The focus of this article is upon the relationship of smallness to entrepreneurial behaviour and in particular the development of entrepreneurial behaviour and culture in large organizations. The ...context is the substantial restructuring and in many cases downsizing that has taken place over the past decade in large organizations world-wide. The paper firstly, briefly, reviews how this restructuring has been explained within different academic and pragmatic frameworks. It then considers more closely what the concept of 'smallness' might mean in a business and organizational context. It explores how this relates to necessary and sufficient conditions for entrepreneurial behaviour to take place. A model is then developed based upon the cultural essences, the task structure and the learning mode of small business which, it is argued, provides the basic organizational climate for entrepreneurial behaviour to be successfully pursued. It then explores the implications of this for the process of large firm downsizing and decentralization. Firstly the implications for large-small firm relationship management are examined. Then the implications for large company organization redesign and the stakeholder/shareholder management are explored. Finally attention is called to a number of key areas for future exploration and research.
This chapter contains sections titled:
Introduction
The current ‘climate’ in healthy lifestyles and well‐being
The importance of work as an occupation
Worksite well‐being programmes
An example of a ...occupational therapists contribution
Conclusion
References
The Problem of the Corporation Clemens, Elisabeth S
The Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Organization Studies,
03/2009
Book Chapter
Liberal political theory is populated by individuals: they have natural rights, enter into social contracts, and retain the right of revolution against sovereign power. Formulated in opposition to ...monarchical rule, this liberal vision informed the political constitution of what came to be the industrial democracies, polities entwined with economies dominated by large organizations rather than individual entrepreneurs and small enterprises. The result was a problematic combination of political commitments and economic practices that infused debates—both academic and electoral—over the proper form of twentieth-century democratic society. The dilemma was captured in the words of the Fund for the Republic, a 1950s project dedicated to ‘clarifying fundamental questions concerning freedom and justice that emerge when the forms and principles developed by Eighteenth Century America meet the ideas and practices of today's highly developed industrial society’.
The purpose of the chapter is to deepen our understanding of the discourse-related problems facing managers and employees in the globalized economy. In the various section of the chapter I will ...discuss these problems from different viewpoints. First, I will explore the correspondence between organizational structure and discourse at a more general level, where I will use examples from analysis of small workplaces and large organizations. Secondly, I will view organizational discourse from the point of view of the top level management and discuss how an ‘organizational self’ is constructed by means of discourse, and the role of discourse for internal management and external marketing in the global economy. Thirdly, I will view discourse from a workplace perspective to distinguish two types of multilingual workplaces: those which use English as lingua franca and the multilingual workplaces with a workforce diversity. Fourthly, I will discuss workplace discourse in the ‘new work order’ with a particular focus on the consequences for the individual employee of technological advances and a globalized economy. Lastly, I will sketch some topics for future research.
This chapter contains sections titled:
Job Attributes
Physical Location and Communication
Career Paths
Dual and Triple Hierarchies
Centralization and Decentralization
Keeping the Researcher at the ...Innovation Stage
Job Design and Conflict
Summary
Questions for Class Discussion
Data was gathered from Fortune 500 companies (manufacturing and service organizations) and 500 small firms pertaining to the use of several quantitative techniques. Analysis was also done to see if ...differences existed within different classes of service companies. Also, respondents were asked for their opinion pertaining to specific barriers that may inhibit the use of these techniques. Results show little progress has been made in the applications of quantitative techniques in the last decade. The barriers cited by respondents are mostly related to management's lack of knowledge of quantitative techniques. Findings agree with previous studies conducted.
Unanticipated costs may lead management to terminate a promising CASE tool project or may increase resistance to future CASE tool acquisitions. Preparing a comprehensive CASE budget framework is one ...critical step toward successful CASE adoption. A budget framework is presented which emphasizes the entire life cycle costs for CASE adoption. The phases of an adoption life cycle include: 1. awareness-analysis, in which members of the organization become aware of the need for change that may require the use of new CASE tools, 2. commitment-acquisition, in which management needs to buy into the proposed plan of action and obligate organizational resources toward implementing the plan, 3. implementation, in which the required CASE adoption components are installed and a pilot program carried out to verify the bulk of the assumptions made in the analysis phase, and 4. operations, in which an organization maintains the technical, organizational, and personnel infrastructures necessary for continued CASE-related efforts. In each life cycle phase, budget issues are introduced in order of the technology, organizational, people, and management categories.
Cloud ERP solutions allow organizations of all sizes to support and coordinate key business processes by leveraging virtualization. Nevertheless, the implementation of cloud ERPs is not ...straightforward and there are significant issues that need to be taken into account when launching cloud ERP initiatives. To explore these issues, we conducted an in-depth systematic review of related research literature. We identified six key issues related to cloud ERP implementation: a) functionality fit, b) integration, c) data migration, d) organizational change, e) data security, and f) reliability. Furthermore, we mapped these issues to the different sizes of organizations. Based on this review, we identify two sociotechnical concerns that influence cloud ERP implementation: linking to the installed base to ensure continuity with the past and sustainability in the future. We argue that these two concerns have different implications for organizations of different sizes and we call for further empirical research.
Digitalization has profoundly permeated our lives. In Europe; The Netherlands, together with Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, are digitisation leaders. This intense use of technology asks for ...specialized IT professionals to manage it. Focusing on The Netherlands, there is a scarcity of IT professionals on the labour market. In order to gain more insight into the diverse perspectives employers have on the challenges and solutions around recruitment and retention of IT professionals, an exploratory-explanatory qualitative research design was operationalised and 36 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with one or more representatives of SMEs and larger organisations. The outcomes showed that both, SMEs and large companies have vacancies and an increasing demand for support with digitisation and that the market demand mainly requires senior staff which are difficult to recruit and retain. Large companies mainly focus on IT knowledge while SMEs focus on ‘cultural fitness'. Both types of organisations practise “aggressive” forms of recruitment and they would prefer and focus on “more organic” forms of recruitment. The in-house recruitment is present mostly in large organisations and training and knowledge development is an important tool for recruiting and retaining staff in organisations. The recruitment focuses on more income, influence and involvement, by improving the primary and secondary employment conditions where well-being and maintaining a healthy work-life balance are of utmost importance.
•Large and SMEs in the Netherlands have vacancies and an increasing demand for support with digitisation.•Market demand mainly requires senior IT staff which are difficult to recruit and retain.•Large companies mainly focus on IT knowledge while SMEs focus on ‘cultural fitness'.•Large and SMSs practise “aggressive” forms of recruitment and they would prefer and focus on “more organic” forms of recruitment.•The in-house recruitment is present mostly in large organisations and training and development is an important tool for recruiting and retaining staff in organisations; and the overal recruitment of IT talent focuses on more income, influence and involvement, by improving the primary and secondary employment conditions.
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