Richard J. Boland Jr., Ramkrishnan V. Tenkasi, and Dov Te’Eni discuss how cognition in organizations is a distributed phenomenon, in which individual members of an organization reflect upon their experience, make plans, or take action.
Research and Insights Archive
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
Designing Work Teams
Susan Mohrman explains that designing organizations in which the work team is the focal performing unit began in earnest in production settings, where “new design plants” (Lawler, 1978) or “high commitment work systems” (Walton, 1985) emerged in the 1970’s and are now widely used (Lawler, Mohrman and Ledford, 1993).
Designing Effective Self-Managing Work Teams
This paper by Susan G. Cohen proposes a model of self-managing work team (SMWT) effectiveness derived from several theories of organizational behavior and empirical work.
From Job-Based to Competency-Based Organizations
This article by Edward Lawler III challenges the basic assumption that jobs should be the fundamental building block of organizations. It stresses that with the new forms of organizations and the new demands organizations should be built around competencies not jobs.
Designing Pay Systems for Teams
Three different approaches to teams are identified–parallel teams, project teams and work teams in this article by Ed Lawler III and Susan Cohen.
Starting Out Right: Negotiating Cross-Cultural Business Alliances
Katherin K. Reardon and Robert E. Spekman argue that there is no room for isolationism in a world where even the air we breathe is affected by the choices of people thousand of miles away.
The Emerging Prominence of the Lateral Organization
S. Mohrman explains that all signs are pointing to the importance of lateral integration in the organization of the future.
Designing Informal Networks
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.