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1 – 10 of over 6000Sebastian H.W. Stanger, Richard Wilding, Evi Hartmann, Nicola Yates and Sue Cotton
Are lateral transshipments an effective instrument to ensure the safe and efficient supply of blood? This paper will use the lens of institutional theory to determine how the…
Abstract
Purpose
Are lateral transshipments an effective instrument to ensure the safe and efficient supply of blood? This paper will use the lens of institutional theory to determine how the blood supply chain can benefit from lateral transshipments and what requirements are necessary for their implementation. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design comprises two stages. First, 16 case studies clustered into two case groups were conducted with transfusion laboratories in UK hospitals resulting in the derivation of eight key themes which were tested using a follow-up survey.
Findings
The blood supply chain acts under the influence of significant institutional pressures. Coercive pressures result from regulations enforced to ensure the safe supply of blood, normative pressures are imposed by society, demanding wastage is minimized and mimetic pressure from other hospitals fosters efficient supply chain operation. Lateral transshipments offer a powerful organizational tool to allow the blood supply chain to conform to these pressures.
Research limitations/implications
This paper offers a novel institutional perspective on a complex supply chain issue where additional external pressures are seen to complicate the context. Due to the special characteristics of the blood supply chain, generalization of the findings to other industries must be done with care.
Practical implications
The paper confirms the benefits of lateral transshipments in a perishable product context. Special requirements for the blood supply chain/health care services are identified.
Originality/value
The key contributions of this paper are five propositions which offer an institutional theory perspective on the application of lateral transshipment relationships in the blood supply chain.
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Danielle A. Tucker and Stefano Cirella
In the context of organizational change, identifying, and organizing the various roles of change agents remains a challenge for practitioners and scholars alike. This chapter…
Abstract
In the context of organizational change, identifying, and organizing the various roles of change agents remains a challenge for practitioners and scholars alike. This chapter examines how different agents can enable an effective change process. Empirical evidence from three hospitals illustrates the process of transformation and its underlying arrangements to identify agents and their roles. The findings underline the importance of designing a coherent system of agents, determining where they come from, their role during the process, and how this may change throughout the change process. Managerial choices in the cases are discussed, leading to implications for theory and practice.
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Purpose – This chapter argues that the concept of agility is an effective robust framework for designing sustainable health care systems.Design/methodology/approach – This case…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter argues that the concept of agility is an effective robust framework for designing sustainable health care systems.
Design/methodology/approach – This case study of Alegent Health was based on 7 years of data collection. It includes observations of meetings, large-group interventions, and other activities; site visits to different hospitals in the system to observe changes in practice; interviews with Alegent Health executives, primary care physicians, hospital presidents, specialist physicians and physician groups, and health systems staff and nurses; and a variety of archival data including meeting minutes, video tapes, conference proceedings, and web site material.
Findings – The Alegent Health system has evolved over time according to the principles of agility. It built a series of new capabilities that contribute to improved clinical outcomes, sustained financial results, and more socially and ecologically responsible results. Designing health care systems based on agility is a more effective and sustainable approach than relying on legislative or other criteria.
Originality/value – The discussion of sustainability in health care has focused primarily on specific projects or how to respond to specific technological, regulatory, or clinical changes. Alegent Health's experience provides important lessons, opportunities, and challenges that can help advance our understanding of effective health care and use organizational agility to create more sustainable health care systems. This chapter provides health care system administrators an alternative design option.
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M. Angeles Escriba‐Moreno and M. Teresa Canet‐Giner
The main goal of the work presented here is the study and comparative analysis of the changes that take place in the structure of organizations when managers decide to establish…
Abstract
Purpose
The main goal of the work presented here is the study and comparative analysis of the changes that take place in the structure of organizations when managers decide to establish work teams in the context of quality management. It can be observed that team characteristics change and adapt to evolving management programs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors selected a qualitative research method, in particular the case study methodology. The comparative analysis of organizational changes was analyzed in three different business units that had implanted advanced quality management programs using work teams.
Findings
There is a relationship between the quality management approach and the degree of integration of the teams into the organizational structure; when the quality approach is an advanced TQM approach, teams are more integrated into the organizational structure. Results show that a reduction of hierarchical levels in the organizational structures favors the integration of work teams and vice versa. It also facilitates effective development of the teams.
Practical implications
As a result of the findings, supervision should be reduced and a great deal of autonomy and resources should be assigned to teams. In any case, the existence of linkage positions (a leader or facilitator that forms a part of the team) makes the required supervision easier and more flexible.
Originality/value
The paper shows that significant organizational changes requiring different uses of design variables can be obtained with the simultaneous establishment of TQM programs and work teams. The paper is relevant to managers attempting to use teams as an effective asset for obtaining the competitive advantage of their firms.
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The study aims to add to the knowledge of governance and control aspects of intrafirm relationships by exploring a transaction costs economics perspective (TCE perspective) on…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to add to the knowledge of governance and control aspects of intrafirm relationships by exploring a transaction costs economics perspective (TCE perspective) on governance and management control structure choices related to the development of a shared service center (SSC).
Design/methodology/approach
The notion of governance and control in SSC organizations is explored and a TCE model is developed to analyze management control structure choices for SSC governance. The nature of internal transactions is related to the dimensions of transactions. Then an example case study is used to illustrate the application of the theoretical model.
Findings
The theoretical analysis broadens existing frameworks of management control structures by particularly pointing to the possibility of including governance structures for internal transactions and exit threats (connected to a market mechanism) in the management control structure of an organization. Confrontation with the case example illustrates that the possibility of an exit threat was not explicitly considered by top management (“the designer” of management control). Although the TCE model may be a useful tool for analysis purposes, it has little explanatory power in this particular case. Organizational change processes toward SSCs are complex and can only partly be examined with conventional economics-based approaches such as TCE.
Research limitations/implications
Governance and control of SSCs is conceptually theorized, using an instrumental economics approach. The case study is not generalizable but illustrates the use of the model in a particular situation. To understand governance and control change within SSC organizations, more longitudinal case studies are needed.
Practical implications
A TCE approach to governance and control choices regarding SSCs might provide practitioners with insights into the efficiency of specific management control structures.
Originality/value
This chapter contributes to the extant knowledge by both exploring and challenging a TCE perspective on SSC-related changes in management control.
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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the analysis of the influence of organizational design variables on the creation of knowledge within the organization. The impact that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the analysis of the influence of organizational design variables on the creation of knowledge within the organization. The impact that enablers have on knowledge creation has been widely demonstrated and established in the relevant literature. Using this assumption as a starting‐point, the main aim of this study is to consider and explore the role of differentiation – horizontal and vertical – in knowledge creation using enablers as mediator variables.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper has created a model of relations of the design variables that correspond to differentiation – horizontal job specialization, vertical job specialization and number of hierarchical levels; the enablers – autonomy, redundancy and variety; and knowledge creation. This model is then contrasted with an empirical investigation of a quantitative nature, using a sample of 167 large Spanish firms.
Findings
The findings in the paper confirm both the impact of enablers on knowledge creation, as defined in the literature, and the fact that vertical specialization is shown to be a suitable design variable for creating knowledge through the autonomy enabler. However, the relation between the horizontal specialization of work and the number of hierarchical levels is not confirmed as being significant in terms of knowledge creation.
Research limitations/implications
This paper considers the main limitation of this research to be that the questionnaire was answered by only one respondent, which forced one to consider the outcomes of this research with a certain degree of caution.
Practical implications
The results in the paper may be relevant for managers in decision making with regard to organizational design. Herein, reference is made to variables relative to job design and the number of hierarchical levels.
Originality/value
The value of this paper lies in two aspects. First, it overlaps two fields of research; organizational design and knowledge creation. Second, although there is a lot of literature on knowledge creation, there are very few empirical studies, especially of a quantitative nature.
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J. Mouritsen, H. Thorsgaard Larsen and P.N. Bukh
This paper compares balanced scorecard and intellectual capital and finds important differences between their theoretical underpinnings, which suggest that the breath of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper compares balanced scorecard and intellectual capital and finds important differences between their theoretical underpinnings, which suggest that the breath of indicators will work differently in organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
Analysing texts about balanced scorecard and intellectual capital, the paper discusses not the obvious similarities – that they are both integrated performance management systems – but four more aspects: strategy, organisation, management, and indicators. Comparing these four dimensions the paper discusses the differences arising from the very different theories of strategy that they presuppose: competitive advantage versus competency strategy.
Findings
The paper suggests that the very different notions of strategy that underpin the balanced scorecard and the intellectual capital approach make such comprehensive performance management systems behave in very different ways – the difference between a tightly coupled and a loosely coupled system accounts for this.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation is that the paper is primarily a literature study and therefore it is not certain that in practical situations companies will necessarily adopt the theoretical perspectives mobilised behind balance scorecard and intellectual capital.
Practical implications
The usefulness of that paper is that practitioners may understand the breath of implications of a shift in strategic focus and realise the various organisational conditions that can help mobilise the use of indicators in different ways.
Originality/value
The paper's analysis shows how the two models assume how indicators work in an organisational systems and concludes that the differences are significant and that therefore there are considerable differences in how a system of indicators may work in the context of balanced scorecard compared with the context of intellectual capital.
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Michael L. Litano and Valerie J. Morganson
Despite the prevalence and potential benefits of multiauthority organizational structures (i.e. matrix organizations), research is lacking on the resulting impact on employees’…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the prevalence and potential benefits of multiauthority organizational structures (i.e. matrix organizations), research is lacking on the resulting impact on employees’ work–family conflict (WFC). The purpose of this article is to use leader–member exchange (LMX) as a framework to examine how employees who report to two leaders experience WFC.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 111 engineers and researchers nested within 33 branches and 21 project teams completed an online questionnaire containing measures of LMX and WFC. Hierarchical multiple regressions were used to test the study’s hypotheses.
Findings
LMX with one's immediate supervisor (branch manager, LMX–BM) and project manager ( LMX–PM) each contributed unique variance in predicting WFC. LMX–PM moderated the negative relationship between LMX–BM and WFC, such that the negative relationship was stronger in magnitude at higher levels of LMX–PM quality.
Research limitations/implications
While most research studies have focused upon the impact of a single leader, modern organizations often involve dual reporting. Thus, results expand the extant literature to be more applicable to modern organizational realities. Findings provide evidence that future longitudinal research is worthwhile.
Practical implications
Results indicate that LMX theory is relevant beyond one's immediate supervisor. As a result, all managers should communicate with one another to seek better alignment. Particularly in a matrix organization where positional power is limited, leaders stand to reap the many benefits of high LMX relationships.
Originality/value
This study is the first among its type to examine LMX in a dual reporting context, and it is also the first to examine the impacts of dual reporting on WFC.
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