Showing papers on "Organizational culture published in 1981"

Boundary Spanning Individuals: Their Role in Information Transfer and Their Antecedents

Abstract: An investigation of alternative mechanisms by which information is imported into organizations indicates that informational boundary spanning is accomplished only by those individuals who are well ...

Vicarious Learning: The Influence of Modeling on Organizational Behavior

Abstract: The social learning theory notion of vicarious learning through modeling can elucidate the phenomenon of behavioral change in organizations. Vicarious learning encompasses attentional, retention, motor reproduction, and motivational processes. If any of these processes is lacking or impaired, the learner is less likely to perform an observed behavior. Whether or not a model is attractive, competent, and successful contributes to the overall probability of that model's behavior being imitated by others. Managers need to use modeling effectively to enhance the achievement of organizational and personal goals. In particular, attention should be given to day-to-day modeling as well as to formal training to effect organizational behavior changes.

The “Self” in Work Organizations: A Conceptual Review

Abstract: Currently popular models of employee behavior generally grant the individual a relatively passive role. It has recently been argued that a more comprehensive view would recognize three-way reciprocal interaction among employee behaviors, cognitions, and the environment. This paper contributes to this expanded viewpoint, focusing specifically on the role of the self and including characteristics and consequences of self-reinforcement systems, self-efficacy expectations, and an integrative model of the self in organizational research. This relatively broad viewpoint has potentially important implications for organizational behavior.

The Role of Culture in Comparative Management: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Abstract: For at least the last twenty years, the literature has yielded diverse positions on the transferability of modern management principles into different cultures. A review of the research shows that ...

A Perspective on the Challenge of Public Management: Environmental Paradox and Organizational Culture

Abstract: Management in the public sector presents some unique challenges stemming from the paradoxical nature of the public administration environment. We probe the paradox using the concept of organizational culture to explore the consequences for public managers. Our analysis suggests that the public manager may indeed face a more complicated challenge than the business administrator, and that inadequate understanding of the culture of public administration is a key obstacle to managerial improvement in government.

Organizational Leadership: The Case of the School Superintendent

Abstract: Two dimensions of the leadership of educational organizations are explored: (1) the day to day behavior of superintendents and (2) the meanings superintendents attach to their work. The work stems from related studies by the authors. Two clusters of patterns emerged from this analysis. First, superintending is communicating. Second, superintendents are constrained by social and organizational structures and, yet, control a major part of their day-to-day work and exert an important organizational influence. Questions are raised concerning the adequacy of the dominant notions about leadership.

Organization Development: A Political Perspective

Abstract: It is now accepted that organizational politics exist in every organization and are involved in almost every facet of organizational life. Organizational politics are certainly involved in intervention programs. Despite these facts, organization development (OD) has been characterized as lacking any political sophistication whatsoever. In order to increase their success rate, OD consultants have been asked to become more politically involved in their intervention programs [Bennis, 1969; Pettigrew, 1975]. We argue here that OD has developed an unrecognized political orientation that aids OD consultants in the political arena and supports their intervention programs, and we explore the practical and ethical/value considerations of greater political involvement.

Organizational Behavior: A Review of the Literature

Abstract: Organizational behavior has emerged as a major educational component in business schools for students of management. Although the major body of teachers, researchers, and students of organizational behavior are located in schools of business or management, their study is not limited to business organizations. Their orientation is toward general theory and scholarly research in organizational behavior regardless of organizational type. The findings in organizational behavior, therefore, are not only applicable to business concerns but to goal-directed organizations in general, including organizations of higher education. Prior to the 1960s, the major approaches to management education in business schools were generalized principles of management [14, 19, 26, 40], or "what business did yesterday or the day before" [23, p. 5]. As long as business organizations remained internally simple and their environment simple and stable, such approaches to management education maintained their applicability. As business organizations grew in size, increased in complexity, and faced environments of accelerated change, the "principles of management" and "intuitive" approaches were found wanting [23, 45, 54, 68]. There was a need for knowledge of better alternatives and confidence that such alternatives represented an improvement [23, p. 10]. To answer this need, organizational behavior emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as an applied discipline. Since the sixties, organizations of higher education have faced sim-

A Process Framework of Organizational Politics.

Abstract: This paper attempts to advance the study of organizational politics by developing a comprehensive process framework for understanding individual and group political activity. Previous concepts are ...

Community Size, Socialization, and the Work Needs of Professionals

Abstract: This study tested whether the community size of early socialization directly affects adult work needs among professionals. The size of the community in which early socialization occurred generally ...

Organizations with Politically Appointed Leaders: A Special Case for OD.

Abstract: This paper defines organizations with politically appointed leaders as a special case for the theory and practice of OD. The implications of this political situation for fundamental principles of O...

Nomological Networks and the Understanding of Organizations in Different Cultures.

Abstract: Nomological nets capturing the perceptions and cognitive structuring of 25 variables relating to individual differences, job, organizational climate, attitudes and behavior at the work place, and l...