Internal Organizational Processes Research Articles

Validity, Utilization and Evidence-Based Policy: The Development and Impact of Performance Improvement Regimes in Local Public Services

Over the last decade, external assessments of organizational effectiveness have played an increasingly pivotal role in the regulation of UK local authorities. Unlike most approaches to evaluation, which are concerned with the implementation and outcomes of policies, programmes or interventions, these assessments are concerned primarily with internal organizational processes. And in contrast to traditional forms of public services inspection, which focus on specific services, they seek to judge the capacity of an organization as a whole. Inspectors in England, Scotland and Wales have taken different approaches to assessments of local authorities, but in all three cases their judgements have excited considerable interest among policy-makers, achieving a much higher level of utilization than is usual for evaluative activities and being credited with leading to significant improvements in public service organizations. There are, however, important questions about the validity of the measures they use and the sustainability of this approach to driving public services improvement.

Disclosure, leaks, and slips: Issues and strategies for prohibiting employee communication

Both popular and social science literature are replete with recommendations for enhancing communication effectiveness, typically defined as improving the clarity and impact of the spoken and written word. However, managing internal organizational processes and external market competitiveness often requires a different communication strategy, specifically silence and non-disclosure, while adhering to statutory regulations. This article summarizes the rationale for communication prohibitions, highlights counter forces mitigating their intended effects, and offers recommendations for successful implementation. The three major counter forces are: employee motivation and perception, changing socio-cultural norms, and organizational structures reflecting virtual teams and project teams. The eight recommendations for combating these forces are subsumed under one of two categories: creating an organizational culture supporting prohibitions, and executing the prohibitions with a minimum of employee resistance. In summary, employees charged with maintaining secrecy and adhering to non-disclosure prohibitions must view those restrictions as reasonable, warranted, equitable, and legal.

Avaliação de resultados e financiamento em organizações culturais não-empresariais

Diferentes aspectos relativos à gestão de organizações não empresariais vêm despertando o interesse de gestores e acadêmicos da área de estudos organizacionais. Uma destas questões que merece destaque consiste na busca por financiamento por parte destas organizações e as relações de poder estabelecidas neste processo. Assim, analisam-se neste trabalho os critérios de avaliação de desempenho utilizados por fontes financiadoras de grupos teatrais existentes em Florianópolis - SC. Foram analisadas seis fontes financiadoras: duas públicas, uma para-estatal e três organizações privadas. Investigou-se o processo de financiamento considerando os aspectos: captação dos projetos; exigências das propostas; avaliação das propostas e acompanhamento da execução dos projetos. Com base nos dados observou-se a presença de diversos critérios: qualificação pessoal, controle de despesas, registros internos, qualidade do espetáculo, impactos na sociedade. Critérios explorados pelo SESC despertam a curiosidade por estarem menos relacionados aos processos organizacionais internos, diminuindo possivelmente impactos na estruturação dos grupos em direção ao modelo burocrático.

Determinants of Resident Autonomy in Assisted Living Facilities: A Review of the Literature

Assisted living (AL) stresses the importance of resident autonomy in the provision of good quality care. Resident autonomy has been linked to better resident well-being, less reliance on supportive services, and greater participation in social activities. Little is known, however, about factors that foster resident autonomy in AL. This article reviews what is currently known about organizational determinants of resident autonomy in AL. The open-natural systems approach to organizational effectiveness, which views organizations in relation to their environment, provides a broad conceptual framework for this analysis. Factors that influence resident autonomy in AL are classified into two categories: (a) external environmental conditions (e.g., ownership status, chain membership, regulatory environment) and (b) internal organizational structures and processes (e.g., facility size, residents' functional ability, resident social resources, and staff work environment). Environmental conditions represent the most antecedent set of factors that influence resident autonomy, indirectly through their effects on internal organizational structures and processes. Internal organizational factors influence resident autonomy through their impact on policies that enable resident choice and control in the facility. More research is needed to better understand the complex mechanism(s) through which organizational factors influence resident autonomy.

Towards a kernel theory of external knowledge integration for high-tech firms: Exploring a failed theory test

Designing information systems (ISs) requires a thorough understanding of the organizational knowledge processes in which these systems are used. Although much is known about internal organizational knowledge processes, the understanding of external knowledge processes is less developed. Hence, this paper reflects an attempt to operationalize and test a model of the process of external knowledge integration (EKI), consisting of an identification, acquisition, and utilization stage. We utilize high-technology based firms from a variety of high-tech categories including nanotechnology based firms since these firms have critical knowledge integration needs. The results of an international survey, with responses of 317 high-tech companies, suggest that not these three EKI-stages, but four organizational effectiveness functions (goal attainment, pattern maintenance, adaptation, and integration) account for most variation in responses. These findings seem to imply that ISs that are to support the EKI-process should be designed according to organizational effectiveness functions rather than to EKI-stages. It is proposed that each organizational effectiveness function imposes different requirements on ISs because users interact differently with IS in each function.

A Crisis of Empire: The Anglo–Ottoman Dispute Over the Aden Frontier, 1901–1905

The crises which accompanied the rise and decline of the European empires have not been the object of systematic study in the manner of superpower crises of the Cold War period. Many of the techniques used to study Cold War crises have broader scope, including the models of governmental politics and organisational process developed by Graham Allison. The application of the Allison models to the events surrounding the delimitation of the Aden frontier between 1901 and 1905 illuminates significant aspects of the Anglo–Ottoman confrontation: they explain the manner in which non-rational elements in the policy-making process transformed a relatively insignificant issue into a crisis situation. Such insights also require a detailed examination of the documentary record which in this instance reveals the discord amongst British policy-makers and the organisational imperfections of the bureaucracy. The frontier Commissioners, the Aden Resident, the Government of India, the metropolitan government in London and the embassy in Constantinople were involved in a series of factional squabbles over the Aden frontier, the resolution of which often required the coercion of the Ottomans by the deployment of warships along the Yemen coast. Coordination amongst these different elements in the bureaucracy also played a role in generating tensions between London and Constantinople. The case of the Anglo–Ottoman dispute over the Aden frontier suggests that the analysis of internal governmental politics and organisational processes can be applied successfully to crises of empire which predate the Cold War era.

Public Managers' Perceptions of Organizational Goal Ambiguity: Analyzing Alternative Models

ABSTRACT Much organizational theory, research, and practice emphasizes the value of organizational members having clear perceptions of the organization's goals. For years, authors have asserted that public organizations have particularly vague goals, goals more vague than those of business firms. Yet, researchers have not devoted a lot of attention to ways of measuring perceptions about organizational goal clarity in public organizations and analyzing these perceptions. Many authors claim that the external political context increases goal ambiguity in public organizations. Some survey evidence, however, suggests that other factors, such as individual dispositions and attitudes, and internal organizational structures and processes, have greater effects. We analyze three alternative models of goal ambiguity—a political model, an organizational model, and an individual model—using data collected in Phase II of the National Administrative Studies Project (NASP-II), and then a composite model. Although political context acts as a significant determinant of goal ambiguity, both organizational and individual models have better explanatory power. Implications of these findings for theory and managerial practice are discussed.

B2B commerce and its implications for the buyer‐supplier interface

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to examine how electronic commerce can fundamentally change the inter‐organisational processes at the interface between the buyer and supplier.Design/methodology/approachFirst, an overview is provided of the evolution of B2B commerce and the typical business models that have been developed. Second, a number of factors are identified which impact on the buyer‐supplier interface in B2B commerce. Finally, the conclusions will examine the implications for managers involved in B2B commerce who have to interact across organisational boundaries.FindingsElectronic commerce not only enables the redesign of internal organisational processes but is extended into both the buyer and supplier organisations. Innovations in electronic commerce have a key role to play in managing inter‐organisational networks of supply chain members. It is also found that in many instances electronic commerce is radically changing the way in which organisations have traditionally traded. As well as impacting the external trading arrangements between buyers and suppliers, electronic commerce is also affecting the traditional roles of the functions involved in managing the buyer/supplier relationship.Practical implicationsIt is essential for top management to understand that the internet is more than a tool or technique, but rather something that is woven into the fabric of the organisation and the relationship with its environment. Adopting such an approach represents a drastic change from traditional management thinking and, more importantly, for management's behaviour.Originality/valueThis paper provides an improved understanding of how the internet represents a powerful technology for commerce and communication at the buyer‐supplier interface. This will be a useful insight for academics and practitioners alike.

Leadership by Customers? New Roles of Service Companies' Customers

In this paper we bring together two worlds that are usually strictly separated in research: leadership and customers. Until now leadership research has concentrated particularly on internal organizational processes, whereas customers were analyzed preferably in the context of marketing and service management. Research shows that the range of roles and functions of customers as key company stakeholders has changed dramatically in the last few years. Especially in service companies, customers (and communities), thought of as prosumers ( producers and con sumers), are active players, which can exert significant influence particularly on customer contact employees and on employee leadership. As only few of the established leadership concepts are open to an inclusion of customers, we choose Kerr/Jermier's (1978) substitute for leadership theory to show how the relationship between boundary spanning employees and customers can be linked to the relationship between an employee (as a follower) and his supervisor (as a leader). The analysis of this interrelatedness shows that customers can actually assume some leadership functions which subsequently will not only affect the behavior of the employees but also that of leaders. If leadership research wants to take up this challenge, it has to rethink its concepts to include new context factors relevant to the organisation. Corresponding implications and future directions for leadership research and practice are outlined.

Relationship marketing in online business‐to‐business markets

The Internet has the potential to alter many aspects of current marketing theory and practice. Most early research studies have focused on the role of the Internet as a promotional tool. More recently, case‐based studies are beginning to emerge on how the Internet may alter the marketing management process. There is a need to compliment these studies with additional quantitative research. This study examines the influence of marketing style on the utilisation of the Internet among small UK manufacturing firms. Insufficient evidence was found to support the view that relationship‐orientated firms, when compared with transactionally‐orientated competitors, exhibit differing perceptions about the nature of online markets. Quantitative differences were identified, however, in relation to use of information management systems and the management of internal organisational processes. The implications of these findings are discussed and proposals made concerning the need for further research.

Organisational learning in international joint ventures

Investigates the impact of national culture on organisational learning in a global context, as well as implications for international management development. Studies on organisations generally accept the existence of two “cultures” within an organisation – the “systems” culture and the “organisational” culture. National culture too has a significant, yet often underestimated, impact on organisational learning in international joint ventures. Motivated by national culture, stakeholders strive continuously to create sufficient shared meaning and management practices to make a joint venture viable. Using examples drawn from an Australian/Malaysian collaboration, explores the ways in which organisational learning and management behaviour are shaped by the often intangible influence of national culture. Offers a model to suggest means by which managers on both sides of a joint venture can improve understanding of the impact of national culture through critical inquiry and reflection. Also suggests that while cultural ways of knowing sometimes collide rather than converge, internal organisational processes can have a positive impact on the operations of a joint venture.

A Framework for Best Practice Health Promotion in Primary Health Care

ISIS Primary Care provides health and welfare services to the municipalities of Brimbank, Hobsons Bay and Wyndham. An organisational commitment was made to establish an integrated approach to health promotion that would result in best practice health promotion within the community and in partnership with other agencies. To achieve this it was necessary to develop internal organisational skills and processes as well as formalise the relationships with agencies within the catchment. A "framework for best practice health promotion" was developed with a number of interrelated components occurring concurrently at several levels within the organisation and externally. This encompasses a structural framework with a Health Promotion Reference Group of key intersectoral stakeholders, as well as six Health Promotion Working Groups across the organisation each focussing on identified health issues. The strategic framework is a procedural document outlining processes for planning, implementation and evaluation of health promotion at an organisational level. The supporting framework includes detailed program planning and evaluation guidelines and workforce development. The implementation of this framework has resulted in a coordinated and sustainable approach to health promotion across the catchment with opportunities for successful partnerships, capacity building, resource sharing and increased program reach in meeting the perceived needs of the community.

Developing services for substance-abusing HIV-positive youth with mental health disorders

Models of program development have primarily focused on the internal organizational processes needed to plan, implement, and evaluate new service programs. However, creating an external demand for new programs by policy makers, administrative bureaucracies, public health officials, and funders is critical to establishing new programs. A series of deaths of seropositive youth and an absence of local service settings with staff trained to address the needs of youth living with HIV provided the impetus for Larkin Street Youth Center. In particular, the agency had to overcome stigma associated with having both substance use and mental health disorders to establish service programs to recruit and mobilize staff within the agency and the local community and to establish a comprehensive housing program for symptomatic HIV-infected adolescents. This article examines how a residential assisted care facility for HIV-seropositive adolescents was established using organizational strategic planning processes, problem solving, and social marketing frameworks.

Electronic commerce: re‐engineering the buyer‐supplier interface

The aim of this article is to show how electronic commerce can fundamentally change the inter‐organisational processes at the interface between the buyer and supplier. It will be shown how electronic commerce is not only enabling the redesign of internal organisational processes but is extended into both the buyer and supplier organisations. Three case studies are presented outlining how various electronic commerce technologies have been implemented in a number of buyer supplier environments. These case studies illustrate the benefits that organisations can achieve through the effective implementation of electronic commerce technologies such as electronic data interchange (EDI) and the Internet. It is also shown how in many instances electronic commerce is radically changing the way in which organisations have traditionally traded.

On Being First: Dogma, Disease and Domination in the Rise of an African Church

What might the early institutional history of an indigenous African Church reveal about the institutionalisation of religious innovation? What might findings suggest about the impact of both internal organisational processes and extra-institutional pressures on the routinization of charisma? This article addresses these questions by examining the rise of Christ Apostolic Church, an Aladura church of the Yoruba of Nigeria, and focusing on the interplay of first, the global propagation of Christianity; second, colonial domination; third, symbolic reformulation; and finally, the pursuit of well-being in the face of epidemic disease. This investigation provides a case study of how people negotiate social and natural obstacles while constructing enduring institutional structures. Furthermore, it is argued that, rather than obstructing this religious movement, epidemics, colonial domination and missionary opposition fuelled its transformation into an institutional church.

Certification according to DIN EN ISO 9001 in MDK in Hessia--a report of experiences

Quality assurance is a routine and indispensable part of the work of the Medizinische Dienst der Krankenversicherung (MDK) (Medical Services of statutory health insurance bodies in Germany). To optimize the internal organisational processes, a quality assurance system (QAS), certified by EQ Zert, Ulm (an accredited certifier of the TGA), was implemented for the first time in one of the departments of the MDK, namely, the hospital department. Employees and management consider the advantages to be as follows: the aims of the department are clearly described. the processes are now self-evident and more strictly observed, overlaps to other fields of the company are defined. Both an Error Management System with follow up measures, and a Project Management System to control projects have been implemented. The documentation system was standardized, and consequently relocating documents has become more streamlined. An MDK self-evaluation was performed as part of an internal audit. The audit showed that the QAS of the hospital department of the MDK in Hesse is indeed highly developed. It is anticipated that gradually other fields of the MDK will also be certified, to comply with the changing requirements.

Multivariate analysis for the assessment of factors affecting industrial competitiveness: The case of Greek food and beverage industries

Principal component analysis is integrated with canonical analysis to examine aspects of the competitiveness of two different sectors of the Greek manufacturing, i.e. the food and the beverage industries. Different measures of labour productivity, vertical integration, technological innovation and size of the firms which are considered as critical factors of industrial competitiveness are used in the application of the principal component analysis. Canonical analysis is then applied to correlate the variables of labour productivity with the other variables. In the case of the food and beverage integrated sector, the results of the principal component analysis pinpoint that there are two main principal components: (a) labour productivity and vertical integration, and (b) technological innovation and size. The first factor depicts the internal organizational, structural and production processes changes realized so that the competitiveness of the sector firms improves, whereas the second factor reflects the response of the sector to technological and growth trends. The two variables of labour productivity are affected by the degree of vertical integration and, at a lesser degree, by a common factor of the size of the firm and the level of investment for technological innovation. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Accountable Management Reforms: Why the Norwegian Hospital Reform Experiment Got Lost in Implementation

There is an international tendency to replace governmental funding based on fixed grants by different reforms implying accountable management methods. In this article we focus on the implementation problems of New Public Management reforms in the Norwegian hospital sector. These reforms are built on a belief that more accountable methods will improve efficiency and better resource allocation. The term New Public Management includes different cost‐improvement programmes like Prospective Payment Systems, which were introduced as a new basis of funding in four Norwegian hospitals during a three year experimental period. The studies presented here support the findings from similar reforms in other countries, stating that there are very few, if any, documented efficiency gains by these reforms. The explanation may be that the reforms have disregarded the importance of internal organisational processes, like high quality management, communication and participation as parts of the implementation phases.

Positioning services along the volume‐variety diagonal

Draws on the service management literature to enhance understanding of the key operational differences in managing professional services, at one extreme, and mass services, at the other. Contributions are drawn together, developed and integrated into the service process model. This yields an understanding of the contingencies which render the design, control and improvement of different service processes appropriate. Strategic implications of the service process model are considered. It is contended that cost effective services will be positioned along the volume‐variety diagonal. It is proposed that the service process model can be used as a strategic tool in three ways. First, it can be used to evaluate possible strategic moves along the volume‐variety diagonal. Second, it can be used to analyse a competitive area and evaluate a service offering relative to the competition. Third, it can be used to analyse internal organisational processes with a view to identifying processes which have different volume‐variety characteristics and which should therefore perhaps be managed separately.

Competing Institutions: Law, Medicine, and Family in Neonatal Intensive Care

To understand the varying impact of law, we must compare the effects of legal institutions with the effects of rival institutions and the impact one law with the impact of another. We must also ask how the setting in which institutions compete and laws are implemented—very often an organization—shapes outcomes. Using the competition between legal, medical, and familial institutions in infant intensive care units as an example, this article elaborates a theory of institutional competition and therefore of the influence of law in organizations. I show that institutions, including legal institutions, gain influence by working through internal organizational processes. Thus, the impact of law on medical decisionmaking varies with whether legal actors have learned how to be present when decisions are to be made, make legal issues into organizational problems, introduce choice points that require action, and alter the possibility space of eligible solutions. Using variations among the major categories of laws that govern the practice of infant intensive care, the article also shows how organizational and institutional theories help explain why some laws have more impact than others.