Christine S. Koberg

ANTECEDENTS AND OUTCOMES OF EMPOWERMENT

Using a statistical model, this study examined the correlates and consequences of psychological empowerment among a group of 612 technically skilled, professional, and managerial hospital employees (129 men and 483 women). Whereas individual as well as group and organizational characteristics influenced feelings of empowerment, group and organizational variables accounted for more variance in empowerment than did the individual variables. Empowerment perceptions increased with organizational rank and with leader approachability, group effectiveness, and worth of group. Individuals with more tenure in the organization felt more empowered; however, men and women, and Whites and non-Whites reported no significant differences in feelings of empowerment. Empowerment perceptions also were associated with increased job satisfaction and work productivity/effectiveness, as well as a decreased propensity to leave the organization.

An empirical test of environmental, organizational, and process factors affecting incremental and radical innovation

Abstract This study examines the influence of environmental, organizational, process, and managerial characteristics on incremental and radical innovation across three industries (aerospace, electronic components, and telecommunications). Results show that different mixes of environmental and organizational variables were significant predictors of incremental and radical innovation. Factors that favor incremental innovation include environmental dynamism, age and size of the firm (although not in the expected direction), intrafirm structural linkages, and the age of the CEO. Factors that favor radical innovation include environmental dynamism, intrafirm linkages, experimentation, and transitioning or sequencing from one project or product to another.

The Psychology of the Withdrawal Process: A Cross-Validation Test of Mobley's Intermediate Linkages Model of Turnover in Two Samples

A study investigating the validity of Mobleys (1977) model of the intermediate linkages in the turnover decision process among employees working in two diverse settings yielded a pattern of results generally consistent with the model. However, except for commitment to the organization, regression analyses failed to double cross-validate either within or between samples.

Facilitators of organizational innovation: The role of life-cycle stage

Abstract One of the most serious challenges facing an entrepreneurial company, particularly a high-technology firm, is knowing how to manage innovation as the organization evolves. Macro-level facilitators/inhibitors of innovation—i.e., organizational and environmental conditions of a firm that promote or restrain innovation such as the structure of an organization, its incentive system, resources provided by its environment, or its ways of analyzing firm-external information—and their relationship to the innovativeness of the firm are considered in this study. Two basic arguments have been put forward previously as to why the innovativeness of an organization may change as it evolves. First, it has been suggested that facilitators of innovation change over time and so will firm innovativeness. That is, the relationship between the facilitator and innovation stays unchanged but the facilitator itself is transformed, causing changes in firm innovativeness as it develops. For instance, it has been suggested that mature firms become less innovative because their structure becomes overly formalized to perform other functions more efficiently, which then stifles innovative processes. Second, other researchers have proposed that the relationship between a facilitator and innovation changes as firms evolve; for instance a formal structure may support innovation in a younger firm because it allows the entrepreneur to focus her energy, whereas it may suppress innovation later since it inhibits an innovators interaction with other environments. The results of our analysis, using data from 326 U.S. firms in different stages of their development and involved in many kinds of high-tech industries, support the second theory. However, the results for the relationships of the individual facilitators to innovation were not always as expected. We found that formally structured young firms were less innovative than informal ones and that in older organizations, formalization had no negative impact on innovation. This finding possibly can be explained with micro-level facilitators of innovation: younger firms may have more entrepreneurial personnel whose ability for innovation is more inhibited through a formal structure than the more “seasoned” employees in older, larger firms. However, this finding implies that the concern for formal structures with respect to firm innovativeness does not necessarily apply as typically assumed. Of similar significance was our finding with respect to the relationship between financial incentives and innovation. It has been suggested that younger rather than older firms use incentives such as equity to encourage an innovative environment. Results of this research, however, show that innovation is associated with stock incentives especially in older firms. This may be an indication for older firms to use differentiated incentives that reflect the individuals contribution to the firm to retain innovative personnel, whereas start-ups might rely on the excitement of working in a new venture as an incentive for innovative behavior. More in line with expectations were the results for how firms process external information. Environmental scanning and data analysis were positively associated with innovation, and this more so in older firms, presumably because they have become more remote from developments outside the organization. This result confirms the notion that much innovation by a firm is initiated externally. However, the results also indicate that the conditions of the environment itself are of lesser importance to firm innovativeness than the firms active pursuit of information from its environment. An often discussed implication of these findings is that the boundaries of a firm must be permeable, at least from the outside in, and systematic information gathering from customers, competition, research institutions, etc. may be necessary to the success of a firm that depends on its product development. This seems especially important for older firms. As expected, the centralization of power in an organization also affected innovation. Centralization correlated positively with innovation in new ventures and negatively in older firms. This indicates the importance of the entrepreneur and strong leader in a start-up. It also suggests, though, that as the firm matures, this person has to give up some of her control and may have to relinquish the job at the head of the organization to someone else. Finally, there are some more general implications of this work to managers involved with organizational innovation. First, reliance on past experience may be detrimental to future performance. Whereas a firm evolves through different stages, means that have facilitated innovation earlier may be detrimental to it now or tomorrow, and vice versa. Second, copying successful strategies for innovation from other firms may not necessarily work—not because their implementation was worse but because the conditions of the other firm, for instance its evolutionary stage or its micro-level facilitators, were different. Researchers who study innovation should consider including life-cycle stage as a potential moderating variable. Factors that facilitate innovation at some point during an organizations evolution actually hinder it in another. Also, factors that were unimportant to innovation at the inception of a firm may facilitate it in later stages. This study supports the conclusion that the consideration of contingency factors, such as life-cycle stage, may enhance the development of a theory of organizational innovation.

Correlates and Consequences of Protege Mentoring in a Large Hospital

Using a statistical model, this study examined the correlates and outcomes of mentoring among a sample of 635 technically skilled, professional, and managerial hospital employees (men and women). Whereas individual as well as group and organizational characteristics influenced mentoring, group and orgnizational variables accounted for more variance in mentoring than did the individual variables. Mentoring increased with the proteges organizatoal rank, with leader approachability, and with group effectiveness; it decreased as the protégés tenure in the organization increased. Men reported more mentoring than women, and non-White minority individuals reported higher levels of mentoring than did White individuals. Mentoring was also associated with increased job satisfaction and decreased work alienation.

Organizational culture relationships with creativity and other job-related variables

Abstract The relationship between three types of organizational cultures and managerial creativity, motivation, and other job-related variables were examined. Respondents were 165 managers in a western metropolitan area (69 females, 96 males). Bureaucratic culture combined with high need for power was found to have significant positive relationships to job satisfaction and involvement, and negative connections to propensity to leave. Innovative culture combined with high need for achievement was significantly and positively related to job satisfaction and significantly and negatively to propensity to leave. Supportive culture combined with high need for affiliation was significantly and positively related to job satisfaction and negatively related to propensity to leave.

Resource Scarcity, Environmental Uncertainty, and Adaptive Organizational Behavior

The article provides information on a study which investigated the effects of environmental uncertainty and resource scarcity in interaction with organizational structure on the categories of organ...

The impact of environmental and organizational factors on discontinuous innovation within high-technology industries

This study examines the influence of environmental, organizational, and managerial characteristics on discontinuous innovation across three industries (aerospace, electronic components, and telecommunications) that are highly dependent upon innovation for survival and competitive advantage. The authors randomly mailed survey questionnaires to 900 chief executive officers located across the USA and obtained quantitative data from 192 individuals. To validate these results, they conducted structured follow-up interviews of 25 executives. The findings suggest that discontinuous innovation increases with environmental dynamism and that structure and processes (intrafirm linkages, experimentation and transitioning, or sequencing from one product/project/program to another) contribute to discontinuous innovation. These results suggest that top managers are active, not passive, in influencing discontinuous innovation within their organizations.

The Effects of Environmental Uncertainty and Dependence on Organizational Structure and Performance: A Comparative Study

This study investigated the joint effects of perceived environmental uncertainty and dependence on resources on organizational structure and performance. Findings from two diverse settings that are considered in light of historical developments indicate that organic structures are associated with low resource dependence and that performance is not explained by the fit between environment and organization structure, but is significantly related to organic structure.

Patterns of Differential Assimilation and Acculturation for Women in Business Organizations

This article reviews cross-cultural studies on adaptation, specifically acculturation and assimilation, in the context of the literature on organizational culture and develops a conceptual model of womens current status in organizations. A cultural perspective that goes beyond person-and situation-centered theories helps to account for the gender gap in management. The cultural perspective suggests that it is possible for women, like other marginal persons, to acculturate to the organization without being assimilated into it. This article proposes a classification of differential patterns of adaptation for women in business organizations and suggests some options for changing the culture itself in order to mitigate the effects of the differences.