Ramkrishnan (Ram) V. Tenkasi and Lu Zhang
Organizational Development and Change (ODC) has been called to aid organizational greening goals. Carbon labeling of products by organizations is a common greening strategy…
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Organizational Development and Change (ODC) has been called to aid organizational greening goals. Carbon labeling of products by organizations is a common greening strategy. However, its effectiveness is dependent on supportive consumer behavior. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is used to explain actor choice in buying low carbon products (LCPs). Actual buying behavior of 873 subjects in China, a country new to carbon labeling, demonstrated that Declarative norms, Attitude, and Perceived behavioral control explained significant variance in actual buying behavior of LCPs. The TPB model may be better served by observing actual behavior versus behavioral intention. Revisions to the TPB model for diagnosis and interventions in behavioral change are indicated. ODC should revert to theoretically informed practice versus the increasing reliance on A-theoretical tools and techniques.
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Donna L. Ogle, Ramkrishnan (Ram) V. Tenkasi and William (Bart) B. Brock
Organization development is often mourned as stagnant or perhaps dead, but most of these declarations seem to be insular, being supported primarily by anecdotal or survey research…
Abstract
Organization development is often mourned as stagnant or perhaps dead, but most of these declarations seem to be insular, being supported primarily by anecdotal or survey research among organization development scholars and practitioners. This exploratory study seeks a more objective understanding of the state of organization development by examining big data from the social media platform Twitter. Drawn from over 5.7 million tweets extracted through Twitter's Application Program Interface (API) during 2 months in 2018, this research approaches the state of organization development through a quantitative, abductive study utilizing social network analyses. Organization development is examined through its characteristics as a social network on Twitter and how it relates to and interacts with other familial networks from management and organization studies. Findings show that organization development is relatively inactive as a social network on Twitter, as compared to other familial networks, and the relationships between the organization development network and these familial networks tend to be ones of inequality. Organization development references familial networks much more than any of the familial networks reference organization development. This inequality in social media presence is particularly surprising since several of these familial networks were founded from the field and principles of organization development. We locate organization development's generalist status, as compared to familial networks' specialist status, as generating this interaction disparity drawing on recent research that suggests specialized fields fare better in times of rapid change compared to generalist fields. We discuss the potential for greater specialization of organization development with a reemphasis on its process philosophy and focus.
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Ramkrishnan (Ram) V. Tenkasi and Yehia Kamel
A neglected area of research in ODC is the turnaround of poorly performing firms such as those under bankruptcy protection. We researched 142 companies that attempted…
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A neglected area of research in ODC is the turnaround of poorly performing firms such as those under bankruptcy protection. We researched 142 companies that attempted reorganization under bankruptcy protection between 1983 and 2003. Firms deployed one or more of four distinct strategies to turnaround: rationalizing existing resources, developing existing resources, generating new resources, and investing in future resources. Firms that generated new resources, and developed and rationalized existing resources, had the highest probability of emergence. Interestingly firms that sustained their turnaround post-emergence invested in future resources in addition to generating, developing, and rationalizing resources. Implications for ODC are discussed.
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Shannon E. Finn Connell and Ramkrishnan V. Tenkasi
Organizations facing issues related to growth, innovation, and strategy are embracing design thinking, a problem-solving process. This study explores 40 design thinking…
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Organizations facing issues related to growth, innovation, and strategy are embracing design thinking, a problem-solving process. This study explores 40 design thinking initiatives and identifies operational practices emerge and empirical categories across various contexts. Quantitative analyses of the initiatives and qualitative interview data are used to distinguish four configurations of action analogous to races: training, emphasizing learning-by-doing; marathons, capturing personal reflection over a long project; relays, highlighting team collaboration; and sprints, reflecting fast-paced product innovation. The initiatives are differentiated as designer-led versus team-driven and, low-urgency versus high-urgency. Implications of practicing design thinking in Organization Development and Change are discussed.
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Ramkrishnan V. Tenkasi and Richard J. Boland
The emerging global economy is characterized increasingly by knowledge intensive firms which require that diverse, specialized knowledge workers develop unique knowledge…
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The emerging global economy is characterized increasingly by knowledge intensive firms which require that diverse, specialized knowledge workers develop unique knowledge competences, and also collaborate in ways to create new knowledge that enhances the performance of the organization. Information technologies are increasingly playing an integrative role in knowledge intensive firms as a way of achieving mutual learning. However, the information systems field has predominantly been driven by the notion of integration as a rational design process and an end state to be achieved through a static incorporation of knowledge domains. It has failed to consider the interpretive dynamics associated with the integration of differentiated knowledge and expertise. Argues a new role for information technology, one that supports the exploration of differentiated theories of meaning and knowledge and facilitates the conduct of dialogue among highly differentiated experts as a basis for integration.
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David B. Szabla, Elizabeth Shaffer, Ashlie Mouw and Addelyne Turks
Despite the breadth of knowledge on self and identity formation across the study of organizations, the field of organizational development and change has limited research on the…
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Despite the breadth of knowledge on self and identity formation across the study of organizations, the field of organizational development and change has limited research on the construction of professional identity. Much has been written to describe the “self-concepts” of those practicing and researching in the field, but there have been no investigations that have explored how these “self-concepts” form. In addition, although women have contributed to defining the “self” in the field, men have held the dominant perspective on the subject. Thus, in this chapter, we address a disparity in the research by exploring the construction of professional identity in the field of organizational development and change, and we give voice to the renowned women who helped to build the field. Using the profiles of 17 American women included in The Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers, we perform a narrative analysis based upon the concepts and models prevalent in the literature on identity formation. By disentangling professional identity formation of the notable women in the field, we can begin to see the nuance and particularities involved in its construction and gain deeper understandings about effective ways to prepare individuals to work in and advance the field.
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Susan Albers Mohrman, Ramkrishnan V. Tenkasi, Edward E. Lawler and Gerald E. Ledford
The application of TQM practices has rapidly increased in USorganizations over the past six years, particularly in organizationsfacing severe competitive pressures. A survey of…
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The application of TQM practices has rapidly increased in US organizations over the past six years, particularly in organizations facing severe competitive pressures. A survey of the 1,000 largest companies shows that these practices fall into two main categories: core practices and production‐oriented practices. Companies perceive benefit in three areas: improvement of work performance, company competitiveness and profitability, and employee outcomes. Service organizations experience these benefits primarily from implementing core practices more extensively. Competitiveness and profitability in manufacturing organizations are positively affected by the implementation of the production‐oriented practices. Analysis of financial outcomes suggests that core practices are positively related to market share for manufacturing companies. Production‐oriented practices are positively related to return on equity and collaboration with suppliers in quality efforts is positively related to total factor productivity index for all companies.