The state of total quality management: a review

As quality is seen as becoming a competitive mandate, many organizations are said to be embracing the practice of total quality management (TQM) as an improvement strategy. In this paper, we will be examining the extent to which quality management (QM) - TQM in particular-has been adopted by organizations. Just as there are companies that claim that QM is benefiting them, the concept is also increasingly being criticized for not bringing about the promised results, and in the following review, studies that have highlighted this disparity in opinions will be reviewed. Increasingly, doubts have been raised as to whether partial quality management - and not TQM - is being practised in organizations. This paper will also examine the difficulties companies may be faced with in their attempts to embrace TQM.     

The effects of technical and social conditions on workplace trust

This paper investigates the extent to which the technical and social contexts of organizations independently affect levels of workplace trust. We argue that, in an organizational context, trust is not just a relationship between an individual subject (the truster) and an object (the trustee) but is subject to effects from the conditions of the work relationship itself. We describe the organizational context as comprising both a technical system of production (where work gets done through the specification of tasks) and a social system of work (where problems of effort, compliance, conformity and motivation are managed). We analyse the relationship between trust and these two aspects of workplace context (technical and social systems). We also operationalize this in terms of differences between industries, occupational composition and human resource management practices. The model is tested using data drawn from the 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. The results confirm that differences in industry, occupational composition and HRM practices all impact on levels of workplace trust. We review these results in terms of their implications for future research into the problem of analysing variation in trust at both the workplace and individual levels.     

后发企业营销能力对颠覆性创新的影响机制

颠覆性创新逐渐成为后发企业的一种重要战略选择。基于动态能力理论,探讨后发企业由内而外和由外而内两种战略导向下营销能力对颠覆性创新的影响机制,构建营销能力以组织敏捷性为中介影响颠覆性创新的研究模型,进一步分析后发企业认知合法性的调节作用。以中小型科技创新企业为调研对象,并对191份有效问卷进行实证检验发现：后发企业由外而内营销能力对组织敏捷性具有显著正向影响,由内而外营销能力对组织敏捷性存在倒U型影响;组织敏捷性在由内而外和由外而内营销能力与颠覆性创新间发挥了部分中介作用;认知合法性正向调节了由外而内营销能力与组织敏捷性间的关系。     

组织学习对创业者社会资本与绩效的中介机制:以环境复杂性为调节变量

在经济转型背景下,企业面临的环境更复杂,基于此探讨创业者社会资本与绩效的作用机制具有一定的理论意义和实践指导价值。对安徽和江苏两地企业进行问卷调查并开展实证分析,结果表明,组织学习在创业者社会资本与企业绩效之间起完全中介作用,环境复杂性调节了这一关系,研究结果支持理论假设。据此,从政府和企业层面提出政策建议。研究结论进一步深化了组织学习的中介机制和企业能动应对环境的研究。     

外部研发对企业创新绩效的影响机制研究

已有研究表明,利用外部研发有助于增强企业创新能力,但对其作用机理的解释不够。从外部研发需通过内部组织发挥作用这一思路出发,以组织正式化和创新激励政策为调节变量,探讨了外部研发对企业创新绩效的影响机理,以中国549家企业为样本,运用SPSS20.0软件进行多元回归调节检验,对4者之间关系进行了实证研究。结果表明,外部研发对企业创新绩效有显著正向影响;创新激励政策正向调节外部研发与创新绩效之间的关系;组织正式化对外部研发与创新绩效的关系具有不同调节作用。与此同时,高激励能够减少组织正式化对于创新绩效的负向作用。该研究部分解释了外部研发对创新绩效的作用机理,对于促进企业创新活动,提升创新管理能力具有重要意义。     

Modernity/art and Marketing/aesthetics—a Note on the Social Aesthetics of Georg Simmel

This paper interrogates and contrasts representations of work and Utopia in two examples of popular culture. The examples are a sample of contemporary popular management books and a sample of work-related themes in the popular music of Bruce Springsteen. In comparing the two the paper examines how they both use utopian representations as a key element of their claims, yet do so in markedly different ways. It is argued that Springsteen uses a “voice from within” to explore the ambiguities and paradoxes that emerge from the gap between real experience and utopian desire. Conversely, popular management books tend to speak from a “voice from above” that actively suppress ambiguity and ignore power in order to reproduce the dominant ethos of contemporary capitalism. Thus while popular management provides uncritical support for its imaginary Utopia, Springsteen provides a compelling critique of the promises of economic freedom through capitalism—promises which management writers are so often complicit in (re)producing.     

Japanese Business in the Dutch Polder: The Experience of Cultural Differences in Asymmetric Power Relations

The article investigates the interrelation between organizational context and human agency in intercultural interactions. Arguing against the dominant approach in cross-cultural research that relies heavily on ‘objective’ dimension scores and therewith dissociates culture from actual intercultural encounters in specific contexts, it proposes that, under certain social–political conditions, organizational members may perceive or present particular cultural characteristics as especially significant. The article employs data from ethnographic materials gathered in the European head office of a Japanese multinational in the Netherlands. The implications of the findings are discussed with specific focus on the impact of the distribution of power and resources in an organizational setting on the salience of cultural differences in transnational cooperation.     

Organizational Culture in Cote d'Ivoire

ABSTRACT

This study examines the nature of organizational culture in the West African nation of Cote d'Ivoire, using the competing values model as a framework. We found that the most common types of corporate cultures derive from the organic-mechanistic dimension of culture. Most firms integrate clan, adhocracy, and hierarchy cultural values. Moreover, strongest link with performance were the integrative corporate cultures. The findings lend credence to the growing belief that a mix of both informal (clan) and formal (hierarchy) organizational values is a solution to improving the efficiency of institutional management in Africa. doi:10.1300/J156v08n01_06served.]     

Boundary Spanners' Satisfaction with Organizational Support Services

SUMMARY

Internal services (i.e., support services) are an important form of organizational support for external boundary spanners (e.g., salespeople, customer service representatives). Internal services such as information systems, market research, training, accounting, and facilities support are intended to allow boundary spanners to better serve the firm's customer. Little research, however, has addressed factors that influence a boundary spanner's satisfaction with such services. The research presented here offers insight into how internal communication by both managers and service providers impacts a boundary spanner's satisfaction with support services. Results indicate that service provider and manager communications are largely complementary and that satisfaction with service outcomes, rather than service quality, appears to have an enduring impact upon a boundary spanner's overall job satisfaction. Implications for future research are addressed.     

网络能力、主动组织遗忘与前摄式商业模式创新

基于社会网络和组织行为理论,以高新技术企业高管为调查对象,实证分析了企业网络能力与前摄式商业模式创新的关系,以及主动组织遗忘的中介作用与环境动态性的调节作用。结果发现：①网络关系管理能力和网络配置能力都对前摄式商业模式创新具有显著正向作用;②主动组织遗忘在网络关系管理能力与前摄式商业模式创新间具有完全中介作用,而在网络配置能力与前摄式商业模式创新中具有部分中介作用;③环境动态性正向调节网络关系管理能力与前摄式商业模式创新的关系,而在网络配置能力与前摄式商业模式创新间不存在调节作用。