Virpi Turkulainen

Cross‐functional integration and performance: what are the real benefits?

Purpose – Conventional wisdom has it that cross‐functional integration is a “must”. The purpose of this paper is to take an information‐processing approach to integration and elaborate the conventional wisdom by theoretical examination of both the concept of integration as well as theoretical and empirical elaboration of its link to operational performance.Design/methodology/approach – The authors develop six propositions on how cross‐functional integration affects performance and test the propositions in an international sample of 266 manufacturing plant organizations in nine countries.Findings – The results strongly suggest that disaggregation of performance is important, because the effects of cross‐functional integration on performance are contingent: even though the effects of achieved integration on several dimensions of operational performance are positive, the performance effect varies from one dimension to the next. This is an important finding given that performance has typically been treated at...

Personal commitment, support and progress in doctoral studies

Earlier research on doctoral education has associated study progress with the student’s own capabilities and faculty support. The purpose of this study is to investigate how students’ personal commitment and various forms of support, as well as their complementary effects, explain progress in doctoral studies. Data were collected by a questionnaire survey among doctoral students of industrial engineering and management in Finland. The study investigates the effect of: (1) support from supervisor, peers and employer, and (2) students’ commitment in terms of setting goals, time and plans. The results show that plan commitment and peer support, as well as goal commitment and supervisor support, together have a positive effect on study progress. In turn, time commitment and peer support, and time commitment and supervisor support, jointly lead to better research progress.

Managing Project Stakeholder Communication: The Qstock Festival Case

This research develops the understanding of project stakeholder management through examining how stakeholder communication is facilitated and managed during the different phases of the projects life cycle. By building on the information processing view and the stakeholder salience framework, our study shows how stakeholder communication practices vary among the impersonal, personal, and group modes of communication. We also show how these practices depend on stakeholders’ salience and project life cycle phase. The results indicate that a dynamic approach is required to understanding stakeholder management; different communication practices are required over the projects life cycle, which can be explained by the varying degrees of stakeholder salience.

Institutional explanations: Missing link in operations management? Insights on supplier integration

Purpose While classical operations strategy research argues that manufacturing organizations should be managed in line with the operational strategic priorities, recent studies have brought up potential institutional explanations for adoption of various managerial practices, including supply chain management practices. The key point in the institutional argument is that organizations are especially affected by other organizations; imitation and isomorphism are a critical part of organizational behavior. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the institutional argument in explaining the use of supplier integration mechanisms – one of the focal management practices in today’s organizations. Design/methodology/approach The authors assess empirically the extent to which various economic institutional factors explain the use of supplier integration mechanisms in manufacturing plants with a multi-country and multi-industry survey sample. Findings The results indicate that institutional explanations play a significant role in explaining supplier integration. The findings suggest that further emphasis on building research around the institutional argument in various areas of supply chain and operations management is important. Originality/value As research on supply chain integration – including supplier integration – has focused on its performance implications, more research on the antecedents to integration is needed. This study provides a test of institutional theory as an antecedent to supplier integration.

Creating relational capital through socialization in project alliances

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the understanding of socialization in the context of temporary operations and organizational settings, using project alliance – the most contemporary approach to the management of large and complex projects – as an example. In particular, the paper also assesses how informal and formal socialization mechanisms are used to facilitate relational capital in such a setting. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected by two case studies of complex infrastructure projects in a Northern European city. The analysis focuses on how socialization is managed across organizational interfaces within the alliance organization during the project tendering and development phase to create relational capital. Findings The findings indicate that significant emphasis is put on socialization in project alliances. However, while in the tendering phase both informal and formal socialization mechanisms are used to create relational capital; in the development phase informal socialization mechanisms are associated with higher levels of relational capital and formal socialization mechanisms are used to maintain the level of relational capital. Originality/value While operations and supply chain management research argues that socialization is critical to manage organizational interfaces and to create relational capital in buyer-supplier relationships, research has mainly focused on ongoing operations. This study complements the prior research by developing further insight into socialization in the context of temporary operations and organizational settings; such settings create a unique empirical context, posing different managerial challenges as the results also indicate.

Organizational design change in multinational supply chain organizations

Purpose Managing internal supply chains is becoming increasingly complex, requiring managers to balance diverse needs. As a result, managers continuously face the need to change how they organize their internal supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to examine this phenomenon by addressing why multinational supply chain management organizations (SCMOs) change their designs, as well as how managers respond to pertinent change phenomena using complementary theoretical perspectives. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data, collected from 50 executives within 24 multinational manufacturers, is used to develop an understanding of the organizational design change phenomena. A theory elaboration approach is taken to illustrate how various theoretical perspectives explain organizational design change. Findings This study identifies and elaborates organizational design change phenomena in the context of multinational SCMOs, including internal and external drivers of design change. Managers also discussed key supply chain management capabilities that were developed in order to meet perceived changes in business needs. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to academic understanding of organizational design issues affecting SCMOs. Four theoretical perspectives are elaborated upon to illustrate their applicability for examining SCMO organizational design issues. Practical implications This study provides managerial application of several organizational design change theories by elaborating principles for framing, interpreting, and implementing design change initiatives in internal SCMOs. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to investigate organizational design change in multinational SCMOs. This research highlights the complexity and evolving nature of SCMO organizational design decisions by describing the adaption, integration, and reconfiguration of firm resources and competencies in changing environments.