Richard L. Daft

A Dual-Core Model of Organizational Innovation

This paper examines the role of administrators and technical employees in the process leading to innovation adoption. A marked division of labor is found. The evidence indicates that two distinct i...

A Tentative Exploration into the Amount and Equivocality of Information Processing in Organizational Work Units.

? 1981 by Cornell University 0001 -839218112602-02071

Across the Great Divide: Knowledge Creation and Transfer Between Practitioners and Academics

00.75 A model is proposed that relates the amount and equivocality of information processing to thevariety and analyzability of work-unit activities. New questionnaire scales were developed for the information and task variables, and an exploratory test of the model was conducted on 24 work units. The reported amount of information processing increased with both task variety and analyzability; the reported use of equivocal information decreased with task analyzability. The findings suggest a modification of the previously reported positive relationship between task uncertainty and amount of information processing

Measures of Perrow's Work Unit Technology: An Empirical Assessment and a New Scale

Observers have long noted a considerable gap between organizational research findings and management practices. Although volumes have been written about the probable causes and consequences of this gap, surprisingly little empirical evidence exists concerning the various viewpoints. The articles in this forum provide data on the role of academic-practitioner relationships in both generating and disseminating knowledge across boundaries. The contributions of each article are summarized in light of recent theories of knowledge creation, and suggestions are made for increasing the value and relevance of future research to both academics and practitioners.

The Nature and Use of Formal Control Systems for Management Control and Strategy Implementation

Six instruments previously used to assess Perrows dimensions of work unit technology are evaluated. The findings suggest convergent validity across measures of the analyzability and exceptions dim...

Media Selection and Managerial Characteristics in Organizational Communications

Management control research from organization theory, accounting, and business policy is reviewed; and a two-stage qualitative study of management control systems (MCSs) used in business organizations is reported. The study identified four MCS components used at the middle management level: budget, policies and procedures, performance appraisal system, and statistical reports. Each MCS component played a role during the control cycle of target setting, monitoring, and corrective feedback. The findings were used to propose two models: One model links the MCS to business level strategy implementation, and the other defines primary and secondary roles for MCS components in the management control process.

MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEMS AND DEPARTMENTAL INTERDEPENDENCIES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY.

The media richness model and the symbolic interactionist perspective are the basis for hypotheses about managerial communication patterns. The hypothesized relationships are tested with data from 94 managers. The results indicate that managers tend to select the face-to-face medium for highly equivocal communications and written media for clear, objective communications. This relationship is stronger for managers with higher level positions and higher performance evaluations, and is not significantly affected by managerial educational level, organizational tenure, sender/receiver orientation, or introversion/extraversion. The implications of the findings for organization design, communications, and manager performance are discussed.

Perspective---Rigor and Relevance in Organization Studies: Idea Migration and Academic Journal Evolution

Abstract Behavioral accounting research suggests that (1) the design and use of a management accounting system is related to overall characteristics of the organization, and (2) a management accounting system is one element in a package of control systems. The research reported here investigated the relationship between the organizational characteristic of departmental interdependence and the design and use of three elements in a package of management controls — the operating budget, periodic statistical reports, and standard operating policies and procedures. The findings support the hypothesis that departmental interdependence is related to the emphasis placed on each management control system. Standard operating procedures were an important control device when interdependence was low. The budget and statistical reports were used more extensively when interdependence was modurate. When interdependence among departments was high, the role of all three control systems diminished.

A New Approach to Design and Use of Management Information

This perspective paper addresses the issues of rigor and relevance in organizational studies in the context of idea migration and journal evolution. We argue that creeping parochialism can happen to any journal, which reflects an evolving narrowness within boundaries of academic subcommunities. Evidence suggests that ideas do migrate across academic subcommunities, although the underlying process is not well understood and the idea flow is not symmetrical. Two kinds of knowledge relevance are discussed---the value for end users such as managers in organizations, and the value for ones own or other academic subcommunities. We argue that the most important mission of Organization Science (OS) is to be a “source” journal for academic subcommunities in organization studies by attracting and publishing new theories and ideas that increase the varieties of knowledge about organizations.

Innovation in organizations : innovation adoption in school organizations

Information, that is both accurate and timely, is probably the most important resource needed by managers to make sound decisions regarding the problems and issues facing their organizations. Unfortunately, sophisticated information systems often fail to meet this need. Managers complain that the data produced by information systems arrive too late, are too general and lack accuracy. Daft and MacIntosh studied the system problems of a number of organizations, discovering that understanding their work activities is critical to the design of successful information systems. The authors also considered the volume of information, preciseness of information and the way in which it is handled by users to develop a model describing information systems. The article illustrates how the model was applied successfully to four case situations.