Bernard C. Reimann

A Contingency Theory of Organization Re-Examined in the Context of a Developing Country

The “Contingency Theory” of organizations holds that the “optimum” organization structure is primarily dependent on the external environment of the enterprise. Stable environmental conditions call ...

Organization Structure and Technology in Manufacturing: System Versus Work Flow Level Perspectives

This paper distinguishes between system level and work flow level measures of organizational technology and structure. Data from 20 manufacturing plants support the hypothesis that system level tec...

Organizational Competence as a Predictor of Long Run Survival and Growth

The subjective evaluation of an organizations effectiveness (or competence) by its top executives was found to be an excellent predictor of the subsequent survival and growth of the organization. ...

A Comparative Analysis of Empirical Research on Technology and Structure

This paper proposes that when empirical research on the technology-structure relationship is classified by organizational level and by type of technology studied, the evidence favoring a technological imperative is quite consistent. The only studies which have yielded inconsistent results have been those focusing on the total organization, where the measurement of both the transformation technology and structure has been particularly problematic. At the workflow or subunit level of organizations, generally strong technology-structure relationships have been observed. The same is true for system level studies where technology was operationalized in terms of the characteristics of environmental inputs or outputs rather than of the transformation process itself. It is suggested that the consistency and value of future research results on the technology-structure connection can be considerably enhanced if researchers take greater care to specify their organizational levels of analysis as well as the way in which they operationalize their technology and structure variables. Some preliminary suggestions are also made for the development of a general theory of the technology structure link.

Strategies of Administrative Control and Organizational Effectiveness

The results of a comparative study of thirty manufacturing firms in India indicated that the most effective organizations tended to choose a unidimensional strategy of administrative control. This strategy consisted of the use of formalized procedures to control decentralized decision-making with respect to both human and material resources. The least effective firms chose a similar strategy of control, however they emphasized mainly those procedures involving the control of material resources and tended to neglect their human resources in this respect. These results are interpreted as evidence in favor of normative theory of administrative control in organizations. The most effective strategy for maintaining indirect control over a decentralized decision-making process appears to be one which effectively integrates the rational material resource controls with the more intangible human resource control mechanisms.

Work Environment and Grievance Rates in a Manufacturing Plant

The grievance activity of work groups has received surprisingly little attention by either organizational behavior or industrial re-lations researchers. This study explores the impact of different work environments on the rate of grievance filing in a large, unionized manufacturing plant. The two aspects of the work environment exam-ined, (a) size of the primary work group and (b) type of work technology, were both significantly related to grievance rates. A batch production environment was associated with a substantially higher rate of grievance filing than were either mass or craft pro-duction. When the work technology effect was held constant, the size of the primary work group was negatively related to grievance rates.

Philosophers of the strategic renaissance

This first Report in our two‐part coverage of The Strategic Management Societys annual meeting is devoted to three prominent conceptualizers—Richard Pascale, Gary Hamel, and C. K. Prahalad. They prescribe radical treatment for organizations seeking to transform their enterprise for success in the coming decades. (See our checklist of questions their provocative concepts should motivate managers to consider.) The second part, scheduled for the May/June issue, presents case studies by CEOs directly involved in transforming their corporations.

Achieving management consensus around value‐creating strategies

First Prize: This winner of our annual contest, in association with the Foundation for Administrative Research (FAR), describes an innovative strategy‐refinement process that uses four “filters” (tests) for picking high potential business initiatives.

Doers as planners

Strategic management gives an organization the power to “create its own future.” This was the gist of H. Igor Ansoffs message to management more than two decades ago. Yet, in spite of the obvious appeal of this idea, few, if any modern companies have been able to realize the full benefits of true strategic management.