Individual Organizational Members Research Articles

Leader-member exchange and organizational citizenship behaviour: The moderator effects of subordinates’ horizontal collectivism orientation and team-member exchange

Past research has not clearly explained why the quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) is weakly related to organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in non-Western cultures. Hence, this study explores subordinates’ cultural value orientation and team member exchange (TMX) as boundary conditions of the effects of LMX on citizenship behaviour directed at individual organizational members (OCBI) and citizenship behaviour directed at the organization as a whole (OCBO). The research hypotheses were tested using a sample of 392 supervisor-subordinate dyads from organizations across different sectors in Ghana. The results support our theorizing that horizontal collectivism and TMX strengthen the relationship between LMX and OCBI such that the relationship is stronger for horizontal collectivists and under a high TMX context. However, the results did not support the hypothesized moderator effects of horizontal collectivism and TMX on the LMX-OCBO relationship. The theoretical contributions, managerial implications and avenues for further research are discussed.

Organization for Liquid-Modern times?

In an unpublished manuscript that Zygmunt Bauman wrote around the year 2008, Bauman’s overall theory of liquid modernity is sketched in relation to recent types of organization. He describes a shift from classical ‘managerialism’ to the ‘experience economy’, resulting in organizations characterized as eclectic and nonlinear. Ambiguous consequences of this transition follow for individual organization members. The most important trait of and expectation for liquidly modern employees will be their flexibility. Workplaces made seductive and attractive, with food, sport, bike racks and stylish informality, create a fragile cocoon for the elite of knowledge workers. For Bauman, such employees’ materialize love and happiness by buying things, resulting in more working hours to gain the money required to purchase further things in a ‘vicious circle’. The less qualified cannot access either these things or similar working conditions, which is one critical dimension of these recent transformations. Managerially, practices in flexible organizations continuously keep elite employees in a state of uncertainty and urgency. Bauman closes by embedding these tendencies of organizations’ new voraciousness in his overall theme of liquid modernity, as he points to unintended consequences of lighter and more flexible organizational forms. The manuscript is accompanied by a commentary, in which Stewart Clegg, one of the leading scholars in recent attempts to connect Bauman’s theory of liquid modernity with management and organization studies, contextualizes the work.

Becoming a learning organization while enhancing performance: the case of LEGO

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically test how problem-solving lean practices, along with leaders as learning facilitators in an action learning approach, can be transferred from a production context to a knowledge work context for the purpose of becoming a learning organization while enhancing performance. This is important to study because many organizations struggle to enhance efficiency in the short term while still trying to be long-term learning oriented (i.e. learning organization development).Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on theory on learning interventions to show how lean practices for problem-solving can foster learning and help an organization to become adaptive. This study’s subject is a non-production department of 100 employees at the LEGO corporation. The authors applied survey results from a natural experiment lasting 18 months between a pre-measurement survey and a post-measurement survey. The results were compared to a control department of 50 employees who were not exposed to the lean practices intervention. The authors’ focus was on the individual level as individuals have different perceptions of lean practices, performance, and learning.FindingsUsing repeated-measures tests, difference-in-difference regressions analyses, and structural equation models, the authors find that a package of contemporary lean practices for problem-solving, along with leaders who function as learning facilitators, significantly improved learning organization dimensions while also enhancing efficiency and quality and that learning organizations positively mediate the relationship between the lean intervention and quality-related performance, while efficiency is directly affected by the lean interventions. Data from LEGO's key performance indicators (KPIs), benefit trackers, on-site observations and more than 40 interviews with managers provided results that were consistent with the survey data. A detailed description of the lean practices implemented is provided to inspire future implementations in non-operations environments and to assist educators.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors contribute to the learning literature by showing that a learning-to-learn approach to lean management can serve as an active and deliberate intervention in helping an organization becoming a learning organization as perceived by the individual organizational members. The authors also add to the lean literature by showing how a learning approach to lean, as used by LEGO, can positively affect short-term efficiency and quality and create a foundation for a longer-term competitive advantage (i.e. a learning organization) in a non-production context. By contrast, most of the lean literature streams treat efficiency separately from a learning organization and mainly examine lean in a production context.Originality/valueThe extant literature shows three research streams on lean, learning, and performance. The authors built on these streams by trying to emphasize both learning and efficiency. Prior research has not empirically tested whether and how the application of problem-solving lean practices combined with leaders as learning facilitators helps to create a comprehensive learning organization while enhancing performance in a non-production context.

Misfit? The Use of Metrics in Innovation

Measuring innovation is a challenging but essential task to improve business performance. To tackle this task, key performance indicators (KPIs) can be used to measure and monitor innovation. The objective of this study is to explore how KPIs, designed for measuring innovation, are used in practice. To achieve this objective, the author draws upon literature on business performance in accounting and innovation, yet moves away from the functional view. Instead, the author focuses explicitly on how organizational members, through their use of KPIs in innovation, make sense of conflicting interpretations and integrate them into their practices. A qualitative in-depth case study was conducted at the innovation department of an organization in the process industry that operates production sites and sales organizations worldwide. In total, 28 interviews and complementary observations were undertaken at several organizational levels (multi-level). The empirical evidence suggests that strategic change, attributed to commoditization, affects the predetermined KPIs in use. Notably, these KPIs in innovation are used, despite their poor fit to innovation subject to commoditization. From a relational perspective, this study indicates that in innovation, KPIs are usually complemented by or supplemented with other information, as stand-alone KPIs exhibit a significant degree of incompleteness. In contrast to conventional studies in innovation and management accounting, this study explores the use of key performance indicators (KPIs) in innovation from an interpretative perspective. This perspective advances our understanding of the actual use of KPIs and uncovers the complexity of accounting and innovation, which involve numerous angles and organizational levels. Practically, the findings of this study will inform managers in innovation about the use of KPIs in innovation and the challenges individual organizational members face when using them. In innovation, KPIs appear to be subjective and used in unintended ways. Thus, understanding how KPIs are used in innovation is a game of reading between the lines, and these KPIs can be regarded as misfits.

Brewing a Craft Impression: A Multilevel Study About the Orchestration of Organizational Impression Management Through Authenticity

Organizations face the tricky challenge of portraying a coherent appearance of identity to make an authentic impression on their audiences. This study argues that authenticity is a cross-level mechanism through which organizations and their individual members orchestrate a coherent impression. A qualitative investigation revealed how five Canadian craft breweries claimed authenticity in their formal images by referencing a collective organizational identity in the environment. These claims were authenticated by external audiences and by individual organizational members. Two distinctly organizational forms of authentication expressed by individuals were (1) consensus about facets of organizational identity that mirrored the institutional authenticity claim as a party line and (2) role claims about leaders and employees, each comprising behavior scripts that corroborated the organization’s authenticity claim. The two forms of authentication also supported authentic leadership in the organization and contributed to an orchestrated appearance by linking institutional and individual impression management.

Neurohistology-Based Enterprise Organizational Change Model under Empathy Mechanism

This paper aims to disclose the effect of individual organization members, especially their implicit attitude, on corporate organizational change (COC). From the perspective of nurohistology, the author explored the effect of implicit attitude on corporate organizational change (COC), and created the COC model under empathy mechanism. Through detailed analysis, it is concluded that the individual resistance to the COC can be mitigated if the corporate organization understands the neural basses of the formation and change of the implicit attitude among individual members. Besides, the enterprise should rely on empathy mechanism to resolve the negative impacts of individual implicit attitude on the COC. This research provides a positive guide on the successful implementation of the COC.

Enhancing Social-Ecological Resilience in Indonesia: A Case of North Pekalongan District, Central Java

<p>In the last eight years (2008-2016), some areas in the northern part of Pekalongan have been experiencing coastal inundation. There have been social, economic and physical disruptions caused by coastal inundation particularly on built environments, paddy fields, and fishpond. The capacity of these areas to provide support for community livelihood has decreased significantly. This accumulative environmental change leads to the emerging of vulnerable regions which are characterized by limited social and ecological capability in responding to hazards. In order to enhance the social-ecological resilience, it is necessary to identify how these communities elevate their capacity and improve their livelihood. This paper presents empirical evidence of various pathways on how the community has transformed their capacity to respond to the changing environment due to coastal inundation. Using a case study approach, this paper explores on how the community has learned from their experiences, knowledge, and efforts withdrawn from the past, and then turns them into a better understanding to cope with, to adapt to, and to become resilient from coastal inundation. In-depth interviews with several key persons who are selected by purposive and snowballing sampling method are employed. These key persons represent the most capable person in each sub-district who poses some important data and information related to coastal inundation either as the individual, household members, or community organization members. The scope of area observation is limited to six sub-districts which adjacent to the coast in the North Pekalongan District. This research employs inductive approach and manual coding technique. The research demonstrates that social-ecological resilience will likely enhance in a community which is capable of nurturing flexible networking. Such networking has made it possible for important information, novel knowledge and practical tools and solutions spread over in the community. These are key elements that allow new transformative pathways occur. However, there is various community capacities with different achievement on transformative pathways which need to be engage on the future empowerment initiatives. Only few community of Kandang Panjang Sub-district come to short term resilience due to their awareness on establishing social networking and several actions on environmental quality improvement.</p>

Evolutionary Process of Social Capital Formation through Community Currency Organizations: The Japanese Case

Community currency systems are said to influence the revival of communities by promoting either local economic growth or social capital accumulation. However, no empirical studies have examined the multiple competing mechanisms for providing social support through transactional networks among participants. The current study connects network structural concepts to theories of social capital, transaction costs, homophily, and resource dependency at multiple levels and evaluates transactional relationships for community rebuilding and local economic development. We examine the evolutionary process of dynamic networks among local residents or organization members with network configurations in one of the largest Japanese community currency systems, “Peanuts.” Using longitudinal network data over 12 years for approximately 1400 actors, we conclude that the evolution and achievement of transactional network dynamics and partner selections differ between the two groups of participants: individual members and organization members. We also provide practical implications for sustaining participants’ transactions and commitment.

Explaining management accounting practices and strategy in Thailand

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to report the level of adoption and benefit obtained from a range of management accounting practices (MAPs) in Thai organizations and analyze to these by reference to various strategic typologies.Design/methodology/approach– Contingency theory, proposing a fit between MAPs and a comprehensive set of strategic typologies is used. Factor analysis, cluster analysis, and Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA is applied to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.Findings– It was observed that firms pursuing differentiation/prospector/entrepreneurial/build strategies significantly report higher benefit from contemporary MAPs. Firms with a cost leadership strategy were, as expected, found to obtain higher benefit from traditional MAPs. Contrary to expectations, entrepreneurial firms reported higher benefit from traditional MAPs than conservative firms.Research limitations/implications– Like all survey work this relies on questionnaire responses of individual organization members. A selection approach was adopted so no direct relationship with organization performance was investigated.Practical implications– Although use of the full range of MAPs is reported there is still reliance on traditional MAPs. Hence further exposure of businesses and practitioners to contemporary techniques is recommended in training, professional development, and interactions with international partners.Originality/value– The paper provides insight into MAPs in Thailand, an emerging economy and one with limited published academic research in management accounting. It incorporates four strategic typologies which previously have been mainly used individually in MA research.

The Role of Employee Identification and Organizational Identity in Strategic Communication and Organizational Issues Management about Genetic Modification

This article examines the organizational identities and strategic communication of two New Zealand primary export organizations as they managed intense public debate surrounding the potential impacts of genetic modification. We examine the similarities and differences in identifications at multiple levels in these organizations, illustrating the value and, by implication, policy positions held simultaneously by individual organizational members, groups, and the organizations as collective entities. These positions also serve as points of reference in public discourse about genetic modification. Our empirically grounded, critical interpretive analysis reveals the roles played by employee identification and organizational identity formation in strategic communication and organizational issues management about controversial public policies. In these ways, the analysis makes important connections between “the organizational voice” typically represented in issues management and individual members’ identifications, and offers evidence for how the latter might be taken into account in the development of strategic communication.

Organizational Transformation and Workplace Diversity in South Africa

This paper attempts to look at organizational transformation and workplace diversity in South Africa. The subject matter is cardinal to a South African business dynamic and particularly in a period of transition in democratic South Africa. Planned change can be of two general types: Organization Development (OD) and Organization Transformation (OT). The latter, which is the focus of this paper, is described as the cutting edge of planned change and is called “secondgeneration OD” (French, Bell & Zawacki, 2005). It is a relatively new field and literature is limited in this area. Hence, it is ill-defined and very experimental, itself rapidly changing. The paper does not pretend to capture all the issues that encompass this important and challenging field of study, but attempts to show that organizational transformation and workplace diversity are important issues and variables in workplace diversity in a rapidly changing South Africa. OT focuses on effecting more profound change in organizations, targeting a ‘deeper’ level in the organization that is not traditionally targeted by change interventions in OD. French et al. (2005 82 state that OT is: A set of behavioural science theories, values, strategies, and techniques, aimed at the planned change of organizational vision and work settings, with the intention of generating cognition change in individual organizational members, leading to behavioral change and thus promoting paradigmatic change that helps the organization better fit or create desirable future environments. OT involves revolutionary frame-breaking interventions aiming to change the way members perceive, think and behave at work. OT aims to fundamentally change the assumptions of the organization’s functioning and its relationship to its environment. This means radical shifts in corporate philosophy and values and structures and arrangements that influence member behavior. As a result, the qualitative nature of the organization is altered. Some features of OT are as follows (Cummings and Worley, 2005). First, change happens when organizations experience a severe threat to their present existence. This occurs when environmental or internal disruptions such as industry discontinuities, product life cycle shifts and internal company dynamics make the organization’s existing strategies obsolete. Second, OT is systemic and revolutionary because it entails changing the underlying nature of organizations as well as the behavior of the majority of

China’s Preferential Trade Remedy Approaches: A New Haven School Perspective

The proliferation of regionalism and increased use of trade remedies are two of the most remarkable features of contemporary world trade. Under the multilateral trading famework, individual World Trade Organization (WTO) Members still resort to varied trade remedy approaches in their preferential trade agreements (PTAs). China, as a latecomer of regionalism but a major participant in trade remedies, is particularly noteworthy in this regard. This article, from the perspective of the New Haven School jurisprudence of international law, outlines China’s trade remedy provisions and practices in its existing PTAs, analyses and appraises the rationales, outcomes as well as implications of those specific decisions, and forecasts the possible changes and alternatives for the future. It concludes that the current strategies and approaches in making preferential trade remedy arrangements are likely to be maintained even though China would play more important roles in the future international rule-making process.

The Process of Identity Construction in Emergent Organizational Collectives

The notion of collective entrepreneurship has grown as a counterweight to traditional ideas of solo individuals as progenitors of new venture creation. Most recently, Ruef (2010) draws on the concept of social identities to explain how individuals might identify and collaborate with others, taking collective action to achieve entrepreneurial goals. But what happens when the group of entrepreneurs consists of organizations, and the objective is creating a shared identity that generates entrepreneurial rents arising from collective activity? What will be the basis of the collective's sense of self and how will these decisions be made? And how do individual organizational members balance the tension between the shared identity of the collective and their own distinctive identity? These issues will be examined within the context of several burgeoning wine regions and the efforts of individual wineries to establish a defined collective identity as a wine trail.

Resisting change: organizational decoupling through an identity construction perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a framework that explains how individual organizational members' self‐construction processes motivate them to support or reject decoupling as a form of resistance to institutionally mandated change.Design/methodology/approachMost studies have looked at powerful organizational actors and top management teams that decide to decouple. This paper broadens the understanding through a micro‐level approach that focuses on the role of individual members within organizations. Specifically, it looks at what happens inside organizations after the decision to decouple has been taken.FindingsThis paper identifies three alternative self‐identity construction pathways that members may choose following the decision of an organization to decouple: strong identification with the organization; strong identification with the institutional pressure; and adoption of both organizational and institutional identities. The framework specifies how and under which conditions the way individuals identify and manage identity multiplicity impacts organizational resistance to change.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could test the proposed framework particularly through case studies or qualitative designs that look deep into organizational processes and individual attitudes towards decoupling.Practical implicationsPractitioners, particularly top management teams, can adopt a moderating role in influencing the identification process of their employees. They can also communicate better why efficiency is more important than the mandated changes, and why decoupling must be supported to safeguard the organization's “efficient” identity.Originality/valueThe paper integrates institutional theory's macro‐perspectives with micro‐perspectives of individual members' identity and self‐construction processes within organizations. It contributes to existing institutional accounts of agentic change and resistance to change through a dynamic framework that prescribes individual interests and preferences based on identification processes.

Understanding the Adoption of Project Management in Serbian Organizations: Insights from an Exploratory Study

The article contributes to our understanding of the drivers behind, and the nature of, project management implementation in the complex context of a transitional economy. Relevant insights are generated through an integrated and dynamic analysis of interviews and secondary data from a sample of local organizations, based on a conceptual model of strategic transformation. The analysis concludes with propositions about how both adoption of and resistance to project management implementation in the region could be understood from a strategic point of view, taking into account complex and dissonant circumstances of transition, history, cultural tradition, embedded social values, and identities of individual organizational members.

The level and determinants of mission statement use: a questionnaire survey

Background Although mission statements are one of the most popular management instruments, little is known about the nature and direction of the presumed relationship between mission statements and organizational performance. In particular, empirical insights into the degree of mission statement use by individual organizational members are insufficient. Objectives We address the observed knowledge gap by (a) measuring the level of mission statement use (e.g., explaining the mission statement, making linkages to extant programs or practices, communicating enthusiasm, and adapting the mission statement to the personal work situation) by individual organizational members, and (b) identifying the antecedents that influence mission statement use. Design Questionnaires were used to collect data from a sample of 510 nurses from three Flemish hospitals. Mission statement use was measured by means of Fairhurst's Management of Meaning Scale. Antecedents of mission statement use were derived from the Theory of Planned Behavior and the mission statement literature. Results The findings indicate that mission statement use is low on average. Attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and formal involvement in mission statement communication proved to be significant determinants of mission statement use and accounted for 43% of the variance. The results of the conducted regression analyses indicate that nurses (a) who have a positive attitude towards the mission statement, (b) who perceive pressure from superiors and colleagues to use the mission statement, (c) who feel they are in control of performing such behavior, and (d) who are formally involved in the mission statement communication processes are more likely to use the mission statement. Furthermore, the results indicated that demographic characteristics are not associated with mission statement use. Conclusions To effectively increase mission statement use, investments should focus on redesigning a work environment that stresses the importance of the organizational mission statement and provides detailed information on the ways that individual organizational members can contribute in realizing the mission statement.

Managing Organizational Cultural Influences During the Implementation of Competency-Based Training

This article examines organizational cultural influences on a human resource development (HRD) practitioner’s ability to effectively implement a competency-based training program. A five-phase conceptual model was created based on the process of implementing a competency-based approach to training and examines how differing agendas from individual organizational members and key stakeholders can derail a program. Suggestions are provided on how HRD practitioners can deal with these influences to increase their chances for successful program implementation.

Corporate Culture as a Resource for Management: Comment

According to Donald C. Langevoort [2006, p. 83], corporate culture is a means of communication and coordination in organizations that, as such, reduces uncertainties, resolves ambiguities, and can offset agency costs. We agree. We are finding it particularly helpful how Langevoort adapts the sociological term sense making to rational-choice analysis, by reading corporate culture as a device (a) to coordinate the perceptions of individual organization members when collective action is required, (b) to avoid uncertainty and ambiguity caused by not knowing the reactions of other organization members, and (c) to induce aligned motivations and emotions as often expressed by organizational/corporate identity or firm loyalty. This clearly sheds some light into the black box of corporate culture. But is there empirical evidence for what this black box is claimed to contain? In this comment, we cull some of the evidence from the literature. And we offer a formal model for an element central to Langevoort' s analysis: the risk of management crowding out beneficial corporate culture by engaging in explicit monitoring.

Normal Injustices and Morality in Complex Organizations

This paper applies theory and research examining errors in complex organizational systems to the problem of individual and collective morality in organizations. It is proposed that because of the nature of complex organizations, unjust outcomes can (and will) result from organizational actions even when all organization members have acted responsibly. The argument that complex organizations are therefore immoral is considered and rejected. Instead, the paper argues that morality in complex organizations begins with "heedful interrelating" among individual organization members. The paper concludes with a discussion of organizational processes and structures that promote heedful interrelating.

Prospering in Dynamically-Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration

Unstable market conditions caused by innovation and increasing intensity and diversity of competition have resulted in organizational capabilities rather than served markets becoming the primary basis upon which firms establish their long-term strategies. If the strategically most important resource of the firm is knowledge, and if knowledge resides in specialized form among individual organizational members, then the essence of organizational capability is the integration of individuals' specialized knowledge. This paper develops a knowledge-based theory of organizational capability and draws upon research into competitive dynamics, the resource-based view of the firm, organizational capabilities, and organizational learning. Central to the theory is analysis of the mechanisms through which knowledge is integrated within firms in order to create capability. The theory is used to explore firms' potential for establishing competitive advantage in dynamic market settings, including the role of firm networks under conditions of unstable linkages between knowledge inputs and product outputs. The analysis points to the difficulties in creating the “dynamic” and “flexible-response capabilities” which have been deemed critical to success in hypercompetitive markets.