Biased managers, organizational design, and incentive provision

We model the tradeoff between the balance and the strength of incentives implicit in the choice between hierarchical and matrix organizational structures. We show that managerial biases determine which structure is optimal: hierarchical forms are preferred when biases are low, while matrix structures are preferred when biases are high.

Organizational design as an enabler for innovation: evidence from a German Mechanical Engineering Company

Over the past two decades there has been a profusion of empirical studies of organizational design and its relationship to efficiency, productivity and flexibility of an organization. In parallel, there has been a wide range of studies about innovation management in different kind of industries and firms. However, with some exceptions, the organizational and innovation management bodies of literature tend to examine the issues of organizational design and innovation management individually, mainly in the context of large firms operating at the technological frontier. There seems to be a scarcity of empirical studies that bring together organizational design and innovation and examine them empirically and over time in the context of small and medium sized enterprises. This dissertation seeks to provide a small contribution in that direction. This dissertation examines the dynamic relationship between organizational design and innovation. This relationship is examined on the basis of a single-case design in a medium sized mechanical engineering company in Germany. The covered time period ranges from 1958 until 2009, although the actual focus falls on the recent past. This dissertation draws on first-hand qualitative empirical evidence gathered through extensive field work. The main findings are: 1. There is always a bundle of organizational dimensions which impacts innovation. These main organizational design dimensions are: (1) Strategy & Leadership, (2) Resources & Capabilities, (3) Structure, (4) Culture, (5) Networks & Partnerships, (6) Processes and (7) Knowledge Management. However, the importance of the different organizational design dimensions changes over time. While for example for the production of simple, standardized parts, a simple organizational design was appropriate, the company needed to have a more advanced organizational design in order to be able to produce customized, complex parts with high quality. Hence the technological maturity of a company is related to its organizational maturity. 2. The introduction of innovations of the analyzed company were highly dependent on organizational conditions which enabled their introduction. The results of the long term case study show, that some innovations would not have been introduced successfully if the organizational elements like for example training and qualification, the build of network and partnerships or the acquisition of appropriate resources and capabilities, were not in place. Hence it can be concluded, that organizational design is an enabling factor for innovation. These findings contribute to advance our understanding of the complex relationship between organizational design and innovation. This highlights the growing importance of a comprehensive, innovation stimulating organizational design of companies. The results suggest to managers that innovation is not only dependent on a single organizational factor but on the appropriate, comprehensive design of the organization. Hence manager should consider to review regularly the design of their organizations in order to maintain a innovation stimulating environment.

Leader-organization fit: comparing the effectiveness of paternalistic and transformational leadership in different organizational cultures

Research on paternalistic leadership (PL) has been based exclusively on national cultures´ differences. However there are cues that other contextual variables can add to the explanation of this construct. Due to its capacity to influence expectations of individuals in organizations, organizational culture can contribute to fill this gap. To test if organizational culture influences the effectiveness of leadership style, we conducted two experimental studies using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, comparing effects of paternalistic and transformational leadership on followers’ outcomes. Using video clips and vignettes, we found that PL is better related to followers´ outcomes in cultures oriented to people than outcome, and that TL has a better relationship in cultures oriented to innovation than stability. The results suggest that organizational culture helps in explaining PL endorsement, and that further analysis of the influence of this variable to PL can provide a better understanding of the expression of this leadership style in organizations.

On paternalistic leadership fit: exploring cross-cultural endorsement, leader-follower fit, and the boundary role of organizational culture

Although cross-cultural leadership research has thrived in international business literature, little attention has been devoted to understanding the effectiveness of non-western theories beyond their original contexts. The purpose of this study is to examine the cross-cultural endorsement of paternalistic leadership, an emerging non-western leadership theory, using data from GLOBE project. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses we found measurement equivalence of a scale derived from GLOBE’s data, which enabled us to compare the endorsement of paternalistic leadership dimensions across 10 cultural clusters and 55 societies. Our study revealed that there are significant differences in the importance societies give to each dimension, suggesting that paternalism as leadership style is not universally nor homogeneously endorsed. Furthermore, results suggest that different patterns of endorsement of each of these dimensions give rise to idiosyncratic shades of paternalistic leadership across societies. Implications for theory and future research on international business are discussed.

The art of being together: a social constructionist perspective on dialogic methods in the organizational context

The purpose of this project is to understand, under a social constructionist approach, what are the meanings that external facilitators and organizational members (sponsors) working with dialogic methods place on themselves and their work. Dialogic methods, with the objective of engaging groups in flows of conversations to envisage and co-create their own future, are growing fast within organizations as a means to achieve collective change. Sharing constructionist ideas about the possibility of multiple realities and language as constitutive of such realities, dialogue has turned into a promising way for transformation, especially in a macro context of constant change and increasing complexity, where traditional structures, relationships and forms of work are questioned. Research on the topic has mostly focused on specific methods or applications, with few attempts to study it in a broader sense. Also, despite the fact that dialogic methods work on the assumption that realities are socially constructed, few studies approach the topic from a social constructionist perspective, as a research methodology per se. Thus, while most existing research aims at explaining whether or how particular methods meet particular results, my intention is to explore the meanings sustaining these new forms of organizational practice. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 people working with dialogic methods: 11 facilitators and 14 sponsors, from 8 different organizations in Brazil. Firstly, the research findings indicate several contextual elements that seem to sustain the choices for dialogic methods. Within this context, there does not seem to be a clear or specific demand for dialogic methods, but a set of different motivations, objectives and focuses, bringing about several contrasts in the way participants name, describe and explain their experiences with such methods, including tensions on power relations, knowledge creation, identity and communication. Secondly, some central ideas or images were identified within such contrasts, pointing at both directions: dialogic methods as opportunities for the creation of new organizational realities (with images of a ‘door’ or a ‘flow’, for instance, which suggest that dialogic methods may open up the access to other perspectives and the creation of new realities); and dialogic methods as new instrumental mechanisms that seem to reproduce the traditional and non-dialogical forms of work and relationship. The individualistic tradition and its tendency for rational schematism - pointed out by social constructionist scholars as strong traditions in our Western Culture - could be observed in some participants’ accounts with the image of dialogic methods as a ‘gym’, for instance, in which dialogical – and idealized –‘abilities’ could be taught and trained, turning dialogue into a tool, rather than a means for transformation. As a conclusion, I discuss what the implications of such taken-for-granted assumptions may be, and offer some insights into dialogue (and dialogic methods) as ‘the art of being together’.

Organizational modeling with a semantic wiki: formalization of content and automatic diagram generation

A key to maintain Enterprises competitiveness is the ability to describe, standardize, and adapt the way it reacts to certain types of business events, and how it interacts with suppliers, partners, competitors, and customers. In this context the field of organization modeling has emerged with the aim to create models that help to create a state of self-awareness in the organization. This project's context is the use of Semantic Web in the Organizational modeling area. The Semantic Web technology advantages can be used to improve the way of modeling organizations. This was accomplished using a Semantic wiki to model organizations. Our research and implementation had two main purposes: formalization of textual content in semantic wiki pages; and automatic generation of diagrams from organization data stored in the semantic wiki pages.

Psicologia e profissão: neurose profissional e a atuação do psicólogo organizacional frente à questão

Este artigo pretende fazer um levantamento bibliográfico sobre a neurose profissional, cujos sintomas são entendidos como a expressão simbólica de um conflito psíquico que se desenvolve a partir de uma situação organizacional ou profissional determinada. O diagnóstico é formado a partir das queixas mencionadas, da história de trabalho e da análise da situação de trabalho atual. Entende-se que condições estressantes de trabalho, associadas ao contexto social de desemprego e competitividade, contribuem para o aparecimento de doenças mentais como a neurose profissional. As formas de tratamento para essa doença, além da psicoterapia individual, envolvem a ação integrada de uma equipe multiprofissional capacitada para lidar com o sofrimento psíquico do trabalhador e com os aspectos sociais e de intervenção nos ambientes de trabalho. Ressalta-se a carência de literatura sobre o tema estudado e a importância de se ampliar a discussão sobre os fatores de risco no trabalho, os determinantes psíquicos para o desenvolvimento da neurose profissional e o papel do psicólogo no contexto de prevenção e promoção da saúde mental.

Fadiga no trabalho: como o psicólogo pode atuar?

As más condições laborais e a forma de organização do trabalho dentro do sistema capitalista frequentemente têm se mostrado nocivas para o trabalhador. Além disso, a chamada síndrome da fadiga crônica é um dos males que acomete a classe trabalhadora. Por meio de revisão teórica buscou-se caracterizar a síndrome, suas possíveis causas e consequências e o papel do psicólogo nas organizações. A fadiga pode ser compreendida como um esgotamento físico e mental, culminando em consequências para a saúde do trabalhador. Excesso de trabalho, pressão por produção, turnos alternados, riscos físicos e falta de autonomia são alguns fatores apontados como prováveis desencadeadores da síndrome, e as consequências encontradas vão desde baixo rendimento e maior risco de acidentes de trabalho até dificuldade para relaxar em momentos de lazer. É papel do psicólogo do trabalho e organizacional realizar ações remediadoras e preventivas que impeçam ou dificultem o aparecimento da fadiga no trabalho.

Resiliência no trabalho contemporâneo: promoção e/ou desgaste da saúde mental

Este estudo teórico resgata a concepção processual e contextual de resiliência, a qual compreende esse fenômeno enquanto relação complexa entre indivíduo e ambiente na produção de fatores de risco e no provimento de fatores protetores da subjetividade do indivíduo, buscando aplicá-la à realidade organizacional, haja vista que o mundo do trabalho contemporâneo demanda uma força de trabalho específica, qual seja, o trabalhador flexível, polivalente, sujeito a mudanças - portanto, um trabalhador resiliente. A partir dessas considerações, realiza-se um processo de reflexão sobre as situações em que a resiliência pode ser promotora de saúde mental, bem como acerca dos contextos que contribuem para o processo de adoecimento do trabalhador, buscando aventar possibilidades de atuação do profissional psicólogo diante de um contexto de trabalho adverso, considerando-se que o principal objetivo dessa atuação profissional é garantir a proteção/promoção da saúde e qualidade de vida no ambiente de trabalho.

A Psicologia do trabalho e das organizações na formação do psicólogo no Brasil

This research has aimed to analyze the presence of the Work and Organizational Psychology (WOP) at the psychologist s undergraduate education after 2004 s National Curricular Guidelines in Brazil. It has investigated in 43 Brazilian undergraduate courses of Psychology how their Course Pedagogical Projects (CPPs) approach the WOP issues. For that investigation, the CPPs, the subjects programmes related to the WOP and the curriculum grid have been accurately read and analyzed. Categories created by similar studies have also been used. The studied knowledge field has been cited by 41 courses, mainly on the definition of the egress s professional profile, on the expected competences and on the psychologist s formation process lines. Moreover, 28 courses have disposed curricular emphasis on the WOP and 12 have provided professional practices on that Psychology s field. All the courses have displayed, at least, one subject related to the WOP and in 29 cases there have been found between two and six subjects concerned to that field of Psychology, occupying nearby 10% of the whole courses credit hours. It has been verified that the Work and Organizational Psychology is allied to discussions about Quality of Life and Health of the Worker, bonded to work prescriptions at the Personnel Management departments and in other places such as syndicates. Additionally, 37% (147) of the WOP s subjects concerns to the contents of the Work Psychology, 21% (81) relates to the Organizational Psychology, 18% (71) are about Industrial Psychology s topics and 14% (55) debates the field generically. The most often issues are: Recruitment and Selection (25 courses); Training, Development, Learning and Education (24); and Work and Mental Health (24). Those topics have assumed three functions: providing principles for the acting at the WOP field; tutoring psychologists to analyze their own workplaces; and offering a comprehension of the human being mediated by the Work. It has been concluded that the WOP is incorporated on the psychologist s undergraduate education by considering the increasing of its presence and the occurrence of its traditional and emergent topics

Circuit board accident - organizational dimension hidden by prescribed safety

This study analyzes an accident in which two maintenance workers suffered severe burns while replacing a circuit breaker panel in a steel mill, following model of analysis and prevention of accidents (MAPA) developed with the objective of enlarging the perimeter of interventions and contributing to deconstruction of blame attribution practices. The study was based on materials produced by a health service team in an in-depth analysis of the accident. The analysis shows that decisions related to system modernization were taken without considering their implications in maintenance scheduling and creating conflicts of priorities and of interests between production and safety; and also reveals that the lack of a systemic perspective in safety management was its principal failure. To explain the accident as merely non-fulfillment of idealized formal safety rules feeds practices of blame attribution supported by alibi norms and inhibits possible prevention. In contrast, accident analyses undertaken in worker health surveillance services show potential to reveal origins of these events incubated in the history of the system ignored in practices guided by the traditional paradigm.