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1 – 10 of over 55000Angela Graf, Thomas Hess, Lea Müller and Fabian Zimmer
Talking about smart cities also entails talking about new ways of mobility. Various concepts compete for reimagining future mobility, most prominently connected cars, robo taxis…
Abstract
Talking about smart cities also entails talking about new ways of mobility. Various concepts compete for reimagining future mobility, most prominently connected cars, robo taxis, and other forms of shared mobility. New digital technologies, changing customer requirements, but also new competitors are dynamically affecting previous market logics. To stay future-proof in this new world of mobility, the automotive sector, which is an important nucleus for developing such mobility solutions, is currently undergoing fundamental digital transformation processes. Established car manufacturers have to find their path to choose out of the many possibilities on the rise. Against this backdrop, they face the major challenge to find an answer to the question: Who are we and who do we want to be in the future? Therefore, we argue that organizations’ digital transformation is highly entangled with questions on organizational identity and discuss digital transformation as a potential identity threat for established organizations.
We begin this chapter by introducing the concept of organizational identity. Afterward, we will continue with applying it to the practical context of car manufacturers: After depicting the major trends of digitalization in the mobility and automotive sector, we will focus on the digital transformation processes of established automotive companies and discuss their impact on organizational identity. Empirical illustrations of the Volkswagen case depict our theoretical considerations.
We provide theoretical ideas for better understanding the impact of digital transformation on organizational identity, as well as suggestions for practitioners concerned with organizations’ digital transformation processes.
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J.Daniel Wischnevsky and Fariborz Damanpour
The punctuated equilibrium model (PEM) is an influential model of organizational change that can both advance theory and guide managerial action. However, with the exception of…
Abstract
The punctuated equilibrium model (PEM) is an influential model of organizational change that can both advance theory and guide managerial action. However, with the exception of Romanelli and Tushman’s (1994) study of minicomputer firms, the core assertion of the PEM – that fundamental organizational change would occur through brief, discontinuous, and simultaneous changes in all domains of organizational activity and not through incremental and asynchronous changes – has not been tested in longitudinal, large-sample research. We examined the event histories of 50 bank holding companies in the U.S. between 1975 and 1995, replicating Romanelli and Tushman’s test of the PEM in a less turbulent industry environment. Additionally, we examined the consequences of organizational transformation on subsequent firm performance, an aspect of the PEM that has seldom been studied. We found that both revolutionary and non-revolutionary change patterns were common means to accomplish organizational transformation. We also found that the installation of a new top executive not previously affiliated with the company and major shifts in the regulatory environment increased the likelihood of revolutionary transformation. Whereas severe performance declines before transformation decreased the likelihood of organizational transformation, the occurrence of revolutionary transformation did not significantly influence subsequent organizational performance.
Katja Hutter, Ferry-Michael Brendgens, Sebastian Peter Gauster and Kurt Matzler
This paper aims to examine the key challenges experienced and lessons learned when organizations undergo large-scale agile transformations and seeks to answer the question of how…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the key challenges experienced and lessons learned when organizations undergo large-scale agile transformations and seeks to answer the question of how incumbent firms achieve agility at scale.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on a case study of a multinational corporation seeking to scale up agility, the authors combined 36 semistructured interviews with secondary data from the organization to analyze its transformation since the early planning period.
Findings
The results show how incumbent firms develop and successfully integrate agility-enhancing capabilities to sense, seize and transform in times of digital transformation and rapid change. The findings highlight how agility can be established initially at the divisional level, namely with a key accelerator in the form of a center of competence, and later prepared to be scaled up across the organization. Moreover, the authors abstract and organize the findings according to the dynamic capabilities framework and offer propositions of how companies can achieve organizational agility by scaling up agility from a divisional to an organizational level.
Practical implications
Along with in-depth insights into agile transformations, this article provides practitioners with guidance for developing agility-enhancing capabilities within incumbent organizations and creating, scaling and managing agility across them.
Originality/value
Examining the case of a multinational corporation's exceptional, pioneering effort to scale agility, this article addresses the strategic importance of agility and explains how organizational agility can serve incumbent firms in industries characterized by uncertainty and intense competition.
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Jean M. Bartunek and Elise B. Jones
We explore how scholarly understandings of and the practice of organizational transformation have evolved since Bartunek and Louis’s (1988) Research in Organizational Change and…
Abstract
We explore how scholarly understandings of and the practice of organizational transformation have evolved since Bartunek and Louis’s (1988) Research in Organizational Change and Development chapter. While Bartunek and Louis hoped to see strategy scholarship and OD approaches to transformation inform each other, strategy literature has drifted away from transformation toward more continuous change. OD practice has focused on the implementation of its own versions of transformation through Large Group Interventions, Appreciative Inquiry, the new dialogic OD, and Theory U. Based on a discussion of Theory U, we call attention to the importance of individuals as an important source of new ideas in understanding and practicing large-scale change.
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Jonathan Brodeur, Isabelle Deschamps and Robert Pellerin
This paper aims to investigate the characteristics and dynamics of the organizational changes needed to facilitate the management of an Industry 4.0 transformation in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the characteristics and dynamics of the organizational changes needed to facilitate the management of an Industry 4.0 transformation in manufacturing SMEs and propose an approach to manage them.
Design/methodology/approach
This research focuses on a single manufacturing SME in North America, and data were collected using a research intervention method. Data were collected through observation and intervention within the SME over 27 months.
Findings
The research has shown that organizational changes are required in manufacturing SMEs to better manage their Industry 4.0 transformation projects.
Research limitations/implications
Using the case study method limits the generalization of the results. The organizational changes observed, and their characteristics might be specific to the studied manufacturing. Although results could vary in different contexts, many manufacturing SMEs have similar characteristics to those observed in this study.
Practical implications
This research provides preliminary evidence of an iterative organizational change management approach that manufacturing SMEs must adopt to facilitate the management of their digital transformation.
Originality/value
This research provides a better understanding of how a manufacturing SME can improve its capabilities to manage its digital transformation by introducing iterative organizational changes. From these results, a link to the organizational learning literature can be drawn and developed upon.
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Carmenza Gallego Giraldo and Gregorio Calderon-Hernandez
The present document presents the possible contributions of strategic design to organizational transformation, as a part of business intellectual capital.
Abstract
Purpose
The present document presents the possible contributions of strategic design to organizational transformation, as a part of business intellectual capital.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study from a Colombian family business group, with three business units, industrial, commercial and service, were used. Interviews regarding critical events and semi-structured interviews were employed. Data were processed with NVivo software.
Findings
It was found that abductive, empathetic and creative competencies (human capital) that may facilitate the comprehension of nature, needs and alternatives to be employed in organizational change processes. Further, the importance of the participative design approach in co-creation, with interest groups, transformation projects (relational capital), and design thought, as a methodology for the implementation of the preceding (structural capital), was identified.
Research limitations/implications
The results revealed, in this case, suggest several future investigative routes. Firstly, increased empirical research, based on this proposal, is suggested. Specifically, it would be relevant to perform causal studies that report the contribution of each of the components of strategic design to the diverse organizational transformation processes. A third line of investigation might include delving into certain relationships that have already been identified, but require further comparison. One of these might be the role of design thought as a method to perform specific organizational transformation projects.
Practical implications
As a result of the present investigation, a model is established (see Figure 2) which may be useful to companies to address organizational transformation, capitalizing on the benefits offered by strategic design. In summary, the proposal considers four phases (see the central circle in Figure 2). Phase 1: understanding organizational occurrences and situations, the basis upon which to determine the nature of an organizational transformation. This activity alludes to the work that is collaboratively managed with different interest groups, in the systematic comprehension of the business organizational transformation chain of events. Phase 2: determining the path to be followed or the route for collaborative action. Doing so in participative fashion permits the representation of a diversity of ideas and opinions on a given problem/potential identified in the preceding process. This stimulates and strengthens the creative competency in company personnel (Jeffries, 2007). If this competency is incorporated into the corporate culture, differential factors may be established, in an environment with broad competency, thus achieving transformations appropriate for a competitive environment.
Social implications
Co-creation, the central axis of the organizational transformation process. At the base of all organizational transformation processes is an approach focused on human beings, whose principal questions include: What place do individuals have in strategic problem resolution, like those of organizational transformation, in companies? How are human competencies strengthened when applied to organizational transformation processes? What types of ties are made, beyond the establishment of natural relationships (work, purchase, sell), with interest groups? And most importantly: How do they achieve the construction of new business realities together? To do this, participative and co-creative methods must be employed as a scenario to jointly achieve multiple satisfaction realities, in which understanding the essence of the participative design approach becomes meaningful (Jones, 2015).
Originality/value
Design thought, as a methodological proposal for organizational transformation projects. The use of inspiration, ideation, and implementation stages, iteratively and permanently, is suggested. Continuous review of the point of departure, the path trodden and the goals to be achieved should be prioritized, such that they may act as compasses for organizational transformation, considering strategic design to be a key motor (Yee et al., 2017).
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In the extant organizational change literature scant attention has been given to the communication and cognitive processes consequential to organizational transformation. From the…
Abstract
Purpose
In the extant organizational change literature scant attention has been given to the communication and cognitive processes consequential to organizational transformation. From the communication and sense-making perspectives, this study discusses the role of positive communication involving stories, metaphors or axioms in fostering socio-cognitive routines necessary for organizational change. The study further examines the empirical link between positive communication and organizational transformation with the survey data from professionals who have experienced the organizational change episode. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The study examines the empirical link between the positive communication and organizational transformation with a survey data collected from 174 management professionals who have recently experienced the organizational change episodes such as restructuring, reengineering, TQM adoption or new strategy implementation. With the content analysis of narratives containing metaphors, axioms and stories, the study unravels the underlying clusters of organizational and socio-cognitive dimensions associated with organizational transformation.
Findings
The study results affirm the importance of positive communication and its effects on the emotional buy-in, learning and transformation occurring at the individual level, and attest to the transformational effect of positive axioms, metaphors or stories on the organization. The study also revealed that the positive communication diffusing social, cognitive or emotional attributes such as commitment, trust or optimism produces the desired transformational effect.
Practical implications
It is imperative for managers to understand the relationship between socio-linguistic processes and cognitive attributes such as trust, commitment and learning. With the help of right metaphors, stories and axioms that resonate with changing industry conditions, managers can effectively orchestrate the strategic intent and organizational transformation.
Originality/value
Most studies on the relationship between managerial communication and organizational transformation are primarily qualitative case studies focusing on the dialectics of organizational change. This study carries the strong external validity by capturing the connection between managerial communications and their transformational effect with the help of data collected from the management professionals across multiple industries.
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Jan vom Brocke, Alexander Michael Schmid, Alexander Simons and Norizan Safrudin
This paper presents a structured literature review of studies on IT-enabled organizational transformation to determine the state of the art and to identify areas for future…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents a structured literature review of studies on IT-enabled organizational transformation to determine the state of the art and to identify areas for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
We collect 201 academic publications on IT-enabled organizational transformation and analyze them from three perspectives: a publication perspective, a research perspective and a conceptual perspective.
Findings
From a publication perspective, we identify and synthesize the seminal works to provide a brief history of research on IT-enabled organizational transformation. From a research perspective, we show that studies in this area have seldom been grounded in theory and have predominantly used qualitative approaches, while only a few studies have drawn from quantitative data. From a conceptual perspective, we show that most research has studied higher levels of transformation, especially process redesign.
Originality/value
This review presents the landscape of the literature on IT-enabled organizational transformation, which provides a foundation for future research.
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Kristen Snyder, Pernilla Ingelsson and Ingela Bäckström
The purpose of this paper is to identify and synthesize approaches to studying Lean transformation to further develop a comprehensive approach that integrates organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and synthesize approaches to studying Lean transformation to further develop a comprehensive approach that integrates organizational culture analysis and performance measurement systems from a systems perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is conceptual in nature and based on a review of the literature in the areas of measuring Lean transformation and studying organizational culture. Three questions guide this conceptual analysis: “What approaches have been used to examine Lean transformation in business and public sector organizations?”; “Is there evidence of a focus on organizational culture in the measurement practices in Lean transformation and, if so, how?”; and “What can we learn from organizational cultural theorists about developing a more comprehensive framework to study Lean transformation?”. The analysis was conducted in two phases: In Phase 1, a database search was conducted using the key words Lean transformation, studying Lean, studying Lean transformation, studying organizational culture in Lean and measuring Lean, from which eight papers were selected. In Phase 2, the authors reviewed two models for studying organizational culture.
Findings
Findings indicated that the dominant approach to study and measure Lean transformation is based on the performance measurement model. Based on this approach, there was little evidence of a focus on organizational culture, and few integrated the human dimensions with the tools and practices. The authors also found evidence of a greater awareness of the need to develop a balanced performance measurement system that reflects both the subjective soft measures and the objective hard measures. Among the approaches studied, two models did reflect integration between hard and soft measures: Dahlgaard et al.’s (2011) 4Ps and Najem et al. ’s (2012) assessment model for studying organizational culture in Lean. Both of these methods provide a strong framework from which to further enhance the study of Lean transformation by incorporating elements from Bantz’s (1993) organizational communication culture method and Martin’s (1992) Matrix concept.
Originality/value
This paper furthers the academic dialogue on measuring Lean transformation through its unique analysis of studying organizational culture.
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Cheng Gong and Vincent Ribiere
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the conceptual confusion in the extant literature about organizational agility and explore its role in different relationships in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the conceptual confusion in the extant literature about organizational agility and explore its role in different relationships in the context of digital transformation.
Design/methodology/approach
An integrative review of the relevant literature on agility was conducted. The literature on organizational agility and other variables in recent quantitative research was also examined to explore its role in different relationships.
Findings
Organizational agility is the ability to quickly respond and proactively embrace unanticipated changes in dynamic environments through effective resource reconfiguration and rapid decision-making. The role of organizational agility in achieving digital transformation has not been addressed from a holistic conceptual perspective. This paper addresses that gap and proposes that organizational agility is the underlying mechanism for an organization to fully use and engage its workforce, operation and network in the process of digital transformation.
Research limitations/implications
This research is an integrative review of the existing literature on the concept of agility and its relationships. The next phase of research needed for theory building will be the operationalization of constructs.
Practical implications
Organizations should strive to strategically develop both the reactivity and proactivity sides of organizational agility in achieving digital transformation that involves fundamental changes at different levels of the organization.
Originality
This paper explores the role of organizational agility in digital transformation through an integrative review of the relevant literature.
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