► We explore the relationship between product designs and organizational designs. ► We compare open source software with software developed by commercial firms. ► We measure modularity by capturing ...the level of coupling between components. ► We find that loosely coupled organizations tend to develop more modular products. ► The differences in modularity are substantial—up to a factor of six in our sample.
A variety of academic studies argue that a relationship exists between the structure of an organization and the design of the products that this organization produces. Specifically, products tend to “mirror” the architectures of the organizations in which they are developed. This dynamic occurs because the organization's governance structures, problem solving routines and communication patterns constrain the space in which it searches for new solutions. Such a relationship is important, given that product architecture has been shown to be an important predictor of product performance, product variety, process flexibility and even the path of industry evolution.
We explore this relationship in the software industry. Our research takes advantage of a natural experiment, in that we observe products that fulfill the same function being developed by very different organizational forms. At one extreme are commercial software firms, in which the organizational participants are tightly-coupled, with respect to their goals, structure and behavior. At the other, are open source software communities, in which the participants are much more loosely-coupled by comparison. The mirroring hypothesis predicts that these different organizational forms will produce products with distinctly different architectures. Specifically, loosely-coupled organizations will develop more modular designs than tightly-coupled organizations. We test this hypothesis, using a sample of matched-pair products.
We find strong evidence to support the mirroring hypothesis. In all of the pairs we examine, the product developed by the loosely-coupled organization is significantly more modular than the product from the tightly-coupled organization. We measure modularity by capturing the level of coupling between a product's components. The magnitude of the differences is substantial—up to a factor of six, in terms of the potential for a design change in one component to propagate to others. Our results have significant managerial implications, in highlighting the impact of organizational design decisions on the technical structure of the artifacts that these organizations subsequently develop.
This paper identifies the development of and gaps in knowledge in business and management research on resilience, based on a systematic review of influential publications among 339 papers, books and ...book chapters published between 1977 and 2014. Analyzing these records shows that resilience research has developed into five research streams, or lines of enquiry, which view resilience as (1) organizational responses to external threats, (2) organizational reliability, (3) employee strengths, (4) the adaptability of business models or (5) design principles that reduce supply chain vulnerabilities and disruptions. A review of the five streams suggests three key findings: First, resilience has been conceptualized quite differently across studies, meaning that the different research streams have developed their own definitions, theories and understandings of resilience. Second, conceptual similarities and differences among these streams have not yet been explored, nor have insights been gleaned about any possible generalizable principles for developing resilience. Third, resilience has been operationalized quite differently, with few insights into the empirics for detecting resilience to future adversity (or the absence thereof). This paper outlines emerging research trends and pathways for future research, highlighting opportunities to integrate and expand on existing knowledge, as well as avenues for further investigation of resilience in business and management studies.
Seyed Mohammad Moghimi examines both the everyday and the theoretical insights offered by Islamic sources for managing organizational behavior. He takes a wide-ranging approach to key organizational ...issues, including organizational communication, organizational leadership, conflict management, and organizational culture and ethics.
In this article, we respond at length to recent critiques of research on implicit bias, especially studies using the Implicit Association Test (IAT).
Tetlock and Mitchell (2009) claim that “there is ...no evidence that the IAT reliably predicts class-wide discrimination on tangible outcomes in any setting,” accuse their colleagues of violating “the injunction to separate factual from value judgments,” adhering blindly to a “statist interventionist” ideology, and of conducting a witch-hunt against implicit racists, sexists, and others. These and other charges are specious. Far from making “extraordinary claims” that “require extraordinary evidence,” researchers have identified the existence and consequences of implicit bias through well-established methods based upon principles of cognitive psychology that have been developed in nearly a century's worth of work. We challenge the blanket skepticism and organizational complacency advocated by Tetlock and Mitchell and summarize 10 recent studies that no manager (or managerial researcher) should ignore. These studies reveal that students, nurses, doctors, police officers, employment recruiters, and many others exhibit implicit biases with respect to race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, social status, and other distinctions. Furthermore—and contrary to the emphatic assertions of the critics—participants’ implicit associations do predict socially and organizationally significant behaviors, including employment, medical, and voting decisions made by working adults.
This book presents an analysis of organizational wisdom via an embedded single case study of a group's attempt to develop and spread a medical innovation within a Canadian healthcare authority. By ...offering a unique insight into how values, rationality, and power interact in a real social setting, the book explores how they create positive change.
Offer your students an engaging, innovative learning experience not confined to traditional academic resources. Organizational Behaviour, 10th edition is one of the most established books in the ...field. With new, exciting features and exercises, it encourages your students to draw from everyday experiences, besides their standard academic resources.
A first-of-its-kind, science-backed toolkit takes a
holistic approach to burnout prevention by helping individuals,
teams, and leaders build resilience and thrive at
work. Burnout has become one of ...the most talked about
workplace topics, and its impact is far-reaching. The 24/7 pace of
work, constant demands, and scant resources can easily put busy
professionals on a path to burnout, a cycle that has only
accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Burnout affects the
health and well-being of the entire organization, yet most attempts
to help focus on quick-fix strategies aimed at individuals.
Something is missing. In Beating Burnout at Work: Why
Teams Hold the Secret to Well-Being and Resilience ,
Paula Davis, founder of the Stress & Resilience Institute,
provides a new framework to help organizations prevent employee
burnout. Davis's research-driven, fast-reading, and actionable book
is the first of its kind to explore a new solution to the burnout
problem at work: a comprehensive approach focused on building the
resilience of teams of all sizes. Davis argues that teams, and
their leaders, are uniquely positioned to create the type of
cultures that are needed to prevent burnout. In Beating
Burnout at Work , Davis shares stories from her work
coaching, teaching, and training leaders and teams of all sizes,
and she explores:How she navigated her own burnout as a lawyer, and
how that led her to study burnout and launch a business with the
aim of helping organizations and their employees become more
resilient; How teams and leaders can utilize simple, science-backed
strategies to create cultures that promote resilience and
well-being and reduce burnout; How the Mayo
Clinic , one of the most renowned medical centers in the
world, has developed a powerful model to reduce burnout in its
organization; How organizations dealing with high-stress
challenges, including the US Army , work to
increase resilience in a systemic way; andHow the German company
trivago is piloting a new approach to work amid
COVID-19 in order to increase team connection and
resilience.Solving the burnout puzzle requires a systemic approach.
In Beating Burnout at Work , Davis offers
an actionable method to help leaders create cultures of well-being
and resilience in their organizations.
Cet article interroge la création de sens au sein d'un réseau territorialisé d'organisations. Nous nous intéressons plus spécifiquement à ce phénomène en contexte de crise et proposons une étude de ...cas sur le réseau des tiers-lieux corses. À travers une méthodologie de cas enchâssés, nous montrons que l'acteur tiers joue un rôle déterminant dans le cas d'un choc de l'ignorance, tandis que le sensemaking se fait plus collectif dans une situation de choc de la confusion.
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