Group & Organization Management

Normative aspects of organization culture, the distribution and total amount of control, employee performance and perceived quality of service were investigated in a cross-sectional study (n = 823) involving subjects from 159 organizations. A model integrating these constructs is presented, followed by an empirical investigation of hypothesized linkages. Significant relationships were found between organization culture and control distribution, culture and total amount of control, culture and service quality, culture and employee performance, and total control and service quality. Contemporary organizations are making substantial financial and human resource investments in training in problem analysis and problem solving techniques, within the context of Total Quality Management (TQM) programs and, in some cases, culture change efforts (Beer, Eisenstat, & Spector, 1990). These investments are being made in the belief, rooted partly in the "human relations management" movement (Fayol, 1946; Likert, 1961; McGregor, 1960), that the participation and involvement of all hierarchical levels will result in higher product/service quality and, subsequently, improved organization performance.

The study of resistance in organizations has been dominated by two perspectives. From a managerial perspective resistance is dysfunction that managers learn to "cope with." Most radical/critical perspectives see resistance as a weapon in the class struggle. Contrary to managerial characterizations we find that bureaucratic resistance is a common and varied mode of organizational behavior. Contrary to critical views it is often enacted to support, rather than undermine, the goals of the organization. Neither view adequately accounts for resistance by managers who are caught in conflicting role obligations. The many forms of resistance are largely unstudied, yet the informants in our ethnographic study have illuminated a variety of strategies and richly detailed accounts. We present a structural model of the relationships between resistors' strategies and antecedent conditions. Two cases from our research illustrate the model. We conclude with implications for managers, researchers, and recent prescriptions to "reinvent" government.

Previous studies cite sex role stereotyping as a potential cause of discrimination and a barrier to women's movement into managerial ranks. This study explores the impact of mother's education and employment history on the pattern of sex role stereotyping by both male and female college and university students in Canada and the United States. No significant differences are found between national samples. Regardless of mother's background, male college students characterize the managerial job in distinctly masculine terms whereas female students do not.

Through a case study analysis, this article explores the processes that guide organizational members' sensemaking around a departmental restructuring. Symbolic processes prove to play a critical role in reestablishing understanding even when organizational leaders are not explicitly directing these symbolic processes. This article demonstrates that because of their influence on sensemaking, undirected symbolic processes can hinder effective organizational change. To successfully manage organizational change, leaders need to more actively manage these intangible aspects of the change process.

Analysis of data from 797 residents of university housing cooperatives demonstrated that psychological ownership was positively related to extrarole behavior. In addition, mediated regression analysis supported the hypothesis that the relationship between psychological ownership and extrarole behavior was mediated by organizational commitment. Furthermore, psychological ownership was superior to satisfaction in predicting extrarole behavior. The article concludes with a discussion of potential managerial implications and recommendations for future research.

This article locates the source of the work/family conflict in our shared underlying assumptions about how work must be done if one is to succeed. Based on a 6-month field study of engineers in a Fortune 100 company, three barriers to the successful implementation of work/family policies and programs were identified. Examining the source of these barriers reveals an assumption that individuals must be present at work to succeed. Gidden's theory of structuration is applied to explain why this assumption perpetuates. The article further indicates that to alter this assumption will require rethinking the organization's reward system and the recurrence of impromptu interactions that result. At the end, the article suggests that surfacing this and other underlying assumptions about work has potential benefits for organizations, as well as individuals.