Current Topics in Management

Volume 8

Robert Golembiewski

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351523981
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This annual series presents research on the theory and practice of management. Its goal is to be truly comparative--in terms of the broad scope of management perspectives, in the broad-ranging locations of its research as well as its application, and in its comparisons of findings, methodologies, and operational definitions.Part I, "Organization Theory, Change, and Effectiveness, " presents a model of organizational congruency, discusses managing interdependence to enhance organizational effectiveness, outlines a theoretical framework that clarifies the means by which IT can affect organizations' economic activities, and suggests how organization development approach can help find more satisfying equilibria of forces and stakeholders in today's organizational cultures. Part II, "Behavior and Attitudes in Organizations, " considers values and leadership roles, discusses the role played by trust in interfirm collaboration, and explores the relationship between organizational climate and ethical decisions. Part III, "International and Cross-cultural Management, " looks at various issues of management including power bases of supervisors and subordinates' conflict management strategies and commitment, organizational commitment of the U.S. and Korean workers; superior-subordinate communication in a multicultural workforce in Macao, and cynicism toward change in the public sector in Australia. Part IV, "Human Resource Management, " deals with consequences of removing performance appraisal and merit pay; the entrepreneurial role to bring disconnected parties together for economic, social and/or political benefits; and relationships of downsizing to career perceptions and psychological contract. Part V, "Inference and Data in Management Research, " urges greater use of strong inference and discusses the strength of data and the interaction between data and inference in a procedure called strong inference.

1

INTRODUCTION

M. Afzalur Rahim

Robert T. Golembiewski

Kenneth D. Mackenzie

Completing the present volume of Current Topics in Management has become a year-opening exercise for its three editors, and that comes as a pleasant surprise. We conceived the series about ten years ago; we are now in 2003 completing the eighth volume; and the challenge has now definitely shifted from getting the series started, then to keeping it going, and now to improving the quality of the content of each succeeding volume.

How does this volume attempt to meet our resolve to do better as we move deeper into the series? Overall, volume 8 contains sixteen contributions divided into five sections, which are identified below and also constitute the basic structure of this Introduction. The editors attempt to frame the volume with chapters 1 and 16. The other chapters were the survivors of competitive reviews of ninety submissions to the ninth annual International Conference on Advances in Management held at Needham, Massachusetts, during July 2002. The competitive papers were evaluated by three reviewers, and several invited papers also were reviewed. During this review process, each chapter was revised two to three times to improve quality.

This Introduction is structured below in terms of the five major sections: (1) Organization Theory, Change, and Effectiveness, (2) Behavior and Attitudes in Organizations, (3) International and Cross-Cultural Management, (4) Human Resource Management, and (5) Inference and Data in Management Research. We provide a brief review of each chapter to help orient the readers.

Part I: Organization Theory, Change, and Effectiveness

This first section contains four chapters that deal with dynamic congruency, managing interdependence to enhance organizational effectiveness,the effects of information technology on organizations, and organization development approach to change.

Chapter 2: “Dynamic Congruency” by Kenneth Mackenzie

This chapter suggests that for decades serious problems bedeviled in defining organizational goals and especially in the assumption that organizational goals do indeed influence organizational behavior. To illustrate, the fit or congruence between major elements of an organization and its environments is now a staple of organizational design and contingency theories. Congruency is replacing goal-oriented approaches for two simple reasons: (1) the latter do not work; and (2) they do not reflect organizational realities. In sum, the historic approach remains too simple to match the requisite variety of the complexity of a real organization.

The subject of this chapter is a comprehensive model of organizational congruency, called dynamic congruency, which begins with a critique of goal-oriented approaches and argues for the need for a more robust replacement. This replacement is based on the concept of an organization as a commons with eight defining characteristics having the prime directive of ensuring the welfare of the commons. This is followed by a description of the real world phenomena that leads one to congruency thinking.

Dynamic congruency is based on the eight properties of a commons, and encompasses two main types of dynamic congruency: (1) organizational level congruency, and (2) dynamic bonding congruency. Models are presented for defining the two main types of dynamic bonding, with the first being the “ABCE model” for the congruency at the organizational-level which examines the congruency conditions between the environments (E), the strategic direction (A), the implementing organizational technologies (B), and organizational results (C). The second type is the “abce model” for the individual associate. The a in the abce model refers to the associate’s orientation to the organization; b refers to the position-level implementing means; c refers to the associate’s results; and e refers to the associate’s environment within the organization.

The organizational-level type has six strategic congruency conditions, seven implementing organizational technology congruency conditions, and four organizational results congruency conditions. These seventeen congruency conditions are listed below in a presumed order of cause–effect with the higher level congruency conditions affecting the lower ones.

Dynamic bonding congruency consists of three main parts. These include the bonding congruency between the individual associate and the organization; the bonding congruency between the individual associate and the position held in the organization; and the bonding between the position and the organization. Such notions permit great conceptual richness. There are three Associate/Organization bonding congruency conditions, fourteen Associate/Position bonding conditions, and four position/organizational bonding conditions. These twenty-one dynamic bonding congruency conditions are not presumed here in any special cause–effect ordering.

Beyond these components, chapter 2 examines how the organizational-level congruency and dynamic bonding congruency are interdependent, reflected here in eight propositions and seven principles involving dynamic congruency. These notions have proven valuable in designing organizations to become simultaneously more productive, adaptable, and even more efficiently adaptable. Chapter 2 also contains a brief discussion of how a new web-based system will improve opportunities to test and improve this model of dynamic congruency.

Chapter 3: “The Evaluation of Fit Between Teams and Organizational Context” by Corrie Pogson and Daniel Svyantek

Teams are a popular intervention to improve organizational effectiveness, but the paradox is that changing to a team-based work arrangement does not necessarily improve organizational effectiveness. Pogson and Svyantek propose that organizational, team, and individual level variables affect not only the use of teams and their effectiveness. It is important to consider interdependence of levels, then, especially the nature of interdependence. This chapter focuses on how interdependence affects the individuals comprising a team (or different teams) in an organization and the impact of interdependence on team performance and effectiveness.

The authors begin with a review of definitions of teams as well as criteria for team effectiveness, followed by a comprehensive discussion of interdependence that integrates two conceptualizations of interdependence. These are Thompson’s classic definition and Mackenzie’s extension of this idea. Finally, the chapter provides a discussion of how organizations may use interdependence to improve team effectiveness, as well as limitations of this paper.

The authors conclude that the job context, organizational context, human resource practices, and team effectiveness criteria must be aligned for a team to be effective, and these elements are linked through interdependence. The better the fit with these factors, the more effective a team will be. Because it is unlikely that all of these factors will be aligned at any given time, an organization may decide that a team that partially fits these contextual factors will add more value than no team at all.

Chapter 4: “The Organizational Impact of Information Technology: A Transaction Costs Perspective” by Adam Sutcliffe and William Lamb

This chapter suggests that despite the undeniable importance of information technology (IT) to modern organizations, our understanding of IT’s influence is still in its early development. Though often creatively executed and wide-ranging in content, past studies provide conflicting, sometimes contradictory insights. This chapter outlines a theoretical framework rooted in transaction cost economics (TCE) that clarifies the means by which IT can affect organizations’ economic activities. The authors include an extensive review of past research studies, and discuss important conceptual and empirical issues related to these studies.

Three main effects are proposed, including the effect of IT adoption on internal coordination costs, external coordination costs, and production costs. IT can reduce all three types of costs, but with dissimilar results in each case. While lowering external coordination costs facilitates market transactions (encouraging firms to be relatively smaller), lowering internal coordination costs and production costs encourages firms to integrate more activities into their hierarchies (helping them grow). Contradictory findings in past studies might be explained in part by these divergent forces, put directly.

Some disagreement among past studies may also be due to the relatively sparse attention given to moderating factors. Our framework offers three important examples of moderating effects: the influence of organizational structure, environmental uncertainty, and organizational strategy on each type of cost reduction. Complex structures, uncertain environments, and more complex, dynamic strategies are all said to increase the likelihood that IT will result in cost savings. While the proposed research stream is intentionally narrow, the authors hope that approaches similarly constrained by TCE or other theoretical perspectives, can help build a foundation for more expansive and integrative research in future years. IT is a difficult subject to study. Sustained attention to a single theoretical perspective should help us develop a less ambiguous understanding of this phenomenon.

Chapter 5: “Wake-Up Call for All Change Agents: I Hear the Train A’Comin,’ Again” by Robert Golembiewski

Several direct themes occupy this chapter. Basically, many forces reduced the early momentum that characterized Organization Development (OD) and the Quality of Working Life (QWL) approaches to planned change. Attention shifted to such market-driven models as “shareholder value,” but much evidence implies that its supporting ideation has been pushed too far in the last decade or so. This momentous ebb-and-flow, illustrated in substantial detail, suggests that a vigorous re-emphasis on OD and QWL approaches is appropriate. In short, this chapter urges, major opportunities may exist for a complete chain: thesis → antithesis → synthesis.

The argument for the complete chain takes a direct route. Thus, attention first goes to a broad movement in managerial and political literatures that reduced the clear relevance of OD approaches and methods. More recently, a major shift in the prevailing force field has occurred, and this shift helps explain why OD is being re-emphasized here and why it should be re-emphasized.

Clear limitations on this effort exist at the outset. Neither OD nor any other technique-cum-values can remedy all that ails various over exuberances in our organization life, of course. Nonetheless, this chapter seeks to suggest the relevance of one major way in which OD can help find more satisfying equilibria of forces and stakeholders in today’s organizational polities and economics. Intentionally, the present focus on interaction does not consider the two other modes of OD intervention encompassed by the labels “policy and procedures” and “structures,” but that shortfall could be remedied with available work, given sufficient space.

Part II: Behavior and Attitudes in Organizations

This section contains three chapters that deal with attitudes and behavior in contemporary organizations and their outcomes. Topics here deal with values and leadership roles, trust in interfirm alliances, and organizational climate and ethical decisions.

Chapter 6: “Values and Leadership Roles: Reflexive Versus Reflective Enactment” by Granger Macy

This chapter discusses leadership using a phenomenological perspective based in concepts of purpose, meaning, and personal responsibility. The linkage between behavior and values is explored as a struggle between role expectations and personal responsibility with leadership conceptualized as a complex struggle that can be explained as an enactment process. Leaders must cope with causal indeterminacy, that is, an unclear connection between means and ends. Leaders are those people called upon to act in causal indeterminacy.

The leader’s decision-making is explored and linked to situations, attributed meaning, and desired results. The reflexivity–reflectivity dichotomy is an important concept in understanding a leader’s actions. It focuses attention on a broader context of decision-making including not only situational factors but also the personal dispositions or preferences used by the leader in making decisions and taking action. Reflexive enactment could be considered one’s “normal” mode of consciousness based in an heuristic or a rule-based approach. Reflective enactment requires an active balancing and situation specific incorporation of both the internal personal considerations and the external social considerations as the leader seeks to achieve his or her own sense of anticipated value.

The reflective leader balances his or her social identity as a leader against social expectations and personal considerations. A reflective role orientation allows questioning, learning, and an active part in role construction in order to create meaning. The strength of the underlying values enacted in the role is hypothesized as an important factor in the development of trust. The chapter does not suggest a “correct” leadership style. Instead, an effective leadership style is a conscious process of integration of both the situation and one’s self-referent values. It is a process of negotiation. Although a leader’s style may be chosen, it must also be enhanced and refined through the consistent application and negotiation of their values across varying contexts and situations.

Chapter 7: “A Decision-Based Explanation of Trust in Interfirm Alliances” by Henry Adobor

This chapter builds on the common observation that trust has been identified as an important lubricant in economic exchange, and that it can support a field test of trust. Contemporary research continues to show that trust plays an important role in the success of interfirm collaboration. This chapter explores the role of the exchange structure, specifically the time horizon or how long partners are going to stay together in the relationship, the cooperation between the partners, and the future intentions of the partners to determine trust. A number of trust-related hypotheses were tested with data from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in the United States and Canada.

As predicted on the basis of early experiments, cooperation between the partners was positively associated with trust. This finding is consistent with strategic behavior in a trust-based regime, the partner’s future intentions were positively associated with trust in an ongoing relationship. The time horizon associated with the relationship was also significantly related to trust. Contrary to our predictions, the frequency of interactions did not have any significant association with trust. The implications of the study for theory, research and practice are offered.

Chapter 8: “The Effect of Organizational Climate on Ethical Decisions in Organizations” by Eva Tsahuridu

This chapter reports on an exploratory study on business ethics that examines the possible effects of organization climate on the ethical decisions made by its members. This study investigates the relationships of organization climate to the moral autonomy of its members.

Three main questions are addressed in the present study: The existence of differences in the ethical climate between organizations; the similarity in the ethical ideologies of the respondents; and the differences in the proposed resolutions to ethical dilemmas provided by the respondents from the three organizations. Significant differences were found in the caring, law and code, and rules dimensions of the ethical climates of three organizations. Significant differences on the personal ethical ideologies of the respondents were not found in three organizations. This indicates that the different ethical climates of the organizations do not necessarily affect the personal ethical values of their members, or that people with different ethical values are not necessarily selected, attracted, and remain in organizations that share their values.

Examining the responses to the ethical cases, in the first case more respondents from organization Alpha thought that one must do what one is asked of in organizations. In the second case, respondents from Alpha and Gamma were more likely to either make an unethical decision or refer the decision to the organization. In the third case more respondents from Alpha suggest that the decision should be made by the organization and not by the person who actually faces the dilemma.

The respondents from the three organizations examined in this research did not have different personal ethical ideologies, but they did resolve organizational ethical dilemmas differently. This supports the premise that the organization affects the means and ends of organizational decision-making and thus the moral autonomy of its members.

Part III: International and Cross-Cultural Management

This section contains four chapters that deal with cross-cultural research in organizations. Topics here deal with power bases, conflict management strategies, and organizational commitment of U.S. and Korean workers; superior–subordinate communication in a multicultural workforce in Macao, and cynicism toward change in the public sector in Australia.

Chapter 9: “Relationships of Leader Power to Subordinates’ Styles of Handling Conflict and Organizational Commitment: A Comparison Between the U.S. and Greece” by Afzalur Rahim, Clement Psenicka, Andreas Nicolopoulos, and David Antonioni

This study was designed to investigate the relationships of supervisory power bases to subordinates’ styles of handling conflict, which, in turn, is associated with their organizational commitment. This study tested a structural equations model of the French and Raven bases of supervisory power (coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, and referent), strategies of managing conflict with supervisor (problem solving and bargaining), and organizational commitment. The LISREL 8 analysis of questionnaire data from the U.S. (n = 245) and Greece (n = 244) indicates that coercive power was negatively associated with e...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1. Introduction
• Part I: Organization Theory, Change, and Effectiveness
• Part II: Behavior and Attitudes in Organizations
• Part III: International and Cross-Cultural Management
• Part IV: Human Resource Management
• Part V: Inference and Data in Management Research
• About the Contributors