MANAGERIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH COMPANY PERFORMANCE PART I

T his paper utilizes information collected on more than eighty British companies and on about 800 senior managers working in them. It is in two parts. Part I starts by outlining problems involved in identifying influences on company performance. It then describes the sources of data analysed in the paper. The remainder of Part I examines the view that certain managerial and organizational attributes will tend to raise levels of performance whatever the type of company and its operating circumstances. Another approach takes the view that what makes for good performance is contingent upon the type of company and the prevailing situation. This is examined against our data in Part II of the paper. Part II concludes with an assessment of present knowledge on the managerial and organizational concomitants of company performance and the practical implicatons to be drawn from it.     

ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

This article is primarily concerned with exploring the relationships between organizational climate and characteristics of organizational environments. Environmental characteristics include dependencies, competition and uncertainty. In addition, the relationship of climate and environments with dimensions of organizational structure and size are examined. Using data from 15 industrial organizations in Britain, the results have shown that different environmental characteristics have different associations with organizational climate. Also, the relationships between organizational environments and climate are not similar to those found between environments and structure. It is suggested that the creation of appropriate climates and structural design as responses to environmental pressures may be considered as complementary strategies in an attempt to maintain administrative control. The results, therefore, provide support for the suggestion that, in order to improve our understanding of the dynamics of organizational climate, characteristics of organizational environments should be incorporated into future research designs.     

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MANAGERIAL RATING OF SUPERVISORY PERFORMANCE

The performance of first-line supervisors normally has to be assessed without reference to objective indices. In practice, assessment is often carried out on the basis of ratings by immediate superiors. This paper examines ratings of supervisors' performance by their own managers in two Birmingham plants. A combination of factors together account for approaching half of the variation in these ratings. Only one of the predictive factors, the degree of personal flexibility expressed by supervisors, is independent of the managerial rater. Ratings of supervisory performance in fact appear to tell as much about the rater as they do about the person being rated. The findings of this study also suggest that the highly rated supervisor is the one who successfully protects his superior from the need to be involved with shopfloor activity and its disturbances.     

COMING TO TERMS WITH THE FIELD: UNDERSTANDING AND DOING ORGANIZATIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY*

This article argues that ethnography is inadequately understood and recognized within administration science as a method for studying organizational culture. Ethnographic analyses of organizational cultures are largely absent from the administration science literature, primarily because such work derives from a social constructionist understanding of science. The knowledge of organizations thus provided is interpretive, denying the subject—object dichotomy inherent in mainstream empiricist applications of social analysis. In addition, whereas ethnographic analysis and writing is an appropriate method for studying culture, organizational ethnography is substantially different from ethnographic studies of whole (and largely foreign) societies. Formal organizations are both partial and specialized in comparison to general societal organization. The conceptual and practical toolkit the organizational ethnographer brings to the field and the writing table is thus tailored to this particular research arena, and is outlined here.     

INTERPRETING ORGANIZATIONAL TEXTS

The mere observing of a thing is no use whatsoever. Observing turns into beholding, beholding into thinking, thinking into establishing connections, so that one may say that every attentive glance we cast on the world is an act of theorizing…     

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.     

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Qualitative and quantitative approaches to the study of organizations are not mutually exclusive. Yet, over the last several years they have tended to become as such. Also, the interest in qualitative research of organizations seems to be renewing in the recent years. The present paper looks at some of the currently popular qualitative tools of organizational research emphasizing the complementary nature of qualitative and quantitative approaches in most settings.