This study aims to describe how large corporations, facing digitalization and sustainability, can use established models and theories to find appropriate organizations design for…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to describe how large corporations, facing digitalization and sustainability, can use established models and theories to find appropriate organizations design for these “new” challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
The information processing perspective presented by Jay Galbraith (Galbraith, 1974) can be an appropriate platform to analyze organizational requirements, also in new complex and uncertain situation. The authors use the Miles and Snow (1978) typology to explain how traditional design can be appropriate in the new world of sustainability and digitalization.
Findings
With the new types of business models, the design should have a holistic view. The design should be split into three levels: the corporation as a whole, the large business units and the operating units. Each of these units can follow traditional organizational forms with an internal market-based coordination combined with digital platform systems.
Originality/value
Both large and small corporations now face big challenges related to adapting their business models, managerial processes and organizational structures for digitalization and sustainability. Digitalization and sustainability combine the various pieces of the corporation into a tightly coupled network with a real time coordination of activities making it difficult to obtain local adjustments without disturbing the whole. At the same time, there is a strong need for both being locally agile with a focus on effectiveness and at the same time being very efficient. The literature calls for new organizational forms to handle this situation. The authors show that “old” designs properly coordinated can be an appropriate design as well.
Details
Keywords
Dorthe Døjbak Haakonsson, Richard M. Burton, Børge Obel and Jørgen Lauridsen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how misalignments between the organizational climate (measured as information‐processing demand) and the leadership style (measured as…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how misalignments between the organizational climate (measured as information‐processing demand) and the leadership style (measured as information‐processing capability) may result in negative performance consequences.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical part of the paper is based on questionnaire data. Key informant is the CEO and thus there is a focus on the CEO's perception of climate and leadership style. Data are subjected to regression analysis.
Findings
The results indicate that misalignments between climate and leadership style are problematic for organizational performance. This is supported by the empirical findings that show partial support for three out of four hypotheses and full support for the fourth hypothesis.
Research limitations/implications
Data cover information on Danish small‐ and medium‐sized firms. These cross‐sectional data and cannot study the effects of misalignments over time.
Practical implications
Because the findings show that misalignments between climate and leadership style are problematic to organizational level of performance, this implies that in case of misfits either the climate or the leadership style must be changed.
Originality/value
The main contribution of the paper is that the framework allows an explicit understanding of which managerial actions are needed to manage particular types of climate. Further, the framework enables an understanding of how misalignments may result in poor performance.
Details
Keywords
Børge Obel, Dorthe Døjbak Håkonsson, Charles C. Snow and Lars A. Bach
A collaborative community is an organizational form that is increasingly being used in knowledge-intensive industries to accelerate innovation via collaboration. This study…
Abstract
A collaborative community is an organizational form that is increasingly being used in knowledge-intensive industries to accelerate innovation via collaboration. This study examines key design issues faced by a bilateral broker collaborative community at the point of its formation: (1) whether a critical mass of members is required for community survival, (2) the nature of the match between member skills and community challenges, and (3) how the mix of member skills needs to be adjusted over time to sustain community growth. Findings from our agent-based simulation study indicate that, contrary to suggestions in the literature, a critical mass of members is not necessary for a bilateral broker community to survive early on. The literature also suggests that there should be a match between the skill levels of community members and the skill requirements of the challenges that the community must solve in order for it to grow. We find that a match between skill levels and challenge requirements is necessary but not sufficient: the skill levels of community members must significantly exceed the skill requirements of the challenges. Lastly, we find that the appropriate amount of heterogeneity in member skills is contingent on several factors associated with how the community adapts over time. Implications of these findings for the theory and practice of organization design are discussed.
Details
Keywords
John Joseph, Oliver Baumann, Richard Burton and Kannan Srikanth
Health-care systems currently face great challenges, including an increasing elderly population. To respond to this problem, a hospital emergency department, three municipalities…
Abstract
Health-care systems currently face great challenges, including an increasing elderly population. To respond to this problem, a hospital emergency department, three municipalities, and self-employed general practitioners in Denmark decided to collaborate with the aim of reorganizing treatment of elderly acute ill patients. By establishing a small-scale collaborative community and through an action research process, we show, how to jointly explore and develop a new organization design for in-home hospital treatment that enables the health professionals to collaborate in new ways, and at the same time to investigate and improve this cocreation process and codesign of knowledge among multiple different stakeholders.
Details
Keywords
Vincenzo Cavaliere, Sara Lombardi and Luca Giustiniano
This paper aims to investigate, following previous studies on knowledge-sharing (KS) processes that consist of knowledge donating (KD) and knowledge collecting (KC), the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate, following previous studies on knowledge-sharing (KS) processes that consist of knowledge donating (KD) and knowledge collecting (KC), the relationship between KS processes and KS enablers to understand the effect of organizational, individual and technological factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a Web survey. Data were collected from a sample of 759 knowledge workers selected from 23 knowledge-intensive manufacturing companies exposed to international markets and located in Tuscany (Italy). The analysis is based on multivariate regression models considering KD and KC as dependent variables.
Findings
The results show that individual, organizational and technological factors matter to KS. Specifically, the paper reports that individual-level enablers and supportive leadership have a positive effect on both sub-processes of knowledge sharing. Further, the organic management system has a strong and positive impact on KD, while the efficacy of information and communication technology solutions is positively related to KC.
Research limitations/implications
Although based on a geographically bounded perimeter, the analysis allows some generalizations. In fact, the paper proposes a set of enablers that empirically link micro- and macro-organizational mechanisms to KS.
Practical implications
The evidence described can help improve the organizational management of KS and, consequently, support managers dealing with organizational design aimed at successful KS.
Originality/value
The paper presents original results by combining individual, organizational and technological variables in the explanation of KS. It could be a basis for further studies.
Details
Keywords
Qinglan Chen, Tor Eriksson and Luca Giustiniano
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the mediating role of leadership style on the relationship between strategy and company performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the mediating role of leadership style on the relationship between strategy and company performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses empirical data gathered from top managers in a stratified sample of 476 Danish private businesses.
Findings
The results show the mediating effects of leadership styles on strategic performance. In particular, both supportive and directive leadership styles partially mediate the effect of the differentiation strategy, while the supportive leadership style displays a stronger mediating effect than the directive one. The multi-group analysis shows the moderating impact of the manager’s tenure, managerial level, strategy clarity, industry and business environment risk.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited by its nature and the specificity of the national context in which it was conducted. In this vein, the evidence collected here can be enlarged and complemented by having access to panel data or the generalization of some results to neighboring or other developed countries.
Practical implications
Several implications of the findings for managerial practices are discussed.
Originality/value
There are very few discussions of the mediating effect of leadership style between strategy and performance. The paper fills the gap by examining the role of leadership style planning on the relationship between those two variables in Denmark.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the mediating role of decentralization in the relationship between a firm’s strategy and its performance in the context of an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the mediating role of decentralization in the relationship between a firm’s strategy and its performance in the context of an advanced economy where the chief corporate strategy is differentiation.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses data collected by an online survey targeting a stratified sample of 1,238 private firms operating in Denmark. The empirical analysis was carried out by estimating a structural equation model.
Findings
The key finding was that a decentralized organization (DO) can act as a mediator between a firm’s differentiation strategy and its performance. A multi-group analysis revealed that the mediating impact of decentralizing was affected by contingency factors such as firm size, strategic clarity, degrees of business environment risk and industry competition. Thus, a DO can be said to play a more important role in larger firms, in firms with less strategic clarity, and in companies with multiple plants.
Research limitations/implications
Although the study offers empirical evidence from a relatively large and representative sample of firms, the specificity of the context should be noted. In particular, firms in Denmark, while facing strong competition, do not compete with low costs. Clearly, studies of the mediating role of decentralization in low-cost strategy environments would be an important next step.
Practical implications
Several implications of the findings for organizational design and creation of beneficial conditions for strategy implementations are discussed.
Originality/value
The novel contribution of the study lies in the focus on decentralization as a mediator in the strategy–performance relationship. While previous research has shown that strategy is related to decentralization, and that decentralization is associated with higher performance, an empirical analysis of the relationship between the factors in the strategy-decentralization-performance path had not previously been undertaken.