Article Abstracts

Articles

Disconnects and Consequences in Organization Theory?
C. R. Hinings and Royston Greenwood - University of Alberta

In this ASQ Forum essay, Hinings and Greenwood look back over the body of work on organizations to trace the directions that scholars have taken in answering the early defining question in the field, What are the consequences of the existence of organizations? They consider the question in terms of how organizations affect privilege and disadvantage in society and how privilege and advantage are distributed in organizations. How the consequences of organizations are studied, they propose, has been affected by organization studies' move out of the disciplines (especially sociology) and into business schools, as well as by declining attention to history. The essay concludes with implications for research agendas that consider power and privilege.

Bartunek uses the corporate scandals of 2002 as a springboard to comment on Hinings and Greenwood's view that business schools may not be the best place for organizational scholarship. Beginning with ethics as taught in business school, possible conflicts of interest for professors, and the gap between what researchers produce and what practitioners can use, she discusses three questions that contribute to understanding the proper place of organization studies: (1) Who are the appropriate stakeholders of the research? (2) What are the implied relationships between scholars and stakeholders? and (3) How is research likely to have an impact? The commentary concludes with cautious optimism that business school professors can produce relevant scholarship that speaks to the issues of power and the societal impacts of organizations that concern Hinings and Greenwood.

Clegg's commentary builds on Hinings and Greenwood's distinction between asking questions from a disciplinary sociological perspective, in which the focus is on control and its consequences, or from a business perspective, with a focus on the organizational design of efficient and effective solutions to the problems of business owners. He discusses the Holocaust, ignored by most organization scholars, as an example of organizational efficiency resulting in the worst in human action and asks where in organization theory focused on the design of effective solutions does one find a concern with questions of power and responsibility? He traces a genealogy of moral questions in the study of organizations and reviews theories of organizations and power outside mainstream organization studies, comparing North American scholarship and training with work and academic work and training elsewhere. Concluding thoughts center on the current climate of both business and scholarship and possibilities for change.

The Proper Place of Organizational Scholarship: A Comment on Hinings and Greenwood
Jean M. Bartunek - Boston College

"Lives in the Balance": A Comment on Hinings and Greenwood's "Disconnects and Consequences in Organization Theory?"
Stewart R. Clegg - University of Technology, Sydney Australia

Improvisation and the Logic of Exchange in Socially Embedded Transactions
Kathleen L. McGinn - Harvard University
Angela T. Keros - Goldman Sachs, New York

We use a sensemaking lens to illuminate the micro-processes underlying socially embedded transactions, investigating how social ties affect the logic of exchange governing the transaction. In transcripts of 87 two-party negotiations, we find that most pairs quickly coordinate a shared logic of exchange and improvise in accord with its implied rules throughout their interaction. The improvisations take the form of opening up, working together, or haggling. Negotiators turn to three dynamic processes[m]trust testing, process clarification, and emotional punctuation[m]when they have difficulty moving the interaction toward a coherent, mutually agreed upon improvisation. We examine in detail the few asymmetric negotiations, which do not involve a shared logic of exchange. Social ties ease coordination within the negotiation and nearly eliminate asymmetry. We explore how an understanding of the micro-processes underlying negotiations reveals the underpinnings of market exchange.

A Genealogical Approach to Organizational Life Chances: The Parent-Progeny Transfer among Silicon Valley Law Firms, 1946-1996
Damon J. Phillips

Data on Silicon Valley law firms over a 50-year period were used to study the genealogy of organizational populations and its consequences for organizational life chances when a member of an existing firm leaves to found a new firm. Hypotheses and subsequent analysis suggest that the transfer of resources and routines between a parent organization and its progeny decreases life chances for the parent firm and increases life chances for the progeny. The results are contingent on the founder's previous position in the parent firm and time since the parenting event. In addition, I find that progeny have lower life chances when the parent is a failing firm, when there are multiple parents, and when the founder is a former senior partner of a large law firm.

Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder: The Impact of Organizational Identification, Identity, and Image on the Cooperative Behaviors of Physicians
Janet M. Dukerich - University of Texas at Austin
Brian R. Golden - University of Toronto, Canada
Stephen M. Shortell - University of California at Berkeley

We use an established model of organizational identification to try to understand the voluntary cooperative behavior of professionals in organizations. We examined the relationships among physicians' assessments of the attractiveness of a health care system's perceived identity and construed external image, strength of system identification, and cooperative behaviors. We surveyed 1,504 physicians affiliated with three health care systems and collected follow-up data from 285 physicians a year later. Attractiveness of perceived identity and construed external image were positively related to physicians' identification with the system, which in turn was positively related to cooperative behavior. Extensions to the model of organizational identification are suggested.

The Effects of Contracts on Interpersonal Trust
Deepak Malhotra - Harvard University
J. Keith Murnighan - Northwestern University

This paper uses two laboratory experiments to investigate the effects of contracts on interpersonal trust. We predict that the use of binding contracts to promote or mandate cooperation will lead interacting parties to attribute others' cooperation to the constraints imposed by the contract rather to the individuals themselves, thus reducing the likelihood of trust developing. We also predict that, although non-binding contracts may not generate as much initial cooperation as binding contracts, they will generate personal rather than situational attributions for any cooperation that results and will therefore not interfere with trust development. Two experiments investigated the effects of the use and removal of binding and non-binding contracts. When binding contracts that were previously allowed were no longer allowed or no longer chosen, trust dropped significantly. In contrast, non-binding contracts led to considerable cooperation, and their removal reduced trust less than removing binding contracts. Behavioral and perceptual data suggest that non-binding contracts lead to personal attributions for cooperation and thus may provide an optimal basis for building interpersonal trust in a variety of situations.