Organizational Strategic Management Research Articles

Contact Center Operations Management Systems Architecture and Reliability

Contact centers play a critical role in service businesses by acting as the interface between customers and the organizations. They are strategic tools to establish a relationship with customers to promote customers satisfaction, which can lead to an increase in customer loyalty and sales. One important factor impacting customer satisfaction is the service quality, which should be constantly monitored and aligned with the organization strategic management. This paper investigates contact centers from a systems perspective to help decision-makers have a holistic view of customer support process. We present an architecture of the contact center operations management system incorporating concepts of enterprise transformation, and describe its components and functions. As reliability is one of the most important dimensions of service quality, we propose a mathematical model to measure the reliability of the system. The developed system architecture and reliability metric are general enough and can be implemented in any industry. An empirical analysis using data from a major insurance company is provided to illustrate the applicability of the system design, reliability, and performance control using a control chart.

Gerencia estratégica: herramienta para la toma de decisiones en las organizaciones

La gerencia estratégica en las organizaciones reviste gran importancia, al ser quien define el direccionamiento del negocio en un futuro inmediato; en este sentido, las acciones que delinean tal direccionamiento, deben estar alineadas con el pensamiento de quienes se encuentran al frente de los negocios. El objetivo de este trabajo, consiste en analizar la gerencia estratégica en las organizaciones como herramienta para la toma de decisiones y responder a las exigencias del entorno competitivo. Se asume para efectos de la investigación desarrollada, una postura enmarcada en la metodología cualitativa, con enfoque documental, sentando las bases para una investigación de mayor alcance. Se revisan documentos especializados con el fin de realizar una disertación teórica inicial, tales como Thompson y Strickland (2004), David (2003); Chiavenato (2011), entre otros. Los resultados indican que la literatura especializada en el área es diversa y arrojan elementos esenciales para la construcción del pensamiento estratégico, este último caracterizado por el desarrollo de procesos críticos en la mente del estratega que coadyuvan a mejorar las capacidades de las organizaciones, en aras de formular y desplegar estrategias con mayor efectividad. El pensamiento estratégico no se concentra únicamente en la elaboración de planes, va más allá, permitiendo cambiar modelos mentales de quienes toman las decisiones en las organizaciones.

Firm authenticity: the construct, research propositions, and managerial implications

Firm authenticity is conceptualized as a dual-component hierarchical model, suggesting that authenticity is manifested at different organizational (employee, leadership, and strategic management) levels, as well as in the organization’s marketplace presence (products, brands, and corporate identity). Firm authenticity is distinguished from trustworthiness, corporate social responsibility, and market orientation, providing insight into the strategy’s theoretical boundaries. Drawing on signaling and stakeholder theories, a mediated conceptual model capturing a series of research propositions is advanced. Signaling theory suggests that signaling authenticity can be effective, and stakeholder theory proposes that firm authenticity appeals to all stakeholders, resulting in increased shareholder value and potentially shielding the firm from negative consumer reactions, whereas signaling theory proposes that it positively influences consumer related outcome variables (loyalty and purchase intentions). Managers are encouraged to integrate authenticity into their organizations, while research extensions that operationalize the construct and test its nomological validity, using latent variable modeling, secondary data analysis, or a combination thereof are recommended.

Balanced scorecard: uma proposta para a gestão estrátegica de uma cooperativa de crédito rural

This study proposes a model for organizational strategic management of a credit union, through the use of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and the perspectives proposed by Kaplan and Norton (1997), to identify what are the benefits that the implementation of the BSC can offer for a credit union. Characterized as an exploratory case study applied to a credit union in the state of Santa Catarina, with analysis of qualitative data. For structuring the proposal considered the responses of managers and employees and the four perspectives proposed by the BSC, pondering goals, objectives and initiatives for financial prospects, customers, internal processes and learning and growth. The study results show that: (i) the weaknesses of the institution can be corrected based on goals and initiatives especially from the standpoint of customers and improve internal processes; (ii) identification of goals and objectives allows the definition of initiatives directly focused on achieving better outcomes for the entity; (iii) strategies for the management of the credit union are reflected in initiatives that aggregate and involve all employees through the methodology proposed by the BSC.

Integrating the Integrated Care Organisation – Optimising Resources, Operations, and Services to Create Real Value

Introduction : Implementing Integrated Care to promote and protect the health of organisations is massively complex. Historically, healthcare practitioners thought in terms of single patient acute encounters within healthcare facilities, and seek to help the patient become “apparently well” again. With an ageing population, multiple morbidities, complex socioeconomic factors, and increasing costs, we must now reconsider our paradigms. In Singapore, the focus has been on our “models of care and “pilots”, and less on the organisational adaptations to purposefully steer, sustainably support, and coherently integrate these efforts for maximal impact. This presentation describes a generic framework for organisational strategic management with which one charitable organisation, long operating as and recognised as a medical clinic-based service provider, is reinventing itself. Background : The organisation, originally focused on a single disease, had shifted in the recent decade towards general medical clinic services, including laboratory testing, statutory examinations, and walk-in acute primary care. It also built a substantial network of facilities and financial reserves. To return to its foundational mandate of serving the underprivileged in the current milieu, it set itself the overarching goal of “creating the largest impact for its available resources”. To do so, it would have to optimise (a) how it uses its resources, (b) how well it runs its services, (c) what services it chooses to run, and (d) how beneficial the services actually are to its clients. There are however cautionary tales of projects that were well-meaning but tangentially driven, well-designed but poorly implemented, well-run but not scalable, and well-implemented but with little actual impact. Method : Intuitively, “impact created with available resources” is “impact” divided by “resources”, not very useful because impact is hard to measure and the single number is not illuminating. By inserting additional terms (which cancel each other out) into the quotient, a simple equation was constructed: “expenditure/resources * activities/expenditure * outcomes/activities * impact/outcomes”. The terms correspond respectively to “utilisation”, “efficiency”, “efficacy” and “value”. Result : The generalisable matrix coherently and comprehensively relates utilisation, efficiency, efficacy and value. “Utilisation” is the proportion of total resources, both financial and operational, in use for the benefit to its patients. The business and investment arms add to available resources, while the charitable services seeks its maximal deployment. The next two concepts – “efficiency” and “efficacy” – are analysed by services lines by computing their respective budgets, expenditures, volumes, costs of delivery, average outcomes, and other parameters. Lastly, the “value” generated by each service line is estimated by assigning intuitive weights to various outcomes. This component that most relies on judgement will be both separate and yet articulated with the other measures. Discussion : The framework allows for a coherent and comprehensive conversation on the services delivered. It is now possible to discern the well-performing services that have little impact, and the challenged ones that would, and directs attention to the improvements required to maximise benefit to the population. The discussion also describes how this management control framework can be used by for-profit and not-for-profit agencies.

Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management in Organization

Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management in Organization

Voice of a “Seasoned” OB Professor

I will be making some highly personalized comments on the Aguinis et al. (2017) focal article concerning rigor versus relevance, renaming/rebranding industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology, and I-O psychology versus business school organizational behavior (OB). Before commenting, however, I feel compelled to briefly frame my remarks from the perspective of my 50-year academic career. For example, I think it is important to note that I go back to the early 1960s at the University of Iowa, College of Business. I was studying for my PhD in the just emerging field of management and organizations (nothing was offered called organizational behavior or strategic management). However, and very unusual for the times for management majors, I also took a minor in the psychology department concentrating on social and I-O psychology. Also, after receiving my PhD in 1965, for my 2-year military obligation, after infantry officer training I was assigned to West Point and taught cadets the required psychology course and military leadership. This background had a formative and lasting impact on my thinking about OB and I-O psychology.

Aligning organizational culture and strategic human resource management

PurposeAs strategic human resource management (SHRM) continues to grow as an important issue for organizations, it is imperative to examine all factors that contribute to the success and failure of the organization’s human resources (HR) and strategy implementation. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that organizational culture should be an integral factor when considering SHRM. The authors also present a model for the strategy-culture-SHRM linkage and propositions to guide future research.Design/methodology/approachThe authors present a conceptual model proposing organizational culture as a moderator of the relationship between an organization’s strategy and SHRM.FindingsIn addition to the conceptual model, the authors present a number of testable propositions for determining how firm performance and effectiveness may depend on the linkage between strategy and the utilization of HR as a competitive advantage.Originality/valueCurrently, there is a lack of research regarding the conceptualization of organizational culture as a moderator between an organization’s strategy and SHRM. We discuss the importance of the alignment of HR both as a source of competitive advantage and an influence on an organization’s strategy. The authors integrate the current research to create arguments for testable propositions and future research directions. The authors also argue that misalignments may occur which may prove detrimental to the organization.

Assessing Corporate Sustainability integration for corporate self-reflection

This article aims to shed light on mechanisms to integrate a strategy on Corporate Sustainability in companies. The analysis is based on a holistic method derived from organisation theory, organisational behaviour theory and strategic management theory. The process of integration into the organisational system is explored by analysing the coalescence of organisational continuous improvement, structure and culture. The coherent use of integration mechanisms is defined as key for a successful CS integration. The LEAPFROCS method is presented to capture the success of integration mechanisms and their application. The method is tested using empirical data from 2 case studies. The results of the data analysis – the patterns – were validated in discussion with company representatives. The results show that the process of CS integration is company-specific, as is the selection of patterns to create a self-reflection of companies on CS integration catalysing future corporate strategies for improving CS integration into the specific company’s organisational systems.

Upsides to Dark and Downsides to Bright Personality: A Multidomain Review and Future Research Agenda

It has become common practice to refer to personality traits as being either bright or dark, and a wealth of research has provided support for the effects of both bright traits and dark traits in organizations. This research has largely focused on explaining the downside of dark traits and the upside of bright traits. However, a recent trend has emerged in which scholars are challenging the long-standing convention that bright traits are always beneficial and dark traits are always detrimental. Instead, novel research has begun to explore the potential upside of dark traits and downside of bright traits. In this review, we adopt a multidomain perspective—integrating work from organizational behavior, human resources, strategic management, and entrepreneurship—to highlight this growing body of research. Specifically, we focus on the work advancing our understanding of the complexity of personality, such as identifying situations in which dark traits may be advantageous or beneficial and detecting curvilinear effects that suggest too much of a bright trait may be disadvantageous. Furthermore, we provide a brief discussion on special considerations for the measurement of both bright and dark traits and close with a series of avenues for future research.

Organizational Status: Theoretical Development and Future Directions

Podolny(1993)가 사회적 지위의 개념을 조직 수준에서 이론화한 이후, 조직지위 이론은 조직이론 및 경영전략 분야에서 그 영향력을 확대해 왔다. 조직지위의 이론적 함의를 평가하기 위한 리뷰들이 2010년 이후 발표되면서 이론의 체계화에 도움을 주었는데, 본 논문은 조직지위 이론의 주요 연구들을 시대에 따라 검토하여 이론의 발전과정을 조명하는데 초점을 두었다는 점에서 기존 리뷰와 차별을 시도하였다. 이러한 이론사적 연구를 통해 향후 미래 연구 발전방향에 관한 시사점을 더 잘 제공할 수 있을 것으로 기대하였다. 시대별 주요연구를 고찰한 결과, 첫째, 조직지위 이론의 태동기인 1990년대 에는 주로 Podolny와 동료학자들을 중심으로 조직지위의 긍정적 효과와 조직지위가 조직간 관계에 미치는 영향이 주로 연구되었던 반면, 조직지위 이론의 성장기로 볼 수 있는 2000년대에는 다양한 소속과 학파의 연구자로 저변이 확대되면서 조직지위의 변화, 의사결정 및 행위의 제약으로서 조직지위의 역할 등으로 연구주제가 다양화되었고, 다른 사회적 평가 메커니즘과 명확하게 구분하려는 시도 등으로 이론적 정교화가 이루어졌다. 조직지위 이론의 성숙기로 볼 수 있는 2010년대에 들어서면서 조직지위는 조직정체성 및 범주 이론과 통합적으로 고찰되는 경향이 두드러지게 나타났으며, 기존 사회학 및 사회심리학에서 발전된 사회적 지위이론이 조직 수준에서 적용되면서 개인 수준과 조직 수준의 이론의 통합에 대한 요구가 자연스럽게 커지고 있는 것으로 나타났다. 한편 이 시기부터 국내에도 조직지위 관련 연구가 활발해지게 되었으나, 우리나라 현실과 상황에 조직지위 이론이 적용된 연구는 아주 최근에서야 나타나고 있음도 발견되었다. 따라서 향후 조직지위 이론에 대한 보다 체계적 연구에 더해 한국형 경영학 발전에 조직지위 이론이 기여할 수 있는 가능성이 충분히 고려되어야 할 것이다.Since Podolny (1993), who applied the concept of social status to the organiza-tional context, the concept and theory of organizational status have been widely accepted in the field of organization theory and strategic management. As theory has become more elaborated, the needs for evaluating theory development and finding theoretical gaps have increased. As a response, leading scholars have tried to help future scholars by reviewing prior literature on organizational status and related topics and making suggestions about future directions. This paper, in line with these attempts yet differentiated in the review approach, examines theory development by period. By undertaking this historical study, this paper is expected to offer better insights about future theory development. In the 1990s, when organizational status had been introduced in organization theory, theoretical emphasis was put on status as an asset and on the reproducing mechanism of status hierarchies. In the 2000s, as more and various scholars started to employ the concept, various topics have been explored, such as the negative impact of status, status dynamics, and status as a constraint on decisions and behaviors. In the 2010s, more eclectic studies considering both organizational status and identity have been published, along with theoret-ical attempts to integrate organizational status theory and individual-level status theory. In this period, Korean theorists also more actively examined organizational status; however, only recently have Korean scholars employed status concepts to explain business phenomena in Korea. Thus, the need for considering the possible contribution of organizational status theory to K-Management theory development, in addition to the need for future theoretical development of organizational status, has been raised.

The Attention-Based View at 20: Conjectures and Dialogue on the ABV'S Past, Present and Future

The goal of the symposium is to recognize the 20-year anniversary of the Attention-Based View of the Firm (ABV) published at Strategic Management Journal in 1997 and create a panel of five accomplished scholars to offer their perspectives on the past, current and future of the theory. In particular, we create a platform to discuss and debate the ABV's contribution to our understanding of organizational theory and strategic management (and vice versa), methodological developments and challenges, and the important future questions for which the ABV may be uniquely equipped to help us answer.

Scaling up Good Ideas: Institutional Work from the Margins

The idea of practice has been applied to organization theory, strategic management, human resources, and accounting. However, extant research on practice work in institutional theory is at a level ...

Fuzzy front end patent management and innovation performance

PurposeAs a resource input in enterprise technological innovation, patents play an important role in influencing innovation performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of fuzzy front end (FFE) patent management on innovation performance, and the mediating role of patent commercialization and the moderating effect of technological lock-in.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a questionnaire survey from a sample of 203 high-tech Chinese enterprises across multiple industries. Structural equation modeling and the hierarchical regression method were used to test the hypothesis.FindingsThe results show that the FFE of patent management, namely, patent acquisition and patent protection, positively affect innovation performance. Specifically, patent commercialization mediates the relationship between FFE patent management and innovation performance. Moreover, technological lock-in moderates the relationship between patent management and innovation performance.Practical implicationsThis study puts forward suggestions relating to institution innovation and mechanism innovation for effective patent management in firms, and provides some guidelines for firms to efficiently utilize patents to improve innovation performance.Originality/valueThis paper provides certain empirical evidence for the study of organizational structure, strategic management, and knowledge governance. As the main participators in technology innovation, high-tech enterprises should utilize both inside and outside resources to acquire patents.

Using information systems to strategic decision

The impact of the Decision Support Systems (DSS) on the organizational intelligence and structure and on the strategic decisions was examined in the paper. Nowadays there is an increasing demand for investments on Information Technology (IT) due to the higher complexity of this field in the global market. Nevertheless, measurement of that perception, especially for the Brazilian reality, is little known. This study aims to analyze the relation between the use of DSS by executives of highest organization levels and their perceptions of the quality of information delivered, decision making speed, enhancements in organization learning and strategic management, and differences in involvement with subordinates. The theoretical model proposed by Leidner, Elam and Corrales (1995) and Leidner and Elam (1999), the main theoretical foundation of the paper, was adapted to the Brazilian reality and extended. We conducted a survey with executives of the 1200 biggest companies in Brazil, evaluating the executives’ perceptions. The main results of the paper confirmed past studies and added new dimensions to the benefits provided by the use of information systems, such as the organization learning principles and the strategic planning process. The paper contributes to the theoretical development of information systems and decision-making fields and with organization management, providing knowledge to support the evaluation of the values created by using Information Systems (IS).

Context matters: A Bayesian analysis of how organizational environments shape the strategic management of sustainable development

Public administration scholars have argued the need for a ‘general theory’ linking strategic management to the context in which public organizations operate. Understanding the interplay between organizational contexts and strategic management responses to urban sprawl and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remains an underexplored avenue for empirical advancement of this goal. Using 2015 survey data, we employ a novel Bayesian item response theory (IRT) approach to test how land use policy comprehensiveness, organizational capacities, leadership turnover, and environmental complexities affect the strategic management of smart growth policy in local governments. We find that public organizations harness political, administrative, and community capacities in varied combinations to better achieve their policy objectives, but these influences may not be complementary. Also, policy comprehensiveness generally relates to more strategic activity, while municipal executive turnover offers opportunities and threats to some smart growth strategies. Implications of this research are discussed.

Inpatients satisfaction with health care services after emergency admission at teritary hospital of attiki

Introduction: Measuring patients satisfaction is an important process for exploring needs, opinions and suggestions of patients about the healthcare services provided by an organization.Aim: To investigate patients satisfaction with health care services, who urgently admitted to a public hospital. Material and Methods: A simple random sampling was used in the current study. The study period was March - May 2016. The sample consisted of 382 patients. Data was collected by a self-completed questionnaire, which is standardized in Greek population by Polyzos N. et al.Results: According to the results, 69% of patients were very satisfied with the impression about hospital as far as the infrastructure (cleaning, organization and adequacy), medical and hotel equipment, room condition and nutrition. However, it is important that patients were dissatisfied with waiting time for admission to hospital, laboratory tests and operations. Eighty-nine point two percent reported high satisfaction about attention of the staff to the patients and specifically the frequent and understandable communication with the staff and kindness and confidence that they inspired. Generally, the majority of the sample (82.5%) was very satisfied with the hospital services and 95.3% indicated that would use again or recommend the hospital services. Finally, gender, education and duration of hospitalization statistically significantly affect patient satisfaction.Conclusions: These results could be a powerful tool for organizational development and strategic management of health care providers.

Viewing team selection through a temporal lens

This paper builds synthesized coherence (Locke & Golden-Biddle, 1997) across disciplines such as organizational behavior, personnel psychology, entrepreneurship, project management, and strategic management by developing a temporal team selection framework that delineates three temporal team selection processes (i.e., simultaneous selection, sequential selection, and substitution selection). Of these three processes, sequential selection, which could either be constraint-driven or coevolution-driven, is a new conceptualization. This framework speaks to the broader research stream on membership dynamics, and therefore its key constructs such as arithmetic of membership change (Arrow & McGrath, 1993) and temporal patterning of membership change (Arrow & McGrath, 1993) have been systematically applied to the temporal team selection processes. Finally, the implications of this theorizing for both research and practice are discussed.

The relationship between chiropractor required and current level of business knowledge

BackgroundChiropractors frequently practice within health care systems requiring the business acumen of an entrepreneur. However, some chiropractors do not know the relationship between the level of business knowledge required for practice success and their current level of business knowledge. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between chiropractors’ perceived level of business knowledge required and their perceived level of current business knowledge.MethodsTwo hundred and seventy-four participants completed an online survey (Health Care Training and Education Needs Survey) which included eight key business items. Participants rated the level of perceived business knowledge required (Part I) and their current perceived level of knowledge (Part II) for the same eight items. Data was collected from November 27, 2013 to December 18, 2013. Data were analyzed using Spearman’s ranked correlation to determine the statistically significant relationships for the perceived level of knowledge required and the perceived current level of knowledge for each of the paired eight items from Parts I and II of the survey. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests were performed to determine the statistical difference between the paired items.ResultsThe results of Spearman’s correlation testing indicated a statistically significant (p < 0.01) positive correlation for the perceived level of knowledge required and perceived current level of knowledge for six variables: (a) organizational behavior, (b) strategic management, (c) marketing, (d) legal and ethical, (e) managerial decisions, and (f) operations. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks testing indicated a significant difference for three paired items: strategic management; marketing and; legal and ethical. The results suggest that relationships exist for the majority of business items (6 of 8) however a statistically difference was demonstrated in only three of the paired business items.ConclusionThe implications of this study for social change include the potential to improve chiropractors’ business knowledge and skills, enable practice success, enhance health services delivery and positively influence the profession as a viable career.

Innovation management in context: Environment, organization and performance

Several decades of research into innovation management have failed to provide clear and consistent findings or coherent advice to managers. In this paper, I argue that this is because innovation management ‘best practice‘ is contingent on a range of factors, and that we need better characterizations of the technological and market contingencies which affect the opportunity for, and constraints on, innovation. I review research on innovation together with relevant studies from organizational behaviour and strategic management, and develop a model which may help to guide future innovation research on the relationships between environmental contingencies, organization configurations and performance. I identify uncertainty and complexity as the key environmental contingencies that influence organizational structure and management processes for innovation.