Drawing from literature on knowledge transfer and cognition, S. Mohrman, C. Gibson, and A. Mohrman, Jr. develop a theoretical model for conducting research that is useful to practitioners. We explore the potential of this model by examining the usefulness of a research project involving ten companies.
Working Papers
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
When Leadership is an Organizational Trait
James O’Toole and Bruce Pasternack recently surveyed leaders at five different levels in one large, global, high-tech company to collect data on the effectiveness of twelve categories of enabling systems that leaders use to affect behavior.
Exporting Teams: Enhancing the Implementation and Effectiveness of Work Teams in Global Affiliates
Over the last 10 to 15 years, the use of work teams has proliferated around the globe. In order to better understand what makes teams effective in a variety of countries, Bradley L. Kirkman, Cristina B. Gibson, and Debra L. Shapiro examined the role that national culture plays in determining employee receptivity to the implementation of self-managing work teams (SMWTs).
The Impact of Time Perspective on Knowledge Creation in Teams
This paper by Mary J. Waller, Cristina B. Gibson, and Mason A. Carpenter focuses on the impact of individuals’ time perspectives on team knowledge creation. Various configurations of time perspective among team members are likely to exert significant but unacknowledged influences on teams’ knowledge creation efforts.
Time Flies Like an Arrow: Tracing Antecedents and Consequences of Temporal Elements of Organizational Culture
Mary E. Zellmer-Bruhn, Cristina B. Gibson, and Ramon J. Aldag state that time has recently become a more central focus in management research and practice. Time to market has become a critical issue in many industries, with ever shortening new product development times.
Helping Transnational Team Members to Sense Trust: A Counterintuitive Approach to Leadership
Gretchen M. Spreitzer, Debra L. Shapiro, and Mary Ann Von Glinow state that despite their assignment to work together, members of transnational teams (TNTs)— teams whose members are geographically spread across at least two countries— are in many ways apart.
Perceptual Distance: The Impact of Differences in Team Leader and Member Perceptions Across Cultures
In this chapter, C. Gibson, J. Conger, and C. Cooper propose a theory of perceptual distance and its implications for team leadership and team outcomes.
Seize the Day: Organizational Studies Can and Should Make a Difference
Susan Mohrman explains that the organizational sciences have an unprecedented opportunity to generate information that is useful to organizations and can make a difference in how organizations evolve and in the quality of life of people.
Testing for Groupness: A Theory-Based Approach to Aggregation Issues in Work Group Research
In this paper, Diane E. Bailey, Eileen M. Van Aken, and Susan G. Cohen address the issue of aggregating individual employee level data to the work group level.
New Directions for the Human Resources Organization: An Organization Design Approach
First published in 1996, this report by S. Mohrman, E. Lawler, and G. McMahan presents findings of a 1995 study that examined the human resources function in 130 large companies to see whether changes in the business environment and strategy of the corporation were leading to changes in practice and organization of the human resources function.
Individualizing the Organization: Past, Present and Future
E. Lawler and D. Finegold discuss that one approach to attracting, retaining, and motivating employees is to individualize the relationship they have with an organization.
Pay Strategy – New Thinking for the New Millennium
Ed Lawler argues that it is time for new thinking, new practices and more strategic direction in the pay systems of organizations.