This article identifies two extensions of the task performance model developed by Locke (36) for examining goal-setting activities in organizations. The first identifies and develops the role-making function of goal-setting activities, introducing the concepts of superior-subordinate consensus and role congruence. The validity of this approach is based on previous research. The second extension considers the contextual variables that may influence the motivational and role-making functions of goal-setting activities. A framework is proposed which considers three categories of contextual variables, the dimensions of goal setting, and the variables that moderate the performance and role stress outcomes.
The article discusses an organization's external dependence and basic approaches to managing external elements such as supply chains, bank loans, competition for market share and customers, a major stockholder, and labor markets. Two ways to manage external dependence are: to reduce external demands and increase countervailing power by the choice of a domain or niche market for products or services, expansion through diversification, favorable relations with external elements, and control of operations in the domain; and to minimize the cost of complying with external demands by modifying organizational design to adapt to the external environment.
An evolutionary model is proposed to illustrate the development of a matrix organization through function, project, product/matrix, and matrix stages. The structural and behavioral characteristics that accompany each of the stages are identified and discussed. Some of the strategic and environmental conditions that determine the different stages are postulated.
The authors outline an approach for optimally designing an organization and report on a case where the approach was effectively implemented on a large scale.They examine what the concept of optimum organization design is and discuss several examples. They examine the design variables that are incorporated into the design process. They identify design variables as the structural and technological aspects of an organization such as the span of control the organization will have and the degree of task specialization that will be required within the organization. In an optimum organization design these variables will be established in an balance that is aimed at maximizing the achievement of the organization's goals.
This article presents a review of the book “From Strategic Planning to Strategic Management,” edited by H. Igor Ansoff, Roger P. Declerck and Robert L. Hayes.
The article is a response to a critique of behavior modification theory applied to organizations that was made by Edwin A. Locke. The issues in contention include: the deterministic viewpoint to explain human behavior; lack of a scientific base for behavior modification theory; inconsistency of vicarious learning with behavior-modification principles; the idea that behavior modification cannot work unless people are aware of and managers have control over contingencies; and the role of punishment in behavior modification.
An equity-exchange model for organizational involvement is proposed, based upon the earlier models of Barnard and March and Simon. The model integrates several aspects of the literature including Adams' equity theory and Etzioni's typology of organizational involvements.
Ralph H. Kilmann, On Integrating Knowledge Utilization with Knowledge Development: The Philosophy behind the MAPS Design Technology, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Jul., 1979), pp. 417-426