Organizational Collaboration

Themes and Issues

MariaLaura Di Domenico, Siv Vangen, Nik Winchester, Dev Kumar Boojihawon, Jill Mordaunt

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781134723409
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Many organizations today operate across boundaries - both internal and external to the organization. Exploring concepts and theories about different organizational, inter-organizational and international contexts, this student reader aids understanding of the individual's experience of working within and across such boundaries. The book adopts a critical approach to individual experience and highlights the complexities inherent in these different layers and levels of organizing.

Comprising a collection of key articles and extracts presented in a readable accessible way, this book also features an introductory chapter which provides an overall critique of the book. Each part features a brief introduction before analyzing the following key themes:

• 
  
  

• managing aims

• 
  
  

• power and politics

• 
  
  

• cultural diversity

• 
  
  

• international management perspectives

• 
  
  

• the darker side of collaborative arrangements

Some of the readings will specifically address collaboration 'head on' whilst others will provide an important context or highlight significant theoretical and practical issues that are considered relevant and interesting within the framework of the themes presented. As such, this book differs from existing titles as it sits bestride collaboration and organizational behaviour / theory in order to inform learning of exchange relationships on inter-personal, intra-organizational, and inter-organizational levels. The articles included are selected as critical in approach, straddling and addressing the central contexts described above, and highlighting the experience-centred nature of learning that can be derived from the content presented.

This comprehensive reference will be useful supplementary reading for organizational behaviour courses as well as core reading for those students undertaking research on collaboration.

PART I
Managing aims

Introduction

Siv Vangen

The management of aims, which is the topic of this section, is one of the most important and controversial topics in the study of organizations. Earlier research – which tended to use the term goals rather than aims – focused on whether organizations have goals and whether they can be perceived as goal attaining devices. Without reifying the organization as a single purposeful actor, our starting point here is that goals are conceived of by individuals but are also conceptualized as belonging to organizations, and that organizations are mechanisms through which goals that are beyond the reach of individuals acting on their own can be pursued. In a similar vein, we posit that inter-organizational collaboration provides a mechanism by which organizations seek Collaborative Advantage, that is, they jointly seek the achievement of aims that none of them could achieve on their own.

One principle for success that runs through both the literature on organizational behaviour and inter-organizational relations is that aims must be clear, congruent and agreed. However, longstanding debates in the studies of organizations show that it is likely to be problematic in practice. Earlier research focusing on the organizational context addressed a range of different issues and revealed some very important challenges associated with the development and agreement of aims. Yet the field of study became ‘intellectually exhausted’ and the insights have hardly been considered holistically. Certainly, the process of developing and agreeing aims in collaborations has never been fully problematized.

The principle of congruent aims in collaborative contexts is, in any event, somewhat paradoxical. The heterogeneity of organizations’ different resources, experiences and expertise that provides the very basis for Collaborative Advantage actually militates against operationalizing the principle because that very heterogeneity leads organizations to seek divergent, and sometimes contradictory benefits from a relationship. The four articles chosen for this section will provide a flavour of the challenges and controversies pertaining to the management of divergent aims in and across organizations.

The first article provides an argument in favour of goal setting; it highlights the importance of setting appropriate goals, the role of goals in motivating employees’ behaviour and the relationship between goals and performance. It is one of many articles written by Gary Latham and colleagues who have devoted more than four decades to the generation of a “theory on goal setting”. The authors of the theory are industrial-organizational psychologists and the gist of their argument is that goal setting, when done properly, will ensure employee motivation, commitment and performance in organizations. Provided that leaders are clear that their words, actions, performance measurements and rewards are consistent with the organization’s goals, then goal setting is presented as something that is relatively unproblematic. However, the goal setting theory has also been subjected to criticism primarily because it does not fully address the complexity of goals in the practice of managing and organizing. Thus, when considered from the perspective of management and organization science, rather than psychology, the goal setting theory is found wanting. The gist of the criticism is the subject of the second article.

In this, Lisa Ordôñez and co-authors argue that the beneficial effects of goal setting have been overstated and that contrary to the goal setting theory, there are a number of systematic, harmful, side effects of goal setting that have been largely ignored. They highlight the difficulties associated with setting goals and argue that arriving at appropriate, specific, timely goals can be so problematic that negative – rather than positive – behaviours follow. Specifically, they suggest that challenging goals can result in unnecessary risk taking and unethical behaviour and have negative psychological consequences for the very people that they intend to motivate. While some of the problems they highlight have been addressed by the authors of the goal setting theory, the wider literature on goals in organizations would support their argument that goal setting is highly problematic and therefore worth making. In particular, in terms of the theme of collaboration that runs through this book, it is important to note their observation that goals can hinder cooperation and collaborative behaviour.

The next two articles look at goals in the context of international collaborations. In the first of these, Geert Hofstede and co-authors offer an account of the differences between goals pursued by leaders in different countries. They argue that if people and operations from different countries are to be successfully integrated, the goals pursued must be clear to everyone involved. Lack of such clarity, they argue, is a fundamental reason why international collaborations fail. Differences in business goals may result from different traditions of corporate governance, differences in business ethics and differences in individual entrepreneurs’ values and behaviours. The article investigates whether such effects of national culture still apply or whether as a result of globalization, business people in different countries are starting to embrace similar goals. They conclude that goals are influenced by national cultures and that therefore there are no globally universal business goals. For this reason, they argue, organizations should be careful about entering into cross-national collaborations and be mindful of the risks and costs associated with it.

The fourth and final article by Taras Gagalyuk and Jon Hanf offers a largely positive narrative on the management of goals, highlighting the importance of goal consensus while at the same time alluding to a range of serious managerial tensions. The text derives from research on supply chains and is essentially about the role of “firm” and “network” level goals in managing cooperation and coordination between the supply chain actors. It is argued that a focal actor needs to take a strategic approach to the development of network goals which accounts for the objectives of all the chain actors and is agreed by them. However, a range of tensions inherent in such an approach is also evident: A lead organization both helps and hinders consensus on network level goals, the pursuit of collaborative advantage runs the risk of inter-firm rivalry, compatibility of goals depends on cultural, organizational and strategic fit between partners and finally, while goal incompatibility may necessitate the use of power processes, hierarchical authority can deepen such incompatibilities.

The four articles were selected from a range of possible alternatives because they offer different types of insight pertaining to the principle that organizations and collaborations must have clear, congruent and agreed aims. Taken together they show some important controversies and debates pertaining to the management of aims. They illustrate a key tension in that aims are necessary for individuals and organizations to coordinate their joint actions yet at the same time, focus on aims can cause conflict and hinder cooperative and collaborative behaviour.

2
GOAL SETTING

A five-step approach to behavior change

Gary Latham

Source: Organizational Dynamics, 2003, 32 (3), pp. 309–18.

Superordinate goal

A superordinate goal captures the “heart” because it focuses primarily on affect; it appeals to emotion. In doing so, a superordinate goal gives people a cause they can rally around. The purpose of a superordinate or overarching goal is to capture the imagination, and hence to galvanize people to take action. A superordinate goal reflects the power of language expressed in ways that convey to people something they can believe in. Hence a superordinate goal facilitates self-management. It is a “call to arms.”

Winston Churchill was a leader in the political arena who would earn an A from psychologists for developing a superordinate goal that appeals to the “heart.” When bombs were raining down with devastating effects on London, when flying for the Royal Air force (RAF) was tantamount to suicide because British aeroplanes were inferior to those made in Germany, when England was nearing defeat, Churchill ignited the “will” of the English with such statements as: “… if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: ‘This was their finest hour.’ ’’ With regard to the RAF, Churchill said that “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” And in the blackest hour of World War II, he intoned, “… we shall never surrender.”

Another exemplary figure in the political arena was Martin Luther King. Whether he or she resides in Europe or Asia, North or South America, Africa or Australia, everyone recognizes: “I have a dream.” Similarly, John F. Kennedy captured the hearts of many Americans in establishing a superordinate goal during his inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” Pierre Trudeau, when Prime Minister of Canada, set the overarching goal for Canadians to create “the just society.”

In the private sector, Walt Disney was irritated by the fact that children under five years old frequ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halft Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of tables and figures
• Acknowledgements
• Editorial Acknowledgements
• General Introduction
• Part I Managing aims
• Part II Power and politics
• Part III Cultural diversity
• Part IV International management perspectives
• Part V The darker side of collaborative arrangements
• Index