Knowledge that Transforms

This study compares two units within a major public accounting firm in order to determine their organic/mechanistic tendencies and establish the variables most closely related to these organizational characteristics. Results from a sample of 67 professionals balanced by unit and hierarchical level indicate that the process‐oriented elements of an organization are the more relevant indicators of organizational development and provide a system for evaluating an organization on an organic/mechanistic continuum.

The upward influence of middle‐level managers (MLMs) on strategic planning and decision‐making is examined. It was found that: (1) upward influence activity was more prevalent in low risk/return types of strategic decisions than in high risk/return decisions; (2) upward influence activity was more prevalent during the implementation of strategic decisions than during the formulation of such decisions; (3) managers most often used rational arguments in their influence attempts; (4) managers were more likely to be successful than unsuccessful in influencing their superiors in strategic decisions; (5) managers most often attributed their success in influencing their superiors to internal causes and their failures to external causes; (6) managers from private sector organizations exerted influence in both high risk and low risk strategic decisions more frequently than did managers from public sector organizations; and (7) the number of years working with the superior was the best predictor of successful interactions and of risky decisions. Some insight into the development of widespread strategic thinking in an organization is provided.

The theoretical importance of formalization has often been obscured in empirical investigation. This article discusses two outcomes of formalization: administrative efficiency, and influence. As formalization contributes to administrative efficiency, it also bestows upon the administrator power and influence. While some theoretical attention has been paid to the efficiency theme, influence has been largely ignored. The article suggests that formalization as code, as channel, and as standard can be best understood in the context of the organizational life cycle. Formalization (as efficiency) is likely to contribute to effectiveness early in an organization's history. Later in the life cycle, however, formalization (as influence) may contribute to organizational ineffectiveness and decline.

In an attempt to clarify the meaning of management style in employee relations and go beyond the limitations of the frames of reference debate, two dimensions of style are identified. Individualism refers to the extent to which personnel policies are focused on the rights and capabilities of individual workers. Collectivism concerns the extent to which management policy is directed towards inhibiting or encouraging the development of collective representation by employees and allowing employees a collective voice in management decision‐making. Style is a deliberate choice linked to business policy. Organizations may choose to focus on one or both aspects. Not all firms have a distinctive preferred management style. Survey evidence is analysed and a number of unresolved issues raised which need to be tackled if management style is to become a useful concept in the study of strategic choice in the management of industrial and employee relations.

The mere observing of a thing is no use whatsoever. Observing turns into beholding, beholding into thinking, thinking into establishing connections, so that one may say that every attentive glance we cast on the world is an act of theorizing…

Comparative, contingency approaches to organization structure have been criticized as being inherently static. The present article argues that functionalist theories and quantitative methods can explain structural change. This is exemplified by a diachronic enquiry into strategy and structure. Several propositions about organizational dynamics relating diversification, reorganization and performance are supported. However, the notion of contingency adjustment to structure to attain match as a frequent alternative to structural adjustment to contingencies is not borne out. Neither of the two prevailing theories of structural change, ‘contingency determinism’nor ‘strategic choice’, is completely adequate and a third formulation is advanced: that of ‘structural adjustment to regain fit’. While structural‐functional enquiry into organizations using comparative quantitative methods has yielded information about structural statics, the contribution to knowledge of dynamics seems more problematic. This article seeks to record that structural‐functionalism does inform the analysis of organizational change and to show that quantitative contingency approaches can illuminate change if the theory used in the analysis is formalized properly. This involves the partial abandonment of both of the main prevailing theories of structural change: contingency determinism and strategic choice. In their place this article offers as a potentially more fruitful model the structural adaptation to regain fit formulation. Within this the role of performance is shown to be important. The advantage of this framework is demonstrated empirically by means of an examination of the relationship between strategy and structure.

In this article we integrate three disparate views of culture and cultural change. With each view comes a distinct set of implications about the nature, scope, source(s), and consequences of culture change. Each view also suggests distinct implications for those who wish to manage cultural change in organizations. We argue that to understand how organizations change, in general, it is important to understand these disparate, yet interrelated processes of cultural change. We present these three views of culture and cultural change processes in organizations.