Application Of Organizational Theory Research Articles

Courthouse Confidential, Unveiling Lessons Learned in Leading and Managing Trial Court Organizations, by Giuseppe M. Fazari (Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2022) ISBN: 979-8-7657-0577-3, 338 pages

A new book, Courthouse Confidential, Unveiling Lessons Learned in Leading and Managing Trial Court Organizations, is packed with practical information and the application of organizational theory. Based on the author’s real-world and academic experience, the book uses a series of case studies and corresponding “lessons learned” to cover a wide range of critical topics and issues that confront court administrators and judges in today’s courts. These areas include leadership, caseflow, information technology, community and stakeholder engagement, human resources, operations, budget, and strategic management. The lessons learned are practical, actionable and bridge the gap between theory and the real world. Practitioners and academics will both benefit from the book.

Mapping the field of sustainable procurement: a bibliometric analysis

PurposeThe study aims to analyze the intellectual structure in sustainable procurement (SP) research to identify the knowledge research clusters and provide potential avenues for future research.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducted a bibliometric analysis to analyze the intellectual structure in the area of SP. Overall, 1,294 articles were selected from the Scopus database published between 2000 and 2022. The analysis was conducted using bibliometric R package, Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software. Further, content analysis of research clusters was carried out to set the future research agenda.FindingsThe study identifies four major knowledge research clusters of SP, namely, (1) green supply chain practices, (2) socially responsible purchasing, (3) environmental purchasing and (4) public procurement and policy. The study suggests a few research directions in the SP field. Moreover, the future research directions are aligned with specific organizational theories applicable in the area of SP research.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is dependent on the Scopus database for the source of research publications on SP. Future studies may consider other research database sources.Practical implicationsIdentifying knowledge research clusters of SP research is of paramount importance for developing policies in the near future. These policy initiatives pave the way for the adoption of SP practices in the business. The findings indicate the issues managers encounter while implementing SP in organizations.Originality/valueThe study offers valuable insights concerning parameters such as significant publication outlets, influential countries concerning the number of publications, impactful authors, title keywords and identifying major knowledge research clusters of SP to suggest future research directions. Further, the present study highlights emerging areas that require further research, including process governance, supplier diversity, innovation, the role of emerging technologies and the application of organizational theories in SP.

Threatened Globally, Acting Locally: Modeling Law Enforcement Homeland Security Practices

The present study examined the effects of institutional pressures on homeland security preparedness among law enforcement agencies in Illinois. The data come from the Illinois Homeland Security Survey (IHSS). Specifically, the study employed three theories to explain homeland security preparedness: contingency theory, resource dependence theory, and institutional theory. We hypothesized that institutional pressures will lead to isomorphism as agencies attempt to conform to institutional expectations about appropriate activities in a homeland security era. To evaluate these theories and their impact on homeland security practices, the authors used confirmatory factor analysis. The IHSS data lend strong support to the application of organizational theory as a lens through which homeland security preparedness can be understood. Institutional pressures, such as professional and government publications, training, professional associations, and the actions of peer agencies, significantly influenced municipal and county agencies in Illinois. Funding, while often thought important to encourage preparedness, was not a significant predictor. The results of this analysis advance our understanding of homeland security preparedness via institutional theory by suggesting that the larger environment is salient.

Understanding Sport Organizations: The Application of Organization Theory (2nd Edition)

Understanding Sport Organizations: The Application of Organization Theory (2nd Edition)

The multinational enterprise as a loosely coupled system: the global integration – local responsiveness dilemma

Recognizes the inherent conflict between multinationals’ (MNEs’) need to respond to local markets while using global integration to achieve economies of scale; and outlines relevant research from the fields of both economic and organizational theory. Criticizes the process approach based on normative theory and suggests that loose coupling theory is a more practical way of looking at MNEs. Discusses the application of these ideas to their management and identifies seven behavioural characteristics of loosely coupled systems (Weick). Links these to Doz and Prahalad’s (1991) criteria for assessing the applicability of organizational theory to MNEs. Considers the research implications and believes that MNE organization will eventually be seen, not as a special case, but as a general model.

Organization Theory and Shipbuilding: A Brief Overview

The paper presents the author's viewpoint of the subject rather than the results of an extensive group survey or study. The paper reports that U.S. shipbuilding organizations have not utilized and therefore have not benefited from recent organizational theory knowledge of effective organizations. Existing U.S. shipbuilding organizations all tend to the mechanistic type. Unfortunately, the high efficiency and tightly controlled operations that the mechanistic type is supposed to provide are not being achieved. The bleak picture painted in this paper may not be representative of the currently surviving U.S. shipbuilding organizations and it would be reassuring to the author to hear of successes and meaningful improvements in the shipyards through the application of organization theory. The paper first discusses, generally, organization theory, its need and availability. Then an approach for its application is offered. Finally, the author describes his study of the structures and effectiveness of shipbuilding organizations.

Change in an Unanchored Enterprise: Colleges of Education

Substantive and theoretical concerns guide this exploration of organizational conditions underlying patterns of change in colleges of education. After reviewing the history of these colleges, the author explains their chronic instability using several strands of organization theory. In comparing colleges of education to colleges of letters and science, the author advances the application of organization theory to higher education in three ways: (1) he directs attention to differentiation within universities, embedding intraorganizational contrasts in the propositions, (2) he specifies propositions of comparisons across different types of post-secondary settings, and (3) he considers the combined and interactive effects of different organizational models.

Prosecution in Middle County: An Application of Organization Theory to Criminal Justice

It has long been recognized that the prosecutor is a crucial actor in the criminal justice process. Comparatively little study has been done however on prosecutors'offices as such: how they function, what criteria they use, what principles might explain their conduct. In this regard it should be noted that the most-studiedjurisdictions, the largest urban centers, are perhaps those least representative of prosecutorial practices in the nation as a whole. The present study explains the prosecutorial decision-making process in one middle-sized Midwestern city by applying to the operations of this office the precepts of Cvert and March's A Behavioral Theory of the Firm (1963). The author finds that this office behaves in ways remarkably similar to those of the business firms examined by Cyert and March. The article describes how the Middle County prosecutor follows Cyert and March's principles of avoiding uncertainty by using standardized decision rules; avoiding over-complexity by keeping these rules themselves very simple, while relying on professional judgment to determine to what extent to modify them in particular cases; and avoiding learning costs by resisting changes in the rules. One of the most important rules was " We'll give anybody half for pleading guilty" and data are presented to show that this rule was rather consistently followed from 1968 to 1973. Although the author's own observations covered only the single jurisdiction of Middle County, his review of the published literature on prosecution leads him to conclude that many if not most other prosecutors' offices behave in similar fashion, and therefore that the Behavioral Theory may, prove to be a useful approach to prosecution generally as well as in Middle County.

Management problems in further education

The application of organizational theory to educational institutions is providing a welcome insight into the functioning of the Further Education college. Like other organizations, schools and colleges have relationships with the external environment which may closely circumscribe the operation of any particular institution. The work of the FE college is constrained by a variety of external factors, as in the field of curriculum development where the number of examining bodies is almost legion. Moreover, there is a case for suggesting that, viewed historically, further education has been subjected to an increasing number of major environmental constraints of which the establishment of the Regional Advisory Councils, the introduction of Industrial Training Boards and the implementation of the binary policy are conspicuous examples. For this reason alone it becomes especially important to analyse the internal dynamics of the FE college. This paper considers some of the implications of the changes which have occurred in the structure of the colleges during the last three or four decades, in the anticipation that it may shed additional light upon the functioning of the modern college organization.