1,721,139 research outputs found
Entrepreneurship at the margins of society : founding dynamics in gray (Sex shops) and black markets (Mafia)
No full textInstitutional theory and organizational ecology have long proposed alternative (albeit not always contradictory) processes to interpret founding and creation of a novel organizational form. Much of the debate has dealt with the issue of how legitimation processes shape such important events or acts. Empirical research on both sides is rich with interesting results, while much of the controversy regards how legitimation is empirically captured and the ways it unfolds over time.
Recently, within organization ecology this specific issue has received increasing attention in the search for a theory of forms and identities. A central piece of the proposed theory links identities to specific audiences or constituencies, both internal and external, which act by attributing legitimation to novel constructions. The new formulation has originated different efforts aimed at better understanding how audiences develop and how they are shaped by wider social movements. Existing research has mainly been dealing with organizations (and forms), which appear to be legitimate (albeit not legitimated) from their inception, benefiting from the generalized acceptance of business organizations in modern societies. Limited attention has been devoted to analyzing contrasted forms, i.e. organized forms of action which act at the border or outside the border of established economic and social action. I contend that it is by analyzing these extreme cases that a clearer interpretation of legitimacy and legitimation processes can be achieved. By analyzing the evolution and the principal dynamics of three populations that are operating in gray and black market, I propose a critique to existing theories of legitimacy
Honey, I shrunk the organization: in search of organizational genetics
Full text link“What makes an organization unique?” has been a central question for research and practice on competitive advantage. Being unique is associated to the ability to attract and convince customers,
investors, and employees, thereby easing the process of collection of resources needed to operate, and augmenting the value of products, services, and opportunities provided. At the same time, being unique makes it harder for competitors to imitate the organization, and extends the advantage in time. Uniqueness does not come without a less positive side, because it can constrain the organization, which has to maintain continuity with the perceptions of all the different audiences, thereby making radical change harder. The origins of uniqueness are a central theme for other fields of research, unrelated to management. In psychology, uniqueness lays in the underlying, and unobservable structure of personality. In chemistry and physics, uniqueness of elements is attributed to the very specific structure of their inner components. In evolutionary biology, the common thread is to attribute uniqueness to some characteristic that endows an organism, i.e. genes. All these metaphors have been explored in management research. However, one of the most fruitful appears to be the analogy with evolutionary biology, which constitutes the leading theme of the overall Genor research project. This paper provides a literature review of organizational theory from this point of observation. Research in organization theory is characterized by the problem of defining the adequate level of
analysis. Different perspectives and theories adopt different levels of analysis, and multi-level theory and research is rather uncommon. Differently from other areas of scientific inquiry (like for example physics, chemistry, and biology) organization theory has not addressed explicitly the problem of searching for the smallest common unit of analysis. The widespread use of metaphors developed in other scientific domains enriched organization theory with perspectives that explicitly or implicitly affirm the existence of units of analysis beyond the individual. Among them, perspectives related to the biological metaphor play a powerful role. These perspectives adopt evolutionary mechanisms, consider the interplay between time, inertia, and change, and provide analogies to the concepts of genes (or as more broadly defined by Richard Dawkins, memes). The goal of this paper is to look at existing theories that adopt an analogy to genetics as part of a new field of inquiry that we propose to denominate Organizational genetics. After reviewing how existing theories could be related to this field, we develop an initial theoretical framework that will need to be further developed
The difficult paths to legitimacy of social enterprises in Italy
No full textThe creation of new forms of organizations is one of the most often neglected processes through which social movements have an impact on society. The evolution of a form, which has acquired the naming of ‘social enterprise’ marks an important change brought about by active social movements that took place throughout Europe in the latter part of the twentieth century. In this paper, I investigate the evolution of social enterprises in Italy, one of the most active countries in Europe in the realm of non-profit organizations, and propose an original description of the process of legitimation of a new organizational form that departs from prevalent descriptions in evolutionary organizational theory
Freedom Management : How leaders can stay afloat in the sea of social connections
No full textModern management theory has been established on the ashes of Taylorism, emphasizing control over accountability, conformity over uniqueness, and constraint over freedom. Leadership and management theories and the practical approaches of this age of society can be understood as an ongoing struggle to overcome the boundaries of such a concept of organizations and society. Also latter movements, like empowerment or the competence based waves of change have left what we do in organizations largely unscathed.
Organizations today are often bereft of a strong leadership function and the result is a decline in overall engagement. Luca Solari contends that this is because the change ahead requires a complete reshuffling of our conceptions of what it means to run an organization, and this will not come without pain for those in charge of managing, who are unable to shift their roles. It comes as no surprise that the complex pattern of preexisting interests acts like a powerful shield against this change within government, society, and business organizations alike. This book provides an essential argument as to why contemporary organizations need to change and offers practical guidance on how to overcome the waves, while helping your organization to thrive in this new era of management
Le scelte di gestione e di sviluppo del personale
No full textIl capitolo analizza le peculiarità dei sistemi di gestione delle risorse umane nel credito cooperativo, proponendo una chiave di lettura innovativ
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