Janice M. Beyer

Building Cooperation in a Competitive Industry: Sematech and the Semiconductor Industry

This article presents the results of a grounded theory analysis of observation, interview, and archival data collected at SEMATECH, a research, development, and testing consortium in the semiconduc...

Taming and promoting charisma to change organizations

Abstract Taking a sociological perspective on the accumulated literature on charisma reveals how theories and ways of operationalizing charisma depart from Webers original conception. These departures tend to blur the distinctiveness of the charismatic form of leadership by ignoring or downplaying integral aspects of charisma, especially the precipitating crisis, the radical vision, and subsequent systemic change.

The Review Process and the Fates of Manuscripts Submitted to AMJ

Four perspectives on the review processes of scientific journals were employed heuristically to Examine the AMJ review process from 1984 through 1987. Results indicated modest support for hypothese...

Transforming an industry in crisis: Charisma, routinization, and supportive cultural leadership

Abstract This article narrates the saga of how leaders in the highly competitive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing industry framed their future as a struggle for survival against an unprincipled adversary and thus generated an industry-wide strategy for battling the competition. Their strategy amounted to a social experiment in that it required unprecedented cooperation from members of the industry. Our account and analysis focus on four remarkable, interrelated aspects of this saga: (1) how these leaders linked their actions to support the charisma of their central leader—Robert Noyce—who became the first CEO of the resultant consortium; (2) how the participation they shared in the saga of the founding and growth of the U.S. semiconductor industry, especially at Fairchild Industries, provided a basis for their later cooperation; (3) how they created an unusual participative and democratic culture at Sematech; and (4) how Noyces vision persisted after his death through various forms of routinization established earlier. Five bodies of qualitative data generated in two independent series of investigations inform this study. They include two sets of in-depth interviews with participants at various levels, extensive archival data, ethographic observations, informal conversations and interviews, and information supplied by a key informant.

Understanding Organizational Adaptation to Change: The Case of Work-Family Issues

The last 10–15 years have seen dramatic changes in the nature of the U.S. workforce and in the structure of family life in the United States. Organizational managers face the difficult task of interpreting these changes and of deciding how to adapt the organization’s human resource policies to these changes. In this paper, we examine the processes that underlie organizational adaptation to environmental changes, focusing particular attention on describing the processes by which changes are noticed, interpreted, and elicit action. We argue that the same demographic facts are likely to get different amounts of organizational attention and may be interpreted quite differently, depending on the characteristics of the organizational context and on how work-family issues are framed. Human resource professionals have an extremely important role to play in determining both the likelihood and nature of an organization’s actions with respect to work-family changes by shaping the interpretation process.

The structuring of shared voluntary standards in the U.S. semiconductor industry: Communicating to reach agreement

Although pervasive in modern organizations, standards have been neglected in organizational communications research. Qualitative study of the SEMATECH consortium revealed that an important outcome of the efforts of participants was the reflexive structuring of voluntary, cooperative standards in the U.S. semiconductor industry, which had previously operated on the basis of proprietary, competitive standards. Analysis of extensive interview, archival, and observational data suggested that seven incidents were pivotal in the structuring process. These incidents showed how the increased communication initiated by SEMATECH produced new provinces of meaning, actions, and frameworks that engendered cooperation in relations between the supplier and manufacturing sectors of the industry, which had previously been characterized by mutual distrust and conflict.

Contrasts in enacting TQM: Mechanistic vs. organic ideology and implementation

Abstract A qualitative longitudinal study of the enactment of TQM in two semi-conductor supplier firms revealed that adoption, implementation, and institutionalization of TQM in one firm was mechanistic, with a ritualistic use of specific TQM methods, procedures, and language while the other firm used an organic approach in which a local adaptation of TQM emerged as people learned and adapted concepts and tools to fit their specific needs. Results suggest that how TQM is implemented affects its institutionalization. Specifically, changes achieved through mechanistic approaches to TQ implementation may produce only short-lived conforming behaviors while organic implementation appears more likely to produce lasting change.

Ethics and Cultures in International Business

The growth of international business calls for the development of universal ethical standards. Corporate and national cultures embody differing codes of conduct. Serious ethical lapses have damaged organizations and societies. Various international groups of business leaders are developing voluntary ethical standards. Citizen activism may be needed to ensure implementation and compliance with such standards.