Michael Elmes

Technological Embeddedness and Organizational Change

While various theories have been proposed to explain how technology leads to organizational change, in general they have focused either on the technology and ignored the influence of human agency, or on social interaction and ignored the technology. In this paper, we propose a new theory of technology-mediated organizational change that bridges these two extremes. Using grounded theory methodology, we conducted a three-year study of an enterprise system implementation. From the data collected, we identified embeddedness as central to the process of change. When embedded in technology, organizational elements such as routines and roles acquire a material aspect, in addition to the ostensive and performative aspects identified by Feldman and Pentland (2003). Our new theory employs the lens of critical realism because in our view, common constructivist perspectives such as structuration theory or actor network theory have limited our understanding of technology as a mediator of organizational change. Using a critical realist perspective, our theory explains the process of change as a three-stage cycle in which the ostensive, performative, and material aspects of organizational elements interact differently in each stage.

Managing the Organizational Melting Pot: Dilemmas of Workplace Diversity

It remains for future researchers to determine exactly why high-performance work systems improve plant performance and worker contentment. In their concluding chapter, the authors suggest that high-performance work systems improve plant performance because they elicit greater discretionary effort from workers and because they provide more opportunities for shop-floor learning. These are certainly plausible intervening variables; pinning down what precisely discretionary effort is and how exactly it shapes organizational outcomes would be a worthy extension of this study.

Panoptic empowerment and reflective conformity in enterprise systems-enabled organizations

In this study of enterprise system (ES) use at a global manufacturing organization, we have taken an interpretive perspective and used a Glaserian grounded theory methodology to explore the ES-enabled changes in organizational control that emerged after system implementation. From our field data we identified two seemingly contradictory theoretical concepts: panoptic empowerment and reflective conformity. Panoptic empowerment refers to the greater visibility of information provided by the common shared database of an ES that empowers workers to do their work more efficiently and effectively, but which also makes them more visible to others throughout the organization who can then more easily exercise process and outcome control. Reflective conformity describes how the integrated nature of the ES with its embedded rules and procedures for organizational processes leads to greater employee discipline while simultaneously requiring them to be highly reflective as well in order to achieve organizational benefits from the ES. These concepts embody an understanding of organizational control that is rooted in a Foucauldian view of disciplinary power rather than a traditional perspective of mechanistic bureaucracy.

Understanding enterprise systems-enabled integration

A key touted benefit of enterprise systems (ES) is organizational integration of both business processes and data, which is expected to reduce processing time and increase control over operations. In our 3-year longitudinal case study of a phased ES implementation, we employed a grounded theory methodology to discover organizational effects of ES. As we coded and analyzed our field data, we observed many integration effects. Further analysis revealed underlying dimensions of ES-enabled integration. ES-enabled integration varied depending on the relationship between the integrated business units (similar plants, stages in a business process, or dissimilar functional areas) and on whether processes or data were integrated. Turning to the literature, we realized that Thompsons three types of interdependence, pooled, sequential, and reciprocal, captured the business relationships revealed in our data. Thus, we describe the salient characteristics of ES-enabled integration using Thompsons interdependence types applied to process and data integratio n. We also identify dimensions of differentiation between business units that contribute to integration problems. Viewing our field data through the lens of these salient characteristics and dimensions of differentiation provided theoretical explanations for observed integration problems. These findings also help managers understand and anticipate ES-enabled integration opportunities and problems.

Enterprise systems, knowledge transfer and power users

There are few studies of knowledge transfer (KT) between groups with dissimilar purposes and dissimilar practices, which is the situation when transferring knowledge from an enterprise systems (ES) developer team to the users of the new ES. To support such KT, organizations identify a group of power users to work with the ES team and then to help other users integrate the new system into their operations. That KT process still encounters barriers. In a comparative case study of four such KT situations at two different companies we identify the critical barriers, and empirically uncover two new KT mechanisms that are effective for addressing the KT barriers in the ES context.

Moved by the Spirit Contextualizing Workplace Empowerment in American Spiritual Ideals

The authors begin by showing the close links between the discourse of workplace empowerment and spirituality. They then identify these spiritual influences historically in Puritan and evangelical Christianity, utopianism, and New Age thinking. From Puritanism and evangelical Christianity, they locate the ideas that all work is God’s work, that charismatic evangelism (with Jesus as role model) is the prototype for leadership in business, and that Christian ideals can serve as a basis for organizing the factory system. From utopianism, the authors locate the influence of ideals such as perfectibility, new order, brotherhood, and radical experimentation on empowerment discourse. In New Age thinking, they see a context that permitted the emergence of empowerment as an ideological discourse that makes reference to earlier Christian and utopian ideas. They conclude by discussing spirituality as ideology—the mystifying aspects and potential costs to workers of this approach to empowerment.

Deliverance, Denial, and the Death Zone A Study of Narcissism and Regression in the May 1996 Everest Climbing Disaster

Building on previous disaster research, this article presents and analyzes the May 1996 Mount Everest climbing disaster. Using a blend of psychodynamic and structuralist theory, the article demonstrates how historical changes in the field of high-altitude climbing fostered the emergence of pathologically narcissistic, competitive, and regressive dynamics that ultimately contributed to numerous climbing deaths.

Music at Work: An Introduction

There are many ways in which music and the management of work, space, time, bodies, and feelings are linked, and there is a small but rich tradition of academic research that has attempted to explore these connections. This special issue aims to contribute to this work. Our introduction identifies existing work, introduces the three articles that make up the substantive contribution of this special issue, and points to opportunities for researchers to make further contributions.

The Psychodynamics of Mindlessness and Dissent in Small Groups

Using a psychodynamic perspective, this article explores the tendency of members of small grolups to regress to a seeming state of group mindlessness whereby critical thinking is sluggish and individual differences of all kinds are suppressed. Sources of mindlessness in small groups are examined in terms of their underlying dynamics and their function in containing anxiety for the group. Also discussed is the emergence of the dissenter role within a small group as a container for both negative and positive differences. Propositions regarding functions and types of dissenter roles and ways of enhancing group mindfulness are delineated.

Place and Sense of Place Implications for Organizational Studies of Sustainability

Notions of place and sense of place appear more frequently in organizational research, reflecting the growing influence of human and cultural geography on the field. This article argues that scholars should continue to explore and refine research on sustainability by engaging with these issues through concrete research on place and sense of place. After discussing the diverse ways these terms are used in scholarship outside our field, the article considers ways in which they have been used in organizational studies of sustainability and identifies ways of extending this work, including a preliminary agenda for future research. By incorporating place and sense of place, organizational scholars may find more comprehensive and transformative understandings of sustainability.