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The Architecture of Knowledge Organization

Michael Christensen and Thorbjørn Knudsen

in Knowledge Governance: Processes and Perspectives

This chapter introduces a general framework with which individual beliefs can be aggregated into organizational level knowledge. Through examples, it illustrates how the framework lends itself to ... More

This chapter introduces a general framework with which individual beliefs can be aggregated into organizational level knowledge. Through examples, it illustrates how the framework lends itself to analysing simultaneous decision making in committees, such as the UN Security Council. More detailed examples illustrate how our framework can be used to capture sequential decision processes. The chapter considers both flexible decision structures facing a turbulent environment and fixed decision structures facing a stable, but complex task environment. These applications of the chapter's framework illustrate how it can be used to capture some of the most important problems emphasized in the literature on knowledge management.Less

Doing Public Management the Fatalist Way?

Christopher Hood

in The Art of the State: Culture, Rhetoric, and Public Management

In the four chapters of Part II, public management ideas that loosely correspond to each of the four polar world views identified by cultural theory are discussed; here the cultural‐theory framework ... More

In the four chapters of Part II, public management ideas that loosely correspond to each of the four polar world views identified by cultural theory are discussed; here the cultural‐theory framework is mixed with a historical perspective to survey recurring approaches to public management that can be loosely characterized as hierarchist (Ch.. 4), individualist (Ch. 5), egalitarian (Ch. 6), and fatalist (this chapter). Starts by asking whether there can be a fatalist approach to public management—cultural theorists have identified fatalism as a viable way of life, but it does not figure prominently in conventional accounts on the provision of public services; Banfield has stated that in fatalist societies (such as Montegrano) public management will be (only) narrowly bureaucratic and statist because only paid officials will be concerned with public affairs, and the citizenry at large will be cynical about the motives of public officials; in spite of this widespread belief, however, there are likely to be few effective checks on public officials in a fatalist society, and Banfield sees fatalism as a social pathology bound to produce social backwardness and stagnation. Cultural theory is ambiguous on whether fatalism can be a viable basis of organization in the sense that a Montegrano‐type society could survive and reproduce itself over time, nor is it clear from the work of cultural theorists exactly what fatalists’ focus on karma amounts to. The last possibility—that fatalism might link to how‐to‐do‐it ideas about organizational design, as distinct from a view of the world as ineluctably ruled by the fickle goddess of fortune—has had little attention: from conventional cultural‐theory accounts, it would seem the most appropriate role, for fatalist social science in public management would be like that of the chorus in classical Greek theatre—and the second section of the chapter examines such a perspective on public management, looking particularly at one influential strain of ‘new institutionalist’ literature, which portrays the functioning of organizations as a highly unpredictable process, involving eclectic decision‐making unavoidably dependent on chance connections. It then moves on to build on the recipe for contrived randomness, and argues that a fatalist perspective can at least in some sense be taken beyond commentary and criticism into a positive prescription for conducting management and designing organizations to operate on the basis of chance.Less

The Study of Controller Agency

Sten Jönsson

in Accounting, Organizations, and Institutions: Essays in Honour of Anthony Hopwood

This chapter considers the complexity of judgement a controller has to exercise when acting to maintain or re-design accountability structures. It argues that such controller work (as opposed to ... More

This chapter considers the complexity of judgement a controller has to exercise when acting to maintain or re-design accountability structures. It argues that such controller work (as opposed to regular production labour) needs to be done when the situation arises, when the rules of the game are exposed to scrutiny, as it were, and commitments can be mobilized. Three situations to be related to morpho-genesis, morpho-stasis, and a prospect of possible strategic change (where the controller should not intervene) are discussed and methodological conclusions drawn.Less

Knowing When to Redesign

DAVID A. NADLER, michael l. tushman, and mark b. nadler

in Competing by Design: The Power of Organizational Architecture

Looking at the companies cited in this book which underwent organizational reconstruction, we understand that the reasons and circumstances for such redesign vary from case to case. However, it is ... More

Looking at the companies cited in this book which underwent organizational reconstruction, we understand that the reasons and circumstances for such redesign vary from case to case. However, it is common and should be well-known across management that the company will inevitably face further changes and the company should be able to keep up with such modifications. However, some managers rely on the notion that their organizational design could last a longer period of time. As the company's external environment involves several elements, such as economic trends, legislative intervention, technological advances, and other such aspects, the company should be able to determine when to push through with redesign efforts and look at strategic design as a dynamic process.Less

New Organizational Patterns in Banking

Jordi Canals

in Universal Banking: International Comparisons and Theoretical Perspectives

This chapter addresses a new critical issue for banks, particularly the universal banks: their organizational design. In particular, it focuses on multidivisional organizations and the model that has ... More

This chapter addresses a new critical issue for banks, particularly the universal banks: their organizational design. In particular, it focuses on multidivisional organizations and the model that has already been popularized as federated banking, based upon a federal organizational structure. None of the organizational solutions described is ideal for restructuring financial groups and adapting them to the new competitive situation. Each of these solutions could be applied with varying degrees of success depending on the bank group's history, the dominant styles and cultures, the resources available, and the weight of each of its business units.Less

An Organizational Approach to Public Governance: Understanding and Design

Morten Egeberg and Jarle Trondal

in An Organizational Approach to Public Governance: Understanding and Design

This chapter launches a general organizational approach to public governance. It outlines key theoretical dimensions that cut across governance structures and processes horizontally as well as ... More

This chapter launches a general organizational approach to public governance. It outlines key theoretical dimensions that cut across governance structures and processes horizontally as well as vertically, thus paving the way for integrating separate empirical analyses into a coherent theoretical whole. Moreover, the organizational (independent) variables outlined represent classical dimensions in the organization literature that are generic in character. This allows for generalizations across time and space. The chapter also highlights the potential for organizational design that follows from our approach. By building systematic knowledge on how organizational factors shape governance processes on the one hand, and how organizational factors themselves might be deliberately changed on the other, the chapter offers a framework for developing a knowledge base for organizational design.Less

Business Model Innovation and Organizational Design: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

Sunyoung Leih, Greg Linden, and David J. Teece

in Business Model Innovation: The Organizational Dimension

Dynamic capabilities are deeply enmeshed with business model innovation and implementation. They reside partly in the collective learning and culture of the organization as well as in the ... More

Dynamic capabilities are deeply enmeshed with business model innovation and implementation. They reside partly in the collective learning and culture of the organization as well as in the entrepreneurial skill of the top management team. Entrepreneurial managers bear the primary responsibility for recognizing the need for business model change, for adjusting or inventing business models, for orchestrating the necessary assets, and, more generally, for (re)structuring the organization when,needed. The top management team is also responsible for strategy formulation, which is separate from, but related to, dynamic capabilities. The organization’s structure, incentives, and culture can, in turn, be more or less well suited to the recognition of new opportunities and the implementation of new structures that are integral to the dynamic capabilities of the firm. The design of new business models requires attention to balancing customer needs and technological possibilities consistent with an overarching logic of organization.Less

Innovative Business Models for High-tech Entrepreneurial Ventures: The Organizational Design Challenges

Massimo G. Colombo, Ali Mohammadi, and Christina Rossi Lamastra

in Business Model Innovation: The Organizational Dimension

This chapter examines how high-tech entrepreneurial ventures should organize internally to successfully implement innovative business models. A common characteristic of innovative business models by ... More

This chapter examines how high-tech entrepreneurial ventures should organize internally to successfully implement innovative business models. A common characteristic of innovative business models by high-tech entrepreneurial ventures is their dependence on interactions with external third parties, which provides external knowledge to be integrated with internal ones to deliver value to the customers. Accordingly, innovative business models by high-tech entrepreneurial ventures demand an internal organization that smoothly favors these interactions. Specifically, the authors analyze how firms’ structure, decision rights, and human resource management practices should be adapted to the need of absorbing knowledge from the external environments. Heeding a recent call in management literature, their analysis considers organizational design variables both at the individual and firm level.Less

Business Model Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry: The Supporting Role of Organizational Design

Klement Rasmussen and Nicolai Foss

in Business Model Innovation: The Organizational Dimension

This chapter investigates business model innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. The chapter shows how much of the ongoing experimentation with business models in the industry is driven by changes ... More

This chapter investigates business model innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. The chapter shows how much of the ongoing experimentation with business models in the industry is driven by changes related to increasing demands from payers, the increasing role of patients, changing legal requirements, and declining technological opportunity. Based on interviews with LEO Pharma, UCB Pharma, and Novo Nordisk, the chapter distinguishes between three ideal types, namely a traditionalist model (exemplified by Novo Nordisk), the full-blown service-oriented model (UCB Pharma) and the in-between model (LEO Pharma). The chapter illustrates the changes to the organizational design and management processes that accompany the ongoing process of changing business models in these firms.Less

Organizing Data-driven Companies

Henri Schildt

in The Data Imperative: How Digitalization is Reshaping Management, Organizing, and Work

This chapter examines why and how digitalization is pushing organizations to adopt team-based structures, greater transparency, and agile work cultures. I draw attention to a shift in focus from ... More

This chapter examines why and how digitalization is pushing organizations to adopt team-based structures, greater transparency, and agile work cultures. I draw attention to a shift in focus from efficient routines towards greater adaptability, and elaborate the paradoxical effect that digital data has in both eliminating and generating coordination needs within corporations. The chapter introduces six basic approaches to organizing and discusses their relative advantages and disadvantages in leveraging digital technologies. I elaborate how focus on agility has redefined the basis of control in organizations, called into question the prevalent ‘culture of secrecy’ in corporations, and eroded traditional sources of authority. The chapter concludes by discussing how modularity has reshaped the network of relationships around corporations and increased the strategic importance of digital ecosystems and platforms.Less

From Periphery to Core: A Process Model for Embracing Sustainability

Luciana Silvestri and Ranjay Gulati

in Leading Sustainable Change: An Organizational Perspective

There is a growing call for business enterprises to adopt sustainability principles and practices, yet many established organizations continue to struggle in their quest to embrace them. This chapter ... More

There is a growing call for business enterprises to adopt sustainability principles and practices, yet many established organizations continue to struggle in their quest to embrace them. This chapter analyzes how organizations that relegate sustainability to the periphery and those that incorporate it into their core differ in their approaches to organizational identity (how they think about sustainability), strategy (how they plan for sustainability), and design (how they act towards sustainability). Advocating a holistic approach to these three fundamental organizational elements, it presents a process model that shows, along four specific stages, how an established organization can effect change in order to bring sustainability into its core. It illustrates the model through the experience of The Ford Motor Company, a long-standing organization whose efforts to bring sustainability into its core span decades and are still ongoing.Less

From organisations to networks

Margaret Attwood, Mike Pedler, Sue Pritchard, and David Wilkinson

in Leading change: A guide to whole systems working

The whole systems approach differs from what has gone before in two main ways: by combining elements of practice from diverse fields, such as organisational design, strategy management, systems ... More

The whole systems approach differs from what has gone before in two main ways: by combining elements of practice from diverse fields, such as organisational design, strategy management, systems thinking, organisational and community development, and public and social policy; and by working in a new era of rapidly changing, boundaryless, joined-up organisations, networks, and communities of practice in a knowledge economy. This chapter argues that people need to put whole systems development in the context of the search for a new approach to organising and that the managed network is the appropriate organisational idea for ‘holding’ the whole system. It is the next stage beyond change architectures. The discussion also holds that industrial, commercial, and public service organisations are moving to networked forms to gain the advantages of flatness, reach, and flexibility.Less

Introduction: Managing Knowledge Integration across Boundaries

Fredrik Tell, Christian Berggren, Stefano Brusoni, and Andrew Van de Ven

in Managing Knowledge Integration Across Boundaries

In this book, we argue that knowledge specialization, differentiation, and distribution are increasingly important features of the world. New knowledge boundaries are created, which makes managing ... More

In this book, we argue that knowledge specialization, differentiation, and distribution are increasingly important features of the world. New knowledge boundaries are created, which makes managing knowledge integration a key challenge for organizations. This chapter provides an overview of the general problem of knowledge integration across boundaries, the purpose of the book, and the contributions of each chapter. The introduction also presents five themes that connect the findings presented in ensuing chapters: (1) learning about other’s capabilities; (2) using or creating collective knowledge; (3) combining and absorbing knowledge for innovation; (4) organizational design for the management of differentiated knowledge; (5) boundary-spanning individuals. This thematic presentation is followed by brief outlines of each chapter.Less

Conclusion: Models of Global Governance and Accountability

in World Rule: Accountability, Legitimacy, and the Design of Global Governance

This book has argued that the demands of accountability, particularly responsibility and responsiveness, are sometimes incompatible. The empirical observations demonstrate that global governance ... More

This book has argued that the demands of accountability, particularly responsibility and responsiveness, are sometimes incompatible. The empirical observations demonstrate that global governance organizations (GGOs) attempt to manage this tension across four areas of organizational design—structure, rulemaking, adherence, and interest group participation. But unmet expectations are still inevitable, manifested as charges of unaccountable and undemocratic governance. This observation begs the question: do GGOs favor one notion of accountability over another? Is there a coherent explanation for the accountability tendencies of GGOs? The first section of the chapter reviews the “types” defined in the four areas of organizational design and then identifies three GGO models: classical GGOs, cartel GGOs, and symbiotic GGOs. The second section examines the distribution of GGOs across these three types. The final section considers the implications of this study. The findings and observations presented herein complement many existing studies of international organizations, particularly constructivist accounts, and offer an explanation for the structure and processes of GGOs that looks beyond the power of nation-states.Less

Coping with Turbulence

Christopher Ansell and Jarle Trondal

in Governance in Turbulent Times

Turbulence can reinforce existing organizational and institutional patterns (path-dependence), fundamentally disrupt them (punctuated equilibrium), or lead to a pattern of institutional hybridity, ... More

Turbulence can reinforce existing organizational and institutional patterns (path-dependence), fundamentally disrupt them (punctuated equilibrium), or lead to a pattern of institutional hybridity, recombination, and improvisation (institutional syncretism). Summarizing the lessons of the volume, we find that all three patterns are possible, but that institutional syncretism is a particularly prominent mode of adaptation to turbulence. A number of the chapters call attention to the importance of flexibility and improvisation and point to the importance of hybrid and interstitial organizational structures and loose-coupling for coping with the governance challenges posed by turbulence—particularly turbulence of scale. The chapter goes on to explore how jazz bands cope with turbulence. Two observations are highlighted: the degree of turbulence is a matter of degree, not an either/or; and uncertainty and spontaneity are more patterned than assumed.Less