Organization Studies

A long-standing dilemma in theories of management surrounds the question of whether effective managerial action is better served by ‘rational analysis’ or ‘creative intuition’. In the present article, analysis and intuition are conceived within a framework of cognitive style in which a distinction is drawn between the processing of information (rational and intuitive) and the organizing of information in memory (local and global). Such styles are thought to affect a range of management behaviours (including decision-making). The relationship between managers’ cognitive styles and firm performance was examined from a contingency perspective in which environmental instability was hypothesized as moderating the relationship between style and performance. The study was based upon data obtained from owner-managers and managing directors of small and medium-sized firms in two contrasting sectors. There was a positive relationship between intuitive decision style and contemporaneous financial and non-financial performance that did not appear to be moderated by environmental instability. Furthermore, a statistically significant relationship between intuitive decision style and subsequent financial performance was observed. The implications of these findings for theories of cognitive style, the management of small and medium-sized enterprises, and for the practice of management development in such firms are discussed.

Organizational democracy has become a key issue in current change-management programmes, such as restructuring, total quality management and Enterprise Resource Planning, and there has been a persistent quest for a post-Fordist model in recent times. The article emphasizes the need to study democratic processes per se, given that democracy faces significant odds vis-a-vis the larger context, even in those organizations that have been expressly initiated for democratic functioning. The contradictions with the context inevitably manifest themselves inside the organization as well. The present study makes a case for understanding organizational democracy as an evolving reality, based on participant observation of democratic functioning within a workers’ cooperative over seven years.

This article investigates the process of the cross-national diffusion of work systems to the affiliate firms of three Japanese multinational companies in the UK. It examines the degree to which structural, cultural, and control-related work systems of the source company are adopted by the recipient. The case studies highlight the interplay between institutional forces and organizational action through a process of work-systems translation. The study is based on a systematic comparative analysis of the ways in which Japanese work systems are implemented and sustained in the given firms. It concludes that firms attempt to translate alternative work systems rather than submit to environmental pressures toward isomorphism. The process of diffusing work systems is not driven by pre-existing legacies alone. There is room for social action in that actors, through their interaction, contribute actively to shaping the work organization.

The hyper-competitive global business environment of the information age has challenged many companies to transform their business models and organizational forms. Drawing from the theoretical models of Van de Ven and Poole, we propose a process theory of organizational transition that incorporates two generative mechanisms, or ‘motors’. At the individual level, we employ a teleological motor, which captures the managerial actions undertaken to promote transformation. At the organizational level, we employ a dialectic motor, which captures forces both promoting and opposing change. The model consists of three sequential phases of transition: creation, destruction, and unification. The model is grounded in an empirical study of a large company undergoing a major transition in business model and organization structure during the decade of the 1990s.

Our aim is to stimulate critical reflection on an issue that has received relatively little attention: how alternative presuppositions about time can lead to different narrative ways of researching and theorizing organizational life. Based on two amendments to Paul Ricoeur’s work in Time and Narrative, we re-story narrative research in organizations as Narrative Temporality (NT). Our amendments draw upon the temporality perspective of Jean-Paul Sartre in order to reframe narrative research in organizations as a fluid, dynamic, yet rigorous process open to the interpretations (negotiated) of its many participants (polyphonic) and situated in the context and point of enactment (synchronic). We believe an approach to narrative organizational research grounded in NT can open up new ways of thinking about experience and sense-making, and help us take reflexive responsibility for our research.

This article attempts to unpack the notion of ‘communities of practice’, in more detail than has been done before, and looks more generally at intra-organizational groups for learning. First, it gives a theoretical analysis of the relevant characteristics of learning groups which affect the possibilities and conditions for the sharing and joint development of knowledge. These characteristics include opportunities for learning (on the ‘competence’ side of relations), relational risk (on the ‘governance’ side of relations), and the effects on both from the ‘structural features’ of groups. On the competence side, it analyses the implications of different types of knowledge and learning, and the trade-off between stability of relations (for the sake of mutual understanding and trust) and flexibility of relations (for the sake of variety as a source of learning). On the structural side, it considers the effects on competence and governance of network density, the strength of ties, structural holes, and stability of group membership. On the governance side, it considers psychological risk, in loss of reputation or legitimation, career risk and risk of competition, and risk of lock-in into the group. Trust yields one basis for dealing with such risks, and the article discusses what that means and how trust develops. Next, the analysis is used in an exploratory empirical study of a consultancy company, to see if the theoretical framework can explain the occurrence, structure, functioning, and performance of learning groups found in practice.