The uneasy alliance of organisational culture and equal opportunities for ethnic minority groups: A British example

Recent statistics suggest that there is a continuing disparity in labour market outcomes between ethnic minority (EM) groups and their White counterparts. However, although there is now an abundance of statistical and anecdotal evidence that speaks to the disadvantage of EM groups, there is less understanding of the intraorganisational dynamics that give rise to the outcomes that are reported. Drawing on postcolonial, cultural capital, and social capital theories, this article argues that the dominant approach through which organisational culture is conceptualised and the ways in which it is commonly managed may encourage labour market inequality and disadvantage for EM groups (defined as access to employment and having opportunities for promotion while in employment). The article explores three intraorganisational interventions that are common in culture management initiatives (leadership, selective recruitment, and internal promotion) to illustrate the arguments. The article concludes by discussing a series of implications and highlighting the pivotal role of the HR academy and practitioners in generating deeper insights and attention into the potential sources of EM disadvantage that are linked to culture and culture management.     

组织的社会化策略与员工离职倾向：一个组织进入过程的实证研究

组织社会化策略在新员工的组织进入过程中扮演重要的角色,对新入职员工的态度和行为有重要影响.本研究以一家家电企业上海总部的员工为对象,研究在中国环境下,组织社会化策略对新入职员工离职倾向的影响,发现制度化的组织社会化策略对新入职员工的离职倾向有显著的负面作用,而对老员工的离职倾向影响不显著.论文的结论对组织对新员工的组织进入过程的管理有借鉴意义.     

Identifying Organizational Subcultures: An Empirical Approach

Organizations have cultures, but parts of organizations may have distinct subcultures. The question of what is the proper level for a cultural analysis of an organization is generally handled intuitively. The organizational culture of a large Danish insurance company (3,400 employees) was measured, based on employees' answers to 18 key questions about work practices. Subsequently, scores were determined separately for 131 work groups, and these were subjected to a hierarchical cluster analysis, which produced a dendrogram. The dendrogram showed that within the company there were three distinct subcultures: a professional subculture, an administrative subculture, and a customer interface subculture. These fit a theoretical prediction by Jones (1983); the cultural rifts between the subcultures could be readily recognized in the company's practice, and had tangible consequences.     

Newcomer and Organizational Socialization Tactics: An Interactionist Perspective

During the past 15 years, organizational socialization research has focused on two issues. The first is the need for researchers to take an interactionist perspective on the process. The second has been both a conceptual and empirical concern with the pro-active socialization techniques employed by newcomers. The present article takes an interactionist perspective by presenting a model and propositions of how organization socialization tactics impact on and interact with newcomer pro-active socialization tactics to influence socialization outcomes.     

An Examination of Differences Between Organizational Legitimacy and Organizational Reputation*

abstract Organizational legitimacy and organizational reputation have similar antecedents, social construction processes and consequences. Nonetheless, an improved understanding of relationships between legitimacy and reputation requires that differences between the two be specified and clarified. Our examination of past research indicates that legitimacy emphasizes the social acceptance resulting from adherence to social norms and expectations whereas reputation emphasizes comparisons among organizations. We empirically examine two antecedents of the financial, regulatory, and public dimensions of legitimacy and reputation in a population of US commercial banks. We find that isomorphism improves legitimacy, but its effects on reputation depend on the bank's reputation. Moreover, higher financial performance increases reputation, but does not increase the legitimacy of high performing banks.     

Workforce Downsizing and Firm Performance: An Organizational Routine Perspective

While there is an extensive body of work on how organizational routines emerge and evolve over time, there is a scarcity of research on what happens when routines are disrupted or disbanded through the elimination of key individuals involved in them. This study is the first to theorize and empirically examine the relationship between the magnitude of workforce downsizing and firm performance applying an organizational routine perspective. Consistent with prior research on organizational routines, we posit that small‐scale downsizing leads to efficiency improvements without disrupting the existing routines. While larger routine disruptions occur in both medium‐ and large‐scale downsizing, we further argue and find that large‐scale downsizing tends to be more beneficial than medium‐scale downsizing. Building on prior research on routines, we reason that in medium‐scale downsizing employees try to salvage the impaired, partially functioning routines, while large‐scale downsizing requires a more fundamental rethinking and re‐creation of routines leading to more positive outcomes. Our study contributes to downsizing research through the application of the organizational routine perspective to explain the financial outcomes of downsizing. In doing so, we depart from the widely held assumption in the downsizing literature that the relationship between the magnitude of downsizing and firm performance is linear. Our study also extends prior research on organizational routines by highlighting the usefulness of conceiving routines as mindful accomplishments where the pressure to engage in path‐breaking cognitive effort may lead to better results than path‐dependent repairing of routines.     

Organizational culture and human resources in the environmental issue: a review of the literature

From the resourced-based view, the weakness of organizations' business culture and their shortcomings in human resources may be important obstacles in the process of environmental action. However, as the number of works on these questions is still limited, our aim is to integrate the classical literature concerning business culture and human resources and the small number of works concerning these aspects of environmental management. Several issues, such as managerial duties, the role of organizational culture in the formation of environmental internal stakeholders' awareness, organizational involvement in environmental issues, environmental training and concern, environmental motivation and incentives and implementation and organizational innovations, may be very important for thesuccess of companies' environmental strategy. However, it seems necessary to carry out studies in which qualitative and quantitative methodologies are applied.     

Organizational Task Environments: An Evaluation of Convergent and Discriminant Validity*

ABSTRACT The organizational task environment (OTE) construct is evaluated using a large, independent sample. A general measurement model for three latent variables, munificence, dynamism and complexity is constructed for confirmatory factor analysis. This model is then tested for both convergent and discriminant validity using a multitrait‐multimethod matrix approach. The OTE model in this study demonstrates convergent validity, but it does not exhibit discriminant validity. The results of this study do not provide support for one of the key components of construct validity. Measurement issues are discussed, as well as the implications of this study for the organizational theory and strategic management disciplines.     

变革型领导风格、组织即兴与组织创新的关系研究

在当前日益激烈的竞争环境下,创新是一个企业获取核心竞争力的关键因素,而变革型领导风格和组织即兴对组织创新成果产出有着重要的影响。本文在梳理国内外相关文献的基础上探讨了变革型领导风格和组织即兴对组织创新的作用机理与机制。本文采用问卷调查法,选取了我国长三角和珠三角150家科技型中小企业作为实证研究对象,共发放问卷260份,收到有效问卷198份,并采用多元回归分析的方法来分析和定量探讨变革型领导风格和组织即兴对组织创新的影响关系。研究结果表明:总体而言,变革型领导和组织即兴对组织创新具有正向的影响,同时组织即兴在变革型领导与组织创新之间起着部分中介作用。     

Organizational Transformation in Transition Economies: Resource-based and Organizational Learning Perspectives

ABSTRACT The capitalist and socialist societies of the twentieth century assigned firms different roles within their economic systems. Enterprises transforming from socialist to market economies thus face fundamental organizational restructuring. Many former state-owned firms in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe have failed at this task. These firms have pursued primarily defensive downsizing, rather than strategic restructuring, as a result of both internal and external constraints on restructuring strategies.
Building on the organizational learning and resource-based theories, we analyse strategies available to management in privatized, former state-owned enterprises in transition economies to restructure their organization. Both internal forces promoting or inhibiting the restructuring process, and external constraints arising in the transition context are examined. A model and testable propositions are developed that explain post-privatization performance. Implications of our research point to the ways in which firms should manage and develop their resource base to transform to competitive enterprises.     

Parental Leave: An Important Employee Right,But an Organizational Challenge

While parental leave is considered an important right for employees, its application in different work environments is not always straightforward. It is worthwhile to study the implementation in the workplace of the parental leave policy introduced in Québec, especially since this policy has unique characteristics not found anywhere else in North America. We chose to carry out our study in a metropolitan police service. Our results, both quantitative and qualitative, outline significant differences between the perception of all types of parental leave by respondents who have already taken it up and those who have not yet done so. Analysis of these differences brings to light the fact that formal support is not enough: management needs to make sure that employees really feel supported by their work environment when they taking up leave and that they do not feel that they have to pay for it in terms of career opportunities or advancement.     

Exploring the Conceptual Expansion within the Field of Organizational Behaviour: Organizational Climate and Organizational Culture

Developments within social and exact sciences take place because scientists engage in scientific practices that allow them to further expand and refine the scientific concepts within their scientific disciplines. There is disagreement among scientists as to what the essential practices are that allow scientific concepts within a scientific discipline to expand and evolve. One group looks at conceptual expansion as something that is being constrained by rational practices. Another group, however, suggests that conceptual expansion proceeds along the lines of ‘everything goes’. The goal of this paper is to test whether scientific concepts expand in a rational way within the field of organizational behaviour. We will use organizational climate and culture as examples. The essence of this study consists of two core concepts: one within organizational climate and one within organizational culture. It appears that several conceptual variations are added around these core concepts. The variations are constrained by rational scientific practices. In other terms, there is evidence that the field of organizational behaviour develops rationally     

Learning to Build a Car: An Empirical Investigation of Organizational Learning

abstract    This study provides a longitudinal empirical examination of the basic elements of Nonaka's (1994 ) dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. First, the data illustrate the notion that knowledge creation in organizations proceeds through an intertwined four-phase process: (1) socialization (tacit knowledge amplification); (2) externalization (tacit knowledge is transformed into explicit knowledge); (3) combination (explicit knowledge amplification); and (4) internalization (explicit knowledge is transformed into tacit knowledge). Second, the study extends Nonaka's theory by comparing the relative amount of intra-organizational knowledge transfer occurring during periods of product redesign with the amount of knowledge transfer occurring during steady-state periods. The questionnaire data suggest that the overall level of knowledge transfer is higher during periods of product redesign than it is during the steady state, whereas the interview data indicate that there were more mentions of knowledge transfer during the steady state. Third, the data suggest that there may be benefit in adding tacit error correction as a fifth phase in the learning cycle. This phase is characterized by a dual emphasis on externalization and internalization. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

面向复杂产品系统的研发团队组织有效性——探索性案例研究

本文采用探索型案例研究的方法,以4个复杂产品系统研发机构为案例,围绕着复杂产品系统的研发团队组织有效性进行了研究和分析。多案例研究发现：复杂产品系统的研发团队在组织形式方面呈现多层级、多类型的特征,而且这些特征与复杂产品系统自身的技术复杂程度、研制一体化程度、客户类型、产品交付周期等因素相关。通过案例分析和讨论,提出并构建了＂复杂产品系统的研发团队组织有效性模型＂,并对该理论模型中的测量变量给出了测量等级。     

Managing An Organizational Learning System By Aligning Stocks and Flows

This paper considers the relationship between the stocks and flows of learning across levels in an overall organizational learning system. A survey instrument based on the Strategic Learning Assessment Map (SLAM) was administered to 15 individuals representing senior‐, middle‐ and non‐management levels from each of 32 organizations, resulting in a total sample of 480 respondents. This research supports the premise that there is a positive relationship between the stocks of learning at all levels and business performance. Furthermore, the proposition that the misalignment of stocks and flows in an overall organizational learning system is negatively associated with business performance is also supported.     

Organizational culture as determinant of enterprise information systems use in police investigations

Police investigation units represent a knowledge-intensive and time-critical environment. The amount of information that detectives come into contact within the course of their work is astounding, and enterprise information systems are applied to support knowledge work. Organizational culture is found to have a significant influence on the extent of systems use. Four dimensions of occupational culture were applied in this research: team culture, planning culture, theoretical culture, and traditional culture. Only the extent of team culture was found to have a significant influence on the extent of systems use.     

The Determinants of Organizational Change and Structural Inertia: Technological and Organizational Factors

There are a growing body of theoretical work, wide anecdotal evidence, and a few large-scale empirical studies supporting the view that business firms quite rarely change their organizational structure, a phenomenon usually referred to in the literature as structural inertia. The present paper aims to analyze empirically the determinants of structural inertia and organizational change. As far as we know, this work constitutes the first attempt to directly address such issues through econometric estimates based on a large, longitudinal dataset at plant level. For this purpose, we consider changes of the organizational structure within a sample composed of 438 Italian manufacturing plants observed from 1975 to 1996. More precisely, we specify and test a duration model of the likelihood of an individual plant changing the number of hierarchical tiers after a spell r, provided that no change has occurred up to T. We also analyze the direction of change, distinguishing increases from decreases of the number of managerial layers. We consider a set of plant- and industry-specific explanatory variables that are expected to induce or oppose organizational change. The findings show that the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies and new human-resources management practices favors organizational change. On the contrary, the presence of sunk costs and the extent of influence activities figure prominently in explaining structural inertia of business organizations.