Peter Walgenbach

Technical Efficiency or Adaptation to Institutionalized Expectations? The Adoption of ISO 9000 Standards in the German Mechanical Engineering Industry

In this paper we examine technical and internal organizational contingencies which encourage and discourage the adoption of institutionalized structural elements, namely ISO 9000 standards. The results show that the extent of customized production and a dominant influence of top management on quality control decisions reduce the likelihood of adopting ISO 9000 standards. However, the latter factor changes its influence significantly with greater organizational size and administrative intensity — two entities which increase the pressure to adapt to external expectations.

The Production of Distrust by Means of Producing Trust

ISO 9000 certifications are spreading throughout the world. ISO 9000 standards and certification should serve as a verification that it is justified to trust the ability of a supplier to produce quality goods. In this paper, results of an empirical study on the use of ISO 9000 standards and ISO 9000 certification in Germany will be presented. An important finding is that the standards and the certification do not, as was intended, serve as a means for producing trust between customers and suppliers. Reasons as to why ISO 9000 certification does not serve as a means for producing an institutional-based type of trust will be presented. However, despite the fact that certification does not produce trust, the implementation of the standards was evaluated positively by the organizations investigated. The implementation of the ISO 9000 standards was regarded as an occasion for structuring and led to the development of a system of bureaucratic control that was both enabling and coercive.

Mastering Techniques or Brokering Knowledge? Middle Managers in Germany, Great Britain and Italy

What do middle managers do? Based on a conceptualization of knowledge as the capacity to act in response to uncertain, complex and ambiguous environmental stimuli, we analyse the role of middle managers in Germany, Great Britain and Italy as holders of different types of knowledge in relation to national institutions such as the education system, the system of industrial relations and the career system. We identify the common role of middle managers in the three countries as the responsibility to both maintain a positive social environment and to handle exceptions and solve unexpected problems. German and Italian managers are directly involved in the solution of technical problems, while their British counterparts act as brokers of technical specialized competences. Italian firms differ from German ones in that the role of middle managers is less formalized.

Hierarchical structures of communication in a network organization

The concept of the network organization is presented in the popular management literature as a counter-model to the bureaucratic organization, and one that would increase the flexibility or adaptive capacity of organizations. In order to increase flexibility and adaptability, emphasis is placed in the network organization on the rapid and broad diffusion of information (Probst/Raub/Romhardt 2006). Free communication flows and shared access to information and knowledge are regarded as essential (Cairncross 2001). Thus, contrary to classic theories of organization (March/Simon 1958; Simon 1945; Weber 1968), information should be available to all members of the organization, irrespective of specialization and/or hierarchical position (Koehler/Dupper/Scaff/Reitberger/ Paxson 1998; Levine/Locke/Searls/Weinberger 1999). The network organization is conceived as a group of linked experts (Sproull/Kiesler 1991). These experts however, are not to be understood as pure specialists. On the contrary, it is argued that there should be an overlap in their respective areas of expertise, in order to promote mutual understanding and a recognition of the need for information and knowledge in order to carry out activities efficiently (Mendelson/Ziegler 1999).

ISO 9000 and Formalization - How Organizational Contingencies Affect Organizational Responses to Institutional Forces

We investigate the adoption of ISO 9000 standards by the German mechanical engineering industry and analyze how organizational contingencies affect susceptibility to institutional forces. Our study’;s findings show that differences in organizational size, proportion of administrative staff, and type of production technology lead to variations in the probability of adopting ISO 9000 standards. Moreover, our findings show that despite the modern anti-bureaucratic management ideology, there has been a remarkable increase in the degree of formalization.

Middle Managers: Differences between Britain and Germany

For a long time, proponents of a structuralist approach have assumed that the division of economic actors within firms into the groups of owners, managers and workers allows an explanation of their actions and behaviour. Roles, according to this approach, are, above all, contingent on economic categories such as ownership or the control of means of production, which are assumed not to differ between cultural settings (that is, the culture-free thesis). Members within each of these three groups are believed to act in a similar way, no matter where the firm is located. Interaction between members within each of these groups should therefore pose no obstacles for conducting business internationally: there would seem to be no need to think about peculiarities within specific countries.

It's All About Timing: Age‐Dependent Consequences of Founder Exits and New Member Additions

This article explores the effects of changes in the initial venture team on a firms failure risk by considering firm age. The results show that founder exits are especially critical for firm survival in the first years of a firms existence, whereas the entry of a new team member is more beneficial in later years. Further, an investigation of multiple founder exits shows that the time that elapses between two exits has a U–shaped relationship with a firms hazard risk. Discussing these findings in terms of imprinting and the liability of newness, we contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of venture team dynamics and firm survival.

Multinationale Unternehmen und internationales Personalmanagement: Eine vergleichende institutionalistische Perspektive

In diesem Beitrag wird ein Ansatz zur Erforschung der Personalpolitik in multinationalen Unternehmen vorgestellt, der sich inzwischen zu einem eigenständigen Forschungsstrang in der internationalen Personalforschung entwickelt hat. Dieser Ansatz hat im deutschsprachigen Raum bisher nur wenig Aufmerksamkeit erfahren. Es werden sowohl die Vorgehensweise in der Forschung als auch bereits vorliegende Befunde empirischer Studien auf der Basis dieses Ansatzes vorgestellt. Anschließend erfolgt eine kritische Würdigung des Ansatzes und der empirischen Studien. Dabei werden der Erklärungsbeitrag und die Erklärungsgrenzen des Ansatzes mit Blick auf die Personalpolitik multinationaler Unternehmen herausgearbeitet. Darüber hinaus werden Überlegungen zu den Entwicklungspotenzialen dieses Ansatzes angestellt.

Mehr Rechtssicherheit durch normative Managementkonzepte und Organisationsnormung

SummaryThe question is pursued whether it is possible from a juridical perspective to declare prescriptive management concepts as organizational responsibilities that are enforced by law so that it is no longer necessary to examine in each individual case whether a company has taken the appropriate measures to prevent potential dangers but only whether the appropriate prescriptive management concept has been implemented. A critical discussion of the rule systems ISO 9000, ISO 14000, and of a concept for the standardization of organizational governance systems from the perspective of organization theory shows that norms of this kind can by no means serve as a standard for the responsibilities which an organization has to adhere to either in civil, criminal or public law. In addition, in processes of certification or auditing it is impossible to evaluate the appropriateness of certain measures for the prevention of potential dangers or the degree of rule adherence so that a state withdrawal from the control of measures of this kind in favour of purely private agencies for certification and accreditation could result in fatal consequences.

Veränderungen in betrieblichen Beschäftigungsverhältnissen: Ergebnisse einer empirischen Untersuchung

Aufbauend auf der These einer zunehmenden Vermarktlichung von Beschäftigungsverhältnissen und des Endes der Organisationsgesellschaft von Davis (2009a, 2009b) untersuchen wir den Wandel der Industrienation Deutschland zur Dienstleistungs- und Wissensgesellschaft und fragen, ob mit diesem Wandel eine Auflösung des für den deutschen Arbeitsmarkt typischen Normalarbeitsverhältnisses einhergeht (Dombois, 1999). Dabei werden drei Elemente betrachtet, welche eine Entwicklung hin zu einer marktgesteuerten Beschäftigungsstrategie beeinflussen könnten: 1) sektorspezifische Prägungen der Beschäftigungsverhältnisse, 2) organisationsstrukturelle Einflüsse und 3) das System der industriellen Beziehungen in Deutschland. Die Ergebnisse unserer Untersuchung verdeutlichen, dass sich Veränderungen in den Beschäftigungsverhältnissen in Deutschland zeigen, dass diese im Produktionssektor jedoch nicht zu einem allgemeinen Wandel der Beschäftigungsmuster führen, sondern dass in diesem Beschäftigungssegment vielmehr vom Rand der Beschäftigung her eine Flexibilisierung der Beschäftigungsverhältnisse erfolgt, die die Beschäftigungsform der Kernbelegschaften der Betriebe des Produktionssektors bislang nicht verändert hat.