Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual

This paper takes the regulation of identity as a focus for examining organizational control. It considers how employees are enjoined to develop self-images and work orientations that are deemed congruent with managerially defined objectives. This focus on identity extends and deepens themes developed within other analyses of normative control. Empirical materials are deployed to illustrate how managerial intervention operates, more or less intentionally and in/effectively, to influence employees' self-constructions in terms of coherence, distinctiveness and commitment. The processual nature of such control is emphasized, arguing that it exists in tension with other intra and extra-organizational claims upon employees' sense of identity in a way that can open a space for forms of micro-emancipation.     

Understanding Top Management and Organizational Change Through Demographic and Processual Analysis*

abstract Top management theory has been strongly influenced by demographic studies of top management teams (TMTs), but not by research into organizational adaptation to conditions of extreme institutional turbulence. This article analyses the transformation of a post‐socialist enterprise through a combination of demographic and processual methods to develop an enriched account of the micro‐processes through which top management constructed organizational change. Adding layers of narrative data and processual explanation directly addresses the well rehearsed problems in demographic TMT studies. From the findings, we propose a set of theoretical arguments that conceptualizes top management in terms of management regimes, to which TMTs are politically tied and through which they seek to realize their values and strategies in organizational outcomes.     

Discourse and Audience: Organizational Change as Multi-Story Process

abstract    This article is critical of monological research accounts that fail to accommodate polyvocal narratives of organizational change, calling for more fully informed case studies that combine elements of a narrative approach with processual/contextual analysis. We illustrate how contrasting versions of the same change event by different stakeholders and by the same stakeholder for different audiences, raise theoretical and methodological issues in the analysis and presentation of data on organizational change. Our argument is that research narratives (that seek to develop understanding of change processes) are necessarily selective and sieved through particular discourses that represent different ways of engaging in research. They are authored in a particular genre and written to influence target audiences who become active co-creators of meaning. Organizational change viewed from this perspective is a multi-story process, in which theoretical accounts and guides to practice are authored consistent with pre-selected narrative styles. These, in turn, are purposefully chosen to influence target audiences, but this subjective crafting is often hidden behind a cloak of putative objectivity in the written and oral presentations of academic research findings.     

完善科研人员自律机制的探索

自律机制的建立是在他律制度完善和推动下进行的,通过经费管理的系统完善和有效运转来保证科研人员自身的自律和素质,因而可以说科研经费的管理制度与科研人员的自律机制是相辅相成,相互作用的。科研经费管理机制的自律漏洞,通过完善科研经费管理机制的组织保障,科研经费管理机制的制度保证,科研经费预算管理机制来完善科研人员科研经费自律管理机制。     

Inductive reasoning: The promise of big data

Theory is a cornerstone of organizational research. Recently, however, some organizational scientists have argued that there is an overemphasis on theory development in our prominent publication outlets, calling for a rejuvenation of empirically driven research. To bring empirical research back to the forefront, the organizational sciences need a shock to the system: the advent of big data analytics in organizations provides just such a shock. The purpose of the following paper is to advocate for big data analytics as tools that can be used to support inductive research methods in the organizational sciences. We then highlight areas of organizational research and practice in which big data analytics can have an impact, provide readers with a tempered perspective on big data in the organizational sciences, and suggest a number of ways that researchers, reviewers, and editors can prepare themselves for the introduction of big data research in the organizational sciences.     

Towards developing a methodology for doing qualitative research: The dynamic-comparative case study method

This discussion integrates key concepts from case research methodology, theory development, the configurational approach to organizations, and actual research experience, in order to suggest a “systematic process” for doing qualitative research, described as the Dynamic-Comparative Case Study Method (D-CCSM). It is believed that D-CCSM is especially appropriate for researchers who: (1) are interested in studying new topical areas in organizations; (2) want to develop testable, midrange, theory from the processual analysis of case studies; (3) would like to replicate their studies in multiple research settings; and (4) have limited research resources. Insights and suggestions for using the D-CCSM approach are also included.     

Time precedence in the relationship between organizational climate and organizational performance: a cross-lagged study at the business unit level

This article presents a two-wave cross-lagged study (average interval of two years) on time precedence in the relationship between organizational climate and organizational performance in 171 branches of a financial services organization in the Netherlands. It is argued that four HR-induced organizational climate dimensions influence organizational performance. Additionally, it was also hypothesized that high organizational performance influences the four organizational climate dimensions through investments in HR practices and through signalling effects. Finally, it was reasoned that possibly both processes are present simultaneously. Results of testing a series of competing models in AMOS showed that organizational climate at time point 1 influenced organizational performance at time point 2 rather than the reverse, or both processes being present simultaneously.     

Organizational political climate: Shared perceptions about the building and use of power bases

Organizational politics continues to be acknowledged as a real and important dimension of organizational functioning. Most research has focused on ‘perceptions of organizational politics’ where organizational politics is conceptualized negatively and its relationship with detrimental individual and organizational outcomes is demonstrated. We argue that organizational politics can be conceptualized as a multi-dimensional climate level construct and that ‘organizational political climate’ can be both functional and dysfunctional. We propose and explain a four dimensional model of organizational political climate informed by existing theoretical perspectives on power bases. The four key dimensions are represented by the building and use of personal power, positional power, connection power and informational power. We also highlight the need for a comprehensive measure of organizational political climate which is underpinned by the four dimensions and which enables an assessment of the extent to which the organizational political climate is functional and/or dysfunctional. In summary, we recommend that HR practitioners seek to understand the functional and dysfunctional dimensions of organizational political climate and implement practices to foster a positive political climate. We overview practical implications for HR managers and suggest a future research agenda.     

Time in the New Economy: The Impact of the Interaction of Individual and Structural Temporalities on Job Satisfaction

The 24/7 economy creates new organizational temporalities including a temporal structure called layered‐task time (LTT), characterized by greater simultaneity, fragmentation, contamination, and constraint. This paper develops a measure of LTT, and examines the relationship between its components and job satisfaction as moderated by an individual's polychronicity, or propensity for multitasking. A total of 306 employees from various jobs, organizations, and industries were surveyed. The LTT measures provide promising initial evidence of reliability and content validity. We also find that those who are more polychronic are more satisfied in environments characterized by a need for multitasking and using dissimilar skills, as well as organizational temporal constraint and unpredictable shifts in temporal boundaries. Finally, we discuss implications for research on temporal structures in the workplace.     

企业组织沉默对组织承诺影响的实证研究

以组织沉默作为组织承诺的前因变量、组织承诺作为组织沉默的后果变量来构建组织沉默各维度对组织承诺各维度影响的结构方程模型,在运用结构方程模型的分析方法并运用相关软件处理调查研究数据的基础上,从实证的视角检验了组织沉默各维度对组织承诺各维度的负向影响效应。     

Internal organization and enterprise performance: Some UK evidence

The research reported in this paper is based upon the theoretical work of O. E. Williamson (1970, 1975) concerning the impact of internal organizational form upon business behaviour and enterprise financial performance. A sample of 144 large UK firms are classified according to the organizational classification scheme developed by Williamson and Bhargava (1972). An empirical investigation is then undertaken which lests for the impact of organisational form upon financial performance. The results are broadly consistent with both theoretical predictions and the findings of other researchers in so far as the pure M-form (multidivisional) structure is found to be associated with superior profitability. However, the evidence also suggests that the frequency of occurrence of pure M-form firms as a subset of all multidivisions may be rather lower than previously thought, and the closeness of the multidivisional/pure M-form link is questioned.     

Commitment and turnover intention in the UAE oil industry

This paper aims to explore the links between two components of commitment – affective and continuance – and employees' intention to stay/quit in the oil industry. A self-administered questionnaire was used in order to collect study data from 600 employees representing three levels of management. Eight hypotheses were developed such as there is no significant relationship between affective commitment and intention to quit the organization, there is no significant relationship between affective commitment and intention to stay with the organization, there is no significant relationship between personal variables and organizational commitment and its dimensions, and there is no significant relationship between job-related variables and organizational commitment and its dimensions. These hypotheses were examined using various tests drawn from the SPSS program, for example, correlations, factor analysis and multiple regressions. Findings confirmed the multidimensionality nature of commitment. A significant negative relationship between organizational commitment and intention to quit was also reported. The results related to demographic factors and commitment show some evidences that support these links. The implications of the findings for both practitioners and researchers are discussed in the paper with some guidelines for future research in this field.     

The predictability of normative organizational commitment for turnover in Chinese companies: a cultural perspective

While many researchers have shown that affective organizational commitment is the most valuable predicator for organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction, the value of normative organizational commitment in predicting working behaviour needs to be clarified. Additionally, indices of organizational outcomes used in prior studies were almost always the employees' perceptions of and attitudes towards organizations, rather than actual behaviour. The current research aims to investigate the impact of normative organizational commitment on an employee's turnover, rather than attitudes or perceptions. A total of 242 employees completed questionnaires including the Organizational Commitment Scale, the Organizational Satisfaction Scale, and the Idiocentrism and Allocentrism Scale, and reported the number of organizations they had worked for. Regression analysis revealed that the affective commitment was an important predicator for organizational satisfaction (p < .01) whereas the normative commitment was the most important predicator for employees' job-changing behaviour (p < .01). Idiocentrism and allocentrism had a slight moderating effect upon these relationships. Thus, the different dimensions of organizational commitments have different functions, and more attention should be paid to normative commitment than previously thought. These findings underline the importance of the normative commitment for predicating organizational behaviour, especially in collectivistic contexts. The implications for management are also discussed.     

The Impact of Board Structure on Corporate Social Responsibility: A Temporal View

Time plays an important role in corporate social responsibility (CSR) decisions. In the context of time and the boardroom, the consideration of CSR can be affected by board structure. For example, because of considerable short‐term pressures, this study posits that insiders on the board are less likely to prioritize the longer‐term time horizons needed to affect CSR. Following this perspective, a hypothesis is put forth that insiders generally have temporal orientations that are more short term in nature and that they therefore have a negative effect on CSR. A study of 300 of Australia's largest firms confirmed this hypothesis. However, when inside director compensation linked to environmental and social metrics and inside director CSR training are introduced as moderating variables, their interactive effects lead to positive results: both positively moderate the negative insider–CSR relationship in environmental and social dimensions. The study contributes to a temporal view of boards of directors, as well as to corporate governance and CSR. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

ORGANIZATIONAL ADAPTATION: SOME IMPLICATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL ECOLOGY FOR STRATEGIC CHOICE[1]

This article identifies a correspondence between the organizational ecology and strategic choice perspectives on organizational strategy in their classifications of strategic types. Using this correspondence as the point of departure, implications of organizational ecology for strategic choice are examined with respect to how environmental pressures constrain strategic choice, why some strategic orientations are more successful than others in different environmental conditions, and how and why the mix of strategic types in an industry changes over time.     

In at the deep end: Conducting processual research on organisational change

This article provides a series of reflections on the practice of carrying out processual research on organisational change. At a broad level, some of the main tasks associated with conducting company case studies are described and the benefits of this approach for dealing with complex change data are outlined. At a more specific level, the article addresses three main areas tied to the actual “doing” of processual research. First, the notion of tacit knowledge and “getting your hands dirty” by engaging in ongoing in-depth fieldwork. Second, the design and implementation of a longitudinal case study research programme. Third, the advantages and concerns of combining a range of different data collecting techniques in carrying out processual studies. Overall, the main intention is to provide some useful reflections and practical insights, as well as providing something of the flavour of carrying out this type of research.     

Logics,Leaders, Lab Coats: A Multi‐Level Study on How Institutional Logics are Linked to Entrepreneurial Intentions in Academia

Situated in the context of academia, this study integrates ideas from institutional theory, person‐environment fit theory and leadership research to conceptualize and examine the cross‐level link between the organizational‐level institutional logic of research commercialization and the entrepreneurial intentions of researchers. Multi‐level analyses based on a sample of 254 researchers working for 85 research group leaders in 49 German research institutes reveal that two distinct attributes of research group leaders – that is, their track records of entrepreneurial behaviour and their entrepreneurial intentions – play a significant role in transmitting the organizational‐level logic to the individual level. We also observe a complementary interaction between organizational‐level commercialization logic and the entrepreneurial track records of leaders. We discuss how these findings advance our understanding of science commercialization through academic entrepreneurship and how they inform institutional theory and theory development in other domains of entrepreneurship research.     

The relationship between trust,HRM practices and firm performance

Numerous researchers have begun to examine organizational trust and its influence on the workforce. However, little empirical research has focused on the conditions that engender organizational trust – those that make managers more willing to accept the vulnerability inherent in certain managerial actions that are part of human resource management. This study evaluates the trust mechanism and the way HRM practices mediate its impact on improving organizational performance. One hundred and four HR managers from the leading companies in the Israeli industrial, service and trade sectors, based on sales and operating revenue, completed questionnaires. Overall, we found that HR managers are more likely to offer training and shape the internal promotion system when trust is high. In addition, we found that firms exhibited higher organizational performance when trust is high. The paper also presents some of the model's implications.     

CAREER ORIENTATIONS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND COMPANIES: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF WEST GERMAN,BRITISH AND US INDUSTRIAL R&D PROFESSIONALS[1]

This study examined dimensions and levels of career orientations and their correlation with work-related outcome criteria among industrial R&D professionals. Questionnaire data were obtained in 11 West German, 4 British, and 2 US R&D units of large industrial companies. Respondents were 729 West German, 217 British, and 124 US scientists and engineers. Managerial career orientation and professional/scientific career orientation emerged from factor and scale analyses as two independent orientation dimensions with similar meaning across the three countries and the 17 R&D organizations. Results indicated significant cross-country differences in levels of professional/scientific career orientation, but not in levels of managerial career orientation. Significant differences in levels of both orientation dimensions were detected between R&D units within countries. Distinctive characteristics of West German firms employing R&D staff with particularly strong professional/scientific or managerial career orientations are suggested. Managerial and professional/scientific career orientations were found to be differentially related to objective indicators and self-ratings of research performance. Directions for future research and managerial implications for selecting and rewarding R&D employees with different patterns of career orientations are discussed.