Organizational Centralization Research Articles

What We Do in the Shadows: How expert workers reclaim control in digitalized and centralized organizations through ‘stealth work’

Organizations often depend on experts to carry out complex tasks that require specialized or tacit knowledge. Yet, organizations often want to increase their control over how tasks are performed and thus reduce the autonomy of experts. In the past, scholars have argued that experts had the ability to rebuff organizational attempts to control them. However, in an era with increased digitalization and centralization in organizations, experts risk losing control. How experts react when facing this increased centralization and digitalization is not well understood. Thus, this study seeks to improve knowledge on how experts react as organizations digitalize and centralize control over tasks. To do so, we studied a large energy company, which sought to increase its control over tasks and reduce the autonomy of its expert engineers by implementing an organizational change that included centralization and digital control. Using in-depth interviews, we portray how the expert workers reclaimed control using three micro-level tactics – strategic compliance and workaround, using legacy to reclaim control and concealing expert control. Based on these findings, our paper makes three contributions to the literature on experts and control. First, we provide the concept of ‘stealth work’, outlining how experts can reclaim control when centralization and digitalization have otherwise stripped them of status and power. Second, we highlight how expert control may be nested in organizations as a legacy, which experts can use when facing centralization and digitalization, and finally, we highlight how experts can engage in small hacks that curb the usefulness of digital control systems.

Smart logistics nodes: concept and classification

ABSTRACT This paper presents the Smart Logistics Node concept, which combines the physical infrastructure of logistics nodes with digital systems to enhance collaboration. The Smart Logistics Node benefits from data sharing, supporting infrastructure, and Connected and Automated Transport (CAT) technologies. Based on a literature review on logistics nodes and CAT, we propose a general classification of Smart Logistics Nodes distinguishing upon the node function, degree of organisational (de-)centralisation, digital integration, and infrastructure support for automated driving. Then, we classify sixteen logistics nodes and find that high digital integration is common while automation is lacking. Further automation entails mixed traffic on public roads and requires organisational changes that do not always align with current business models. Our work supports the adoption of emerging technology at logistics nodes and the comparability of business cases. Ultimately, node authorities can use our concept and classification to draw a roadmap to develop CAT capabilities.

ОРГАНІЗАЦІЙНІ БАР'ЄРИ ЕФЕКТИВНОЇ КОМУНІКАЦІЇ НА ПІДПРИЄМСТВІ

The article aims to explore the role and essence of organizational barriers that arise in the process of communication within enterprises. It is established that organizational communication is the process of exchanging information and ideas within an organization with the goal of achieving common objectives. Among the five dimensions of organizational structure, organizational centralization and formalization are identified as crucial for enhancing communication efficiency. It is demonstrated that the main organizational barriers in the communication process, stemming from incorrectly defined centralization scales, include the presence of excessive information resources at the top management level, lack of complete information at the operational level, underutilization of human capital at middle and lower management levels, a significant volume of incomplete information, the need to address operational tasks at the top management level, and low levels of organizational independence for lower-level units. Communication barriers associated with excessive formalization encompass the inability to provide unofficial explanations for discrepancies, limitations on the use of knowledge, obstacles to changes and innovations, barriers to integrating employees and organizational units into the communication process, and restrictions on communication with the external environment. Survey results confirm that an excessive level of centralization leads to a spiral of dependency, increasing pressure on lower management structures and further centralization of management. Decentralization ensures the accuracy of decision-making, bringing decision-making closer to the point of problem occurrence, and allows top management to focus on resolving strategic issues. Formalization has a positive impact on the communication process of organizations in the early stages of development and growth. It organizes the flow of information and contributes to its standardization, facilitating the coordination of communication among network participants. The occurrence of barriers to excessive formalization in the communication process depends on the size, maturity, and diversification of the activities of individual organizations.

A Review of the Psychological Impact of Leader-Experienced Frustrations and Inspirations: the Moderating Roles of Gender, Stage of Moral Development, and Organizational Centralization

A Review of the Psychological Impact of Leader-Experienced Frustrations and Inspirations: the Moderating Roles of Gender, Stage of Moral Development, and Organizational Centralization

From Social Networks to Political Parties: Indigenous Party-Building in Bolivia

While existing scholarship recognizes the centrality of social organizations for party-building efforts, how network structures condition party-building remains underexamined. This article argues that a core property of the network environments within which proto-parties emerge—structural resilience—shapes opportunities for proto-parties’ expansion and consolidation. More resilient network structures—those with multiple pathways available for expansion—decrease proto-parties’ vulnerability to structural threats and allow them to circumvent competition. To evaluate this theory, I examine the organizational networks of three comparable indigenous party-building efforts in Bolivia. Using original network data and a mixed-methods approach, I demonstrate that MAS-IPSP succeeded in establishing itself as the indigenous party because of the structural resilience of the network environment within which it originated. By contrast, its counterparts failed when targeted network attacks undermined their access to organizational spaces critical to their expansion strategies. The findings reveal often-overlooked variation in the relationship between social organizations and political parties.

현대 민간경비 산업의 다각화와 발전 전략

This study attempted a comprehensive analysis of the expansion strategy and obstacles of the modern private security industry. The private security industry has grown by overcoming the limitations of public security services and meeting individual and private needs, and to this end, it has been analyzed that it has been expanded through various strategies, including providing customized security services to individual and private areas, utilizing technology-oriented security services, and organically integrating manpower and machines to provide safety and status information.
 However, the modern private security industry is facing a number of obstacles. Examples of these factors were self-accidents and crimes, lack of marketing, problems related to the manpower-oriented industrial structure, and the acidity of non-integrated organizations. These factors were found to undermine the perception and trust of private security services.
 Accordingly, it was suggested that in order to strengthen the private security industry, ethics education, marketing strategies, improvement of manpower education and evaluation, and efforts to strengthen organizational centralization and cooperation should be needed.

The Love for International Organizations

Abstract Albeit the object of compelling criticisms in recent decades, international organizations continue to occupy a very central place in the practical, conceptual, cognitive, imaginary, and emotional universe of international lawyers. This article argues that the resilient centrality of international organizations in international legal thought and practice is the manifestation of international lawyers’ love for such institutions. This article’s main aim is to provide an account of the drivers that inform international lawyers’ love for international organizations with a view to elucidating what lies behind the centrality of international organizations in international legal thought and practice. Among the drivers of international lawyers’ love for international organizations, attention is paid to the representations of international organizations as taking care of people, as showing where to look for power, as knowing so much, as romanticising history, as providing a shared standard of experience, as textualising the universe, as providing and organizing space for discontent, as expanding international lawyers’ field of study, and as holding many secrets.

Defenders of an Imagined Empire. The Russian Diaspora as a Tool of Propaganda and Anti-Democratic Politics in the Central and Southeast Asian Region

The article analyzes the role of the Russian diaspora in the policy of the Russian Federation authorities during Russia’s war in Ukraine. The author analyzes the mechanisms of centralization, consolidation and instrumentalization of organizations of so-called compatriots outside Russia, in the area of Central and Southeast Asia. The process of institutionalization of the diaspora and the creation of a coherent system of economic, cultural and repatriation policy management by the central authorities of the Russian Federation are critically analyzed. Russia, working with the diaspora, is extremely effective in exploiting the potential of its human capital, which, according to UN reports, is estimated at 11 million people, the second largest diaspora in the world after the Indian diaspora.

What can plant science learn from animal nervous systems?

I welcome Segundo-Ortin & Calvo’s (2023) call for a rigorous science of plant behavior and physiology. My commentary addresses three points drawn from the literature on animal brains that could help elucidate the possibility of cognition and sentience in plants: (1) the presumed requirement of a centralized brain; (2) centralization of control versus heterarchical organization; and (3) connecting plant research with research on animal nervous systems.

Representative Assemblies in Early Modern European State‐Building: Evidence from Four Experiences

The article reassesses the role played by parliaments and other representative structures in the European state‐building processes. It points to a need of going beyond the traditional antagonist conception of the relationships between rulers and social forces rooted in comparative historical political science, substituting it with a theory grounded in the concept of political exchange. A preliminary analysis of four cases (Brandenburg‐Prussia, Dutch Republic, Poland, and Sweden) is conducted, with the purpose of singling out the “internal” determinants — that is, institutional properties of the assemblies — that allowed them to integrate into the institutional framework of the states in formation, or that hindered such an integration. These determinants are found to consist in three main factors: organisational centralisation, working autonomy, and a significant interdependence relationship with a distinct and relatively autonomous governmental centre.

Graph Analysis of Functional Brain Topology Using Minimum Spanning Tree in Subjective Cognitive Decline.

Subjects with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) are proposed as a potential population to screen for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Investigating brain topologies would help to mine the neuromechanisms of SCD and provide new insights into the pathogenesis of AD. Objectively cognitively unimpaired subjects from communities who underwent resting-state BOLD-fMRI and clinical assessments were included. The subjects were categorized into SCD and normal control (NC) groups according to whether they exhibited self-perceived cognitive decline and were worried about it. The minimum spanning tree (MST) of the functional brain network was calculated for each subject, based on which the efficiency and centrality of the brain network organization were explored. Hippocampal/parahippocampal volumes were also detected to reveal whether the early neurodegeneration of AD could be seen in SCD. A total of 49 subjects in NC and 95 subjects in SCD group were included in this study. We found the efficiency and centrality of brain network organization, as well as the hippocampal/parahippocampal volume were preserved in SCD. Besides, SCD exhibited normal cognitions, including memory, language, and execution, but increased depressive and anxious levels. Interestingly, language and execution, instead of memory, showed a significant positive correlation with the maximum betweenness centrality of the functional brain organization and hippocampal/parahippocampal volume. Neither depressive nor anxious scales exhibited correlations with the brain functional topologies or hippocampal/parahippocampal volume. SCD exhibited preserved efficiency and centrality of brain organization. In clinical practice, language and execution as well as depression and anxiety should be paid attention in SCD.

Avoiding Risk, Protecting the “Vulnerable”: A Story of Performative Ethics and Community Research Relationships

In February 2019, OUTSaskatoon, a 2SLGBTQ+ resource centre in Saskatoon, SK, received 1.1 M in federal funds to support a five-year project set to intervene in the instances and societal perpetuation of gender-based violence toward the 2SLGBTQ+ community. The project involved partnerships between OUTSaskatoon and the University of Saskatchewan, including a comprehensive research and evaluation stream to accompany the delivery of front-line services and educational activities. During the project’s application to the University’s Research Ethics Board (REB), members of the ethics review committee expressed heightened levels of fear and discomfort not only with the subject-matter, but with the role (and centrality) of the community organization within the research process. The documented experience explores pressing barriers to effective and ethical community-university research partnerships. To this end, the authors explore their communications with the REB alongside the themes of “vulnerability,” “risk-aversion,” and more broadly regarding the timelines of community work versus university processes. Together these themes maintain a culture of academic exceptionalism that causes significant barriers to the development of reciprocal partnerships between community partners and universities. In this case, the outcome was hopeful, as a formal complaint to the REB received a documented apology. In documenting this specific, though not unique, experience, we aim to highlight the possibilities for leaning in and building ethical space between and through community and academic environments to foreground both needed critique and collaborative pathways forward.

ЗАВЕРШАЮЩИЙ ЭТАП ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ БЮРО КРАЕВЕДЕНИЯ ССОРГО В ПРИЕНИСЕЙСКОЙ СИБИРИ (1929–1930 ГГ.)

1929–1930 are dated as the final stage of the activity of Bureau of Local Studies (since 1929 known as Bureau Massive of Local Studies) in Krasnoyarsk. For a short period, there were created institutional and financial facilities for its work, cooperation with local studies circles were intensified, the educational and agitational campaigns were launched on the factories. Special attention was paid to the description of the natural wealth of the distinct districts (i.e. forests and fodder supply, cedar craft, extractable resources, hunting, fishing and environmental protection), folk medicine and veterinary medicine. At the same time, gradual focus shifting from real work to design instructional programs and questionaries led to formalisation of their activity, and employee-members lost their interest to researches. In March 1930 Bureau of Local Studies stopped their activity. From the beginning of 1930 the government set about increasing centralization and unification of local studies organizations, dissolution of their independence to turn local studies into powerful social and political movement to serve socialist construction under the full government and party control. There was created a graduated system of local studies organisations. So Middle Siberian Branch of Russian Geographical Society was turned into Studying of Eastern Siberia Branch in Irkutsk. Further there were created subdivisions in Turukhansk, Balakhta, Kansk and Yeniseysk. To 1937 total bureaucratization, forced focus of attention not on the science, but on the propaganda, mobbing of experienced hands down to repressions, resulted into the dissolution of local studies organizations in the country. The activity of Bureau of Local Studies is examined and analysed in details on the basis of archive materials of State Archive of the Krasnoyarsk Territory about arranging of the mass local studies in 1929–1930.

INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL JUSTICE ON JOB PERFORMANCE AND OCB OF EMPLOYEES: PATH THROUGH WORK ENGAGEMENT

Purpose of the study: The study intends to find the interaction of Performance Appraisal Justice (PAJ) and work engagement (WE) to predict employee job performance (JP) and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) under the umbrella of fairness heuristic theory (JHT) and social exchange theory (SET). 
 Methodology: Hypotheses testing was done using linear regression data on the data set of 325 respondents. The results are significant and indicated that Justice in the performance appraisal system is positively related to employee outcomes (OCB and job performance) with mediating effect of work engagement. 
 Main Findings: Interaction between exogenous, endogenous, and intervening variables suggests that there is a positive relationship between PAJ and WE and WE mediate the relationship between PAJ and OCB and PAJ JP. In the organizational setting of Pakistan, this study addresses PAJ and its important outcomes which are beneficial for the organization’s effective outcomes.
 Applications of this study: This study throws light on the management, organizational, and administrative sciences literature, especially the human resource, organizations, and industrial behavior perspective. Administrators and human resource managers can apply the findings of this study. The study can be applied to both the public and private sectors.
 Originality/Novelty: Pakistani organizations have high collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and power distance, centralization, bureaucracy, and authority in organizations. Therefore, this study has proved some prominent outcomes as compared to countries with a more constant climate. The study sheds light on very important aspects of workplace behavior such as justice, work engagement, OCB, and performance with a particular focus on developing countries.

What is educational entrepreneurship? Strategic action, temporality, and the expansion of US higher education

The massive expansion of US higher education after World War II is a sociological puzzle: a spectacular feat of state capacity-building in a highly federated polity. Prior scholarship names academic leaders as key drivers of this expansion, yet the conditions for the possibility and fate of their activity remain under-specified. We fill this gap by theorizing what Randall Collins first called educational entrepreneurship as a special kind of strategic action in the US polity. We argue that the cultural authority and organizational centrality of universities in the US national context combine with historical contingency to episodically produce conditions under which academic credentials can be made viable solutions to social problems. We put our theorization to the test by revisiting and extending a paradigmatic case: the expansion of engineering education at Stanford University between 1945 and 1969. Invoking several contemporaneous and subsequent cases, we demonstrate the promise of theorizing educational expansion as an outcome of strategic action by specifically located actors over time.

Who drives green innovations? Characteristics and policy implications for green building collaborative innovation networks in China

The delivery of green buildings, as a good approach for reducing energy consumption, has yielded lots of innovative outcomes. The need to spark effective innovations has become crucial. Yet, there has been no systematic examination of the green buildings field. This study provides a novel network-based and longitudinal perspective for examining the innovative collaboration of different types of organizations. Secondary data were collected from 223 projects receiving Green Building Innovation Awards (GBIA) in China. By using the social network analysis (SNA) method, the following results were obtained. First, collaborative networks of green-building innovation exhibit a salient feature of being scale-free, indicating a trend of path dependence in partner selections. Second, compared with the degree and closeness centrality, the betweenness centrality of those core organizations is growing faster over time. Unexpectedly, consulting enterprises, rather than design institutes or universities, are inclined to act as “bridges” during the innovative collaboration process. Thirdly, the average number of collaborations per GBIA organization is similar to that of theoretical disciplines (e.g., mathematics) but lower than that of experimental disciplines (e.g., medicine). With decreases in transitivity over time, the heterogeneity of networks has increased and the connections among different organizations are relying more on a few key enterprises or institutions. On this basis, a policy framework is presented that incorporates four governance strategies: “deactivation,” “framing,” “mobilizing,” and “synthesizing.” The findings shed new light on the development of innovation networks and the alignment of strategic decision-makings to facilitate the transformation of energy consumption in the built environment.

Multi-level muddling: Candidate strategies to “nationalize” local elections

Comparative literature has identified how political parties at subnational levels strategically refer to the performance of parties or policy issues at national level to varying degrees. Building upon these studies on multi-level electoral dynamics, the article demonstrates how individual legislative candidates, and not just parties, selectively adopt what we call “cross-level electoral appeals”(CLEAs): campaign messages which emphasize issues, performances, and actors in levels of government other than that which the candidate or party is seeking office. Advancing existing conceptualizations of nationalization, we posit that there are mainly three types of such CLEAs, those in which local candidates: 1) praise or criticize a specific national policy or 2) performance of the national government; or 3) emphasize personal linkages to national-level parties or politicians. The article investigates the potential factors which lead to more frequent CLEAs by observing candidate manifestos for local legislative elections in Japan. We use an original dataset from a sample of prefectures differently affected by specific national policies, candidates affiliated to parties differing in organizational centralization and from districts varying in seat magnitude as well as incumbent party popularity. To test hypotheses about national and local level party popularity as well as district-level variables on the frequency of such appeals, the article analyzed the data set using the novel methodology of not just counting, but also measuring the surface area of specific appeals in candidate manifestos. Through regression analysis, we find evidence of national government party popularity leading to more frequency of local candidate CLEAs. We also find that local candidates who are more dependent on the party vote (i.e. those in smaller district magnitudes and in centralized party organizations) are more prone to certain types of CLEAs.

Rethinking the Decentralization of Legislative Organization and its Implications for Policymaking: Evidence from Taiwan

AbstractIt can be challenging for a democratic government to effectively make policies that address crucial national problems. While a bulk of literature reports that many democracies have overcome this challenge through centralization of legislative organization, few studies have explained why legislative decentralization that allegedly impairs policymaking performance would take place. Drawing on Taiwan's experience and over 13,000 legislative bills proposed in Taiwan's parliament between 1993 and 2012, this article demonstrates that the legislative decentralization during the onset of Taiwan's democratization slightly revived the policymaking performance of a near-paralysed parliament. Like drinking poison to quench the thirst, myopic politicians may opt for legislative decentralization as an instant remedy to ease severe legislative obstruction, despite the unfavourable consequences that the resulting decentralized legislative organization may eventually bring about. These findings shed new light on the evolution of legislative organization and account for the difficulties in policymaking facing developing democracies.

The role of digitally-enabled employee voice in fostering positive change and affective commitment in centralized organizations

ABSTRACT This study investigated the extent to which organizational structure and communication climate influence employee voice and concomitant outcomes. Given the prevalent use of digital technologies, we examined two discrete types of employee voice: identifiable, in-person voice vs. anonymous, digitally-enabled voice. Findings demonstrated that (a) organizational centralization was negatively linked to freedom of speech; (b) freedom of speech increased employee voice both at work and through anonymous social media, and (c) both types of voice had positive relationships with organizational change, which subsequently enhanced commitment. Our study advances employee voice scholarship by (a) highlighting the significance of communication climate and the efficacy of digitally-enabled anonymous voice, and (b) proposing employee voice as a multidimensional construct that encompasses content, identifiability, and modality.

Нові інституційні формати розвитку світової електронної торгівлі

The article examines the growing trends of institutionalization of the global e-commerce. It reveals the multilevel and multifaceted character of this process, which extends to the policies of both national states and international organizations and regional associations, and involves both state and non-state structures. The identified main changes in national institutional systems related to digital transformation embrace: a clearer definition of strategic priorities and tools for stimulating investment in digital infrastructure and developing digital competences; creation of free e-commerce zones; and implementation of a sound legal framework for digital transactions focusing on consumer protection, personal data and intellectual property, guaranteeing cybersecurity, promoting competition and enhancing competitiveness for small, medium and micro-enterprises. At the same time, there is an increase in electronic protectionism and measures to restrict the freedom of commercial operations in cyberspace. The author argues that the global nature of cyberspace determines the centrality of global and regional international organizations in the creation of the latest institutional digital trade formats. A key role in the mechanisms of global regulation of e-commerce should be played by the World Trade Organization, which requires adjustments and innovations in its mechanisms and agreements, in particular for the implementation of regulatory standards for the innovative institutional e-business formats. At the same time, there is a process of forming a network of international organizations for digital trade regulation, with increased differentiation and specialization, on the one hand, and coordination and cooperation of their regulatory functions – on the other hand. Regional policies and regulatory institutions, as well as regional integration associations play an important role in this system. However, the institutional support for digital commerce at the regional level is characterized by a considerable level of heterogeneity, and driven by cultural traditions and differences in the levels of socio-economic development. Prepared within the research on Formation of the Institutions of International Electronic Commerce in the Conditions of Emerging Information and Network Based Economy topic of Research on the Institutional Architectonics of Information and Network project at the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of NAS of Ukraine (2018-2020), state registration No 0117U001686.