Organizational Viability Research Articles

"What We Know & What We Seek: Strategic Orientation, Knowledge Stock, Ambidexterity and Performance"

Ambidexterity is seen as an important organizational mechanism through which two contradictory types of learning – exploration and exploitation – can be simultaneously pursued and balanced. These two types of learning are needed to ensure both current and future organizational viability. Given the tensions that exist between exploration and exploitation, research has focused on how organizations can attain ambidexterity. In this paper we suggest that a firm’s strategic orientation, specifically entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation, could be important antecedents to ambidexterity since these perspectives provide firm-wide guiding principles that shape behaviors and actions. Further, we study the influence of a firm’s knowledge stock on these relations, as well as the relation between ambidexterity and firm performance. Results indicate that both strategic orientations enhance an organization’s ability to be ambidextrous, and that some types of knowledge stocks facilitate while other types of knowledge stocks hinder the influence of strategic orientation on ambidexterity as well as the subsequent influence of ambidexterity on firm performance.

Away from the Top: Exploring Strategic Leadership in an Emergent Strategic Initiative Process

Strategic leadership is essential to organizational viability and success. However, by looking only at the strategic leader of the organization, we may be missing important strategic leadership beh...

Issues of organizational cybernetics and viability beyond Beer’s viable systems model

The paper starts summarizing the claims of Beer’s viable systems model to identify five issues any viable organizations has to deal with in an unequivocal hierarchical structure of five interrelated systems. Then the evidence is introduced for additional issues and related viable structures of organizations, which deviate from Beer’s model. These issues are: (1) the establishment and (2) evolution of an organization; (3) systems for independent top-down control (like “Six Sigma”); (4) systems for independent bottom-up correction of performance problems (like “Kaizen”), both working outside a hierarchical structure; (5) pull production systems (“Just in Time”) and (6) systems for checks and balances of top-level power (like boards and shareholder meetings). Based on that an evolutionary approach to organizational cybernetics is outlined, addressing the establishment of organizations and possible courses of developments, including recent developments in quality and production engineering, as well as problems of setting and changing goal values determining organizational policies.

Special issue on organizational change, social viability and performance: models, constructs and empirical advances in M&A research

Special issue on organizational change, social viability and performance: models, constructs and empirical advances in M&A research

Communication for the Long Term: Information Allocation and Collective Reflexivity as Dynamic Capabilities

In this commentary, we propose that two communication practices, information allocation and collective reflexivity, are dynamic capabilities that help develop a firm’s long-term viability. The concept that an organization’s actions or inaction constrain or enhance its future options and outcomes and—ultimately—its long-term survival, is the organization’s viability. We discuss two facilitating conditions—presence awareness and organizational identification—and three organizational issues influencing the two communication practices that affect organizational viability—organizational members’ perceived environmental uncertainty, organizational members’ perceived scarcity of time, and feedback cycles between actions and outcomes that shape and are shaped by their temporal focus.

The business plan as a project: an evaluation of its predictive capability for business success

Although there is extensive research aimed at identifying the main success factors for new ventures, efforts directed at evaluating the real effect of the existence and quality of a business plan on a firm's survival chances have been limited. This study attempts to fill this gap by analyzing to what extent the quality of a business plan, measured according to its economic, financial and organizational viability, constitutes a good predictor of business survival; and how other variables related to the characteristics of the entrepreneur and the business can affect the predictive capability of the model under consideration. Hypotheses are tested using data collected from 2142 service firms. The results show that none of the three variables that evaluate business plan quality (economic, financial and organizational viability) seems to have a determining influence on survival chances. Adding essential characteristics related to the entrepreneur and the business (education and training, experience, kind of motivation, number of employees and start-up capital) does little to increase the model's predictive capabilities.

Management by Deception (MBD): The Need for Designing a Viable Strategy

Calling organizational effectiveness a strategy is just as much a scientific flaw as navigating organizations in accordance with so called “strategies”, based solely on military minded-, shareholder oriented-, and financially reduced tactics and surgical measures. [21, p. 1] Dysfunctional organizations per se are not the only problem moreover; we severely violate our perception of organizational and environmental reality. In this state of chaos we not only do not understand what we are doing but most importantly why we are doing it. We ignore the “main duty of business”, namely “survival” [9, p. 46], and additionally we observe the reality of the world as we can see it, via „reduction ad absurdum“of mere tactics and measures. Additionally we violate our perception of reality by limiting our awareness of the problems to be defined and the action taken to solve them. These actions regarding the managerial problems we have observed are largely dependent on the view that we as individuals or as groups who have encountered them have of “the system and perception of reality” to which they refer. [27, p. 199] The doctrine of today’s management , its value and strategy is viciously directed towards the mass to underscore its effectiveness as the one and only embodiment of truth to be observed for the mass not by mass and not by its real meaning but by its deceptive certitude. [12, p. 83-84] This distorted perception of reality played a vital role in Orwellian Newspeak [19, p. 3], a ubiquitous application of indoctrinated managerial truth. Our Business Schools may not become “The Ministry of Truth” [19, p. 3], but as the reader might observe, this has already been successfully manifested by a discipline called business administration. We as management scientists must be aware of this and not violate the most fundamental principle of scientific discourse, which has always demanded the separation of the observer from the observed as the principle of objectivity required for a scientific discipline. [27, p. 4] Actions according to the principles or ethics cannot be articulated, as Wittgenstein rightfully observed as they always reside in the action itself. [28, p. 5-6] Then morals cannot be separated from facts [8, p. 1], since facts, truths and actions based upon the empirical perception of reality and the preconditions created by organizations in the interests of claiming organizational viability and achieving its objectives are the embodiment of viable strategic management. This paper intends to foster awareness of the points mentioned above via a cybernetics lens in its creative circularity.

The Relationship-Based Care Model

The objective of this study was to assess the impact of the implementation of the relationship-based care (RBC) model on patient satisfaction, length of stay, and readmission rates in hospitalized patients. RBC model promotes organizational viability in critical areas that measure success, inclusive of clinical quality, patient satisfaction, and robust financial standing. A retrospective secondary analysis of aggregate patient satisfaction data, length of stay, and readmission rates at a rural Texas hospital was reviewed for the years 2009 and 2010. This study compared preimplementation data for year 2009 with postimplementation data for year 2010. Data support the positive influential impact of RBC model. A negative correlation was noted with readmission rates and a concomitant positive correlation with length of stay. Overall satisfaction with nursing did not reveal a significant correlation to the new care model. RBC model supports a patient-centered, collaborative care environment, maximizing potential reimbursement.

How interpersonal motives explain the influence of organizational culture on organizational productivity, creativity, and adaptation

Despite decades of research on organizational culture, the current literature lacks an orienting paradigm by which research findings can be accumulated regarding specific cultural forms’ influence on specific organizational outcomes. This paper introduces an AIM (ambidextrous interpersonal motives) model of organizational culture. First, drawing on literature from both individual psychology and social anthropology, we suggest that organizational culture can be understood through a framework of interpersonal motives (cooperation, competition, and autonomy). Second, we extend research on organizational ambidexterity to describe both pure and hybrid forms of interpersonally based organizational culture. Third, we suggest that pure forms of culture have consequences for individual achievement and citizenship, with unclear implications for higher level outcomes, while combinations of cultural motives (hybrid forms) have positive consequences for higher level outcomes such as organizational productivity, creativity, and adaptation. Fourth, we address the importance of subcultures and temporal considerations in the model with regard to organizational viability and overall performance. Finally, we outline the theoretical and practical implications for future research in organizational culture.

Market positioning: the shifting effects of niche overlap

Organizational ecology models of market dynamics emphasize the competitioninducing role of inter-organizational niche overlap—targeting similar market niches increases competitive pressure and thus reduces organizations’ fitness. Recent studies, however, have suggested that moderate niche overlap may positively influence organizational viability by enhancing comparability and promoting legitimacy spillovers. Data on consumers’ impressions of Dutch music festivals and on the growth and decline of early Internet search engines were used to test the proposition that niche overlap may, in fact, be non-monotonically related to organizational fitness. Since new organizations must first gain recognition by being comparable to others, they will benefit more from niche overlap than older incumbents. The results confirm that both the appeal that organizations generate as well as their growth rates are non-monotonically related to niche overlap, and that positive effects of niche overlap decrease with organizational age.

Sustainable benchmarking of supply chains: the case of the food industry

Long-term organisational viability and competitiveness should not be evaluated solely in terms of financial measures. Investors, policy makers and other stakeholders increasingly seek to evaluate performance with respect to sustainability – the environmental, social and economic performance of an organisation. But measuring and improving the sustainability performance of supply chains is challenging. Using one of the world's most critical supply chains, the food supply chain, we introduce and apply a multi-stage procedure to help analytically evaluate supply chains’ sustainability performance. The method involves development of sustainability indicators, data collection, data transformation using rescaling and determining of importance ratings using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The proposed methodology demonstrates how quantitative statistical data can be combined with expert opinion to construct an overall index of sustainability. Stakeholders can use the index to evaluate and guide sustainability performance of supply chains. Strengths and opportunities, as well as limitations of the methodology are discussed, and sensitivity analysis is performed.

More Than a Feeling

A key insight from investigations of individual relative deprivation (IRD) is that people can experience objective disadvantages differently. In this study, university faculty (N = 953) who reported greater IRD in response to a mandatory furlough (i.e., involuntary pay reductions) were more likely to (a) voice options designed to improve the university (voice), (b) consider leaving their job (exit), and (c) neglect their work responsibilities (neglect), but were (d) less likely to express loyalty to the university (loyalty). Consistent with the emotions literature, (a) anger mediated the relationship between IRD and voice, (b) fear between IRD and exit, (c) sadness between IRD and neglect, and (d) gratitude between IRD and loyalty. IRD was inversely associated with self-reported physical and mental health via these different emotional pathways. These results show how discrete emotions can explain responses to IRD and, in turn, contribute to organizational viability and the health of its members.

Angels on the head of a pin

PurposeBy proposing a comprehensive measurement framework, this paper attempts to move the nascent body of theoretical and empirical work on performance measurement in social entrepreneurship ventures (SEVs) into reach for practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to help social entrepreneurs and academics put current knowledge to work to gain usable feedback about the success of operations.Design/methodology/approachThis paper offers a framework for measuring firm survival, social action, and social change in SEVs based on a review of theoretical and empirical work.FindingsEarly work in SEV performance measurement shows consensus that social impact is at least as important as organizational viability, albeit more difficult to measure. The SEV measurement framework developed herein creates the link between firm viability (Survival), direct social action (Action), and long‐term social impact on the technical, political, and cultural aspects of society (Change) leading to the SAC framework.Originality/valueThe framework proposed in the paper gives practitioners a guide for comprehensive performance measurement based on their unique organizational mission using the SAC model. Widespread use of a measurement tool that addresses viability, action, and impact, may ultimately improve the efficiency with which SEVs attack social problems.

Drifting Tastes, Inertia, and Organizational Viability

Why do organizations generally lose their competitive edge as they get older? Recent theory and research on the dynamics of audiences and categories in markets sheds some new light on issues of organizational obsolescence.

A systemic analysis of patterns of organizational breakdowns in accidents: A case from Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) operations

In recent years, many accident models and techniques have shifted their focus from shortfalls in the actions of practitioners to systemic causes in the organization. Accident investigation techniques (e.g., STAMP) have been developed that looked into the flaws of control processes in the organization. Organizational models have looked into general patterns of breakdown related to structural vulnerabilities and gradual degradation of performance. Although some degree of cross-fertilization has been developed between these two trends, safety analysts are left on their own to integrate this gap between control flaws and patterns of organizational breakdown in accident investigation. This article attempts to elaborate the control dynamics of the Systems Theoretic Accident Model and Process (STAMP) technique on the basis of a theoretical model of organizational viability (i.e., the Viable Systems Model). The joint STAMP–VSM framework is applied to an accident from a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) organization to help analysts progress from the analysis of control flaws to the underlying patterns of breakdown. The joint framework may help analysts to rethink the safety organization, model new information loops and constraints, look at the adaptation and steering functions of the organization and finally, develop high leverage interventions.

Cybernetically sound organizational structures II

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how the viable system model (VSM) and de Sitter's design theory can complement each other in the context of the diagnosis and design of viable organizations.Design/methodology/approachKey concepts from Beer's model and de Sitter's design theory are introduced and analyzed in order to show how they relate.FindingsThe VSM provides insight into the related systems necessary and sufficient for viability. As such, it specifies criteria supporting the diagnosis and design of organizational infrastructures, i.e. of organizational structures, HR systems, and technology. However, it does not explicitly conceptualize and provide a detailed heuristic for the design of organizational structures. De Sitter's theory fills in this gap.Originality/valueThe paper illustrates how, based on a rudimentary model of organizational viability, de Sitter's design theory positively addresses the question of how to diagnose and design organizational structures that add to the viability of organizations.

Cybernetically sound organizational structures I: de Sitter's design theory

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to use de Sitter's design theory to show how organizational structures can be designed so as to attenuate organizational disturbances and amplify regulatory potential. It is argued that organizational structures with low values on so‐called design‐parameters are themselves no source of disturbances and have the required built‐in regulatory potential.Design/methodology/approachKey concepts from de Sitter's design theory are introduced and used to show how structures can attenuate disturbances and amplify regulatory potential.FindingsThe analysis in this paper deepens our understanding of the role of organizational structures for dealing with organizational complexity, and of the design parameters that should be manipulated to achieve structural attenuation and amplification.Practical implicationsHaving a structure permitting organizations to attenuate and amplify is a crucial condition for organizational viability. This paper provides guidelines for the design of such structures.Originality/valueThis is one of a limited number of studies that makes apparent how general insights from (management) cybernetic (e.g. viability, attenuation and amplification) may be realized in organizations by their structural design.

Model‐based management (MBM): a vital prerequisite for organizational viability

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce and conceptualize the topic of Model‐based management (MBM) in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe relevance of different types of models for management is elaborated, and a research agenda for this new topic is proposed.FindingsAn analysis of the concept, role and function of models in the context of management and organization, as well as an outline for a new understanding of both the concept and role of models for management, grounded in system science is found.Practical implicationsUltimately, MBM can enhance the intelligence, adaptiveness and viability of organizations of any kind: private, public, non‐profit, large or small.Originality/valueTaking models as the pivot of a research project on general management is unconventional. The gain promised by such an innovative scope derives from its high potential: both theory and practice can benefit from the envisaged research. Theoretically speaking, advances in management and organization science can be achieved, while on the practical side, the insights gained will caution managers and leaders against succumbing to the traps of complexity, while radically improving their managerial effectiveness.

Genre‐deviating artist entry: the role of authenticity and fuzziness

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to conceptually elaborate two important mechanisms, authenticity and fuzziness, that affect how audiences react to deviations from existing genres by artists that are making their first entry. In cultural industries such as music, social categorization systems play an important role in the success of actors. Audience members evaluate entering artists vis‐à‐vis the existing, collective system of categories and related normative social codes, and may or may not impose penalties for code violations.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper and the conceptual framework is built on recent theorization regarding social categories in organizational fields. A key premise is that such categories, including musical genres, are fuzzy with blurred boundaries and partial membership. Such fuzziness is likely to affect organizational viability and dynamics.FindingsBased on the conceptualization, the baseline proposition is that artists making their first entry are likely to face higher penalties by audiences if they deviate from existing genres. However, the higher the idiosyncratic authenticity of an artist, the smaller such penalties are. Moreover, we expect penalties to be smaller when genre fuzziness increases.Practical implicationsBesides contributions to theory, the propositions that are stated in the paper should have relevance to record companies and artists when they are making strategic decisions regarding artist identity upon first entry.Originality/valueThe paper offers a novel perspective to extant research in music regarding genres, categories, and organizational identities. Furthermore, the paper contributes to recently emerged sociological theory on fuzzy categories and authenticity.

Route to '66: Ray Bliss, the 1966 Election and the Development of the Republican Service Party

The pace of the Republican Party’s recovery after Goldwater’s 1964 loss, highlighted by the party’s competitiveness in the 1966 elections, has raised a number of questions about how the party was able to reorganize and rebuild so rapidly. What was the nature of the organizational changes introduced at the RNC after the 1964 loss? Moreover, what effect did such changes have on t party’s he long-term development of the modern Republican Party? By examining the party-building process that followed the defeat, particularly in the areas staff training, message development and fundraising, I seek to illustrate how a new, more centralized and professional “service” approach to party organization, pioneered by RNC Chair Ray Bliss, played a critical role in the party’s rapid recovery, as well as its organizational viability over time.