Search results

Accounting for quality and improved organizational performance has recently received attention in management control research. However, the extent to which process innovation changes have been integrated into management control research is limited. This paper contributes to that integration by drawing from institutional adaptive theory of organizational change and process innovation strategies. The paper utilizes a 2 by 2 contingency table that uses two factors: environmental conditions and organizational change/learning strategies, to build a process innovation framework. A combination of these two factors yields four process innovation strategies: mechanistic, organic, organizational development (OD) and organizational transformation (OT).

The four process innovation typologies are applied to characterize innovations in accounting such as activity based costing (ABC). ABC has been discussed as a multi-phased innovation process that provides an environment where both the initiation and the implementation of accounting change can occur. Technical innovation can be successfully initiated as organic innovation that unfolds in a decentralized organization and requires radical change and double loop learning. Implementation occurs best as a mechanistic innovation in a hierarchical organization and involving incremental change and single loop learning. The paper concludes that if ABC is integrated into an OD or OT intervention strategy, the technical and administrative innovation aspects of ABC can be utilized to manage the organization’s operating activities.

Being mindful of the importance of organizational structure and organizational culture for knowledge management in companies, the purpose of this study is to investigate the organizational prerequisites for creating and sharing knowledge. The goals are to determine whether and to what extent the attributes of organic structure contribute to the creation and sharing of knowledge and to show that an organizational culture which supports knowledge stimulates the processes of knowledge creation and sharing.

The data for the empirical study was obtained through a survey of 150 respondents, employed in 30 companies from several industries, in the Republic of Serbia. The questionnaire was adapted to the needs of the study and was developed based on the theoretical knowledge and findings of several previous studies on processes of knowledge creation and knowledge sharing. A regression method was used to test all hypotheses.

The results show that both the organic structure and the organizational culture that support knowledge have positive effects on knowledge creation, while knowledge sharing is positively influenced only by the knowledge supporting culture of an organization.

This study contributes to organization studies and knowledge management theory because of the holistic approach taken with regards to the issue involved and the fact that it takes into account a large number of the significant characteristics of organizational structure and culture that are relevant to knowledge management processes. The findings could prove useful to managers when structuring an organization and shaping its culture to enhance knowledge management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of competitive strategies and organizational structure on hotel performance and to explore whether organizational structure has a moderating effect on the relationship between competitive strategies and hotel performance.

This study employed a causal and descriptive research design to determine the cause‐and‐effect relationships among competitive strategies, organizational structure, and hotel performance based on previous studies. A 28‐question self‐administered questionnaire comprising three sections was employed. The target population for this study was US hotel owners and general and executive managers whose e‐mail addresses were listed on a publicly available database. A census survey was carried out and e‐mails were sent to all of the hoteliers listed in the database.

The results show a competitive human resources (HR) strategy to have a direct impact on a hotel's behavioral performance, and a competitive IT strategy to have a direct impact on a hotel's financial performance. Organizational structure is found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between both of these strategies and behavioral performance, a result similar to those reported by Jogaratnam and Tse and by Tarigan. However, the results of the current study show that organizational structure has no influence on the relationship between a brand image strategy and a hotel's behavioral performance, nor does it have any moderating effect on the relationship between a hotel's financial performance and its competitive brand image, HR or IT strategy.

When hoteliers face an uncertain environment, they need to select which form of organizational structure to adopt with care. Hotels that adopt an organic structure allow greater flexibility in the workplace, meaning that they may lose control of their employees and productivity. A mechanistic organizational structure, in contrast, gives hoteliers the power to monitor employee behavior and productivity, which may help them to achieve goals and boost financial performance.

The paper provides further evidence of how competitive HR and IT strategies help to explain hotel performance, whereas a brand image strategy and organizational structure are not good explanatory factors in this regard. Hotels with a mechanistic such structure enjoy a greater relationship between a competitive HR strategy and behavioral performance than their organically structured counterparts. With regard to IT strategic implementation, in contrast, hotels with an organic structure enjoy superior behavioral performance to those with a mechanistic structure.

Poor marketing is widely accepted as one of the key reasons to explain success and failure of small firms. There is less agreement, however, about whether these types of business should adopt a classic strategic management approach to marketing. Some writers are now proposing that an entrepreneurial marketing style is more appropriate in the smaller firm. Although this concept is gaining acceptance, there apparently exists no quantitative evidence to support the hypothesis that an entrepreneurial style will definitely enhance the overall performance of the small firm. Covin and Slevin (1988) have tested this hypothesis for large firms in the USA. Presents a project which aims to repeat their study in the UK SME sector and gain further understanding of the relationship between performance, style, structure and organizational capabilities. Demonstrates that a move towards being more entrepreneurial and adopting an organic management structure may assist overall performance. Reinforces the view that it is probably not wise to recommend owner/ managers should adopt an entrepreneurial style without also advising them to implement concurrent consideration of the appropriateness of their current organizational structure. Discriminant function analysis suggests that style and organicity may influence internal organizational capabilities in areas such as innovation, employee productivity and the management of quality. Recognizes that the study was, however, unable in the SME sector to validate the Covin Slevin hypothesis that only two forms of organization (conservative/mechanistic and entrepreneurial/ organic) can achieve high overall performance.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize and operationalize the concept of market-sensing capabilities and analyze its relationship with new product development (NPD) success and organic organizational structures. To the authors' knowledge, past measures of market-sensing capabilities have never included opportunity interpretation, through business experience and organizational articulation, as part of the concept.

Based on a sample of over 180 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), market-sensing capabilities constructs and their relationships were tested through academics' and managers' perceptions. The measure was tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Findings reveal theoretically sound constructs based on four underlying market-sensing capabilities components: analytical processes, customer relationship, business experience and organizational articulation. Results demonstrate reliability, convergent, discriminant and nomological validity. All four dimensions are positively associated with NPD success and are more likely to appear in organic organizational structures.

The resulting instrument provides managers with a valuable tool to measure firms' abilities to address environmental uncertainty. By using this instrument, managers can assess internal organizational structures and resources allocated to sensing capabilities. By developing sensing capabilities, managers might ultimately influence their NPD strategy. Findings also reveal that sensing capabilities are positively and significantly associated with organic organizational structures.

Existing sensing capabilities measures are focused on environmental scanning, and the essence of the concept is not fully expressed by the traditional measures of analytical processes and customer relationship. The authors' new measure includes opportunity interpretation through business experience and organizational articulation.

The significant performance implications of individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership have been documented for established firms, but the issue of whether they are complementary or substitutive still remains a puzzle, and whether their relationship differs in new firms remains unanswered. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership in different organizational structures in new firms.

The study draws on survey data of 209 questionnaires from 63 teams in 63 new firms in China.

The results suggest that individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership are substitutive when the organizational structure is mechanistic, and are complementary when the structure is organic.

The study contributes to the debate on the relationship between individual-focused and group-focused transformational leadership by comparing organizational structure characteristics and offering a comprehensive understanding of the issue.

The aim of this paper is to determine what type of organizational structure provides appropriate conditions for the development of organizational learning.

The approach is a research model, which is based on research within the field, using a formative conceptualization for organizational learning.

The framework makes clear that organizational learning varies according to the kind of structure (organic and mechanistic). The study of the different design variables (specialization, formalization, autonomy, centralization and indoctrination) allows us to deepen our understanding of different organizational learning implications.

Organic structural profile helps favour organizational learning and greater knowledge creation rather than mechanics profile. The critical variables that facilitate learning are centralization and indoctrination.

The article responds to the need to provide empirical evidence about the influence of organizational structure on organizational learning, advancing in the measure of this emergent field of management research, using this formative conceptualization.

This paper aims to examine the application of Total Quality Management (TQM) in five organizations in light of the assumption that its implementation is an ongoing negotiated order rather than an objective reality as often accepted by the literature. Guided by a theoretical framework identified by Spencer (1994), the perceptions of a cross‐section of managers and employees in these organizations are used to establish the nature of applied TQM in terms of mechanistic and organic “mental models” of organization.

The paper shows that research methodology is qualitative, and evidence was collected primarily through semi‐structured in‐depth interviews. A non‐quantifying general analytic methodology was used to analyse the evidence collected via convenience sampling.

The findings in this paper indicate that, in three of the organizations, TQM is being applied in generally organic ways. In the other two organizations, strong influences of the mechanistic model were detected. In many cases, elements of both mechanistic and organic approaches can be found in the same organization.

The research in this paper is qualitative and exploratory in nature and, as such, does not attempt to investigate the implementation of TQM across a large number of organizations nor generalize the findings.

The research in this paper has significant originality as there is little research, to date, evident on the alternative view, of the implementation of TQM, espoused by Spencer (1994). The research contributes to the literature by demonstrating that the application of TQM can be both mechanistic and organic, encouraging the debate to focus on the nature of the variation of implementation as a subject of discussion in its own right.

This study examines the relationship of principals’ systems thinking (PST) to student outcomes of academic achievement and school violence. The investigation relies on the contingency theory, according to which effective leadership is contingent on the nature of the situational influences to which managers are exposed. Specifically, the study investigates the influence of school structure – bureaucratic vs organic – on the relationship between PST and student outcomes of academic achievement and school violence after accounting for students’ socioeconomic backgrounds and principals' demographics.

A three-source survey design with self-reported and non-self-reported data was used, with a sample of 423 participants from 71 elementary schools in Israel. The sample included senior management team members and teachers. The data were aggregated at the school level of analysis.

Hierarchical regression analyses showed that organic school structure moderates the relationship between PST and student academic achievement, and bureaucratic school structure moderates the relationship between PST and school violence beyond the impact of students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.

This study provides important evidence for the benefits of aligning PST with school structure for improving student outcomes beyond the impact of students’ socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition, the study suggests principal system thinking leadership to achieve effective student outcomes that circumvent the effects of inequality on disadvantaged student groups.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a contingency framework that allows researchers to classify and study management accounting innovation within the context of the literature on the sociology of diffusion and adoption.

The process of innovation in organizations involves two stages: the stages of diffusion and adoption along two dimensions of extent: technical and administrative, and scope: autonomous and systemic. A combination of these two dimensions yields four types of accounting innovations: mechanistic, organic, organizational development, and organizational transformation. Management accounting innovations has been studied using these four innovation typologies.

The paper suggests that management accounting researchers pay particular attention to an organization's approach to diffusion and adoption strategies of innovation, particularly, the extent and scope dimensions when designing and implementing process innovation programs.

The innovation contingency framework developed in this paper facilitates the analysis of two important research questions. First, why have some innovations been readily accepted while other, apparently similar proposed innovations have not? Second, why has a particular innovation succeeded in some firms and failed in others?

The subject of accounting innovations and change are important to managers. Accounting innovations as administrative and technical innovations are intertwined in performance evaluation as well as compensation systems. Accordingly, they are resisted.

The paper's contribution is in the advancement of sociological theories in behavioral managerial accounting. The paper develops a process innovation framework that integrates organizational sociological research in process innovations, particularly in diffusion research.