24-Karat or fool’s gold? Consequences of real team and co-acting group membership in healthcare organizations

Although theory on team membership is emerging, limited empirical attention has been paid to the effects of different types of team membership on outcomes. We propose that an important but overlooked distinction is that between membership of real teams and membership of co-acting groups, with the former being characterized by members who report that their teams have shared objectives, and structural interdependence and engage in team reflexivity. We hypothesize that real team membership will be associated with more positive individual- and organizational-level outcomes. These predictions were tested in the English National Health Service, using data from 62,733 respondents from 147 acute hospitals. The results revealed that individuals reporting the characteristics of real team membership, in comparison with those reporting the characteristics of co-acting group membership, witnessed fewer errors and incidents, experienced fewer work related injuries and illness, were less likely to be victims of violence and harassment, and were less likely to intend to leave their current employment. At the organizational level, hospitals with higher proportions of staff reporting the characteristics of real team membership had lower levels of patient mortality and sickness absence. The results suggest the need to clearly delineate real team membership in order to advance scientific understanding of the processes and outcomes of organizational teamwork.

Boundary spanning elements and the marketing function in organizations:concepts and empirical studies

This book presents current research on boundary spanning elements. The editors bring together extant knowledge in the field and present a uniform narrative. Previous studies have often been disseminated across several academic disciplines like services marketing, personal selling and sales management etc. and this monograph aggregates studies dealing with boundary spanning elements or has boundary spanning elements related to the marketing function as the main empirical platform under a uniform theoretical perspective. Each chapter in the book deals with an important research theme and synthesizes studies in relation to boundary spanning elements.

The sound of silence. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender discrimination in 'inclusive organizations'

Most studies on diversity and discrimination in the workplace have focused on 'visible' minorities such as gender or race, often neglecting the experiences of invisible minorities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers. In this paper we explore the practices of inclusion/exclusion of LGBTs in the workplace in Italian social cooperatives, which are specifically founded to create employment for people who are disadvantaged in the labour market. The study examines how organizations, which have an ethos focused on inclusion and mainly employ workers from specific social minority groups, manage the inclusion of LGBT workers. We also explore the experience of LGBT workers within these organizations. The paper reports that the culture of silence existing in the five organizations studied prevents LGBT employees from constructing a work identity which encompasses their sexual identity and prevents the organizations from achieving their aim of being fully inclusive workplaces. © 2013 British Academy of Management.

Harnessing demographic differences in organizations:what moderates the effects of workplace diversity?

To account for the double-edged nature of demographic workplace diversity (i.e,. relational demography, work group diversity, and organizational diversity) effects on social integration, performance, and well-being related variables, research has moved away from simple main effect approaches and started examining variables that moderate these effects. While there is no shortage of primary studies of the conditions under which diversity leads to positive or negative outcomes, it remains unclear which contingency factors make it work. Using the Categorization-Elaboration Model as our theoretical lens, we review variables moderating the effects of workplace diversity on social integration, performance, and well-being outcomes, focusing on factors that organizations and managers have control over (i.e., strategy, unit design, human resource, leadership, climate/culture, and individual differences). We point out avenues for future research and conclude with practical implications.

Understanding knowledge coordination dynamics in traditional and fast-response IT organizations

This research takes a dynamic view on the knowledge coordination process, aiming to explain how the process is affected by changes in the operating environment, from normal situations to emergencies in traditional and fast-response organizations, and why these changes occur. We first conceptualize the knowledge coordination process by distinguishing between four dimensions - what, when, how and who - that together capture the full scope of the knowledge coordination process. We use these dimensions to analyze knowledge coordination practices and the activities constituting these practices, in the IT functions of traditional and fast-response (military) organizations where we distinguish between "normal" and "emergency" operating conditions. Our findings indicate that (i) inter-relationships between knowledge coordination practices change under different operating conditions, and (ii) the patterns of change are different in traditional and fast-response organizations.

Assessing the impact of management concerns in e-business requirements planning in manufacturing organizations

This paper describes the application of a model, initially developed for determining the e-business requirements of a manufacturing organization, to assess the impact of management concerns on the functions generated. The model has been tested on 13 case studies in small, medium and large organizations. This research shows that the incorporation of concerns for generating the requirements for e-business functions improves the results, because they expose issues that are of relevance to the decision making process relating to e-business. Running the model with both and without concerns, and then presenting the reasons for major variances, can expose the issues and enable them to be studied in detail at the individual function/ reason level. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2013.

Giants and dwarfs:the multilevel lobbying strategies of national interest organizations

The article addresses the bias in interest representation within the EU by examining the lobbying strategies of national interest organisations within the EU’s multilevel political system. Both our theoretical framework, which includes the determinants of a national interest organisation's decision to act at the EU level, and the data analysis from the INTEREURO Multi-Level Governance Module (MLG) (www.intereuro.eu) reveal three main findings. Firstly, the greatest differentiation among interest organisations (IOs) appears to be between those IOs from the older member states (Germany, the UK and the Netherlands), which exhibit above-average levels of activity, and those from the newer EU member states (Sweden, Slovenia), which exhibit below-average levels of activity. Secondly, the variations in IO activity levels are much greater from country to country than from one policy field to another. Thirdly, although the IOs from all five countries in our study are more likely to employ media and publishing strategies (information politics) than to mobilise their members and supporters (protest politics), we can still observe national patterns in their selection of strategies and in the intensity of their instrumentalisation.

Eredményes projektszervezet kialakítása funkcionális, hierarchikus szervezetek esetén: egy példa az államigazgatásból (Development of effective project organization in functional, hierarchical organizations: an example from public administration)

Az államigazgatásban – itthon és külföldön is – a projektek jelentős százaléka időben csúszik, nem azt eredményezi, amit eredetileg elvártak, a szakmai résztvevők szerint túladminisztrált, a munkatársak tevékenysége nem áttekinthető. Ezeknek a problémáknak a nagy része a projektszervezet és a hierarchikusfunkcionális- hivatali szervezet egymás mellett éléséből és a nehezen szinkronizálható együttműködésből fakad. A cikkben egy, a gyakorlatban bevált módszertant mutat be a szerző, amely adott feltételrendszer mellett nagymértékben kiküszöböli a fent említett hiányosságokat és a szervezet napi működésébe illeszkedő tevékenységek sorozatára vezeti vissza a projekttevékenységeket. A módszer egy gyakorlati problémából – a volt APEH-es és VP-s rendszerek integrálása a NAV-ba – indult ki, azonban a szerző véleménye szerint alkalmazható más, funkcionális alapokon felépülő szervezetnél is. _____ The high percentage of public sector projects slips in time, the result is not that what was expected initially, those are overadministrated by according to the professional participants’ opinion, and the activity of staff does not clear. In this article the author describes a best practice methodology, which led the project activities to series of activities which fit to the organization’s daily operations. The method started from a practical problem, but according to the author’s opinion it can be applied to other structured functional basis organizations.

Magyarországi „munkavállaló-barát” (employee friendly) szervezetek – Valóság vagy utópia (avagy mit tanulhatunk tőlük?) = The Hungarian employee friendly organizations: reality or Utopia (or what can we learn from them?)

A szerzők feltáró kutatásukban munkavállaló-barát szervezeti megoldásokat kerestek és vizsgáltak multiparadigmikus (Primecz, 2008) megközelítéssel, kritikai és funkcionalista szemszögből. Munkavállalóbarát szervezeti gyakorlatnak tekintették azokat a szervezeti kultúrában gyökerező szervezeti kereteket és gyakorlatokat, amelyek nagymértékben támogatják a munkavállalókat a munka és magánélet egyensúlyának elérésében és megtartásában (Toarniczky et al., 2011). Eredményeik szerint a munkavállaló-barát gyakorlatokat akkor értékelik legjobban a szervezeti tagok, ha a közvetlen vezető és kollégák jól értik a támogatandó munkavállaló helyzetét és rugalmasan fordítják le a hétköznapokra a HR-rendszereket. Ezzel együtt több feszültség keletkezik a szervezetben a munkavállaló-barát gyakorlatokban, amelyekre figyelni lehetne, anélkül, hogy a kialakított gyakorlatokat felszámolnák. _____ The authors in their research investigated employee friendly practices, which they defined as frameworks and practices rooted in organisational culture that gives maximum support for employees trying to reach and keep balance between work and private life (Toarniczky et al., 2011) through multiparadigm research (Primecz, 2008). They conducted exploratory research (interviews, focus groups, document-analysis, and questionnaire) at ten Hungarian-based organizations, and they investigated employee friendly work practices through functionalist and critical lenses. Their results shows that employee friendly practices work well, when the immediate boss and colleagues understand the need of organization al member, who are supported, and HR procedures are translated flexibly. At the same time tension within the organization al subgroups always present, and this should be handled by the organization without cancelling employee friendly practices.

A közszolgálati szervezetek értékelési módszereinek osztályozása (Classification of evaluation methods of public sector organizations)

Az utóbbi évtizedekben egyre gyakrabban merült fel a közszolgálati szervezetek értékelésének igénye, és egyre újabb módszerek jelentek meg, amelyek felvetették ezek rendszerezésének szükségességét mind a gyakorlatban, mind a kutatásokban. A szerző a szakirodalomban fellelhető osztályozási kísérleteknek és az értékelés szakterülete szempontjainak figyelembevételével javaslatot tesz a közszolgálati szervezetek értékelési módszereinek osztályozási keretrendszerére. Az osztályozási szempontok között szerepel az értékelő helyzete, az értékelés szerepe és a megismerés módszere. Az osztályozási keretrendszer tartalmát a szerző példákkal is illusztrálja, amely jelzi a modell gyakorlati alkalmazhatóságát. Ugyanakkor a keretrendszer a kutatások fókuszának és érvényességi körének meghatározásában is segítséget nyújthat. _____ In the last decades the need of the evaluation of public sector organizations has emerged more and more often, and many new methods have shown up that has raised the need of their classification in practice and in research, as well. Based on literature review and the literature of evaluation the author makes a proposal on the classification framework of the evaluation methods of public sector organizations. The dimensions of the classification include the situation of evaluator, the role of evaluation and the approach of knowledge. The author illustrates the content of the framework with examples referring to the applicability of the model in practice. At the same time, the framework is also useful in determining the focus or the scope of research projects.

Content and drivers of performance management in agency-type organizations of the hungarian public administration

The improving performance of public administration and the reform of public financing system have been on agenda in Hungary for many years, in accordance with the international trends. However, governments have not expected and supported creating of a performance-oriented public administration in a comprehensive and explicit way. Nevertheless, there are bottom-up initiatives at organizational level, which target performance-oriented organizational function. The research focuses on organizations of central public administration where the successful application of performance management methods is most likely based on the international literature. These are the so called agency-type organizations, which are in Hungary called autonomous state-administration organizations independent of the Government (e.g. Hungarian Competition Authority), government bureaus (e.g. Hungarian Central Statistical Office), and central offices subordinated to the government (either the cabinet or a ministry) (e.g. Hungarian Meteorological Service). The studied agencies are legally independent organizations with managerial autonomy based on public law. The purpose of this study is to get an overview on organizational level performance management tools applied by Hungarian agencies, and to reveal the reasons and drivers of the application of these tools. The empirical research is based on a mixed methods approach which combines both quantitative methods and qualitative procedures. The first – quantitative – phase of the author’s research was content analysis of homepages of the studied organizations. As a results she got information about all agencies and their practice related to some performance management tools. The second – qualitative – phase was based on semi-structured face-to-face interviews with some senior managers of agencies. The author selected the interviewees based on the results of the first phase, the relatively strong performance orientation was an important selection criteria.