TY  - CHAP
AB  - Purpose – This chapter presents a close examination of how manufacturing managers respond to environmental pressures by formulating and implementing operational strategy.Methodology – The analysis is based on interviews and observations in 31 manufacturing firms in the US Midwest.Findings – The study reveals that competitive market pressure is only so effective at penetrating the institutional layers of inter- and intra-firm relations. Even in the highly competitive manufacturing sector, operational strategy is consistently implemented in suboptimal ways. Relatively inefficient routines are commonly institutionalized and inefficient arrangements appear to be able to persist for an indefinite period of time. To the extent that firms with variable capabilities and internal socio-technical systems must process, interpret, and react to complex external pressures and often-ambiguous signals, the sociology of work provides essential insights for the sociology of markets.Originality – While the findings are subject to the standard caveats regarding nonrandom qualitative samples, the rich data produced and the in-depth analysis of real-world organizational pressures and managerial decision-making provide distinctive insights into how managers must balance external market pressures with internal labor process problems. Individual motivation appears to be at least as important in true organizational innovation as market discipline. While adaptation and learning certainly occur in organizations (and selection also operates through the death of extreme laggards) there exists sufficient institutional space within markets for a range of variation in organizational performance. The findings suggest that the analysis of internal organizational dynamics provides an essential part of a realistic theory of markets.
VL  - 18
SN  - 978-1-84855-368-2, 978-1-84855-369-9/0277-2833
DO  - 10.1108/S0277-2833(2009)0000018007
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S0277-2833(2009)0000018007
AU  - Vidal Matt
ED  - Nina Bandelj
PY  - 2009
Y1  - 2009/01/01
TI  - Routine inefficiency: operational satisficing and real-world markets
T2  - Economic Sociology of Work
T3  - Research in the Sociology of Work
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 89
EP  - 117
Y2  - 2024/04/19
ER  -