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The paper aims to provide a better understanding of the interrelatedness of customer and service orientations in the organizational structures of capital goods manufacturing companies.

A qualitative, multi‐case research design was employed using 36 European capital goods manufacturing companies.

This article explored four different patterns of how companies move from being product‐focused to service‐focused, and from having an organizational structure that is geographically focused to one that is customer‐focused. The four patterns are termed as follows: emphasizing service orientation, service‐focused organizational structure, emphasizing customer orientation, and customer‐focused organizational structure.

Although the study is based on 36 case studies, the external validity (generalizability) of the findings could not be assessed accurately.

The description of the four organizational approaches offers guidance for managers to restructure their companies towards service and customer orientations.

The article links the relatively independent discussions of service and customer orientations in the context of organizational structures. The four patterns provide a better understanding of how capital goods manufacturers integrate increased customer and service focuses in their organizational structures.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of conflict management on conflicts at work. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 148 post‐graduate students in management responded to a questionnaire online. Two cluster analyses were performed to identify dispute resolution patterns and organizational dispute states. Then, cross tabulation between the two clusters was performed (Pearson's chi‐square coefficient and Sommer's D statistic). Findings – Cluster analyses identified three styles of dispute resolution pattern – interest‐based, based on controlled power, and power‐based – and three different organizational dispute states: harmony, dissonance, and conflict. Finally, the influence of resolution patterns on dispute states was been confirmed by the cross tabulation. Research limitations/implications – Firstly, Ury et al.'s theoretical typology should be revised, especially for the rights‐based approach. Secondly, the results of our cluster analysis indicate that it might not be necessary to measure the emotional and behavioral dimension of conflict separately. Thirdly, our research confirms the impact of conflict management on conflicts at work. Practical implications – The results show that dispute resolution patterns have a non‐negligible influence on organizational conflict states. In order to increase the likelihood of a harmony state, an interest‐based dispute resolution pattern should be adopted. Originality/value – First, the statistical technique used – cluster analysis – is somewhat innovative. Secondly, this research shows that dispute resolution patterns may affect organizational dispute states.

Organizational change theorists tend to focus on substantive changes and frequently ignore or underplay the significance of the features of structural inertia. The effect of this preoccupation has minimized our understanding of frequently occurring patterns of limited structural change. The purpose of this paper is to encourage theorizing and debate about limited structural change.

This paper presents a conceptual explanation of the different patterns of limited structural change that arise in organizations undertaking change. It reviews and comments on how different patterns occur at the organization level as a result of the adjustment of component forces around pattern profiling centers of gravity.

A pervasive finding in change literature is that organizations tend to fall back on more of the same, even when they undergo some major structural change. The paper proposes a framework encapsulating four competencies that synergistically complement each other as a foundation for explaining different patterns of limited structural change.

The paper argues for advancing theory accounting for limited structural change, moving away from the dichotomy of change as normal and limited change as atypical. Normative rational change actions and bounded change actions interact and coexist in parallel. A focus on explaining limited change is a starting point for advancing our understanding of this coexistence.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the IT professionals in a Hong Kong public transport company have a general perception of influence of the organisational defensive patterns on learning of ICT; and whether skilled incompetence, organisational defensive routines and fancy footwork are positively associated with each other in IT group of a transport company.

This paper investigated the influence of organisational defensive patterns by means of a survey of 171 IT professionals at a Hong Kong public transport company. Each selected employee completed a questionnaire that asked them to indicate the influence of the organisational defensive patterns (skilled incompetence, organisational defensive routines and fancy footwork) on the learning of ICT in their organisation.

The employees indicated that skilled incompetence, organisational defensive routines and fancy footwork had influence on the learning of ICT. The findings show that the IT professionals in a Hong Kong transport company have the general perception of influence of skilled incompetence, defensive routines and fancy footwork on learning of ICT. The findings also indicate that skilled incompetence, defensive routines and fancy footwork are positively associated with each other in IT group of the transport company.

This article is a first step towards extending the theory and practice of organisational defensive patterns to IT group of a transport company.

This paper aims to investigate the relationships amongst career patterns, neutrality of the state civil apparatus, and organizational performance of the local government in South Konawe District, Southeast Sulawesi Province in Indonesia.

Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to investigate the relationships between variables through direct and indirect influence testing.

The findings reveal that career patterns influence neutrality and organizational performance. Neutrality of the state civil apparatus in politics mediates career patterns and local government organizational performance. The findings indicate that, first, promotions most significantly influence the organization’s neutrality and performance. Second, demotions have the least influence on the organization’s robustness and performance.

This paper is among the first to examine the relationships amongst career patterns, neutrality, and organizational performance. Recommendations are provided to improve neutrality and organizational performance, that is, the need to increase promotions and reduce demotions.

The aim of this article is threefold: the primary aim is conceptual by outlining two ideal-typical ideas about organizational life. These models offer rival ideas about how organizations balance seemingly conflicting patterns of behaviour and change in everyday life. The second ambition of the article is to outline a theoretical approach of organizational life arguing that even fairly loosely coupled organizations may be profoundly patterned by everyday routines as much as by ambiguity. The third and final ambition is to offer empirical illustrations from organizations that are often considered as archetypes of loose coupling and ambiguities: jazz orchestras and university organizations. The empirical discussion, however, illustrates that behaviour and change in these organizations are coined by routines and rules.

Two common dynamics often observed in organizations are highlighted: first, organizations viewed as sets of formal structures and routines that systematically bias organizational performance and change, and secondly, organizations as loosely coupled structures that enable improvisation with respect to organizational performance and change. How organizations live with and practice such seemingly contradictory dynamics is empirically illuminated in two types of organizations that are seldom analysed in tandem – university organizations and jazz orchestras. Drawing on contemporary research on these seemingly contradictory laboratories of organizational analysis, some observations are highlighted that indeed are common to both types of organizations. Furthermore, it is argued that lessons may be drawn from organizations where turbulence is common and where seemingly un-organized processes are quite regular. University organizations and jazz orchestras represent such types of organizations.

First, the degree of ambiguity in organizations is a matter of degree, not an either/or, and that the uncertainty and spontaneity observed in organizational behaviour and change is more patterned than often assumed (see Heimer and Stinchcombe, 1999; Strauss, 1979). As such, organization theory may be a useful extension of the garbage can model, suggesting that streams in decision-making processes may be systematically pre-packed and patterned by the availability of access and attention structures (Cohen et al., 1976). Secondly, scholarship in organizational studies needs to do away with over-simplistic dichotomies when facing complex realities. This challenge is equal for studies of public sector organizations as for scholarship in business and management. Organization studies often face the tyranny of conceptual dichotomies (Olsen, 2007). This article suggests that the distinction between loose and tight coupling in organizations, as between improvisation and pre-planned activities in organizations, face the danger of shoehorning complex data into simple categories. Originality/value – How organizations live with and practice seemingly contradictory dynamics is empirically illuminated in two types of organizations that are seldom analysed in tandem in organizational studies – university organizations and jazz orchestras. These conflicting organizational dynamics pinpoint one classical dilemma in university and jazz life beleaguered on the inherent trade-off between instrumental design and the logic of hierarchy on the one hand, and individual artistic autonomy and professional neutrality on the other. “[T]he purpose of developing the jazz metaphor is to draw out the collaborative, spontaneous and artful aspects of organizing in contradiction to the engineered, planned and controlled models that dominate modern management thoughts” (Hatch, 1999, p. 4). This dilemma highlights competing understandings of organizational life, of institutional change, and of what the pursuit of organizational goals ultimately entails.

Drawing from legitimacy and institutional entrepreneurship theory, this study assesses the naming patterns of entrepreneurial firms in the US biotechnology industry.

The authors use a mixed-methods design of content analysis and regression to analyze a sample of 441 entrepreneurial biotechnology firms, for which data were obtained from Net Advantage. The authors track changes to the proportion of firms with naming attributes, such as name length and type of name. The authors also examine variability in those characteristics during the industry's evolution, comparing freestanding to acquired start-ups.

Start-ups select names that are longer, more descriptive, begin with rare sounds or hard plosives and have stronger discipline- or technology-specific links during nascent years of the industry. As the industry evolves, entrepreneurs are more likely to select names that are shorter, more abstract, begin with hard plosives and have stronger industry-specific links. The naming patterns of freestanding and acquired companies differ, and companies that conform to industry pressures tend to remain independent.

Unlike extant studies that assess established industries, the current study identifies shifting trends in the naming patterns of entrepreneurial firms in an emerging industry. By focusing on start-ups, the authors expand research on organizational naming practices, which focuses traditionally on name choices and name change patterns of incumbents. By using marketing and linguistics methods when analyzing organizational name attributes, naming patterns in these attributes are identified, including name length, name type, starting letter of the name and link to the industry.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate three patterns of stories employed by organisational actors to make sense of organisational change: stories of “the good old days”; stories of deception, taboo and silence; and stories of influence. Each pattern reflects one way in which organisational actors make sense of change and in which they use their stories for different purposes. This argument is illustrated by short evocative stories from the original data.

This paper derives from qualitative and inductive cross‐national research into organisational change and learning. Three manufacturing firms, one each from the UK, South Africa and Russia, were studied to investigate sensemaking under conditions of change. Data were collected through narrative interviews and interpreted using an inductive approach borrowing elements from grounded theory and analytic induction.

Personal accounts of experiences with organisational change (change stories) have a dual purpose. On the one hand, they are powerful sensemaking devices with which organisational actors make organisational change meaningful. On the other hand, they contest official change stories, reflecting the complex dynamics of organisational change in patterns of stories. The conclusion is that the experiences and agendas of different organisational actors shape the interests and actions of people in organisations, with decisive implications for patterns of organisational change.

Organisational change as a multi‐story process needs to be investigated through further qualitative and contextual research to provide richer insights into the dynamics of storytelling and sensemaking under conditions of organisational change.

Cross‐national study that builds on case and cross‐case analysis of autobiographical stories of experiences with organisational change.

The way organizations cope with uncertainty in strategic decision making is prominently discussed. Concepts such as heuristics and simple rules are gaining increasing attention in strategic management research. However, despite their importance, little is known how heuristics and simple rules operate. Our qualitative study reveals that, first, strategic decisions consist of three basic elements: single rules, rule patterns, and emotional handling. Second, we find that firms develop generalizable rule patterns which follow a sequential order of inter-linked rules. Based on the findings we introduce the concept of organizational heuristics as inter-linked rule patterns drawing on organizational experience.

While previous research acknowledges the influence of roles on routine dynamics, roles are largely taken for granted. The purpose of this paper aims at examining how roles and routines interplay in accomplishing work in organizations.

A four-year ethnography of an emergency department (ED) at a university hospital was conducted through observations, interviews and documents.

Roles and routines are formed by scripted and unscripted patterns, which are brought into performances following a situational assessment. Performances trigger patterning processes prompting the co-construction of role and routine patterns.

This study highlights the importance of designing flexible structures. Managers can benefit from identifying unscripted patterns critical to work performance and making them part of scripted patterns. Managers should contemplate the influence that individuals, their relations and context have on how work is done.

This study suggests that the existence of different patterns impacts the length of wait times in EDs, a societal issue worldwide because of the effects that waiting can have on the patient's health condition and the unnecessary costs it carries. This study can help design solutions to decrease wait times.

This paper contributes to research on routine dynamics by providing a more nuanced explanation of the sources of endogenous change and how these enable organizational stability and flexibility.