Adoption Of Administrative Innovations Research Articles

Resolving epistemological issues in theoretical and methodological apparatus of institutional theories of organizations

Agency-structure debate has become one of the central issues in modern organizational sociology and the most problematic theoretical area in institutional analysis. Since then researchers in new institutional sociology have focused on bringing agency and interests back in the theory that views rationality and motives as historically and culturally embedded and constructed by their institutional environments. To date, the most prospective theory is fashion perspective that sees interests and beliefs to be socially constructed and shaped by institutional forces. Accordingly, diffusion and adoption of administrative innovations is nothing but a result of these beliefs generated by institutional effects. Therefore the object of research is the essentiality of fashion management theory taking into account its ontological and epistemological characteristics. One of the most problematic areas is understanding the way institutions and fashions can be conceptualized upon the same mechanisms of emergence, reproduction and development. This paper attempts to clarify and resolve these two streams of literature by attending social construction perspective and revisiting its central tenets. Specifically, the present study put forward arguments that it is not homogeneity or symbolic pragmatic conformity should be the main units of analysis but the meanings that individuals attach to technical structures and elements; not the trajectories and waves of popularity of ideas and structures but the way subjective judgments and interpretations acquire objective status and eclipse former technical foundations. Based on logical generalization and morphological analysis, it is offered to reduce the conceptualization of institutions and organizations back from agency-centered depiction and strategic-perspective towards over-socialized picture with adequately addresses the prevalence of macro-level forces over micro-level individuals. It is concluded that neither former institutional theory nor its modern alternatives should focus exclusively on the trajectory and logic of diffusion of institutional templates.

Social Software in Academic Libraries for Internal Communication and Knowledge Management: A Comparison of Two Reference Blog Implementations

This article investigates the adoption of new innovations for internal reference desk communication and knowledge management in academic libraries, specifically the use of social software tools. Actual implementations of the free blog software Wordpress from two university libraries are described including charts detailing advantages and disadvantages of the methods. In the context of the diffusion of innovation and organizational lag theories, the analyzed outcomes confirm that while social software tools are being used, relatively few institutions have exploited them for improving in-house processes. Without clearly articulated long-term gains, adoption of administrative innovations will follow the pattern of organizational lag.

Swiftness and Intensity of Administrative Innovation Adoption: An Empirical Study of TQM in Information Systems

Considerable attention has been directed toward developing a more complete understanding of innovation adoption by Information Systems (IS) departments. Much of this research has focused on the adoption of technological innovations, and limited research has focused on the adoption of administrative innovations. This paper focuses on an administrative innovation that is increasingly becoming popular among IS departments, namely Total Quality Management (TQM) in systems development. A synthesis of the IS innovation and TQM literatures was conducted to identify environmental, organizational, and task-related factors that should relate to both the swiftness and the intensity of TQM adoption. The relationships between the identified variables and TQM adoption were examined using data collected from 123 IS departments in Fortune 1000 firms and large government agencies in the U.S. The results indicate that TQM adoption in systems development is influenced by the host organization's quality orientation and factors internal to the IS department including IS management support for quality, the presence of a separate quality assurance function, and the structural complexity of the IS department. Implications of this study for theory, future research, and practice are discussed.

Administrative Innovation among Ohio Local Government Finance Officers

This study centers on a mailed survey of Ohio local government finance officers that recorded a 43% response rate. It seeks to determine the extent to which the represented jurisdictions have adopted innovative administrative management tools and techniques, to identify possible determinants of adoption, and to explore potential outcomes of adoption. The authors conducted a longitudinal analysis to provide for the identification of potential outcomes. they found that Ohio local governments have been less innovative than jurisdictions surveyed in national surveys and that smaller local governments in Ohio tend to be more innovative than larger governments. The authors were unable to identify determinants of adoption or to construct a model of adoption. The article concludes that the adoption of administrative innovations appears to be an idiosyncratic process. Adoption does not appear to lead to greater satisfaction with the quality of the services provided by the respondent's jurisdiction or with the overall efficiency of the service delivery system. However, the adoption of administrative innovations appears to be positively related to fund balances in future years—that is, innovation appears to pay off.

Patterns of generation and adoption of innovation in organizations: Contingency models of innovation attributes

Abstract This study addresses the debate over the occurrence and the applicability of unitary sequence and multiple sequence patterns in the innovation process in organizations. Our general argument is that each pattern's explanatory power hinges on identifiable contingencies. These influencing factors can and should be taken into account by both theorists and managers. Focusing on two types of innovation processes, generation and adoption, we use two innovation attributes—complexity and type—to determine the suitability of each pattern to a specific innovation process. It is proposed that generation and adoption of simple innovations, generation of technical innovations, and adoption of administrative innovations is adequately explained by the unitary sequence pattern. However, generation and adoption of complex innovations, generation of administrative innovations, and adoption of technical innovations is better described by the multiple sequence pattern. Implications for theory development and management practice are then discussed.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TYPES OF INNOVATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACTThe relationship between adoption of administrative and technical innovations over time and its impact on organizational performance was studied. A confirmatory analysis of the data from 85 public libraries showed that, over consecutive time periods, changes in the social structure, portrayed by the adoption of administrative innovations, lead to changes in the technical system, portrayed by the adoption of technical innovations. Empirical support was also provided for Daft's (1982) framework for organizational innovation that was found to be effective in separating organizations based on their performance levels.

Organizational Innovation and Performance: The Problem of "Organizational Lag"

Fariborz Damanpour and William M. Evan The organizational lag model, which postulates that a discrepancy exists between the rates of adoption of technical and administrative innovations, is applied to study the -impact of adoption of types of innovation on organizational performance. Four hypotheses were derived from this -model and were tested in a sample of 85 public libraries. It was found that: (1) libraries adopt technical innovations at a faster rate than administrative innovations; (2) administrative and technical innovations have a higher correlation in high-performance organizations than in low-performance organizations; (3) the degree of organizational lag is inversely related to organizational performance; and (4) the adoption of administrative innovations tends to triggerthe adoption of technical innovations more readily than the reverse.,

Synergy, Influence, and Information in the Adoption of Administrative Innovations

The adoption processes of two related administrative innovations in the private sector dealing with employee health are examined. Results of multiple logistic regressions using survey data on a sample of Illinois firms suggest that these two innovations are synergistically linked, such that the adoption of one increases the likelihood of the subsequent adoption of the other.

Synergy, Influence, and Information in the Adoption of Administrative Innovations.

The adoption processes of two related administrative innovations in the private sector dealing with employee health are examined. Results of multiple logistic regressions using survey data on a sample of Illinois firms suggest that these two innovations are synergistically linked, such that the adoption of one increases the likelihood of the subsequent adoption of the other.