Showing papers on "Organizational culture published in 2008"

Is yours a learning organization

Abstract: An organization with a strong learning culture faces the unpredictable deftly. However, a concrete method for understanding precisely how an institution learns and for identifying specific steps to help it learn better has remained elusive. A new survey instrument from professors Garvin and Edmondson of Harvard Business School and assistant professor Gino of Carnegie Mellon University allows you to ground your efforts in becoming a learning organization. The tool's conceptual foundation is what the authors call the three building blocks of a learning organization. The first, a supportive learning environment, comprises psychological safety, appreciation of differences, openness to new ideas, and time for reflection. The second, concrete learning processes and practices, includes experimentation, information collection and analysis, and education and training. These two complementary elements are fortified by the final building block: leadership that reinforces learning. The survey instrument enables a granular examination of all these particulars, scores each of them, and provides a framework for detailed, comparative analysis. You can make comparisons within and among your institution's functional areas, between your organization and others, and against benchmarks that the authors have derived from their surveys of hundreds of executives in many industries. After discussing how to use their tool, the authors share the insights they acquired as they developed it. Above all, they emphasize the importance of dialogue and diagnosis as you nurture your company and its processes with the aim of becoming a learning organization. The authors' goal--and the purpose of their tool--is to help you paint an honest picture of your firm's learning culture and of the leaders who set its tone.

Regulatory focus as a mediator of the influence of initiating structure and servant leadership on employee behavior.

Abstract: In this research, the authors test a model in which the regulatory focus of employees at work mediates the influence of leadership on employee behavior. In a nationally representative sample of 250 workers who responded over 2 time periods, prevention focus mediated the relationship of initiating structure to in-role performance and deviant behavior, whereas promotion focus mediated the relationship of servant leadership to helping and creative behavior. The results indicate that even though initiating structure and servant leadership share some variance in explaining other variables, each leadership style incrementally predicts disparate outcomes after controlling for the other style and dispositional tendencies. A new regulatory focus scale, the Work Regulatory Focus (WRF) Scale, also was developed and initially validated for this study. Implications for the results and the WRF Scale are discussed.

Conceptualization and measurement of organizational readiness for change: a review of the literature in health services research and other fields.

Abstract: Health care practitioners and change experts contend that organizational readiness for change is a critical precursor to successful change implementation. This article assesses how organizational readiness for change has been defined and measured in health services research and other fields. Analysis of 106 peer-reviewed articles reveals conceptual ambiguities and disagreements in current thinking and writing about organizational readiness for change. Inspection of 43 instruments for measuring organizational readiness for change reveals limited evidence of reliability or validity for most publicly available measures. Several conceptual and methodological issues that need to be addressed to generate knowledge useful for practice are identified and discussed.

The effects of transformational and change leadership on employees' commitment to a change: a multilevel study.

Abstract: The effects of transformational leadership on the outcomes of specific change initiatives are not well understood. Conversely, organizational change studies have examined leader behaviors during specific change implementations yet have failed to link these to broader leadership theories. In this study, the authors investigate the relationship between transformational and change leadership and followers' commitment to a particular change initiative as a function of the personal impact of the changes. Transformational leadership was found to be more strongly related to followers' change commitment than change-specific leadership practices, especially when the change had significant personal impact. For leaders who were not viewed as transformational, good change-management practices were found to be associated with higher levels of change commitment.

Building a Climate for Innovation Through Transformational Leadership and Organizational Culture

Abstract: Research has called for organizations to be more flexible, adaptive, entrepreneurial, and innovative in meeting the changing demands of today's environment. Appropriate leadership to effect such ch...

Leadership and the fate of organizations.

Abstract: This article concerns the real-world importance of leadership for the success or failure of organizations and social institutions. The authors propose conceptualizing leadership and evaluating leaders in terms of the performance of the team or organization for which they are responsible. The authors next offer a taxonomy of the dependent variables used as criteria in leadership studies. A review of research using this taxonomy suggests that the vast empirical literature on leadership may tell us more about the success of individual managerial careers than the success of these people in leading groups, teams, and organizations. The authors then summarize the evidence showing that leaders do indeed affect the performance of organizations--for better or for worse--and conclude by describing the mechanisms through which they do so.

Assessing the organizational social context (OSC) of mental health services: Implications for research and practice.

Abstract: The organizational social context in which mental health services are provided is believed to affect the adoption and implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) as well as the quality and outcomes of the services. A fully developed science of implementation effectiveness requires conceptual models that include organizational social context and tools for assessing social context that have been tested in a broad cross-section of mental health systems. This paper describes the role of organizational social context in services and implementation research and evaluates a comprehensive contextual measure, labeled Organizational Social Context (OSC), designed to assess the key latent constructs of culture, climate and work attitudes. The psychometric properties of the OSC measure were assessed in a nationwide study of 1,154 clinicians in 100 mental health clinics with a second-order confirmatory factor analysis of clinician responses, estimates of scale reliabilities, and indices of within-clinic agreement and between-clinic differences among clinicians. Finally, the paper illustrates the use of nationwide norms in describing the OSC profiles of individual mental health clinics and examines the cross-level association of organizational-level culture and climate with clinician-level work attitudes.

Culture of Family Commitment and Strategic Flexibility: The Moderating Effect of Stewardship:

Abstract: The ability of family firms to identify and respond to changes in their external environments can be a key source of competitive advantage leading to success and survival. Some research, however, has suggested family firms are conservative and often lack the ability to adapt to their changing competitive environments. Using data from 248 family firms, we found a family firm's culture of commitment to the business is positively associated with its strategic flexibility—the ability to pursue new opportunities and respond to threats in the competitive environment. Further, we found stewardship-oriented organizational culture positively moderated the family commitment-strategic flexibility relationship.

Towards understanding the direct and indirect effects of CEOs' transformational leadership on firm innovation

Abstract: This study seeks to advance understanding of how transformational leadership by top managers (CEOs) can affect their companies' innovativeness. We propose a model that includes both direct effects and indirect effects moderated by aspects of organizational culture, structure, and the external environment. The predicted effects are tested with data collected through multiple sources on 50 Taiwanese electronics and telecommunications companies. The results support the expectation that a positive relationship exists between CEO transformational leadership and organizational innovation. They also support most of the predicted moderating effects. The implications of these findings for practice and research are delineated.

Skills and selves in the new workplace

Abstract: In the neoliberal imaginary of contemporary capitalism, workers' employment value depends on their skills. Skills terms, especially communication, team, and leadership, formulate aspects of personhood and modes of sociality as productive labor. The key semiotic properties of skills terms are strategic indexicality (expressing alignment with corporate values) and denotational indeterminacy (knowledge and practices referred to as skills are quite disparate). Yet all skills are assumed to be commensurable and readily available for inculcation into workers. Drawing from Internet sites marketing skills-related services, I explore the semiotic properties of discourses that facilitate skills' commensurability and commodification. [neoliberalism, discourse analysis, corporate culture, labor history, communication, commodification]

Measuring innovation culture in organizations

Abstract: Purpose – Academic and practitioner interest has focused on innovation as a method of competitive differentiation and as a way to create customer value. However, less attention has been devoted to developing a measure of innovation culture. The purpose of this paper is to develop an empirically‐based comprehensive instrument for measuring an organization's innovation culture.Design/methodology – This paper describes a procedure which explicates the innovation culture construct, and proposes a multi‐item measure of innovation culture predicated on exploratory factor analysis. These descriptors were derived from extant literature, key informant interviews, and a survey of over 282 employees from the financial services industry.Findings – Findings suggest that an innovation culture scale may best be represented through a structure that consists of seven factors identified as innovation propensity, organizational constituency, organizational learning, creativity and empowerment, market orientation, value orie...

An assessment of the measurement of performance in international business research

Abstract: A sizeable body of international business (IB) research is devoted to building knowledge about the determinants of organizational performance. A key precursor to accurately diagnosing why some organizations succeed in the international marketplace while others struggle is operationalizing performance appropriately. Yet, to date, no systematic investigation has considered how well IB research measures performance. We examine the measurement of performance in 96 articles published in the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of International Business Studies, Management Science, Organization Science ,a nd theStrategic Management Journal between 1995 and 2005. The findings reveal that most studies do not measure performance in a manner that captures the multifaceted nature of the construct. We describe the implications of these results, and offer suggestions for improving future practice. Journal of International Business Studies (2008) 39, 1064–1080.

CEO values, organizational culture and firm outcomes.

Abstract: Few empirical works have examined the process through which CEO dispositions relate to organizational outcomes. In this study we examined the relationships between CEO values and organizational culture, and between organizational culture and firm performance. Data were collected from different sources (26 CEOs, 71 Senior Vice Presidents and 185 other organizational members), and include organizational financial performance data collected at two points in time. In support of our hypotheses, CEO self-directive values were associated with innovation-oriented cultures, security values were associated with bureaucratic cultures and benevolence values were related to supportive cultures. In turn, cultural dimensions showed differential associations with subsequent company sales growth, an index of organizational efficiency and assessments of employee satisfaction. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Organizational culture and leadership in ERP implementation

Abstract: This paper theorizes how leadership affects ERP implementation by fostering the desired organizational culture. We contend that ERP implementation success is positively related with organizational culture along the dimensions of learning and development, participative decision making, power sharing, support and collaboration, and tolerance for risk and conflicts. In addition, we identify the strategic and tactical actions that the top management can take to influence organizational culture and foster a culture conducive to ERP implementation. The theoretical contributions and managerial implications of this study are discussed.

Knowledge Transfer in Project-Based Organizations: An Organizational Culture Perspective

Abstract: This conceptual paper investigates the process of knowledge transfer in project-based organizations from the perspective of organizational culture. The paper identifies obstacles to knowledge transfer in project-based organizations and emphasizes the importance of organizational and project cultures in this process. The study provides some suggestions for improving knowledge transfer in project-based organizations and notes the implications of the paper for project management.

Cognition in Organizations

Abstract: This article reviews major developments from 2000 to early 2007 in the psychological analysis of cognition in organizations. Our review, the first in this series to survey cognitive theory and research spanning the entire field of industrial and organizational psychology, considers theoretical, empirical, and methodological advances across 10 substantive domains of application. Two major traditions, the human factors and organizational traditions, have dominated cognitively oriented research in this field. Our central message is that the technological and human systems underpinning contemporary organizational forms are evolving in ways that demand greater cooperation among researchers across both traditions. Such cooperation is necessary in order to gain theoretical insights of sufficient depth and complexity to refine the explanation and prediction of behavior in organizations and derive psychologically sound solutions to the unprecedented information-processing burdens confronting the twenty-first century workforce.

Institutional exceptions on global projects: a process model

Abstract: This inductive study offers an examination of 23 cases in which informants from firms engaged in large-scale global projects reported unforeseen costs after failing to comprehend cognitive-cultural, normative, and/or regulative institutions in an unfamiliar host societal context. The study builds on the conceptual framework of institutional theory. The findings, which include propositions and a generic narrative model, contribute to theoretical knowledge of how institutional exceptions arise, how they are resolved, and how they typically involve three general phases: ignorance, sensemaking, and response. The findings also articulate the kinds of institutional transaction costs that an entrant incurs in each of the three phases, and the conditions that lead to the growth of these costs.

Managing the Risk of Learning: Psychological Safety in Work Teams

Abstract: This social psychological analysis explores themes of trust and collective learning in teams. I describe interpersonal risks that can inhibit collective learning, distinguish psychological safety from trust, and explain why psychological safety mitigates interpersonal risks and facilitates a structured learning process in teams. Examples from field studies in several organizational settings are used to support a new theoretical model and show how leaders can help their teams manage the risks of learning.

Knowledge Transfer in Project-Based Organizations: An Organizational Culture Perspective

Abstract: This conceptual paper investigates the process of knowledge transfer in project-based organizations from the perspective of organizational culture. The paper identifies obstacles to knowledge trans...

The Role of Culture as Driver of Quality Management and Performance: Infrastructure Versus Core Quality Practices*

Abstract: Increasingly, scholars and practitioners recognize the importance of understanding organizational culture when implementing operations management practices. This study investigates the relationships among organizational culture, infrastructure and core quality management practices, and manufacturing performance using two alternative models. Understanding these relationships is important because culture can provide insight into the context dependence of quality management practices and shed light on the mixed results of past studies concerning the link between quality management and performance. Analysis of manufacturing plants from six countries indicates that organizational culture has a stronger influence on infrastructure quality management practices than on core quality management practices, regardless of whether the plants are located in Eastern or Western countries. In addition, infrastructure quality management practices have a significant effect on manufacturing performance. These results contribute to the quality management literature by emphasizing the importance of accounting for culture when making decisions to implement quality management practices to achieve a performance advantage. Finally, we also contribute to the literature on the culture–performance linkage by finding support for a direct link between culture and manufacturing performance.

Regional diversification and firm performance

Abstract: This study examines how regional diversification affects firm performance. The results indicate that regional diversification has linear and curvilinear effects on firm performance. Regional diversification enhances firm performance linearly up to a certain threshold, and then its impact becomes negative. The results also show that firms of developed countries maximize their performance when they operate across a moderate number of developed regions and a strictly limited number of developing regions. This explains why internationalization by most international firms is regional rather than global.

Employee motivation: a powerful new model.

Abstract: Motivating employees begins with recognizing that to do their best work, people must be in an environment that meets their basic emotional drives to acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend. So say Nohria and Groysberg, of Harvard Business School, and Lee, of the Center for Research on Corporate Performance. Using the results of surveys they conducted with employees at a wide range of Fortune 500 and other companies, they developed a model for how to increase workplace motivation dramatically. The authors identify the organizational levers that companies and frontline managers have at their disposal as they try to meet workers' deep needs. Reward systems that truly value good performance fulfill the drive to acquire. The drive to bond is best met by a culture that promotes collaboration and openness. Jobs that are designed to be meaningful and challenging meet the need to comprehend. Processes for performance management and resource allocation that are fair, trustworthy, and transparent address the drive to defend. Equipped with real-world company examples, the authors articulate how to apply these levers in productive ways. That application should not be selective, they argue, because a holistic approach gets you more than a piecemeal one. By using all four levers simultaneously, and thereby tackling all four drives, organizations can improve motivation levels by leaps and bounds. For example, a company that falls in the 50th percentile on employee motivation improves only to the 56th by boosting performance on one drive, but way up to the 88th percentile by doing better on all four drives. That's a powerful gain in competitive advantage that any business would relish.

The effects of social capital and organizational innovativeness in different institutional contexts

Abstract: This paper examines how social capital and organizational innovativeness influence business performance through their separate, indirect, or interactive effects, and how these effects differ across the institutional contexts of a transition economy and a market economy. In line with institutional theory, our findings show that the effects of social capital are more extensive and probably more malignant in a transition economy than in a market economy. Furthermore, different types of organizational innovativeness, as corporate culture, can be cultivated by different forms of social capital in different institutional contexts. The implications for institutional theory and social capital theory, and the managerial implications, are discussed.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Secrets—Their Use and Abuse in Organizations

Abstract: Organizational scholars, and most social scientists for that matter, have rarely examined the use of the secret in controlling organizational behavior. On one hand, organizational secrets are necessary for the survival of the organization; on the other hand, organizational secrets are often used to hide unethical and illegal behavior. In this essay, the author examines the phenomenon of the secret as part of organizational life, from both a functional and dysfunctional perspective. Specifically, the author illustrates how from a functional point of view, secrets can legally protect organizational vulnerabilities, whereas from a dysfunctional point of view, secrets control organizational members and prevent the communication of knowledge to others. Both processes occur through the construction of social and cognitive boundaries as a form of social control.

Trust that binds: The impact of collective felt trust on organizational performance.

Abstract: The impact of employees' collective perceptions of being trusted by management was examined with a longitudinal study involving 88 retail stores. Drawing on the appropriateness framework (March, 1994; Weber, Kopelman, & Messick, 2004), the authors develop and test a model showing that when employees in an organization perceive they are trusted by management, increases in the presence of responsibility norms, as well as in the sales performance and customer service performance of the organization, are observed. Moreover, the relationship between perceptions of being trusted and sales performance is fully mediated by responsibility norms.

National culture and life insurance consumption

Abstract: This cross-disciplinary study examines the way national culture affects consumption patterns of life insurance across countries. Life insurance is a service that is abstract, complex, and focused on unsure future benefits. Because of the uncertainty and ambiguity inherent in the life insurance product, consumers are more likely to respond according to their cultural prescriptions. Our research hypotheses are tested empirically using Hofstede's cultural dimensions, and data from 1976–2001 across 41 countries. The findings show that individualism indeed has a significant, positive effect on life insurance consumption, whereas power distance and masculinity/femininity have significant, negative effects. The results are robust, even after controlling for economic, institutional and demographic determinants.

Factors influencing organizational knowledge transfer: implication for corporate performance

Abstract: Purpose – Whilst knowledge transfer is a major strategy for managing contemporary organizations the impact of the key factors influencing the rate of organization knowledge transfer is relatively unknown. As a contribution to this identified gap this paper aims to discuss the influence of particular organizational factors (IT systems, structured learning strategies, innovative organizational culture, and flexible structure and design) on knowledge transfer using a conceptual framework derived from the literature. The effect of both explicit and tacit knowledge transfer on innovative capabilities and organizational performance is to be examined.Design/methodology/approach – The survey study, conducted amongst 1,086 high‐tech companies, targeted chief executive officers), CFOs (chief financial officers), COOs (chief operation officers) or top managers/administrators as they provided more reliable environmental and organizational information.Findings – The study findings, based on a sample response rate of 1...

Faculty Mentoring Programs: Reenvisioning Rather Than Reinventing the Wheel:

Abstract: In this review, the authors trace the evolution of mentoring programs in the United States in business and academe, provide insight on the challenges associated with the study of mentoring, and identify the limited research-based studies of faculty mentoring programs that currently inform our understanding of this professional development practice in American higher education. The findings indicate that the sophistication of research has not advanced over the past decade. However, evidence does suggest that academe should be cautious in overgeneralizing the findings of studies conducted in corporate cultures. Although mentoring is recognized to be contextual, only recently have investigators considered the impact of organizational culture on the effectiveness of corporate mentoring programs. More rigorous investigation of this practice in higher education is warranted. As more studies point to the need to foster an employment culture that supports mentoring, understanding faculty mentoring programs within...