Contributions published at Organization and Management (David Seidl)

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The formation of organizational routines is crucial for organizational survival and for building competitive advantage. Yet, the question of how routines are formed has been treated rather cursorily in the literature. While established routines are relatively autonomous, setting up new ones often entails considerable coordination. This requires the use of talk, a dimension that has been neglected by the routines literature so far. Based on the study of six routines in a start-up company, this paper explores how talk influences the formation of organizational routines. Our study identifies three distinct modes of talk and, in tracing them over time, documents cyclical patterns of talk. In drawing on practice theory, we suggest that the three modes of talk offer different degrees of awareness and reflection, thereby restricting or opening up discussions about the routine. A breakdown in the transition from one mode of talk to the other may result in a failure of routine formation.

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Based on a longitudinal case study approach, this paper shows that the legitimation processes of technology diffusion in regulated environments is subjected to distinct power struggles manifested in different framing contests when several competing technological frames are crafted, are contradictory and attempt at capturing the same resources. We show that technology framing contests increase ambiguity which may in turn spark the need to rely on technology testing in order to bring a resolution of the debate, to lower ambiguity and to provide legitimacy to the purpose and benefits of a technology. Furthermore, we show that when framing contests over diffusion cannot be resolved through legitimated means, institution testing may come into play. This is likely to occur when the cultural-cognitive legitimacy of a technology has acquired sufficient force to trump regulatory legitimacy.

Die Relevanz von Interaktion, Kommunikation und unsichtbaren, sozialen Beziehungen im Unternehmensalltag ist seit geraumer Zeit bekannt. Mit der sozialen Netzwerkanalyse verfügt die Wissenschaft über eine elaborierte Methode zur Analyse solcher Phänomene. Trotz ihrer weiten Verbreitung in der Wissenschaft und ihres breiten praktischen Anwendungspotenzials kommt der Netzwerkanalyse in der Praxis bisher jedoch lediglich ein Pionierstatus zu. Ein wesentlicher Grund dafür ist, dass es bisher nicht ausreichend gelungen ist, diese quantitative Analysemethode mit den für Praktiker relevanten qualitativen, einzelfallspezifischen Aspekten von Problemen zu kombinieren. Im Rahmen eines mehrjährigen, fallstudienbasierten Forschungsprojektes haben wir ein Verfahren entwickelt, welches eine solche Kombination ermöglicht. In diesem Artikel stellen wir das Verfahren vor und illustrieren seine Stärken und Schwächen anhand zweier konkreter Fallbeispiele.

This paper suggests that when the phenomenon of standards and standardization is examined from the perspective of organization studies, three aspects stand out: the standardization of organizations, standardization by organizations and standardization as (a form of) organization. Following a comprehensive overview of existing research in these three areas, we argue that the dynamic aspects of standardization are under-represented in the scholarly discourse. Furthermore, we identify the main types of tension associated with standardization and the dynamics they generate in each of those three areas, and show that, while standards and standardization are typically associated with stability and sameness, they are essentially a dynamic phenomenon. The paper highlights the contributions of this special issue to the topic of standards as a dynamic phenomenon in organization studies and makes suggestions for future research.

Over the last decades, the idea that communication constitutes organizations (CCO) has been gaining considerable momentum in organization studies. The CCO perspective provides new insights into key organizational issues, such as the relation between stability and change, between micro-level and macro-level phenomena, or between emergence and control. However, despite various theoretical advancements, the CCO perspective’s range of methodologies is still limited to analyzing local communication episodes, rather than studying organizations as broader networks of communication episodes. In this paper, we present a new methodological approach to the study of the relation between organization and communication, based on network analysis. Following a discussion of existing network approaches, we incorporate the fundamental assumptions of the CCO perspective into a methodology that places communication at the center of network analysis by turning the prevalent network perspective inside out, so that the vertices of the network represent communication episodes and the edges represent individuals. We illustrate our methodology with an empirical case study, in which we examine the structures and dynamics of an actual organization as a network of communication episodes.

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social practice this paper develops a novel approach to the study of CSR. According to this approach, pro-social activities are conceptualized as social practices that are employed by individual managers in their personal struggles for social power. Whether such practices are enacted or not depends on the (1) particular features of the social field in which the managers are embedded, (2) the individual managers’ socially shaped dispositions and (3) their respective stock of different forms of capital. By combing these three concepts the Bourdieusian approach provides a particularly fruitful theoretical lens on CSR phenomena, not least as this allows reconciling seemingly competing conceptualizations in the existing CSR literature such as economic vs. non-economic motivation as drivers of CSR activity, micro- vs. macro-level explanations and voluntaristic vs. deterministic views of managers’ behaviors.

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Effective leadership has been gaining significance in organizations. However, following a review of literature on the leader-member exchange, the lack of a comprehensive model of how new leaders build strong relationships with members, is discussed. Firstly, most studies of leader-member exchange theory have focused primarily on variables of the relationship, rather than on how strong relationships evolve. Secondly, the few proposed processual models are still general and/or focus on an particular aspect. In addressing these problems, a processual model of leadership-making is proposed. This model indicates that the new leader should offer subordinates opportunities to develop strong relationships. In order to gain trust among members so that they accept this offer, the leader should exhibit trustworthy actions, especially in the first and second stage of the process. This integrated model provides insights into the dynamics of leader-members relationships. Implications for practice and propositions for future research are also suggested.

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During the last three decades, scholars from communication studies, political science, sociology, cultural anthropology and management science have studied the characteristics and dynamics of meetings from different perspectives. This has resulted in a large, though very fragmented, body of knowledge about meetings and their different functions in the organization. So far, however, this knowledge has not been systematically related to the strategy process. The purpose of this review is to organize the different literatures by identifying the meeting functions (coordination, cognitive, political, symbolic and social) as well as the meeting practices (initiation, conduct and termination practices) and by outlining the impact of meetings on the strategy process. This results in an integrative framework which synthesizes the literature and which serves as a guide for future research.

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CEO succession is one of the most important landmarks in the life of an organization. The post-succession period, following the appointment of a new CEO, is critical for an organization as both it and the new CEO have to adjust to each other in order to insure organizational performance. By reviewing the literature, this paper identifies the fundamental processes, the contextual factors and the outcomes which shape the post-CEO-succession period. Our review suggests that new CEOs have to manage both a strategic change process and a leader integration process during this period. We conclude this paper by identifying avenues of future research.

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