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We integrate insights from organization design, economic game theory, and social psychology to examine the role of prior resource allocation and communication in alleviating behavioral uncertainty arising in interunit coordination settings. We use the context of post-acquisition coordination, focusing on the extent to which routines created under one organizational architecture (i.e., interorganizational alliances) may transfer to another organizational architecture (i.e., internal divisional structures via acquisition of alliance partners). Using a randomized experimental design, we find that prior resource allocation decisions in the absence of prior communication lowers post-acquisition performance due to the development and transference of pre-acquisition stage routines that may be inappropriate post-acquisition. Post-acquisition performance is aided, however, by the formation of noncompetitive routines in the pre-acquisition stage in the presence of communication.

Firms increasingly face competitive pressures related to rapid and continuous adaptation to a complex, dynamic, and highly interconnected global environment. Pressing challenges include keeping pace with shorter product life cycles, incorporating multiple technologies into the design of new products, cocreating products and services with customers and partners, and leveraging the growth of scientific and technical knowledge in many sectors. In response, we observe experimentation with new organization designs that are fundamentally different from existing forms of organizing. We propose that these new designs are based on an actor-oriented architectural scheme composed of three main elements: (1) actors who have the capabilities and values to s elf-organize; (2) commons where the actors accumulate and share resources; and (3) protocols, processes, and infrastructures that enable multi-actor collaboration. We demonstrate the usefulness of the actor-oriented scheme by applying it to organizations drawn from four different sectors: global professional services, open source software development, computer equipment, and national defense. We discuss the implications of the actor-oriented architectural scheme for future research on organizational forms as well as for managers who are involved in designing organizations.

This paper attempts to bridge a gap between organizational economics and strategy research through an analysis of knowledge and communication in organizations. We argue that organizations emerge to achieve the intensive use of the knowledge that is acquired to perform specific tasks and to integrate dispersed knowledge that is embodied in different human minds. The attributes of the tasks undertaken determine the optimal acquisition and distribution of knowledge. Depending on the codifiability of knowledge, different communication modes arise as a coordination mechanism to deepen the division of labor, leverage managerial talent, and exploit the increasing returns to knowledge. Organizational processes can be adapted through codes and culture to facilitate coordination; organizational structure can be designed to complement the limitations of human ability. We stress that organizational process and structure construct the core of organizational capital, which generates rent and sustains organizational growth. From the analysis, we draw implications for the strategic management of knowledge and human resources in organizations.

Product architecture knowledge is typically embedded in the communication patterns of established development organizations. While this enables the development of products using the existing architecture, it hinders the organization's ability to implement novel architectures, especially for complex products. Structured methods addressing this issue are lacking, as previous research has studied complex product development from two separate perspectives: product architecture and organizational structure. Our research integrates these viewpoints with a structured approach to study how design interfaces in the product architecture map onto communication patterns within the development organization. We investigate how organizational and system boundaries, design interface strength, indirect interactions, and system modularity impact the alignment of design interfaces and team interactions. We hypothesize and test how these factors explain the existence of the following cases: (1) known design interfaces not addressed by team interactions, and (2) observed team interactions not predicted by design interfaces. Our results offer important insights to managers dealing with interdependences across organizational and functional boundaries. In particular, we show how boundary effects moderate the impact of design interface strength and indirect team interactions, and are contingent on system modularity. The research uses data collected from a large commercial aircraft engine development process.

This study explores whether, to what extent, and under which conditions modular products are associated with modular organizations (the “mirroring” hypothesis). We analyze the product and organizational architectures of three firms in the air conditioning industry through an original data set of 100 components and supply relationships. Applying a variety of regression methods, we show that, under the condition of product architecture stability at the component level , supplier relations for loosely coupled components are characterized by less information sharing, which implies that the degree of coupling of product components varies directly with the degree of coupling of organizations (the “mirroring” hypothesis). Also, the performance of supply relationships depends on the amount of buyer–supplier information sharing but not on the degree of component modularity, which supports the relational view and confirms that product modularity does not have unambiguous effects on organizational performance. Moreover, the degree of component modularity negatively moderates the impact of buyer–supplier information sharing on supplier-relationship performance, which confirms that component modularity works as an ex ante, embedded substitute for high-powered interorganizational integration mechanisms. Finally, contingent on firms' strategies, organizational structures, and capabilities, we argue that at the firm level , higher product modularity may be associated either with less information sharing with suppliers, which implies that the mirroring effect might hold also at the firm level, or with more information sharing with suppliers, which implies that there may be increasing returns to modularity in design efforts because of interorganizational integration (the “complementarity” hypothesis).

Building theories of organizations is challenging: theories are partial and \"folk\" categories are fuzzy. The commonly used tools--first-order logic and its foundational set theory--are ill-suited for handling these complications. Here, three leading authorities rethink organization theory. Logics of Organization Theory sets forth and applies a new language for theory building based on a nonmonotonic logic and fuzzy set theory. In doing so, not only does it mark a major advance in organizational theory, but it also draws lessons for theory building elsewhere in the social sciences.

Starting from the premise that individuals within an organization are fallible, this paper advances the study of relationships between the organization's decision-making structure and its performance. We offer a general treatment that allows one to analyze the full range of organizational architectures between extreme centralized and decentralized forms (often referred to as hierarchies and polyarchies). Our approach furthermore allows designers to examine the change in the overall reliability of the organizational structure as the number of actors within the organization changes. We provide general proofs that show how decision-making structures can be constructed so they maximize reliability for a given number of agents. Our model can be used directly for a qualitative assessment of decision-making structures. It is thereby useful for assessment of the many complicated hybrid structures that we see in actual decision-making organizations, such as banks, purchasing departments, and military intelligence. An application from a bank illustrates how our framework can be used in practice.

Applying insights from Lefebvre's spatial theory [Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space . Blackwell, Oxford, UK] to an analysis of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs-recently relocated to its new award-winning building-the present study seeks to offer a more comprehensive model of the role of organizational aesthetics (OA) in identity regulation and culture jamming. Our contribution is threefold. (1) At the empirical/methodological level, this study attempts to simultaneously analyze the three Lefebvrian spaces in a single organization, demonstrating negotiations and struggles over interpretations of OA. (2) We analyze aesthetic jamming as a form of intentional and unintentional efforts at collective resistance that not only reveals the aesthetic mechanisms of regulation, but actually uses them as a method of counter-regulation. (3) Whereas most studies in this emerging body of literature focus on the regulation of organization-based identities (bureaucratic and professional), we show how the translation of extraorganizational hierarchies of identities (national, ethnic, and gendered) into the organizational control system is also mediated by OA.

The creation and usage of serious games on virtual reality (VR) and/or interactive platforms for the teaching of architecture, construction, urban planning, and other derived areas, such as security and risk prevention, require design processes, studies, and research that lead to further consolidation expansion. In that sense, this paper presents two main aims developed: the improvement of a virtual navigation system through the results of previous user studies and mixed research (quantitative and qualitative) improved based on the user perception for educational and professional uses. The VR system used is based on Unreal Engine programming of the HTC Vive sensor. This study is related to the GAME4City 3.0 and a broader project focused on gamified visualization and its educational uses in architectural and urban projects. The results reflect great interest, good usability, and high motivation for further usage for all types of users. However, an apparent resistance to deepen its use continues to be perceived in academia. Based on the research results, weak points of educational gamified systems have been identified, and the main differences and needs in user profiles’ function. With these data, progress regarding implementing this kind of system at the teaching and professional levels must be pursued.

Achieving exploitation and exploration enables success, even survival, but raises challenging tensions. Ambidextrous organizations excel at exploiting existing products to enable incremental innovation and at exploring new opportunities to foster more radical innovation, yet related research is limited. Largely conceptual, anecdotal, or single case studies offer architectural or contextual approaches. Architectural ambidexterity proposes dual structures and strategies to differentiate efforts, focusing actors on one or the other form of innovation. In contrast, contextual approaches use behavioral and social means to integrate exploitation and exploration. To develop a more comprehensive model, we sought to learn from five, ambidextrous firms that lead the product design industry. Results offer an alternative framework for examining exploitation-exploration tensions and their management. More specifically, we present nested paradoxes of innovation: strategic intent (profit-breakthroughs), customer orientation (tight-loose coupling), and personal drivers (discipline-passion). Building from innovation and paradox literature, we theorize how integration and differentiation tactics help manage these interwoven paradoxes and fuel virtuous cycles of ambidexterity. Further, managing paradoxes becomes a shared responsibility, not only of top management, but across organizational levels.