Anne S. Miner

The Shadow Of The Future: Effects Of Anticipated Interaction And Frequency Of Contact On Buyer-Seller Cooperation

This research examined cooperation between 136 industrial buyers and suppliers. We identified four domains of potential cooperation: flexibility, information exchange, shared problem solving, and r...

The Impact of Organizational Memory on New Product Performance and Creativity

Arguing that organizational memory affects key new product development processes by influencing the (1) interpretation of incoming information and (2) the performance of new product action routines...

Organizational Improvisation and Learning: A Field Study

An inductive study of improvisation in new product development activities in two firms uncovered a variety of improvisational forms and the factors that shaped them. Embedded in the observations were two important linkages between organizational improvisation and learning. First, site observations led us to refine prior definitions of improvisation and view it as a distinct type of real-time, short-term learning. Second, observation revealed links between improvisation and long-term organizational learning. Improvisation interfered with some learning processes; it also sometimes played a role in long-term trial-and-error learning, and the firms displayed improvisational competencies. Our findings extend prior research on organizational improvisation and learning and provide a lens for research on entrepreneurship, technological innovation, and the fusion of unplanned change and order.

Improvising firms: bricolage, account giving and improvisational competencies in the founding process

Improvisation occurs when the design and execution of novel activities converge. Drawing on three samples of young firms, this inductive study investigates the existence, channels and implications of strategic improvisation in knowledge-intensive new businesses. Our study suggests that not only may founding itself be improvisational in some cases, but improvisational processes and issues permeate entrepreneurial activity and have non-obvious implications for emergent firm strategies and competencies. We develop propositions in four domains: (1) the occurrence of strategic improvisation; (2) tactical improvisation rising to the level of strategy; (3) network bricolage; and (4) improvisational competencies. This study contributes to research on organizational improvisation, bricolage and entrepreneurship. Theoretically and in practice, both improvisation and bricolage represent potentially rich additions to the vocabulary of entrepreneurial action.

The pursuit of organizational intelligence

Perspectives on Organizational Communication is the product of a very interesting conference panel and has the noble goal of promoting constructive dialogue among proponents who use different perspectives to study organizational communication. The editors and contributors accomplish this goal competently and with great civility. Personally speaking, I would have preferred a more spirited debate. With a literal war against the Taliban invading my television screen as I write this review, however, I suppose this book shows that it may very well be prudent to maintain a cease-fire from our metaphoric paradigm war at this juncture.1. Introduction. 2. Understanding How Decisions Happen in Organizations. 3. Continuity and Change in Theories of Organizational Action. 4. Institutional Perspectives on Political Institutions (with Johan P. Olsen). 5. Organizational Learning (with Barbara Levitt). 6. The Evolution of Evolution. 7. Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning. 8. Learning from Samples of One or Fewer (with Lee S. Sproull, and Michal Tamuz). 9. Adaptive Co--ordination of a Learning Team (with Pertti H. Lounamma). 10. The Future, Disposable Organizations, and the Rigidities of Imagination. 11. The Myopia of Learning (with Daniel A. Levinthal). 12. Wild Ideas: The Catechism of Heresy. 13. Variable Risk Preferences and Adaptive Aspirations. 14. Variable Risk Preferences and the Focus of Attention (with Zur Shapira). 15. Learning to Be Risk Averse. 16. Model Bias in Social Action. 17. Organizational Consultants and Organizational Research. 18. Organizational Performance as a Dependent Variable (with Robert I. Sutton). 19. Science, Politics, and Mrs. Gruenberg. 20. Education and the Pursuit of Optimism. 21. A Scholara s Quest.

Idiosyncratic Jobs in Formalized Organizations

Suzanne Estler, James G. March, Jeffrey Pfeffer, W. Richard Scott, Myra Strober, members of the Personnel Office and senior administrators of Stanford University, and many anonymous informants contributed substantially to this research. Valuable assistance in data analysis was provided by W. Burkhardt, Charles Lehner, and Walter Meyers. The following people improved the analysis and reporting of results: Ramon L. Aldag, Randall B. Dunham, Herbert G. Heneman, Ill, John W. Meyer, Gerald R. Salancik, Donald P. Schwab, and two anonymous ASQ reviewers. This research was funded in part by the National Institute for Mental Health, Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin Business School Research Fund, the University of Wisconsin Graduate School, and the Scandinavian Center for Research on Organization Theory. A study of approximately 1,600 job transitions is used to test the assumption made in several organizational literatures that the mix of activities in a job is established in advance of and independent of the characteristics of any particular individual. Based on alternative theories and prior research, the paper defines and measures the occurrence of idiosyncratic jobs whose duties reflect the interests or abilities of current employees (evolved jobs) or others (opportunistic hires). Idiosyncratic jobs account for between 7 and 12 percent of new jobs in a highly formalized system in which such jobs should be least likely to be found. Some theory suggests that such jobs should be harmful, while other theory and field research suggest they may also be the product of benign opportunism by managers in response to ambiguity and uncertainty. This paper identifies six conditions argued to embody such ambiguity and uncertainty and tests the proposition that they enhance the creation rate of idiosyncratic jobs. The results, while modest, support the hypothesis that both types of idiosyncratic jobs occur more frequently when there is change in size and that evolved jobs occur more frequently under conditions of mission ambiguity and resource uncertainty.*

Learning In Hybrid-Project Systems: The Effects of Project Performance on Repeated Collaboration

This study advances contingency theories of performance-outcome learning in hybrid-project systems, in which both project participants and superordinate organizations influence the formation of project ventures. We propose that performance-outcome learning depends on the perceived relevance of prior performance and on organizational control over project participants. We examine this framework using data on 239 U.S. movie projects from the years 1931-40. In keeping with our theory, higher project performance led to future collaborations with the same partners, contingent on prior collaborations, project similarity, and organizational control. Our findings imply distinct patterns of network evolution and unfolding adaptation of hybrid-project systems through slow-moving, local adjustments.

Organizational Learning from Extreme Performance Experience: The Impact of Success and Recovery Experience

This paper argues that two different types of a firms own extreme performance experiences---success and recovery---and their interactions can generate survival-enhancing learning. Although these types of experience often represent valuable sources of useful learning, several important learning challenges arise when a firm has extremely limited prior experience of the same type. Thus, we theorize that a certain threshold of a given type of experience is required before each type of experience becomes valuable, with low levels of experience harming the organization. Furthermore, we propose that success and recovery experience will interact to enhance each others value. These conditions can help overcome learning challenges such as superstitious learning or learning from small samples. We investigate our ideas using a sample of the U.S. commercial banks founded between 1984 and 1998. Our results indicate that both success and recovery experience of a firm generate survival-enhancing learning, but only after a certain level of experience is reached. Furthermore, success and recovery experience enhance each others learning value, consistent with the theories that emphasize the importance of richer and contrasting experience in providing useful knowledge. Our framework advances organizational learning theory by presenting a contingent model of the impact of success and recovery experience and their interaction.

Organizational Learning Implications of Partnering Flexibility in Project-Venture Settings: A Multilevel Framework

Project ventures are an increasingly prevalent organizational form in many industries. The management literature has stressed their flexibility and adaptability advantages. This chapter focuses on the learning implications of the source of flexibility most essential to project ventures: the ability to switch partners during project formation and execution. This partnering flexibility creates opportunities to respond to new knowledge about characteristics of project tasks and project partners. Partnering flexibility, however, also creates learning challenges. The short-term nature of relationships between project partners and the disintegration of the project team after project completion challenges the accumulation and transfer of knowledge to future projects. Beyond the introduction of related learning opportunities and challenges, we identify potential contingency factors in the project context that shape when partner flexibility will have beneficial versus harmful effects. On the organizational level, we propose that project-governing permanent organizations can support project-venture learning. On the industry level, we highlight potential learning benefits of standardized partner roles and coordination practices. Thus, our chapter introduces a multilevel contingency framework for the evaluation of both learning opportunities and challenges of partnering flexibility in project-venture settings. We formulate testable propositions focused on partner-project fit and project performance.

Idiosyncratic Jobs, Organizational Transformation, and Career Mobility

Abstract Idiosyncratic jobs occur when formal job duties match the abilities or interests of a specific person. New duties can accrue or be negotiated to match an existing employee or a potential hire. Idiosyncratic jobs can help organizations deal with changing contexts, and influence organizational goals and structure. They can affect job holders’ careers and organizational job structures. The evolutionary accumulation of idiosyncratic jobs can potentially generate unplanned organizational learning. Promising research frontiers include links to work on job crafting, I-Deals, negotiated joining, and ecologies of jobs. Deeper exploration of these domains can advance core theories of job design and organizational transformation and inform normative theory on organizational use of idiosyncratic jobs without falling into cronyism, inefficiency, or injustice.