaborative governance’’ has developed. This mode of governance brings multiple stakeholders together in common forums with public agencies to engage in consensus-oriented decision making. In this article, we conduct a meta-analytical study of the existing literature on collaborative governance with the goal of elaborating a general model of collaborative governance. The ultimate goal is to develop a contingency approach to collaboration that can highlight conditions under which collaborative governance will be more or less effective as an

The Contingency Theory of Organizations

Abstract: Core Paradigm and Theoretical Integration Organic Theory and Research Bureaucracy Theory and Research Causality and Contingency in Bureaucracy Theory Controversies in Contingency Theory Research Challenges from Other Theories Fit Concept and Analysis Fit Affects Performance Neo-Contingency Theory Future Opportunities

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 Life Cycles and Shifting Criteria of Effectiveness: Some Preliminary Evidence

Abstract: This paper discusses the relationships between stage of development in organizational life cycles and organizational effectiveness. We begin the paper by reviewing nine models of organizational life cycles that have been proposed in the literature. Each of these models identifies certain characteristics that typify organizations in different stages of development. A summary model of life cycle stages is derived that integrates each of these nine models. Next, a framework of organizational effectiveness developed by Quinn and Rohrbaugh is introduced. This framework organizes criteria of effectiveness into four models-rational goal, open systems, human relations, and internal processes models. We hypothesize that certain of the models are important in evaluating the effectiveness of organizations in particular life cycle stages but not in others. The analysis of a state agency's development over five years provides some evidence to support these hypothesized relationships between life cycle stages and criteria of effectiveness. We conclude that major criteria of effectiveness change in predictable ways as organizations develop through their life cycles. Some shifts in state of development are resisted by the organization much more than are others, and intervention into organizations may be needed to help make the transitions less painful and costly. We also discuss why the predictions of contingency theory often are not substantiated by research because the responses of organizations to the external environment vary in different life cycle stages.

The contingency theory of management accounting: Achievement and prognosis

Abstract: Contingency theories of management accounting have become a current vogue but have produced few significant new results. By surveying the development and content of these theories it is argued that they have been based on an inadequate and insufficiently articulated model. An improved model, based on ideas of organizational control and effectiveness, is put forward which suggests appropriate directions for future work that will be both perceptive and cumulative.