Becoming A Leader In A Complex Organization

For a new leader, the process of entering and establishing a position of leadership in a complex organization presents a major challenge. This challenge seems particularly acute when authority, goals and technology are ambiguous, as in many professional service organizations. In this paper, we integrate ideas from the literature on socialization and role theory as well as that on executive succession processes to view new leader integration as a mutual adjustment process between two trajectories – that of the organization and that of the new leader. It is argued that this may lead to four possible types of integration outcomes: assimilation, transformation, accommodation and parallelism. Drawing on a case study of a large hospital, the paper identifies several mechanisms that can be mobilized by the new leader to enhance his or her room for manœuvre as the integration process evolves. The mechanisms can be classified as collaborative or affirmative, with each type having different risks and advantages. The case analysis further reveals that leader integration processes may be differentiated between different activity domains, dynamic over time (as the use of one type of integration approach alters the potential for another later), and interactive across different activity domains (as events in one part of the organization have consequences for those occurring in another).     

In search of rationality: the purposes behind the use of formal analysis in organizations.

This paper describes the results of a study that examines how formal analysis is actually used in practice in three different organizations. Four main groups of purposes for formal analysis--information, communication, direction and control, and symbolic purposes--are identified and related to the nature of the social and hierarchical relationships between those who initiate analysis, those who do it, and those who receive it. It is concluded that, far from being antithetical as often assumed, formal analysis and social interaction are inextricably linked in organizational decision making and that different structural configurations may generate different patterns of use of analysis.     

Studying processes in and around networks

The industrial marketing literature on business networks has drawn attention to the importance and yet the complexities of managing in a context of fluid and dynamic inter-organizational relationships. This context also poses significant challenges to researchers who wish to better understand the evolution of networks and the processes occurring in and around them in order to generate valuable theoretical insight and actionable knowledge for practitioners. After reviewing the nature of process research, this paper considers the key methodological choices and tradeoffs faced by process researchers interested in studying network dynamics. These choices and tradeoffs are illustrated by drawing on a series of exemplary process studies of networks derived from the entrepreneurship, strategic management, organization theory and industrial marketing literatures. The paper concludes by proposing that future studies might benefit from focusing on key network transformations and from mobilizing programmatic investments.     

A PROCESS STUDY OF NEW TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION IN SMALLER MANUFACTURING FIRMS*

Based on longitudinal case studies of new technology adoption in five smaller Canadian manufacturing firms, this article develops an inductive process model that views the technology adoption process as a partially nested set of three parallel and interacting sub-processes that are different in nature: the strategic commitment process, the technology choice process and the financial justification process. These processes are themselves intertwined with other strategic decision processes in the firm, and influenced by a dynamic set of contextual elements that interact with one another over time. the study underlines the problems associated with a narrow conception of technology adoption as a ‘decision’while showing how various process models from the literature are useful in understanding different parts of the overall process of adoption     

Grand strategies and strategic actions in the pharmaceutical industry 2001–2002

This paper explores the strategic actions realised by firms in the pharmaceutical industry during 2001 and 2002. The purpose was to develop an empirically derived categorisation of strategic actions and grand strategies from the behaviour of firms that could be used as the basis of a methodological framework for developing understanding of strategic change. Qualitative analysis was used to identify and categorise strategic actions implemented by pharmaceutical firms. Twenty-three grand strategies were identified and are described. Implications for further research in strategy development are discussed.