Open Questions and Emerging Issues in the Theory and Practice of Management

1
Open Questions and Emerging Issues in the Theory
and Practice of Management

• Wayne Smith, Ph.D.
• Department of Management
• CSU Northridge

2
Organizational Technology

• Carr, N. (2003), IT doesnt Matter, Harvard
  Business Review, 81(5), May.
• Information technology (IT) is becoming more
  ubiquitous.
• In general, (many) more people have access to the
  same technologies
• Therefore, the capital of technology is beginning
  to have more similarities than differences with
  other capital-intensive activities, such as
  electricity and railroads (i.e., common carriers)
• Conclusion? IT is increasingly
  operationally-valuable, but decreasingly
  strategically-valuable.
• Play defense (decrease risks) rather the play
  offense (increase rewards)
• This is arguably the most controversial article
  on IT and management is the past ten years.

3
Organizational Productivity

• Zeldes, N. (2009), Infoglut Its the Disease of
  the New Millennium. How do we Treat It?, IEEE
  Spectrum, Oct.
• From plan-driven to interrupt-driven (Mark)
• An interruption occurs approximately every 3
  minutes
• It takes 1 minute to get back to where you were
  for each interruption
• Attention Deficit Trail (Hallowell)
• Interruptions degrade accuracy, judgment,
  creativity, and effective management
• What is quality or creative time?
• Can it be expressly designed into professional
  life?

4
Organizational Complexity

• Birkenshaw, J., and Heywood, S. (2009), Too Big
  to Manage?, Wall Street Journal (MIT special
  section), Oct. 26, p. R3
• Are some companies simply too complex to be run
  effectively?
• Types of Complexity
• Dysfunctional
• Creeps into companies over time, perpetual
  practices
• Designed
• Expecting the benefits of complexity to outweigh
  costs
• Inherent
• The rules that exist when everything else is
  automated
• Imposed
• Largely beyond the control of the organization

5
Organizational Psychology

• Rock, D. (2009), Managing with the Brain in
  Mind, StrategyBusiness, Issue 56. Autumn.
• Neuroscience research is revealing the social
  nature of the high-performance workplace.
• http//www.strategy-business.com/article/09306?gko
  5df7fcidenews2009
• Functional MRI (physiological) leading to a SCARF
  (psychological) model
• Status and its discontents
• A Craving for certainty
• The Autonomy factor
• Relating to relatedness
• Playing for Fairness

6
Organizational Networking

• Nevo, D., Benbasat, I., and Wand, Y. (2009), Who
  Knows What?, Wall Street Journal (MIT special
  section), Oct. 26, p. R3
• Finding in-house experts isnt easy. But most
  companies make it harder than it should be.
• Types of Complexity
• Blogs
• Individual knowledge
• Wikis
• Collaborative knowledge
• Social Networks
• An organic mix of data, information, knowledge,
  and wisdom
• Tagging
• Work experience, currency of knowledge,
  self-reported extent

7
Organizational Efficiency

• Gittell, Jody. (2003), The Southwest Airlines
  Way Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve
  High Performance, New York McGraw-Hill.
• Can an organization have a distinctive set of
  organizational practices?
• Relational Coordination
• Leadership credibility (care about workers)
• Investment in front-line supervision
• Selection and training based on relational
  competence (teams)
• Proactive conflict resolution based on mutual
  understanding
• Efforts to bridge work and family
• Identification and use of boundary spanners
  (operations agents)
• Performance measurement that focuses on processes
  (not blame)
• Maintenance of job flexibility by minimizing work
  rules
• Treatment of Unions as partners, not adversaries
• Cultivation of solid relationships with suppliers
• Can other airlines (or other organizations)
  replicate SouthWests success?