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1 – 10 of 678This paper aims to examine Holacracy as a self-management system and its implications for organizational theory. By exploring its distinctive ontology and epistemology, the paper…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine Holacracy as a self-management system and its implications for organizational theory. By exploring its distinctive ontology and epistemology, the paper explains how Holacracy redefines organizational structures and contributes to organizational change.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a conceptual approach, this essay draws upon existing literature to explore Holacracy’s departure from conventional organizational theories.
Findings
The paper discusses how Holacracy challenges traditional organizational concepts, defining its holarchical approach, and emphasizing dynamic hierarchies and role-based organization. It also highlights Holacracy’s focus on emergent intelligence, continuous feedback loops and structured knowledge acquisition through roles and organization spaces. By examining its unique ontology and epistemology, the paper offers insights into how Holacracy aligns with an emergent paradigm known as integral, metamodern or teal.
Research limitations/implications
Further empirical research is needed to assess its practical implementation and long-term effects on organizational performance and employee well-being. Future studies could also explore challenges and limitations associated with adopting Holacracy in different organizational contexts.
Practical implications
Organizations considering alternative ways of working should examine Holacracy. Implementing Holacracy requires understanding its principles and may involve significant changes, with potential benefits such as increased agility and employee engagement.
Social implications
Holacracy’s departure from traditional structures and approach to power can have broader social implications and contribute to more democratic and participatory cultures.
Originality/value
This paper is a pioneering contribution to the under-researched domain of alternative organizational models. It sheds light on the originality and distinctiveness of Holacracy, highlighting its unique approach to hierarchy, role-based organization and consciousness within organizations.
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Jian-Hang Wang, Xiaoyong Dai, Yu-Hsien Wu and Hsiang Lin Chen
The study examines how process/organizational innovation and R&D spending mediate the relationship between financial performance and the resource dependence theory in Fintech…
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines how process/organizational innovation and R&D spending mediate the relationship between financial performance and the resource dependence theory in Fintech, providing insights into effective innovation strategies for achieving sustainable financial performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 191 financial firms in Taiwan was collected from annual reports using the Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ), a financial information provider. Content analysis was used to measure innovation activities and financial performance, with process and organizational innovation defined. R&D expenditures were also collected and used in statistical analysis to explore the relationship between variables.
Findings
This study on the financial services industry shows that process innovation and R&D expenditure positively impact firm performance, while organizational innovation may have a negative short-term effect but could have long-term benefits.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations of this study include vulnerability to spurious effects and the use of data from only listed financial service firms. Future research should use more short-term performance data and include unlisted firms in the financial services industry to extend the study’s coverage.
Originality/value
This study extends resource dependence theory to financial services and explores the effects of process and organizational innovation on firm performance. Results show that internal process management boosts performance, while external collaboration with startups enhances Fintech innovation and efficiency, with positive short-term effects. The study highlights the importance of interacting with external organizations to access resources and improve performance in financial services.
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Chia-Nan Wang, Tran Thi Bich Chau Vo, Hsien-Pin Hsu, Yu-Chi Chung, Nhut Tien Nguyen and Nhat-Luong Nhieu
Business Process Reengineering (BPR) eliminates non-value-added (NVA) and essential non-value-added (ENVA) waste through radical process redesign to improve organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
Business Process Reengineering (BPR) eliminates non-value-added (NVA) and essential non-value-added (ENVA) waste through radical process redesign to improve organizational operations. Comprehensive research integrating BPR tools is needed to understand their benefits for manufacturing firms. This research presents an integrated BPR-simulation framework tailored to the manufacturing sector to maximize process improvements and operational excellence.
Design/methodology/approach
The BPR design methodology adopts a systematic, multi-stage approach. The first phase involves identifying a specific improvement process aligned with BPR's core objectives. This phase analyses and redesigns workflows to optimize task sequences, roles, and stakeholder interactions while eliminating redundancies and inefficiencies via Workflow Process Reengineering. Visual process mapping tools, including VSM and simulation, pinpoint areas of waste, delay, and potential enhancement. The second phase follows the workflow analysis and aims to improve efficiency and effectiveness by redefining roles, rearranging tasks, and integrating automation and technology solutions. The redesigned process undergoes evaluation against key performance indicators to ensure measurable improvements are achieved. The final phase validates the proposed changes through simulation models, assesses the impact on key performance metrics, and establishes the necessary infrastructure for successful implementation. The proposed model is empirically validated through a case study of a leading apparel company in Vietnam, confirming its effectiveness.
Findings
The findings reveal that NVA activities are being eliminated, and ENVA activities in key departments are significantly reduced. This yielded a substantial improvement, reducing 25 out of 186 combined ENVA and NVA operations in the sewing facility, involving a decrease of 15 ENVA operations and the removal of 10 NVA operations. Consequently, this led to an 8.5% reduction in the proportion of ENVA operations, accompanied by a complete 100% elimination of NVA activities.
Research limitations/implications
The single case study limits generalizability; thus, expanded implementation across diverse manufacturing sub-sectors is required to establish validity and broader applicability of the integrated framework.
Originality/value
The experimental results highlight the proposed model's effectiveness in optimizing resource utilization and its practical implementation potential. This structured BPR methodology enables organizations to validate, evaluate, and establish proposed process changes to enhance operational performance and productivity.
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Lucas Melchiori Pereira and Sheila Walbe Ornstein
Properly allocating an organization's activities within a building is vital to reducing the relational complexity arising from process–environment interactions. Multiple…
Abstract
Purpose
Properly allocating an organization's activities within a building is vital to reducing the relational complexity arising from process–environment interactions. Multiple relationships are mapped, and certain interferences are only identified after these have been processed. The method/software employed for this task is Mapping Activity Environment Allocation (MAEA). However, data input and interpretation of results depend on the usability conditions of the organization's agents. This paper presents MAEA's usability test results.
Design/methodology/approach
Test sessions and interviews were carried out with seven agents registered at a University Hospital. Participants were instructed to think aloud during its use, and immediately afterward, responded to semi-structured interviews. Test sessions were audio recorded and screen captured.
Findings
Participants found the software easy to use and pointed out valuable implications for professional and academic use. In addition to relationship, priority and parallelism data, customized visualizations were created, including organizational charts, flowcharts and activity flow routes on the floor plan.
Practical implications
MAEA's simplicity allows non-designers to conduct evidence-based assessments and decisions. It allows designers to test their proposals during the programming and outline proposal stages.
Social implications
A more detailed definition of design requirements from the beginning increases the conditions to successfully achieve project goals.
Originality/value
The ability to map the allocation of activity-spaces in the pre-design phase of building architecture allows for early identification of interactions, aiding in the development of more robust project requirements during programming.
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Francesco Vidè, Denita Cepiku and Marco Mastrodascio
The article explores which configurations of organizational and individual conditions support the purposeful use of performance information in the public sector. Prior research…
Abstract
Purpose
The article explores which configurations of organizational and individual conditions support the purposeful use of performance information in the public sector. Prior research has predominantly focused on the effects of individual factors without paying as much attention to how these factors interact to influence public managers’ attitudes to integrating performance information into their decision-making.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fs-QCA) to examine the different combinations of organizational and individual drivers that facilitate purposeful performance information use.
Findings
Goal clarity is a necessary but insufficient condition for purposeful information use. It needs to be complemented by a mature performance management system, public managers with prosocial motivation who engage in extra-role behaviours within a non-innovative organizational culture, or a developmental culture that motivates managers who are unaware of the social impact generated by their work.
Research limitations/implications
The case selection does not allow for direct generalizations. Future studies could replicate the configurational analysis in different countries and sectors and introduce additional environmental, organizational, and individual conditions.
Practical implications
The study suggests the need to integrate actions that support the purposeful use of performance information and define clear departmental goals. Although the latter is a necessary condition, it needs to be supported by other organizational and individual factors.
Originality/value
The study deepens the theory of the drivers of purposeful performance information use in the public sector by adopting a configurational approach and exploring how organizational and individual conditions interact to foster information use.
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Shoaib Riaz, Damian Morgan and Nell Kimberley
The purpose of this paper is to assess the success factors in a large organization that contributed to the success of organizational transformation (OT) through business…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the success factors in a large organization that contributed to the success of organizational transformation (OT) through business diversification using a complex adaptive systems (CAS) framework. This assessment is done to determine how well the CAS framework can explain the success factors that contribute to the success of large-scale organizational change in complex organizations. If the CAS framework is capable of explaining the organizational factors that lead to the success of change implementation, the managers can employ this framework to increase the likelihood of success while implementing change.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses qualitative research methodology. The data were collected from the case study organization (CSO) through 40 in-depth semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic deductive analysis approach.
Findings
The CAS framework explains the success factors that contribute to the success of OT through business diversification.
Practical implications
This paper provides a comprehensive guide for change implementation by combining the insights from the CAS framework with identified success factors (for change implementation) from the case organization.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in extending the principles of existing change models, for successful change implementation by using the CAS framework. The prescribed change models and the CAS framework/complexity theory are two distinct sets of literature; this paper successfully merges the two to develop a comprehensive set of guidelines for change implementation. By doing so, this paper highlights the fact that alternative, non-linear, change approaches, instead of conventional multistep change models, can be effective in implementing large-scale organizational change successfully given the complexities of current organizational environments.
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Indria Handoko and Hendro A. Tjaturpriono
Along their journey to achieve exponential growth, startups must process a vast amount of information and make quick decisions, reevaluate and adjust strategies and simultaneously…
Abstract
Purpose
Along their journey to achieve exponential growth, startups must process a vast amount of information and make quick decisions, reevaluate and adjust strategies and simultaneously redesign their organization along with the venture lifecycle. This paper delineates the evolution of startups' organizational design and identifies the influencing factors in every phase of the lifecycle.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts an explorative qualitative approach using a multiple case study methodology for six Indonesian startups. Indonesia is chosen as an emerging country in Southeast Asia with tremendous growth in digital startup businesses.
Findings
The research findings suggest that, as they experience exponential growth, startups strive to manage the tension between being structured and being flexible and hence remain innovative by combining management-centric and employee-centric approaches. In particular, this study identified three main factors that potentially influence the evolution of startups' organizational design: founders, investors and the characteristics of business and market.
Research limitations/implications
The present study focuses mainly on Indonesian digital startups and does not fully explain how the influencing factors work in each phase of the venture journey.
Practical implications
This study offers practical contributions for startups pursuing business growth by focusing on the importance of balancing the tension between structured and flexible organizational design and placing more attention on founders, investors and business-market characteristics.
Originality/value
This empirical study is among the first to delineate nuances of organizational design evolution during the startup lifecycle by adopting an explorative qualitative method.
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XinYing Chew, Raed Alharbi, Khai Wah Khaw and Alhamzah Alnoor
The study is interested in knowing “the role of the organizational structure as a mediating variable of the relationship between the information technology and organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
The study is interested in knowing “the role of the organizational structure as a mediating variable of the relationship between the information technology and organizational communication”.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was conducted in several service companies, and the study adopted the questionnaire as a basic tool for the data collection on the practical side, as 267 opinions were surveyed, in addition to conducting personal interviews, and the normal distribution of data was tested, analyzing, describing and diagnosing study variables, testing correlations and determining direct effects.
Findings
Findings show that there is no direct and significant statistical impact of information technology on organizational communications. Whereas there was a positive, direct and statistically significant impact of information technology on the organizational structure. There was also a positive, direct and statistically significant effect of the organizational structure on organizational communication.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is restricted to the role of the organizational structure as a mediating variable of the relationship between the influence of information technology on organizational communication.
Practical implications
As part of the practical implication, the paper suggests the need to increase support and attention to the importance of information technology in service organizations in order to increase coordination and organizational communication and achieve a high ability to explore and exploit ideas.
Originality/value
Apart from the fact that several companies were engaged, the organizational structures of these companies were engaged too to examine the impacts of Information technology (ICT) on organizational communication.
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Søren Skjold Andersen, Mahesh C. Gupta and Diego Augusto de Jesus Pacheco
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), recognized as the father of philosophical pragmatism, has been described as a philosopher’s philosopher. Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt (1947–2011)…
Abstract
Purpose
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), recognized as the father of philosophical pragmatism, has been described as a philosopher’s philosopher. Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt (1947–2011), considered the father of the management philosophy theory of constraints (TOC), has been described as being, first and foremost, a philosopher. The TOC body of knowledge is mainly preserved as concrete methodologies used in the management discipline. By examining the foundational elements of synechism and the TOC, the purpose of this study is to investigate the intellectual connections between the arguments and legacies of Goldratt and Peirce. Although this connection is worthy of much further investigation, the research emphasizes the possible implications from a management philosophy perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a “review with an attitude,” the authors first examined the foundations of Goldratt’s TOC through the lens of Peirce’s synechism. Next, the authors then examined how the study of Peirce combined with a selection of contemporary research in the management and organizational studies domain could point out a direction toward completing Goldratt’s unfinished intellectual work to establish a unified science management while addressing some of the current gaps in the TOC body of knowledge.
Findings
Major findings show that synechism’s growth may extend TOC knowledge, improving managerial practice in organizations. Findings on the convergent ideas of both also reveal that Goldratt valued all synechism categories, emphasizing the importance of not overlooking Firstness. Furthermore, the study analyzes the abductive inference demonstrated in the two use cases, introducing an additional metaphor to the management of organizational systems inspired by Peirce’s philosophical concepts. The research concludes that incorporating TOC and synechism principles can enhance management and organizational practices and enrich management philosophy and theories.
Research limitations/implications
This pioneering research opens promising opportunities to draw parallels between Peirce and Goldratt. Interdisciplinary collaboration will enhance the rigor and validity of integrating synechism and TOC. Experts in organizational behavior, systems theory and complexity science can provide valuable insights into this debate, while practitioners and consultants could help identify barriers and opportunities for integrating synechistic principles.
Practical implications
The study proposes a novel abductive approach using Peirce’s cable metaphor as an initial framework to build a unified science of management based on evolutionary stages: TOC, common sense and connectedness.
Originality/value
This research reinforces the argument that contemporary management practices need philosophical thinking. The authors argue that re-evaluating the foundations of management thought enriches the decision-making process in organizations and the understanding of contemporary theories in management and organizational studies.
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Christopher Owen Cox and Hamid Pasaei
According to the Project Management Institute, 70% of projects fail globally. The causes of project failure in many instances can be identified as non-technical or behavioral in…
Abstract
Purpose
According to the Project Management Institute, 70% of projects fail globally. The causes of project failure in many instances can be identified as non-technical or behavioral in nature arising from interactions between participants. These intangible risks can emerge in any project setting but especially in project settings having diversity of cultures, customs, beliefs and traditions of various companies or countries. This paper provides an objective framework to address these intangible risks.
Study design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a structured approach to identify, assess and manage intangible risks to enhance a project team’s ability to meet its objectives. The authors propose a user-friendly framework, Intangible Risk Assessment Methodology for Projects (IRAMP), to address these risks and the factors that cause them. Meta-network (e.g., a network of networks) simulation and established social network analysis (SNA) measures provide a quantitative assessment and ranking of causal events and their influence on the intangible behavior centric risks.
Findings
The proposed IRAMP and meta-network approach were utilized to examine the project delivery process of an international energy firm. Data were gathered using structured interviews, surveys and project team workshops. The use of the IRAMP to highlight intangible risk areas underpinned by the SNA measures led to changes in the company’s organizational structure to enhance project delivery effectiveness.
Originality/value
This work extends the existing project risk management literature by providing a novel objective approach to identify and quantify behavior centric intangible risks and the conditions that cause them to emerge.
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