What does it take for organizations to support people working together effectively? What does it mean for an organization to be effective? Does successful collaboration lead to more effective organizations? This study explored these questions both theoretically and empirically in an effort to help organizations understand the most important aspects to consider when attempting to achieve collaboration for organization success. The purpose of this study was to fill some of the gaps in the research by taking a broad, holistic approach to exploring the context required to support collaboration at levels of organizations broader than the team and exploring the links between organization support of collaboration and organization effectiveness. In preparation for the current study, the Organization Support of Collaboration model was developed to identify the broad organization design elements that are required to support collaboration. The Organization Effectiveness model was created to provide a holistic view of what it takes for an organization to be considered effective. The present study empirically validated these models and explored the links between them. Data was collected via a web-based questionnaire administered to a broad sample of individuals who work in organizations. Results supported a model of Organization Support of Collaboration with six factors (Connect to the Environment, Craft a Culture of Collaboration, Understand Work Processes, Design Using an Array of Structures, Build Shared Leadership, and Align Support Systems) and a model of Organization Effectiveness with six factors (Performance, Employee Involvement, Flexibility, Customer Satisfaction, New Customer Development, and Treatment of People). Connect to the Environment predicted five of the six Organization Effectiveness factors, and Craft a Culture of Collaboration predicted four of the six, notably with a connection to Performance. For the predicted relationships between the models, nine hypotheses were supported, six were not supported, and three unexpected significant relationships were found. Implications for practice and future directions are recommended.

Working conditions are increasingly unpredictable, complex, and ungovernable creating severe health risks for employees and negative economic consequences for both corporations and society. Considering the growth in understanding human psychology and sociology, and the progression in measuring working conditions and health, this phenomenon is most perplexing. The enigma has yielded interest in a field known as sustainable work systems, where the challenge is to organize work in a manner that is both beneficial for the business and for its employees. In an attempt to shed light on the growing issue, this dissertation outlines the features of a model intended to capture conditions of organization where learning is of paramount importance, and where organization is conceptualised using interaction as the foundation. One central question concerns which forms of interactions and co-operations replace traditional structures in organizations. Another relevant question, linked to the former, concerns the way in which these structures shape conditions of organization, learning, efficiency, and effectiveness. A combination of research methods has been employed to provide an enhanced picture of this inquiry. Four corporate sub-units have been subject to a cross-sectional study. These sub-units were chosen by middle managers of a corporation because they excelled in an organizational reform that was initiated two years prior. During 2004, a survey was constructed and distributed to all employees in these four sub-units. Data regarding the sub-units’ efficiency and effectiveness has been collected; and, interviews with managers leading the organizational change have been conducted. The two papers included in this thesis disclose four distinctly different approaches to organizational design. All four sub-units have separate conceptions of function and organization, although the guiding principles prescribed by top-management were identical for each of the four first-line managers who were leading the change. Three of the four sub-units have made more pervasive change efforts, and have a higher degree of learning and development, efficiency and effectiveness. The results of this thesis suggest that interaction serves as a vehicle for shaping organizational conditions and outcomes. As a consequence of the chosen design, interaction varied between sub-units, thus influencing conditions of organization, learning, efficiency and effectiveness. / QC 20100616

One issue that has been neglected and is gaining currency in the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) literature is the extent to which individuals consider OCB to be part of the job (OCB role definition). A recent meta-analytic review reveals that employees are more likely to perform OCB when they define OCB as in-role rather than as extra-role. However, little attention has been paid to the influences of organizational practices on employee OCB role definition. This neglect is of particular relevance because researchers have argued that how employees view their role obligations are likely to be subject to some purposeful organizational practices. Thus, this paper focuses on the effects of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on employee OCB role definition. This paper adopts multiple theoretical perspectives (e.g., social exchange, organizational identification, ability-motivation-opportunity, and trust) to understand how, why, and when HPWS cause employees to expand their job requirements to include OCBs like helping and voice. Using a multisource data collected at 4 waves from 208 supervisor-employee dyads in Taiwan, I examined the following: (a) the direct effect of employee-experienced HPWS on employee helping and voice role definitions, (b) the mediating roles of employee helping and voice role definitions in the employee-experienced HPWS and actual employee helping and voice relationships, (c) the mediating roles of employee social exchange and organizational identification perceptions toward the organization, as well as employee efficacy, instrumentality, and autonomy perceptions toward helping and voice in the relationships between employee-experienced HPWS and OCB role definitions, (d) the direct effect of employee trust in supervisor on employee helping and voice role definitions, and (e) the moderating role of employee trust in supervisor in the relationships between employee-experienced HPWS and employee helping and voice role definitions. The results confirm the direct effects of employee-experienced HPWS and trust in supervisor, the mediating effects of employee helping and voice role definition, and employee efficacy, instrumentality, and autonomy perceptions toward helping and voice, as well as the moderating effects of employee trust in supervisor, such that employee trust in supervisor strengthened the effects of employee-experienced HPWS on employee helping and voice role definitions when trust in supervisor was high than when it was low. Implications for research and practice are discussed. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Employee attrition is a critical issue for organizations as retaining the best professional talent and controlling the costs linked to losing and employing new employees is a costly process. This is especially true for small and medium-sized enterprises that have limited resources and where every individual employee is a big part of the collective effort of the company. It has been argued that in most organizations the utility of human resources is not maximized and that investments in the right human resource practices would provide returns that exceed the costs. The unclear relationship between human resource practices and performance is commonly referred to as ‘the black box' of human resource management. Human resource practices are conceptualized differently in the literature and one of the most popular views states that practices should support and synergize with each other and that a combined implementation of practices leads to better results. This concept is often referred to as high performance work systems (HPWS) which is designed to enhance employee effectiveness. Based on the research of HPWS, the AMO-framework was introduced to better explain the linkage between human resources management and organizational performance. The framework is based on the idea that employees will perform better when they are able to do so (Ability), when they possess the motivation to do so (Motivation), and when their work environment provides the necessary support (Opportunity). Due to the lack of research of the AMO-framework in Scandinavian countries, the purpose of this quantitative study is to tests the relationship between the AMO-framework, intention to leave and the two constructs of organizational commitment and work engagement. Based on the purpose, a research question for this study is addressed as follows: What is the impact of Ability, Motivation and Opportunity HR-practices on organizational commitment, work engagement and employees' intention to leave? The sample consisted of a total of 95 employees from various small and medium-sized enterprises in Sweden. The empirical findings suggest that even though the AMO-framework does not impact employees' intention to leave directly, the individual dimensions of Ability and Motivation might do so indirectly through the constructs of organizational commitment and work engagement. These findings highlight the importance of the impact of the AMO framework on the above-mentioned constructs. Furthermore, this study contributes to the studies on human resource management in SMEs by providing more insight for the owner-managers on how to wisely invest in human resources in order to decrease employee attrition.

Organisations can create a competitive advantage through the way they design their human resource systems. High involvement work systems are considered to be a way to increase organisational performance and decrease employee turnover. However, the components involved are difficult and complex to define, and the synergy amongst the different components hard to evaluate. The literature suggests that the research is not uniform in its approach, and most research does not clearly define the variables involved or agree on the expected results of such systems. This research looks at high involvement work systems in the New Zealand organisational context, and relating these systems to employee turnover and organisational performance. The results of the study suggest that there does not appears to be a relationship between high involvement work systems, and employee turnover and organisational performance; but high involvement systems may contribute to increased labour productivity in New Zealand organisations.

The aim of this thesis is to empirically study challenges and opportunities in the operational work in contract-based R&amp;D alliances in order to increase the understanding of this type of work system and explore how these work systems could be sustainable. Based on the concept of sustainable work systems, this thesis addresses issues of how work in R&amp;D alliance should support both the competitiveness of the firm as well as regeneration of human resources. In the area of product development, the main drivers for creating alliances are often strategic and concern the globalization of today’s business environment. Issues such as increased cost-based competition, shorter product life cycles, and a greater need for flexibility to tackle technological or strategic shifts have all been argued to motivate companies to form R&amp;D alliances. No doubt adopting the firm’s development of new products to an R&amp;D alliance strategy has a substantial impact on the operational work. However, despite the vast research on why companies engage in R&amp;D alliances, the knowledge of operational work and how they are operationally managed is still limited. Several scholars have recently reported that failed operations may be one of the most important reasons for situations where R&amp;D alliances do not reach their goals. An empirical investigation covering 14 R&amp;D alliances has been conducted based on the Critical Incident Technique. The findings – supported by 158 critical incidents, which have been identified by operational leaders – reveal new knowledge about the R&amp;D alliance operational work with implications for both competitiveness and regeneration of human resources. A central contribution stems from the specific insights given to challenges and opportunities that operational leaders face in the R&amp;D alliance work, in five perspectives on the R&amp;D alliance process: Formation, Formal R&amp;D process, Informal relationships, Embeddedness, and Exit. Further examination of the critical incident data showed several implications for operational leaders with direct contributions to both product development and alliance theory. First, four critical roles for operational leaders in R&amp;D alliances have been suggested: Facilitating, Finishing, Ambassadoring, and Trustkeeping. Secondly, a framework of trust formation mechanisms has been applied and tested. This concluded that process-based, characteristic-based, and institutional-based mechanisms represent important aspects in alliance operation; the relevance of these trust formation mechanisms contributes both to the knowledge of micro-processes of trust formation and specific managerial abilities in R&amp;D alliances. Third, we examine the influence of two types of contextual risks that have been addressed in previous alliance research: relational and performance risks. The comparative analysis of a sub-sample of alliances shows that these risks influence the operational work in R&amp;D alliances for which operational leaders could be specifically trained and prepared. Lastly, a framework that addresses support from HRM in inter-organizational context has been developed and analyzed. This has indicated that HRM represents an important, although unexploited, resource when engaging in R&amp;D alliances. Furthermore, we have suggested a tentative framework for the R&amp;D alliance as a sustainable work system. The overall findings from this study have been synthesized from a sustainable work systems perspective, based on three organizational principles that have been drawn from practice-centered product innovation: broadened roles and responsibilities, work as a collaborative process, and decentralization of strategic information. A fourth principle has been incorporated as well: support systems for sustainable work. This concluded that, in order to be sustainable, companies that engage in R&amp;D alliances should carefully manage and reassess the consequences of these organizational principles in order to simultaneously support the goals that are involved in this type of work system: to simultaneously support innovation, inter-organizational relationships, and the regeneration of human resources. / <p>QC 20100813</p>

Only a small number of U.S. businesses have implemented the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence to improve their performance. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that executive business leaders use to implement the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. The study population consisted of 6 business executives and 2 organizations in the U.S. state of Texas, all with experience in implementing the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. The theory of high performance work systems provided the conceptual framework for the study. Data were gathered from interviews and record reviews that were conducted within the organizations. Inductive analysis was used to identify words, phrases, ideas, and actions that were consistent among participants and organizations as well as to identify patterns and themes. Triangulation of sources between the interview and record review data was used for consistency. Three main themes emerged from data analysis: organizational leaders embedded the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence into native work models; they also used robust strategy deployment systems with accountability for action plans to spread the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence; and, rather than specifically create goals to align with the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, they identified actions to reach organizational strategic goals that were created using the Criteria as a business model. Implications for positive social change arising from this study include the potential to increase the number of available jobs by improving overall organizational performance through the increased implementation and use of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence among U.S. organizations.

Organisations can create a competitive advantage through the way they design their human resource systems. High involvement work systems are considered to be a way to increase organisational performance and decrease employee turnover. However, the components involved are difficult and complex to define, and the synergy amongst the different components hard to evaluate. The literature suggests that the research is not uniform in its approach, and most research does not clearly define the variables involved or agree on the expected results of such systems. This research looks at high involvement work systems in the New Zealand organisational context, and relating these systems to employee turnover and organisational performance. The results of the study suggest that there does not appear to be a relationship between high involvement work systems, and employee turnover and organisational performance; but high involvement systems may contribute to increased labour productivity in New Zealand organisations.

Business researchers have shown that servant leaders empower, provide long-term vision, and serve their workers and followers better than do nonservant leaders. High performance work practices (HPWPs) and corporate social performance (CSP) can enhance employee and firm productivity. However, when overused or poorly managed, HPWPs and CSP can lead to the business problems of employee disengagement, overload, or anxiety. Scholars noted a gap in human resource management research regarding whether leadership styles affect HPWPs and CSP use. This study examined the relationship between leadership style and the use of HPWPs and CSP, by using a quantitative, nonexperimental design. U.S. business leaders (N = 287) completed a survey consisting of 3 previously published scales. A chi-square analysis calculated the servant to nonservant leader ratio in the population, finding a disproportionate ratio (1:40) of servant (n = 7) to nonservant (n = 280) leaders. Two t tests showed that no significant difference existed in how servant and nonservant leaders use HPWPs or CSP. However, a multiple linear regression model showed that a leader's self-reported characteristics of empowerment, vision, or service positively predicted CSP use; empowerment positively predicted HPWPs use; service negatively predicted HPWPs use; and vision had no effect on HPWPs use. Findings may help human resource practitioners identify leaders who use HPWPs or CSP differently. Positive social change may occur by hiring more visionary, empowering, or service-oriented leaders who can support overwhelmed or anxious workers, potentially leading to more engaged and productive workers, and an increase in the use of positive CSP.

Knowledge and knowledge work are key factors of today’s successful companies. This study devises an approach for increasing the performance of knowledge work by shifting it towards a process orientation. Business process management and workflow management are methods for structured and predefined work but are not flexible enough to support knowledge work in a comprehensive way. Case-based reasoning (CBR) uses the knowledge of previously experienced cases in order to propose a solution to a problem. CBR can be used to retrieve, reuse, revise, retain and store functional and process knowledge. The aim of the research was to develop an approach that combines CBR and process execution to improve knowledge work. The research goals are: a casedescription for knowledge work that can be integrated into a process execution system and that contains both functional and process knowledge; a similarity algorithm for the retrieval of functional and procedural knowledge; and an adaptation mechanism that deals with the different granularities of solution parts. This thesis contains a profound literature framework and follows a design science research (DSR) strategy. During the awareness phase of the design science research process, an application scenario was acquired using the case study research method, which is the admission process for a study programme at a university. This application scenario is used to introduce and showcase the combined CBR and process execution approach called ICEBERG-PE, which consists of a case model and CBR services. The approach is implemented as a prototype and can be instantiated using the ICEBERG-PE procedure model, a specific procedure model for ontology-based, CBR projects. The ICEBERG-PE prototype has been evaluated using triangulated evaluation data and different evaluation settings to confirm that the approach is transferable to other contexts. Finally, this thesis concludes with potential recommendations for future research. / Computing / D. Phil. (Information Systems)