Jay R. Galbraith explains that the continuous search for competitive advantage is leading many companies to examine their organization. Traditional barriers to entry and sources of advantage like scale and patents are easily circumvented today through actions like strategic alliances.
Research and Insights Archive
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
The Value Adding Corporation
Jay R. Galbraith states that the concept of the American Corporation has been evolving for some time. By the early 1980s a consensus had developed around the different types of corporations and their organizations.
Total Quality-Oriented Human Resource Management
D. Bowen and E. Lawler III argue that human resources holds the key to sustained quality improvement. Consequently, the HRM department can potentially play a critical role in an organization’s TQM effort.
The Business Unit of the Future
Jay R. Galbraith states that the business unit is a basic building block of the corporation’s structure. Collections of businesses make up the corporation’s portfolio.
The “Learning Bureaucracy”: New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.
Paul S. Adler discusses how the human aspects of Japanese manufacturing management techniques are currently under intense debate.
Strategic Reward Systems
This chapter by D. Jenkins and E. Lawler III presents theory and research on the role of pay systems in complex organizations.
Power in Top Management Teams: Dimensions, Measurement, and Validation
Sydney Finkelstein states that although most large firms have many officers, typically only a smaller subset are most responsible for setting policy (Thompson, 1967). It is this inner circle, or dominant coalition, that is the focus of this paper.
The Effects of a Shift-System Innovation on a Turnover and Absenteeism: A Naturally Occurring Field Experiment
In this paper by Thomas G. Cummings and Mark A. Kizilos, the impact of a participatively designed 12-hour shift system on employee turnover and absenteeism was examined in a naturally occurring field experiment.
Self-Design for High Involvement: A Large-Scale Organizational Change
A five-year action research case study by G. Ledford, Jr. and S. Mohrman examines changes in a 12-plant division of a multi-billion dollar firm.
Management and Organization Principles for the Information Economy
William H. Davidson discusses the industrialization of the economy which spanned more than one and one-half centuries. During this period, industrial technologies and concepts, such as product standardization and mass production, permeated virtually all sectors of economic activity.
Employee Involvement: Lessons and Predictions
Gerry Ledford reviews research findings and theoretical developments in research on employee involvement (EI) at the Center for Effective Organizations.
Human Resources Strategies for Lateral Integration in a High-Technology Setting
S. Mohrman, A. Mohrman, Jr., and S. Cohen discuss how the literature on high technology management points overwhelmingly to the importance of lateral integration processes for successful performance.