Knowledge transformation in project networks: A speech act level cross‐boundary analysis

Researchers stress the importance of understanding knowledge transformation in projects. To explore how knowledge is transformed across organizational and specialization boundaries in project networks, we observed 22 knowledge transformation cases in two project networks. We found that new knowledge was created across specialization boundaries and that knowledge was altered across organizational boundaries. When both organizational and specialization boundaries were crossed, new knowledge was created. From these findings, we developed a set of propositions and formulated these into a model of knowledge transformation in project networks. This research contributes to a better understanding of knowledge transformation processes and outcomes in project networks.     

Specialization and Success: Evidence from Venture Capital

This paper examines how organizational structure affects behavior and outcomes, studying the performance of different types of venture capital organizations. We find a strong positive relationship between the degree of specialization by individual venture capitalists at a firm and its success. When the individual investment professionals are highly specialized themselves, the marginal effect of increasing overall firm specialization is much weaker. The poorer performance by generalists appears to be due to both an inefficient allocation of funding across industries and poor selection of investments within industries. Venture capital organizations with more experience tend to outperform those with less experience.     

Organizational structure characteristics’ influences on international purchasing performance in different purchasing locations

This study contributes to the understanding of how firms should structure their purchasing organization to improve their performance. While the research into structural characteristics’ impacts on purchasing performance is evolving, it is still incomplete, especially concerning the contingencies on different purchasing environments. Drawing on ideas from the organizational information processing and contingency approaches as well as the international business literature, the present study proposes a model in which three key organizational structure characteristics – centralization, standardization, and specialization – are associated with purchasing performance. This study posits that the relationships are contingent on a purchasing location’s formal and informal institutional context. Based on a sample of 195 German manufacturers, the model is empirically tested using structural equation modeling. The findings support the relevance of organizational structure characteristics for international purchasing and firm performance and they also support the notion that the effects are contingent on the purchasing location’s institutional context.     

Green Buildings and Organizational Changes in Italian Case Studies

International policies indicate the building sector as one of the most promising for sustainable development. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it has the greatest and cheapest potential for delivering significant greenhouse gas emission reduction. However, early experiences of sustainable construction have shown that both a social and a technical transition are required. Consequently, the changes in organizational aspects of firms involved in construction represent an urgent research theme. This paper investigates how inter‐firm relationships are changing as the sector moves towards green building. The organizational model between firms is described at the integration level with suppliers, the integration level between the general contractor and the design team, the degree of specialization of involved firms and their sustainability certifications. These features have been analyzed in case studies collecting data through interviews. This paper compares organizational aspects in traditional and green buildings. Results suggest that green buildings are associated with inter‐firm relationships of comakership with suppliers and with the design team, and with firms with a portfolio focused on sustainable projects. Finally, among the case studies, sustainability related certifications are scarcely related to the greenness level of the building. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

零售(连锁)企业管理标准化的理论与实证——来自沃尔玛的证据

零售(连锁)企业快速发展大多归因于规模、交易成本、专业化、品牌、统一经营、信息技术等要素。零售(连锁)企业由于简单重复劳动的生产特征,其基础在于管理标准化,管理标准化的实质是制度化的管理协调。管理标准化具有节约交易成本、强化组织学习能力、增加专用性投资和实现网络化、规模化的经济性质。本文建立了一个标准化经济的模型,通过沃尔玛的分店数量与销售收入、销售费用、管理费用之间的相关性检测,证明了管理标准化是零售(连锁)企业扩张的微观基础。     

PARTICIPATION AS A MEANS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CONTROL

Participation was considered as part of the structure of organization. For a sample of thirty-one organizations, representative participation was found to be related to the formalization whereas participation in the process of management (that is, participation which involves the individual directly) was found to be related directly to specialization and inversely to autonomy. These results are shown to be compatible with the view that participation represents an extension of organizational control over employees rather than the view that participation is a means of employee influence over upper level management. Organizational control is achieved through establishing a framework for participation which limits the issues that can be raised and the influence that can be exerted upwards.     

Open Source Software Production,Spontaneous Input,and Organizational Learning

This work shows that the modular organization of voluntary open source software (OSS) production, whereby programmers supply effort of their accord, capitalizes more on division than on specialization of labor. This is so because voluntary OSS production is characterized by an organizational learning process that dominates the individual one. Organizational learning reveals production choices that would otherwise remain unknown, thereby increasing productivity and indirectly reinforcing incentives to undertake collective problem solving.     

Together we share? Competitive and collaborative supplier interests in product development

While supplier involvement in product development projects can contribute with valuable knowledge and expertise, such involvement also poses organizational and managerial challenges, particularly if several rival suppliers are involved. This paper explores these challenges in the wind turbine industry, based on two interrelated Danish case studies. The analysis results in three propositions regarding how supplier rivalry and technological specialization influences roles, coordination patterns and communication between actors in distributed product development projects.     

基于企业不同发展阶段的组织结构状态演化规律研究

本文以揭示中国制造企业不同发展阶段的组织结构状态演化规律为研究主题,采用多案例比较分析方法,从组织结构的专门化、规范化、集权化三个状态维度,探索企业在从小到大的发展过程中,组织结构状态的具体变化。根据研究发现,在企业从单一企业初创、拓展到集团化发展、集团资本运营的过程中,企业的组织结构将从由生产经营类部门组成逐步发展到由战略规划、投资管理、人力财务、监督管理类部门组成,各类职能的规范化次序遵循由业务类到职能类到文化与战略投资类的规律,而在权力关系上,则遵循从高度集权到部分分权、以分权为主的规律。     

基于知识管理的高校辅导员研究型团队建设研究

高校辅导员队伍建设是加强和改进大学生思想政治教育工作中不可忽视的重要因素。基于知识管理的高校辅导员专业化团队建设,符合高校加强和改进大学生思想政治教育工作要求,有利于辅导员学习型组织创建和最大限度地发挥潜在能力、工作针对性和优势,提升队伍核心竞争力,充分体现知识管理在组织建设中的科学性与有效性,具有现实意义。     

校园跑腿APP系统分析与设计

一款好的APP应当有良好的管理信息系统,从而为信息管理质量提供保障,使各模块间的联系更加紧密。管理信息系统是一种信息管理的重要手段,为了达到组织信息管理和战略管理的融合,在当前社会的任何一个组织中管理信息系统越来越普及,其作用日益明显。论文主要针对校园跑腿APP的管理信息系统构成进行剖析,以求更好地将理论与实践相结合,不断提高系统效率和专业化程度。今后,应将先进的信息管理思想引入应用开发过程当中,以期在不久的将来将其应用于实践。     

PROFESSIONALIZATION AND BRITISH MANAGEMENT PRACTICEPROFESSIONALIZATION AND BRITISH MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: CASE EVIDENCE FROM MEDIUM-SIZED FIRMS IN TWO INDUSTRIAL SECTORS*

High levels of occupational specialization, problems of cross-functional integration and distinct bureaucratic tendencies have traditionally been seen as problems endemic to British management practice. Over the last decade, these problems are expected to have disappeared - or at least diminished - as major developments in management and organizational theory, as well as changing economic circumstances, have redirected management thinking towards ‘new’ ideas of flatter, simpler organizational structures, increased flexibility and decentralization, improvements in the quality of inter-functional relations and the like. Yet, despite these developments, there is comparatively little research that has investigated actual patterns of change within management and, in particular, what is happening in what could be regarded as the mainstream of British industry - namely, ‘ordinary’, medium-sized firms operating in ‘traditional’ industrial sectors. Moreover, rarely does such research focus upon the implications of management change for the strategies of professionalization adopted by competing specialist occupational groups within management. This paper sets out to help fill these gaps, by reporting the findings from case studies of four such firms, taking into account the particular contexts and historical circumstances that have helped shape any such change and drawing out the key influences on changed management practice.     

Signifying Williamson's Contribution to the Transaction Cost Approach: An Agent‐Based Simulation of Coasean Transaction Costs and Specialization

This article simulates Ronald Coase's transaction cost approach to firm organizing using agent‐based modelling, and contextualizes and contrasts it with a division‐of‐labour/specialization view of the firm that Coase challenged and sought to replace. The simulation tests the firm formation process based on the different implications of transaction costs and specialization as drivers of integration, focusing especially on Coase's rejection of specialization as an explanation for integration in the firm. The results show little support for, and suggest an important shortcoming to, Coase's transaction cost theory. My findings thereby indicate a potential relationship between the specialization theory and Williamson's Transaction Cost Economics, especially the latter's emphasis on co‐specialization through relationship‐specific investments, which helps shed light on TCE's significant influence in the theory of the firm literature.     

A TYPOLOGY OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING SYSTEMS

This paper synthesizes research on the organizational learning phenomenon. The concept of organizational learning systems is proposed and developed. Learning systems are the mechanisms by which learning is perpetuated and institutionalized in organizations. Findings from an exploratory study of organizational learning are used as a basis for developing a typology of organizational learning systems.     

THE PROCESS ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The concept of the PROCESS ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE (P.O.S.) represents an attempt to take current systems-oriented organizational theory one step further. The P.O.S. is viewed as an additional type of organizational structure, existing and operating in the organizational space, side by side and integratively with the formal and informal organizational structures. Its characteristics are identified and analyzed, and a multi-dimensional process framework designed to fit all organizations is outlined. The framework's contribution to our understanding of organizational structure and dynamics is indicated, as well as its potential usefulness as a tool for theory and practice.     

Technological capabilities,resilience capabilities and organizational effectiveness

Abstract

Previous research has defined resilience as a desirable characteristic for an organization and its members to possess when circumstances adversely change. Resilience is analysed through different perspectives as organizational responses to external threats, organizational reliability or employee strengths. However, the role of resilience in enhancing organizational effectiveness is not fully understood. Grounded in organizational ambidexterity, the current research tests the value of resilience capabilities developed through specific Human Resource Practices (HRPs) in the context of ever-changing market conditions. This paper argues that as well as technological capabilities, HRPs that build resilience within an organization are needed to successfully implement technological change. Resilience capabilities are a mediating factor between technological capabilities and organizational effectiveness, whilst environment dynamism and competitive intensity are moderators of this relationship. Using a primary sample of 205 manufacturing firms, a model is presented and tested using Structural Equation Modelling. The results reinforce the importance of HRPs in building resilience which helps firms to continuously adjust to change and subsequently enhance their organizational effectiveness.     

Developing Organizational Citizens: Creating Business Impact and Greater Human Capital

Organizational citizenship behavior, when part of a leadership development program, can have an impact on an organization's culture and can impact measurable, tangible business outcomes. Striving for increased organizational citizenship behaviors as a component of leadership development programs can be beneficial in realizing greater organizational human capital and business impact, such as job satisfaction, reduced turnover, organizational effectiveness, and increased customer satisfaction. The associated steps for weaving organizational citizenship into a leadership development program and measuring it are outlined.     

内部营销对酒店员工工作满意的影响研究——以组织承诺为中介变量

内部营销将员工视作企业的内部顾客,以员工工作满意为核心,通过营造各种体验来刺激企业员工反馈以形成一定程度的组织承诺。文章以员工组织承诺为中介变量,探讨酒店内部营销对员工组织承诺和员工工作满意影响,研究结果显示:酒店内部营销对员工组织承诺、员工组织承诺对员工工作满意、内部营销对员工工作满意均有正向影响,但酒店内部营销对组织承诺的五个构面影响不一致,组织承诺的五个构面对员工工作满意的影响也不一致。组织承诺在内部营销与员工工作满意中起部分中介作用。     

Stories from the Front‐line: How they Construct the Organization*

abstract Drawing on social constructionist theory this paper applies discourse analysis to ten narratives told by service delivery staff in one distribution network. The analysis looks at how the narratives construct the organization through their constructions of self (the narrator), customer and manufacturer and their constructions of the relationships linking these three sets of actors. The paper argues that the narrators construct the self either as an organizational customer or an organizational partner. The two constructions locate conflict either within the organization or at the customer–organizational boundary respectively. The implications of this are suggested. Contrasts between the manner in which organizational members construct the self as customer or partner and the construction of the organizational member in the internal customer literature are highlighted and briefly discussed.     

大型钢铁企业组织结构的规模效率分析

首先,分析了我国钢铁行业发展的特点,认为产品结构不够完善、行业集中度较低以及企业规模偏小是我国钢铁企业面临的主要问题,而规模是造成上述现状的根本原因;国际钢铁业已进入由大企业集团主宰的国际市场化阶段,我国钢铁企业需要扩大规模,增加在国际竞争中的话语权。其次。围绕企业的规模运作,运用经济学模型对产业链的大规模企业生产模式进行了分析,从理论视角论证了企业扩大规模的动机以及规模优势产生的机制和所需条件。大型组织结构优势产生的机制在于,通过生产及运营要素的优化整合实现合理分工协作,从而降低运营成本,提高企业的竞争力。此外,对钢铁企业采用的组织结构特点和运营模式进行了探讨,一元式的组织结构能够发挥职能分工所带来的效率,然而高度的集权特征不适用于超大规模企业的管理决策。控股公司和事业部结构体现了规模化后组织结构由集权向分权转化的趋势,但在运行中面临的效率障碍在于无法消除部门机会主义．分权后权威统筹机构的缺位以及传统的规模企业应当分权的逻辑需要企业重新思考。在上述分析基础上提出．钢铁企业在实现形式上的规模化后,需要考虑技术任务特征、信息处理以及权力的分化整合之间的平衡,构造合理的控制机制以保证规模优势的实现。