Communication network dynamics in a large organizational hierarchy

Most businesses impose a supervisory hierarchy on employees to facilitate management, decision-making, and collaboration. In contrast, routine inter-employee communication patterns within workplaces tend to emerge more naturally, as a consequence of both supervisory relationships and the needs of the organization. Scholars of organizational management have proposed theories relating organizational trees to communication dynamics and measures of business performance. Separately, network scientists have studied the topological structure of communication patterns in different types of organizations. However, the nature of the relationship between a formal organizational structure and emergent communications between employees remains unclear. In this paper, we study associations between organizational hierarchy and communication dynamics among approximately 200,000 employees of a large software company in May 2019. We propose new measures of communication reciprocity and new shortest-path distances for trees to characterize the frequency of messages passed up, down, and across the organizational hierarchy. By dividing the organization into 88 teams -- organizational trees rooted at the senior leadership level -- we identify distinct communication network structures within and between teams. These structures are related to the function of these teams within the company, including sales, marketing, engineering, and research. We discuss the relationship of routine employee communication patterns to supervisory hierarchies in this company, and empirically evaluate several theories of organizational management and performance

Perceptions of Collaborative Process in a Professional Learning Focused University-Community-School Collaboration

The current study explored the collaborative processes present in a collaboration between an urban university in the Southeast United States, a state-funded educational support agency, and several urban and suburban school districts served by the state agency. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of the collaboration and relevant practices, perceptions were obtained from university, community agency, and K-12 school representatives through 12 individual and 2 group interviews. Data were collected and analyzed using Moustakas’s (1994) transcendental phenomenology methodology. Findings indicated that participants perceived collaborative processes in the areas of collaborative structure, communication practices, characteristics of collaborators and organizations, and group dynamics. Participants also described outcomes of the collaboration in the areas of general impact on professional learning participants, learning, evolution of behaviors and beliefs, relationship development, emotional impact, sustainability, and generalizability. Comparison of the current results to Hord’s (1986) model of inter-organizational collaboration and the literature on inter-organizational collaboration revealed strong support for a synthesis model of inter-organizational collaboration. Furthermore, the findings suggest implications for practice in the areas of goal alignment, communication, perceptions of collaborative involvement, system entry and assimilation, and personal characteristics

Virtual R&D teams in small and medium enterprises: a literature review

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the driving engine behind economic growth. While SMEs play a critical role in generating employment and supporting trade, they face numerous challenges, the prominent among them are the need to respond to fasting time-to-market, low-cost and rapid solutions to complex organizational problems. Towards that end, research and development (R & D) aspect deserves particular attention to promote and facilitate the operations of SMEs. Virtual R & D team could be a viable option. However, literature shows that virtual R & D teaming in SMEs is still at its infancy. This article provides a comprehensive literature review on different aspects of virtual R & D teams collected from the reputed publications. The purpose of the state-of-the-art literature review is to provide an overview on the structure and dynamics of R & D collaboration in SMEs. Specifying the foundation and importance of virtual teams, the relationship between virtual R & D team and SMEs has been examined. It concludes with the identification of the gaps in the existing literature's and calls for future research. It is argued that setting-up an infrastructure for virtual R & D team in SMEs still requires a large amount of engineering efforts and deserves consideration at top level management

Virtual R & D teams in small and medium enterprises: A literature review

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the driving engine behind economic growth. While SMEs play a critical role in generating employment and supporting trade, they face numerous challenges, the prominent among them are the need to respond to fasting time-to-market, low-cost and rapid solutions to complex organizational problems. Towards that end, research and development (R & D) aspect deserves particular attention to promote and facilitate the operations of SMEs. Virtual R & D team could be a viable option. However, literature shows that virtual R & D teaming in SMEs is still at its infancy. This article provides a comprehensive literature review on different aspects of virtual R & D teams collected from the reputed publications. The purpose of the state-of-the-art literature review is to provide an overview on the structure and dynamics of R & D collaboration in SMEs. Specifying the foundation and importance of virtual teams, the relationship between virtual R & D team and SMEs has been examined. It concludes with the identification of the gaps in the existing literature's and calls for future research. It is argued that setting-up an infrastructure for virtual R & D team in SMEs still requires a large amount of engineering efforts and deserves consideration at top level management.Virtual teams, small and medium enterprises, literature review

Whose Week Is It Anyways?: A Case Study of Collaboration Between Student Affairs and Student Volunteers

Student Affairs organizations are becoming the heartbeat of campus as the complex issues facing universities encourage Student Affairs professionals to seek out strategies to ensure they meet their purpose within their institution. In order to support the mission of the institution and serve the educational and personal needs of students, Student Affairs staff must collaborate with student volunteers to facilitate the delivery of services and programs. This study explored the nature of the relationship and the experiences of collaboration between Student Affairs staff and student volunteers in the context of Orientation. Through interviews with staff and student volunteers, the findings from this research suggest that while Federation Orientation Committee (FOC) members (student volunteers) and their Orientation Advisors (staff) experienced a close and collaborative relationship, there were several organizational factors such as structure and leadership that impacted their experience of collaboration, ultimately influencing student volunteer-management relationships. The findings also reveal the dynamics of collaboration, including factors that influence how well the staff and student volunteers work together and how they experience meaning through their interactions. This study suggests that organizational structure plays a large role between Student Affairs staff and student volunteers. Centralized and decentralized structures existed between different groups, and their ability to collaborate was dependent on how well the staff and student volunteers communicated and trusted each other. Although organizational structures was not expected to play such a role in this study initially, further research on how these structures impact collaboration, especially on the student experience outside of the classroom, would be of value to university administrators, Student Affairs professionals, and future student volunteers

Evolution of Supply Chain Collaboration: Implications for the Role of Knowledge

Increasingly, research across many disciplines has recognized the shortcomings of the traditional “integration prescription” for inter-organizational knowledge management. This research conducts several simulation experiments to study the effects of different rates of product change, different demand environments, and different economies of scale on the level of integration between firms at different levels in the supply chain. The underlying paradigm shifts from a static, steady state view to a dynamic, complex adaptive systems and knowledge-based view of supply chain networks. Several research propositions are presented that use the role of knowledge in the supply chain to provide predictive power for how supply chain collaborations or integration should evolve. Suggestions and implications are suggested for managerial and research purposes

Development of a collaborative supply chain model

This conference paper discusses the development of a collaborative supply chain model. It was presented at the 17th international conference of the European operations management association in 2010

Trust and control interrelations: New perspectives on the trust control nexus

This article is the post-print version of the published article that may be accessed at the link below. Copyright @ 2007 Sage Publications.This article introduces the special issue on New Perspectives on the Trust-Control Nexus in Organizational Relations. Trust and control are interlinked processes commonly seen as key to reach effectiveness in inter- and intraorganizational relations. The relation between trust and control is, however, a complex one, and research into this relation has given rise to various and contradictory interpretations of how trust and control relate. A well-known discussion is directed at whether trust and control are better conceived as substitutes, or as complementary mechanisms of governance. The articles in this special issue bring the discussion on the relationship between both concepts a step further by identifying common factors, distinctive mechanisms, and key implications relevant for theory building and empirical research. By studying trust and control through different perspectives and at different levels of analysis, the articles provide new theoretical insights and empirical evidence on the foundations of the trust-control interrelations