Search results

Two views of organizational change dominate the management literature. The incremental view holds that organizations experience large‐scale strategic changes quite slowly while the revolutionary view proposes that organizations experience long periods of relatively little strategic variation punctuated by short, intense periods of major change. Commonalties among the two change theories provide the basis for a study of 101 businesses over a six year period. The research examines two theoretical implications: change is bimodally and discretely distributed and skewed toward incremental strategic change, and firms undergoing revolutionary strategic change will be more likely to experience simultaneous changes on multiple organizational dimensions than firms undergoing incremental strategic change. Consistent with Proposition 1, it was found that change is skewed toward incremental, but also that change is unimodal and continuously distributed, contrary to Proposition 1. Contrary to Proposition 2, revolutionary change on multiple dimensions was found to be rare.

Many organizations in the UK are still learning about the implementation and use of total quality management (TQM) techniques such as statistical process control (SPC), even though in other parts of the world, especially in Japan, they have been used widely and successfully for many years. Research carried out by the authors shows that almost the only thing taught to engineers within many UK academic institutions in relation to SPC is control charting. Although the understanding of control charts is a very important aspect of SPC, it is by no means the only one for the successful introduction and development of SPC. It is argued that the emphasis should not be on the control charts themselves, but on the essential ingredients for getting SPC started in organisations and the various issues associated with the implementation of SPC. This paper discusses the ingredients that are needed for the successful implementation of SPC.

The supply chain literature highlights chains that are activated by actual or forecasted demand, and has largely overlooked those that are activated by the supply source. This paper aims to position supply driven chains as a distinct class and to develop their properties.

Supply driven examples are given and their structural and behavioral properties are developed. Their properties are compared with those of demand driven chains using Fisher's classification scheme. The paper is conceptual in nature.

Four properties of supply driven chains are advanced. They show that supply driven chains differ significantly from their demand driven counterparts. As example, supply driven chains are prone to a reverse form of the standard bullwhip effect that is associated with demand driven chains.

Investigating supply driven chains opens several research avenues. Further properties and examples can be developed, along with methods to mitigate the reverse bullwhip effect. Research into synergies and boundary issues between supply and demand driven chains will likely yield operational efficiencies overall.

Differentiating between supply and demand driven phenomena helps practitioners design more efficient supply chains. For example, superimposing a demand driven operational structure on a supply driven phenomenon can be disruptive. Also, an efficiently operated supply driven chain may enhance the operations of related demand driven chains.

This paper highlights and develops supply driven supply chains. It extends supply chain theory and practice by providing additional structural characteristics that can be incorporated into supply chain designs.

An ongoing debate in social exchange theory centers on the benefits and drawbacks of reciprocal versus negotiated exchange for dyadic relationships. Lawler's affect theory of social exchange argues that the interdependent nature of negotiated exchange enhances commitment to exchange relations, whereas Molm's reciprocity theory suggests that reciprocal exchange fosters more integrative bonds than the bilateral agreements of negotiation. In this chapter, we use data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with poor and working-class couples to explore the effects of both types of exchange on relationship satisfaction. Consistent with reciprocity theory, we find that couples who engage in reciprocal exchange are happier and more satisfied with their relationship than those who explicitly negotiate the division of labor in their households and that the expressive value of these exchanges play an important role in this outcome. However, reciprocity is not enough. As predicted by the affect theory, the couples with the best outcomes also perceive supporting a family as a highly interdependent task, regardless of their family structure. Our results point to the complementary nature of these two theories in a natural social setting.

This case describes a real family that has been running a labor-intensive business since 1992. The father, Phil Mason, runs the business with the help of his wife and two of his sons in southwestern Rhode Island. The business is a franchisee of ServiceMaster Clean. In 2006, the franchise employed 20 full-time employees and was the 50th largest ServiceMaster Clean franchise among the approximately 1,200 franchises located in the United States. Annual revenue is approximately $2.5 million. In late 2005, one of Phil℉s sons began researching the biodiesel industry. As he was growing weary of the labor-intensive nature of his franchise business, Phil fully researched the industry himself. By the middle of 2006, Phil was convinced that he could profitably manufacture biodiesel in his spare warehouse space. In July 2006, he formed Mason Biodiesel, LLC and financed the $1.5 million start-up costs through a combination of personal savings and bank debt.