Comparative organizational analysis: An introduction

Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 2009

This initial cohort of analysts saw the intrinsic features-or ''organizational attributes'' (Blau, 1965, p. 326)-constitutive of the ''technical core'' of the organization, such as features related to the organization of the production process (Perrow, 1967) or the structure of allocation of discretion and authority (e.g., Etzioni, 1961), as the royal road to the development of a cogent approach to comparative analysis of organizations. As has been noted by most observers of the field, organizational theory moved from a focus on the ''innards'' of the organization and from a

New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 1988

One cannot ignore differences between organizational worlds. The literature and practice of staff development is diverse and tailored to the unique needs of each group. It is difficult to generalize about what works, even if one is talking about similar organizations. Moreover, as Goldstein (1980, p. 231) notes in his thorough review of training literature, one must distinguish between fads and proved facts. This sourcebook is not sufficiently comprehensive for widespread generalizations. Nevertheless, this chapter revisits key themes identified in the Editor's Notes and brings together the collective wisdom of the contributors to this volume. The overarching question raised is what different organizational worlds have in common and what differences their unique contexts suggest. The Private and PublidNonprofit Sectors One question raised in the Editor's Notes is the degree to which agencies in these two worlds are different. Some agencies outside the private sector are, wholly or in part, also driven by the need for profit. Hospitals are a prime example; their survival depends on innovative V J Marrick (4) Enhnnctnq .%/f Drvrlopnwnl m Divrrr Scllmgs New Dirrctionr for Conitnuing Education. rm P8 9an Francisco Josscy-Ban. Summer 1988 97

Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 2002

Conceptually, the phenomena of interest in many organizational research questions are in fact about changes and processes that unfold in various ways over time. Unfortunately, longitudinal studies that explicitly assess change over time is generally lacking in organizational research and virtually absent in cross-cultural organizational research. The large majority of the literature on cross-cultural measurement in organizational research is focused

Hallinnon tutkimus, 1990

We have been experiencing recently a period of remarkable change in the political, economic and social texture of our world. We witness the pro gress of J!eri�troka ln the USSR and the dismantlmg oITolå.Titarian regimes of the Eastern Bloc nations; we observe the rise of the European Economic Community; we note the rapid industrialization and economic modernization of Japan and Korea; and we watch the ��J.; s of the United States and the United King m s they move from an industrial to a post-lndustrial economic system. Reading the changing headlines during recent months calls to mind the forceful meaning of the ancient Chinese curse: »May you live in interesting times!» 1 focus attention in this paper on some of the ways in which these broad social changes are reflected in and carried on by organizations. 1 first describe some of the relevant changes in organization theory and research -developments that attempt to capture the changing nature of organizational realities. Next, 1 discuss in organizational terms some of the basic changes that are taking place in contemporary societies. Finally, 1 discuss selected central features of organizations that affect their ability to change: features that act as both barriers to and facilitators of change. W.

PREFACE 6 PART ONE 11 THEMES AND PROBLEMS 11 1 12 SOCIETY IN A NETWORK OF ORGANIZATIONS 12 “External society” and “internal society” 15 Subjectivity and social integration 16 Legal authority and modern organizations 18 Managing organizations: the principles of the classical school 21 An organization is modelled on a machine 26 The organization as an agent of civilization 26 Organizational networks and organizations without walls 28 Organizations meet other organizations 29 The notions of “loose coupling” and of the creation of the external environment 30 Networks of inter-organizational relations 32 The network of organizations 34 The organization as a stable form of transaction 35 The organization without walls 37 Organization is a continuous process 38 Further Reading 39 2 41 ORGANIZATIONS AS SOCIAL CONTEXTS 41 Theoretical paradigms and organizations as social contexts 42 Researching organizations and paradigmatic pluralism 45 The study of organizations as social contexts 47 The schools of organizational thought 48 The rational, interactionist, structural and compliance models 51 The perspective of the rational, natural and open system 53 The industrial, bureaucratic and organizational issues 58 The emerging strands of organizational analysis 62 The emerging organizational methodologies 63 Metaphors for organizations 66 Research programmes 69 Paradigms in the study of organizations as social contexts 73 Fragmentation, multiplicity and paradigmatic incommensurability 77 Further Reading 78 3 80 WEAVING THE ORGANIZATION TOGETHER 80 The metaphor of construction 80 The social construction of reality 81 Constructivism and constructionism 82 Organization as hypertext 85 The metaphor of the hypertext 86 Real organization and virtual organization 88 An organization is an artefact 90 The concept of texture of organizing 92 The contextualist world of organizing 93 Action and tacit knowledge 94 The use of the concept of texture of organizing 96 Further reading 99 4 101 THE ETHOS, LOGOS AND PATHOS OF ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE 101 Organizational actors 102 Critical event and subjects 102 Competence and/or productivity 103 The community of practice and community memory 104 Organization and occupational and professional communities 106 The negotiation of rationality and organizational subjects 108 Courses of action and the negotiated order 112 Meaningful action and organizational interaction 113 The organizational order and the structure-in-process 114 Deontological, ontological and aesthetic dimensions 117 Emotions in organizations 118 Aesthetics in organizational life 119 The continuity of organizational phenomena 121 Further reading 122 5 123 THEMATIC CONTINUITIES AND NEW INSIGHTS 123 Thematic continuities 125 Power and the negotiation of the organizational order 125 Alienation and the governance of organizational structures 127 Participation in organizational life 128 Institution and organization 129 Organizational decisions 131 Emerging themes 135 Gendered organizations 135 Organizational space 137 Organizational time 144 The social construction of the study of organizations as social contexts 148 Understanding and/or managing organizations 148 The Anglo-Saxon dominance of organization theory 150 Further reading 152 PART TWO 154 RESEARCH AND METHODS 154 6 155 THE METHODS OF EMPIRICAL ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH 155 The research design 156 Observation of organizational phenomena 159 Structured observation in Mintzberg’s research 159 Immersion and detachment in participant observation 162 Interviews and conversations 165 The structured interview in Lawrence and Lorsch’s research study 167 The multiform character of the in-dept interview 169 The questionnaire 170 Information about organizations in Woodward’s study 171 The opinions of the subjects in Lawrence and Lorsch’s survey 172 The experience of working in organizations 173 The assessment of organizations in the research of Van de Ven and Ferry 175 Simulations of organizational life 176 Simulation and the garbage can decision-making model 177 Archive materials 182 Beliefs, labels and habits in methodological controversies 183 Further reading 186 7 188 THE PERVASIVENESS OF MEASUREMENT 188 The paradoxes of measurement 189 The measures of strong relations among organizational variables 193 Measuring the thoughts of organizational actors 198 The construction of causal maps 199 Aggregate measurement and global measurement 204 Further reading 208 8 210 QUALITATIVE METHODS AND THE COMPUTER 210 Analytical induction and grounded theory 211 Producing text 216 Ordering observations 218 Transcribing conversations 221 Choosing the text units 223 Interpretation as decision-making 227 Further reading 230 REFERENCES 231

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Values, beliefs, traditions, attitudes and behavioural patterns of a group of people together form the culture of that group that differentiates it from other groups. The objective of the research paper is to express the significance of cultural heterogeneity that exists within a nation for investigating national culture in an adequate and more explanatory manner rather than only focusing upon cultural homogeneity. This paper is based on the review of previously available secondary data in the domain of cultural studies. This paper argues that research studies focusing upon the intra-national cultural variations are important to recognize the culture of a country as a whole, and play a dominant role. The presence of heterogeneity in the Indian cultural system shall facilitate in deliberating upon the phenomenon of sub-cultural heterogeneity within a nation appropriately and efficiently enabling future research in the domain for more consistent outcomes. Majority of the crosscultural...

Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 1986

It is popular to talk of the "Confucian Work Ethic" when explaining the successes of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. This is not an accurate impression. The authors of this article found significant differences in management practices-both actual and ideal ~ between Japan and South Korea. Cross-cultural management research creates methodological issues that extend beyond other types of management research. One issue is how to decide when managerial behavior is reflective of culture and when it is not. Negandhi (1975) claims that management practices, behaviours and effectiveness are as much caused by the contextual variables of size, technology, location and market conditions as they are of sociocultural variables. For example, the economic climate of the 1930s in the United States was instrumental for the passage of the Wagner and Morris La Guardia Acts. Both of these laws dictate how managers practice industrial relations, not their culture per se. A second issue stems from commonly assuming that attitudes and values are interchangeable when in fact they are not the same. Attitudes are normative stances regarding how things are in reality, values reflect how reality should or ought to be (Myrdal, 1969). Values are more prospective. For example, the United States is "valued" as a horizontal culture, but in actuality our institutions reflect a much more vertical culture. If we ask managers to tell us whether or not US institutions are, in actuality, vertically or horizontally organized, we are likely to get a different answer than if we ask what type of organization should or ought to exist. Values are most likely to reflect the manager's culture. Hofstede (1983: p. 78) makes the distinction clearly: "... values, not the attitudes, reflect differences in mental programming and national character." Values are also more durable than attitudes (Lusk and Oliver, 1974). England (1967: p. 53) states that "Values are similar to attitudes but are more ingrained, permanent, and stable in nature... 'Value'... is closer to ideology or philosophy than it is to attitudes." Values, then, ought to be the focus of cross-cultural comparative management research primarily because they "become integrated both in personalities and social systems" (Parsons and Shils, 1962: p. 79) and thus influence more directly managerial behaviour. The identification and measurement of cultural values will allow predictions and generalizations to be made that could not be based on the more ephemeral, and less normative attitudes. As comparative management scholars search for both similarities and differences between cultures (Adler, 1983), it may be useful to study not only perceptions about the way things are in a culture but also the way they should or ought to be.

2013

This study aims to investigate the culture bound and culture free propositions within a crosscultural approach. Specifically, the study examines if relationships between context and structure are stable and transcend national differences, and second it examines if certain configuration of structure is preferred in different cultures according to their power distance and uncertainty avoidance orientations. The study first analyzes the structure of twelve Jordanian companies then compares the findings with those reported by Horvath, McMillan, Azumi and Hickson on British, Japanese and Swedish matched samples. Consistent with previous research, the findings confirmed that relationships between context and structure transcend national differences between the four cultures. Yet, the existing structure for companies in Jordan, Japan, Britain and Sweden did not fit well the suggested desired structure in each culture on its power distance and uncertainty avoidance cultural orientations.

Anthropology of Work Review, 1992

International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2001

The main purpose of this study was to cross-validate Hofstede's classification of national cultures. An additional aim was to investigate the relationship between culture as perceived and culture as desired. Over 800 advanced students of economics, business administration and management from 10 countries participated in the study. They gave free descriptions of an organization they knew well and they rated their native companies on Hofstede's dimensions of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity. In addition, they indicated how they would like their native companies to be on the same dimensions. Both the data concerning the free descriptions and the data concerning the ratings of native companies show considerable support for Hofstede's four dimensions. Remarkably, there was hardly a relation between culture as perceived and culture as desired. The latter finding has important implications for the interpretation of the literature on national cultures. #