Kim S. Cameron

Studying Organizational Change and Development: Challenges for Future Research

This article presents several studies that examine organizational change. The authors note that certain issues should be addressed when examining the studies including an examination of the multiple contexts and levels of analysis in studying organizational change, the inclusion of time, history, process and action, the link between change processes and organizational performance, the investigation of international and cross-cultural comparisons, the study of receptivity, customization, sequencing, pace and episodic versus continuous change and the partnership between scholars and practitioners in studying change. The authors discuss how these issues are related to the concepts in the studies and note their research has not addressed these issues at this point in time.

Measuring Organizational Effectiveness in Institutions of Higher Education.

The following are some of the criticisms which have been advanced concerning the goal approach to effectiveness: (1) There is a focus on official or management goals to the exclusion of the organizational member, organizational constituency, and societal goals (Blau and Scott, 1961; Scriven, 1967). (2) There is neglect of implicit, latent, or informal procedures and goals (Merton, 1957). (3) There is neglect of the multiple and contradictory nature of organizational goals (Rice, 1963). (4) Environmental influences on the organization and its goals are ignored (Lawrence and Lorsch, 1969). (5) Organizational goals are retrospective and serve to justify organizational action, not to direct it (Weich, 1969). (6) Organizational goals change as contextual factors and organizational behavior change (Warner, 1967; Pfiffner, 1977).

Exploring the Relationships between Organizational Virtuousness and Performance

The importance of virtuousness in organizations has recently been acknowledged in the organizational sciences, but research remains scarce. This article defines virtuousness and connects it to scholarly literature in organizational science. An empirical study is described in which the relationships between virtuousness and performance in 18 organizations are empirically examined. Significant relationships between virtuousness and both perceived and objective measures of organizational performance were found. The findings are explained in terms of the two major functions played by virtuousness in organizations: an amplifying function that creates self-reinforcing positive spirals, and a buffering function that strengthens and protects organizations from traumas such as downsizing.

Best practices in white-collar downsizing: managing contradictions

Executive Overview It is no secret that U.S. industry, once the most productive in the world, is now lagging behind its global competitors. What is not well known is that blue-collar productivity is not necessarily the problem. Between 1978 and 1986, for example, the number of production workers declilned by six percent while real output rose 15 percent. White-collar productivity decreased six percent while the number of workers increased by twenty-one percent. Downsizing, which involves reducing the workforce, but also eliminates functions and redesigns systems and policies to contain costs, is becoming more common in U.S. companies. Despite its pervasiveness, however, downsizing has rarely been investigated by organization and management researchers. This article seeks to identify the processes used in effective downsizing as well as the consequences that result. The authors studied organizational downsizing and redesign for four years in thirty organizations in the automobile industry. Six general stra...

Organizational Dysfunctions of Decline

The article discusses the dysfunctional attributes of organizations experiencing periods of decline. Organizations involved in the study were gauged using a number of dysfunctional attributes in organizations identified by scholars, including the centralization of decision making, a lack of long-term planning and a pronounced decrease in the adoption of innovations. According to the author, the aforementioned attributes are characteristic of both stable and declining organizations. Only organizations experiencing growth in revenues seem to avoid these problems.

Introduction: Contributions to the Discipline of Positive Organizational Scholarship

Positive organizational scholarship is the study of that which is positive, flourishing, and life-giving in organizations. Positive refers to the elevating processes and outcomes in organizations. Organizational refers to the interpersonal and structural dynamics activated in and through organizations, specifically taking into account the context in which positive phenomena occur. Scholarship refers to the scientific, theoretically derived, and rigorous investigation of that which is positive in organizational settings. This article introduces this new field of study and identifies some of its key contributions.Positive organizational scholarship is the study of that which is positive, flourishing, and life-giving in organizations. Positive refers to the elevating processes and outcomes in organizations. ...

Domains of Organizational Effectiveness in Colleges and Universities

Four major domains of organizational effectiveness in colleges and universities are identified—academic, morale, external adaptation, and extracurricular domains—and four types of institutions are ...

Relationships, Layoffs, and Organizational Resilience Airline Industry Responses to September 11

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, affected the U.S. airline industry more than almost any other industry. Certain airlines emerged successful and demonstrated remarkable resilience while others languished. This investigation identifies reasons why some airline companies recovered successfully after the attacks while others struggled. Evidence is provided that layoffs after the crisis, although intended to foster recovery, instead inhibited recovery throughout the 4 years after the crisis. But, layoffs after the crisis were strongly correlated with lack of financial reserves and lack of a viable business model prior to the crisis. Digging deeper, the authors find that having a viable business model itself depended on the development and preservation of relational reserves over time. Our model shows that the maintenance of adequate financial reserves enables the preservation of relational reserves and vice versa, contributing to organizational resilience in times of crisis.

Perceptions of Organizational Effectiveness Over Organizational Life Cycles

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Effects of Positive Practices on Organizational Effectiveness

00.75 Among the problems in the literature on organizational effectiveness are the over-reliance on researcher imposed criteria of effectiveness and the tendency to measure perceptions of effectiveness at only one point in time. In this study, we examine the changes that occurred in ratings of effectiveness by organizational members as their organizations developed through various life cycle stages. Using 18 simulated organizations, we tracked the changes that occurred in perceptions of effectiveness related to different domains of activity and different levels of analysis. We found that, as the organizations developed, the importance of effectiveness in acquiring inputs gave way to the importance of effectiveness in producing outputs. Individual effectiveness became less important over time while organizational effectiveness became more important. We draw implications for the use of different models of organizational effectiveness in future research.