OperA/ALIVE/OperettA

Comprehensive models for organizations must, on the one hand, be able to specify global goals and requirements but, on the other hand, cannot assume that particular actors will always act according to the needs and expectations of the system design. Concepts as organizational rules (Zambonelli 2002), norms and institutions (Dignum and Dignum 2001; Esteva et al. 2002), and social structures (Parunak and Odell 2002) arise from the idea that the effective engineering of organizations needs high-level, actor-independent concepts and abstractions that explicitly define the organization in which agents live (Zambonelli 2002).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Work Teams

Work teams are composed of two or more individuals; who exist to perform organizationally relevant tasks; share one or more common goals; interact socially; exhibit interdependencies in task workflows, goals, and/or outcomes; maintain and manage boundaries; and are embedded in a broader organizational context that sets boundaries, constrains the team, and influences exchanges with other units in the organization. Work team effectiveness is enabled by team processes that combine individual efforts into a collective product

A Theoretical Exploration of Firms\u27 Decisions About Flexible Benefits Plans

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of current theories for organizations\u27 decisions about employee benefits, an area that has traditionally received little attention from researchers in the field of human resource management. Drawing on organizational and economic theories, we offer alternative explanations for observed patterns in the adoption and design of flexible benefits plans. By critically analyzing current theories in the context of flexible benefits plans, we hope to gain insights not only into the factors that may determine organizations\u27 benefits decisions, but also into the strengths and weaknesses of the theories themselves. We find that the conflicts, overlaps and limitations inherent in the theories as applied to benefits issues are substantial. The implications for future research are discussed

The Diffusion of Human Resource Innovations: The Case of Flexible Benefits Plans

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of current theories for organizations\u27 decisions about employee benefits. Drawing on organizational and economic theories, we offer alternative explanations for patterns in the adoption and design of flexible benefits plans. An integrated model of firms\u27 flex plan decisions is presented

A critical rationalist approach to organizational learning: testing the theories held by managers

The common wisdom is that Popper's critical rationalism, a method aimed at knowledge validation through falsification of theories, is inadequate for managers in organizations. This study falsifies this argument in three phases: first, it specifies the obstructers that prevent the method from being employed; second, the critical rationalist method is adapted for strategic management purposes; last, the method and the hypotheses are tested via action research. Conclusions are that once the obstructers are omitted the method is applicable and effective

Evaluation Research and Institutional Pressures: Challenges in Public-Nonprofit Contracting

This article examines the connection between program evaluation research and decision-making by public managers. Drawing on neo-institutional theory, a framework is presented for diagnosing the pressures and conditions that lead alternatively toward or away the rational use of evaluation research. Three cases of public-nonprofit contracting for the delivery of major programs are presented to clarify the way coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures interfere with a sound connection being made between research and implementation. The article concludes by considering how public managers can respond to the isomorphic pressures in their environment that make it hard to act on data relating to program performance.This publication is Hauser Center Working Paper No. 23. The Hauser Center Working Paper Series was launched during the summer of 2000. The Series enables the Hauser Center to share with a broad audience important works-in-progress written by Hauser Center scholars and researchers

Commercial heads, social hearts? Organizational changes and effects of civil society organizations becoming more business-like: a literature review

A growing body of literature points at the increasing hybridization of civil society organizations (CSOs) by incorporating entrepreneurial practices, values and ideas, but also focuses on the presumed risks of non-profits becoming more ‘business-like’. The central question to this debate is whether non-profit organizations are able to adopt for-profit practices and yet perform their social mission. Touching upon the larger issue of welfare governance, the hybridization of civil society organizations is a rather politicised issue drawing both public and academic criticism ranging from cautious warnings to wholehearted opposition. However, in this – often normative – discussion, the impact of becoming business-like on the organizational level tends to be overlooked. The distinction between non-profit and business-like concepts are only clearly distinguished in terms of goals, i.e. on the level of mission and strategy, in contrast to governance arrangements and management practices. Although much of the non-profit management literature aims to support non-profit managers, research on how ‘becoming business-like’ is practically implemented in the non-profit context as well as the perceived effects is fragmentary of nature and understudied. A more fine-grained analysis is further complicated by a multitude of overlapping yet distinct concepts. Based on a systematic study of the international literature, this paper addresses this lacuna by mapping the internal changes and effects as a result of a more ‘business-like’ manner of organization within non-profits over the last 25 years as well as by providing a clear conceptual outline. The focus is on the (re-)definition of civil society organizations’ missions and strategies, on changing governance arrangements and shifting management practice

An Institutional Analysis of Cost Accounting Practices in the Spanish Eighteenth Century

A growing body of literature (Johnson, 1972; Tyson, 1990; Fleischman and Parker, 1990 and 1991; Edwards and Newell, 1991 and Fleischman et al., 1996) has evidenced that sophisticated costing techniques were used in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution for efficiency reasons. However, some scholars have questioned the role of efficiency (Hoskin and Macve, 1988; Miller, 1994, Carmona et al., 1997, 1998 and 2002 and Gutiérrez et al., 2005) and have suggested institutional explanations for the development of cost accounting. The purpose of this research is to extend this institutional explanation of accounting spreading in the second half of the 18th century, Enlightenment Century Spain. With this aim, this work explores the changes that took place in six organizations depended of the Crown. The study reveals the importance of the role played by a group of managers belonging to the Spanish Enlightenment Movement.Institutional Analysis, Cost Accounting, Spanish Eighteenth Century.