Images of Person-Organization Fit: Elements Affecting Employee Organizational Behavior

The purpose of the paper is to build upon the existing literature a new approach to personorganization fit, in particular, employees’ perception of the P-O fit, taking into consideration two main criteria: 1) the level of formalization as a company’s characteristics and 2) an employee’s certainty orientation as a person’s characteristics. The congruence between the situational factor (level of formalization) and personal traits (certainty orientation) influence individual organizational behavior. A two-dimension model illustrated by a four-element matrix is created by the author to present the concept and describe employees’ organizational behaviors. There are four images of P-O fit developed in the paper: 1) a kayak on a stormy ocean 2) ferries on a lake, 3) a cruise ship in a pond and 4) yacht on friendly seas

Trust and Contracting in Agri-Food Hybrid Structures

The paper aims at examining the hypothesis that the influence of trust on contract can be thought of as a dynamic factor of organizational choices in supply chains. The relationship between contract and trust is delineated on the basis of institutional environment, contractual incompleteness, safeguards and restrictive provisions. The interaction between individual and system elements in the formation of trust and its influence in hybrid contracting is considered. According to a New Institutional Economics approach and a theoretical framework is proposed. Empirical evidence is provided by a case study regarding an Italian retailer company establishing hybrid structure with its suppliers. Investments in suppliers selection provide the basis for trust supporting relationships which economize on negotiating and litigation costs.hybrid structures, trust, contract, Agribusiness, Q13, D23,

On the Evolution of Trust, Distrust, and Formal Coordination and Control in Interorganizational Relationships: Towards an Integrative Framework

In this article, we discuss the evolution of trust, distrust, and formal coordination and control in interorganizational relationships. We suggest that the degrees to which managers trust and distrust their partners during initial stages of cooperation leave strong imprints on the development of these relationships in later stages of collaboration. This derives from the impact of trust and distrust on: (1) formal coordination and control; (2) interorganizational performance; and (3) the interpretations that managers attribute to the behavior of their partners. Collectively, our arguments give rise to a conceptual framework, which indicates that there is a high propensity for interorganizational relationships to develop along vicious or virtuous cycles. By integrating and reconciling previous work on the trust-control nexus, and by emphasizing the dynamics associated with it, the article contributes to a more comprehensive and refined understanding of the evolution of interorganizational cooperation.evolution;trust;distrust;formal coordination;interorganizational relationship;formal control

Managing Growth: Best Practices of Family-Owned Businesses

Family-owned businesses represent the majority of business in the United States. As consumers and employees, we are compelled to their sense of trustworthiness that all too often disappears in the business world. Our economy depends on the success of family-owned businesses, but only one third of these organizations successfully transition to the second generation and only one in ten survive to the third generation. While a series of best practices attempt to prescribe solutions their challenges, these practices fail to account for the various types of family-owned businesses. More specifically, many types of family-owned businesses exist as evident by specific transitions in terms of ownership, family and business. Therefore, the study of best practices in family firms must consider the timing of implementation. This study analyzes three family-owned businesses that successfully transitioned from start-up businesses owned by a single controlling owner ready to give up control to an expanding business owned by a sibling partnership with young children. From this analysis of a specific type of family-owned business, six common practices emerged

IT Alignment: Different Firm Types, Different Alignment Configurations

As opposed to the earlier IT-business alignment research where there appears to be a tendency to view realization of alignment through a simple universal approach and in line with the call to examine how the nature of alignment varies across firm types, this study discusses the IT-business alignment dimensions from the five ideal organizational archetypes perspective. The study suggests an integrative framework for IT-business alignment as a function of Mintzberg’s five organizational archetypes. A qualitative case study research methodology is discussed. Enriching the model with the qualitative study and generalizing the results with a quantitative survey study will have important implications for theory and practice

Introducing fuzzy trust for managing belief conflict over semantic web data

Interpreting Semantic Web Data by different human experts can end up in scenarios, where each expert comes up with different and conflicting ideas what a concept can mean and how they relate to other concepts. Software agents that operate on the Semantic Web have to deal with similar scenarios where the interpretation of Semantic Web data that describes the heterogeneous sources becomes contradicting. One such application area of the Semantic Web is ontology mapping where different similarities have to be combined into a more reliable and coherent view, which might easily become unreliable if the conflicting beliefs in similarities are not managed effectively between the different agents. In this paper we propose a solution for managing this conflict by introducing trust between the mapping agents based on the fuzzy voting model

Formalization of the partnering structure for networked businesses

Rapidly changing market demands and increasing competitive pressure cause many businesses implement changes to the way they conduct business. One of these changes is the decision to collaborate with other businesses, forming what we call a 'networked business'. Networked businesses are formed by different organizations working together to reach a common goal. For the participating organizations in a networked business to be able to promptly react to their customers' needs, they must set up as cornerstone a well-defined collaborative partnering structure. In this report we discuss the partnering structure of networked businesses and present a framework for its formalization. Using a case study, we illustrate that existing approaches for value modeling, roles specification, and responsibilities definition can be used successfully if employed in a unifying way to address this structure concept