Search

In the wake of the news industry’s digitization, novel organizations that differ considerably from traditional media firms in terms of their functional roles and organizational practices of media work are emerging. One new type is the field repair organization, which is characterized by supporting high-quality media work to compensate for the deficits (such as those which come from cost savings and layoffs) which have become apparent in legacy media today. From a practice-theoretical research perspective and based on semi-structured interviews, virtual field observations, and document analysis, we have conducted a single case study on Science Media Center Germany (SMC), a unique non-profit news start-up launched in 2016 in Cologne, Germany. Our findings show that, in addition to field repair activities, SMC aims to facilitate progress and innovation in the field, which we refer to as field advancement. This helps to uncover emerging needs and anticipates problems before they intensify or even occur, proactively providing products and tools for future journalism. This article contributes to our understanding of novel media organizations with distinct functions in the news industry, allowing for advancements in theory on media work and the organization of journalism in times of digital upheaval.

Due to increasing competition in the market, software development companies need to constantly update their processes and keep their costs down to remain competitive. Small software development companies often lack financial resources and specialist expertise, making this increasingly difficult. Even though as much as 98.9% of software development companies are small, most research focuses on larger companies. One of the main advantages of being a small software development company is the flexibility and speed in operations that are enabled by unstructured development processes and lack of hierarchical organizational structures. On the other hand, this lack of structure can hinder growth. This thesis has aimed to increase the knowledge on how to balance structure and flexibility in small software development companies, by investigating the effects of added structure. To achieve this, a qualitative case study was conducted, including six case companies that had successfully grown from small to medium-sized companies. The findings show that it is crucial to add structure to grow, but that depending on the type of structure added, it can lead to increased flexibility. By introducing organizational structures where teams of developers are allowed to self-organize to improve a given metric within a defined area of responsibility, the flexibility can increase along with increased structure. The results further show that although time-consuming in the short run, extended development processes in the form of additional quality practices can save time in the long run. Lastly, the results show that it is difficult to add structure and that this should be done in the form of small, iterative changes over time rather than performing extensive reorganizations. På grund av den ökande konkurrensen på marknaden måste mjukvaruutvecklingsföretag konstant uppdatera sina processer och hålla nere sina kostnader för att behålla sin konkurrenskraft. Små mjukvaruutvecklingsföretag saknar ofta finansiella tillgångar och specialistkunskap, vilket gör detta svårare. Trots att 98,9% av mjukvaruutvecklingsföretag är små fokuserar majoriteten av existerande forskning på större företag. En av de främsta fördelarna med att vara ett litet mjukvaruutvecklingsföretag är flexibiliteten och snabbheten som möjliggörs av ostrukturerade utvecklingsprocesser och bristen på hierarkiska organisationsstrukturer. Å andra sidan kan denna brist på struktur hindra tillväxt. Detta examensarbete har syftat till att öka kunskapen om hur struktur och flexibilitet bör balanseras i små mjukvaruutvecklingsföretag, genom att undersöka effekter av tillagd struktur. För att uppnå detta genomfördes en kvalitativ fallstudie som inkluderade sex fallföretag vilka framgångsrikt vuxit från små till medelstora företag. Resultaten visar att små mjukvaruutvecklingsföretag behöver lägga till struktur för att kunna växa men att det, beroende på vilken typ av struktur som läggs till, kan leda till ökad flexibilitet. Genom att införa organisationsstrukturer där team av utvecklare tillåts att självorganisera sig för att förbättra ett givet mätetal inom ett definierat ansvarsområde, kan flexibiliteten öka samtidigt som strukturen ökar. Resultaten visar vidare att även om det är tidskrävande på kort sikt så kan utökade utvecklingsprocesser i form av tillagd kvalitetspraxis spara tid på lång sikt. Slutligen visar resultaten att det är svårt att lägga till struktur och att detta bör ske i form av små, iterativa förändringar över tid snarare än att genomföra omfattande omorganisationer.

Over the past decades, the Netherlands has witnessed the rise of several influential populist radical right parties, including the Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn), Geert Wilders’s Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid) and, more recently, the Forum for Democracy (Forum voor Democratie [FvD]). By analyzing the party’s organizational structures, this article seeks to determine whether the FvD may be considered a new “mass party” and to what extent ordinary members can exert influence over the party’s internal procedures. The party’s efforts to establish a large membership base suggest that the FvD set out to build a relatively complex mass organization. Through targeted advertising campaigns, the party made strategic use of social media platforms to rally support. Thus, while the means may have changed with the advent of the internet, the FvD invested in creating some organizational features that are commonly associated with the “mass party” model. At the same time, however, the party did not really seek to foster a community of loyal partisan activists among its membership base but instead treated its members as donors. The party is clearly characterized by centralized leadership in the sense that the party’s spearhead, Thierry Baudet, maintains full control over key decision-making areas such as ideological direction, campaigning, and internal procedures. At first sight, the party appears to have departed from Wilders’s leader-centered party model. However, a closer look at the party apparatus demonstrates that the FvD is, in fact, very hierarchical, suggesting that the party’s internal democracy is much weaker than the party’s name might suggest.

Despite spells outside parliament, with its blend of nationalist and populist appeals the Slovak National Party (SNS) has been a prominent fixture on Slovakia’s political scene for three decades. Unlike some of the newer parties in Slovakia and across the region, partly as a product of the point of its (re-)creation, SNS has a comparable organizational density to most established parties in the country and has invested in party branches and recruiting members. Although ordinary members exercised some power and influence during the fissiparous era of the early 2000s, SNS has been notable for the role played by its leader in decision-making and steering the party. Each leader placed their stamp on the projection, pitch and functioning of the party, both as a decision-making organization and an electoral vehicle. Ordinary members have been largely—but not exclusively—relegated to the role of cheerleaders and campaigners for the party’s tribunes; a situation which has not changed significantly in the era of social media. The pre-eminent position of the leader and the limited options for “voice” has led unsuccessful contenders for top posts and their supporters to opt instead for “exit.” Despite having some of the traits of the mass party and having engaged in some of the activities common for mass parties, especially in the earlier years of its existence, in more recent times in particular, SNS falls short of the mass party model both in aspiration and reality.

The social services in Sweden are clearly influenced by international development towards organisational specialisation. However, little is known about how organisational structures are associated with the client work of social services. The article presents a narrative research review aimed to summarise and discusses empirical research on organisational structures in the social services and how these structures might influence client work. Building on the tension between specialisation and integration, the article identifies both the advantages and the disadvantages of the different approaches to organising social services along a continuum from high levels of specialisation, via coordination and collaboration solutions, to high levels of integration. The findings suggest that, to function adequately, social service organisations need to combine and balance aspects of both specialisation and integration. Svensk och internationell socialtjänst präglas tydligt av organisatorisk specialisering. Det saknas dock kunskap om hur organisationsstrukturer påverkar socialttjänstens klientarbete. Denna artikel presenterar en narrativ forskningsöversikt med syftet att sammanfatta och diskutera empirisk forskning organisationsstrukturer i socialtjänsten och hur dessa kan påverka klientarbetet. Med spänningsfältet mellan specialisering och integrering som utgångspunkt, identifierar artikeln både för- och nackdelar med dessa båda organisatoriska principer utifrån ett kontinuum från höggradig specialisering via samordning och samarbete till tydligt integrering. Resultatet visar att socialtjänstens organisation behöver kombinera och balansera olika strukturer utefter kontinuumet mellan specialisering och integrering för att klientarbetet ska fungera ändamålsenligt.

The social services in Sweden are clearly influenced by international development towards organisational specialisation. However, little is known about how organisational structures are associated with the client work of social services. The article presents a narrative research review aimed to summarise and discusses empirical research on organisational structures in the social services and how these structures might influence client work. Building on the tension between specialisation and integration, the article identifies both the advantages and the disadvantages of the different approaches to organising social services along a continuum from high levels of specialisation, via coordination and collaboration solutions, to high levels of integration. The findings suggest that, to function adequately, social service organisations need to combine and balance aspects of both specialisation and integration. Svensk och internationell socialtjänst präglas tydligt av organisatorisk specialisering. Det saknas dock kunskap om hur organisationsstrukturer påverkar socialttjänstens klientarbete. Denna artikel presenterar en narrativ forskningsöversikt med syftet att sammanfatta och diskutera empirisk forskning organisationsstrukturer i socialtjänsten och hur dessa kan påverka klientarbetet. Med spänningsfältet mellan specialisering och integrering som utgångspunkt, identifierar artikeln både för- och nackdelar med dessa båda organisatoriska principer utifrån ett kontinuum från höggradig specialisering via samordning och samarbete till tydligt integrering. Resultatet visar att socialtjänstens organisation behöver kombinera och balansera olika strukturer utefter kontinuumet mellan specialisering och integrering för att klientarbetet ska fungera ändamålsenligt.

Today's internet is shaped largely by privately operated platforms of various kinds. This paper asks how the various commercially operated communication, market, consumption and service platforms can be grasped as a distinct organizational form of enterprise. To this end, we make a basic distinction between (1) the platform-operating companies as organizing and structuring cores whose goal is to run a profitable business, and (2) the platforms belonging to these companies as more or less extensive, rule-based and strongly technically mediated social action spaces. While platform companies are essentially organizations in an almost archetypical sense, the internet platforms they operate constitute socio-technically structured social, market, consumption or service spaces in which social actors interact on the basis of detailed and technically framed rules, albeit, at the same time, in a varied and idiosyncratic manner. The thesis of this paper is that the coordination, control and exploitation mechanisms characteristic of the platform architectures are characterized by a strong hierarchical orientation in which elements of co-optation and the orchestrated participation of users are embedded. In this hybrid constellation, the platform companies have a high degree of structure-giving, rulesetting and controlling power-in addition to exclusive access to the raw data material generated there. While this power may manifest, at times, as rigid control, direct coercion or enforceable accountability, for the majority of rule-obeying users it unfolds nearly imperceptibly and largely silently beneath the surface of a (supposed) openness that likewise characterizes the platforms as technically mediated spaces for social and economic exchange. Das heutige Internet wird durch privatwirtschaftlich betriebene Plattformen der unterschiedlichsten Art geprägt. Dieser Aufsatz fragt danach, wie sich diese verschiedenartigen kommerziellen Kommunikations-, Markt-, Konsum- und Serviceplattformen als distinkte Unternehmensform fassen lassen. Dazu wird eine basale Unterscheidung zwischen (1) den plattformbetreibenden Unternehmen als organisierenden und strukturierenden Kernen und (2) den ihnen gehörenden Plattformen als mehr oder minder ausgreifenden sozialen Handlungsräumen vorgenommen. Während sich Plattformunternehmen als Organisationen in einem geradezu klassischen Sinne darstellen lassen, konstituieren die von ihnen betriebenen Internetplattformen soziotechnisch strukturierte Sozial-, Markt-, Konsum- oder Serviceräume, in denen soziale Akteure zwar auf der Grundlage detailliert ausgestalteter und technisch eingefasster Regeln, aber zugleich variantenreich und eigenwillig interagieren. Die für solche Plattform-Architekturen charakteristischen Koordinations-, Kontroll- und Verwertungsmechanismen zeichnen sich durch eine starke hierarchische Ausrichtung aus, in die Elemente der Kooptation und des orchestrierten Mitwirkens der Nutzer eingelagert sind. Die Plattformunternehmen haben in dieser hybriden Konstellation ein hohes Maß an strukturgebender, regelsetzender und kontrollierender Macht - und verfügen überdies über den exklusiven Zugriff auf das dort produzierte Rohmaterial an Daten. Diese Macht äußert sich in vielen Fällen, aber längst nicht immer als rigide Kontrolle, als direktiver Zwang oder einklagbare Rechenschaftspflicht, sondern entfaltet sich für die große Zahl regel-konformer Nutzer weitgehend geräuschlos unter der Oberfläche einer (vermeintlichen) Offenheit, die die Plattformen als Markt- und Sozialräume auch auszeichnet.

The financial billing per hour model consultancies use is a successful concept. The financial model has also influenced a mindset where the structures, culture, and leadership of the consultancies revolve around billability. Currently, many consultancies are aiming at business model innovation and turn their innovation capabilities internally through intrapreneurship. Therefore, this thesis answers the questions on how intrapreneurship is integrated into the business model and what role structural, cultural, and leadership aspects have in regard to intrapreneurship. The conducted study shows that there are two main ways of structuring the incorporation of intrapreneurship initiatives, structured and hired intrapreneurship. The culture that revolves around the billing per hour mindset influences both leadership’s willingness to supply resources to the initiative negatively and in many cases, management lacks the knowledge of what is needed to succeed with business model innovation. The study shows that the strategy of the intrapreneurship initiative and the communication and acceptance of the vision are two crucial parameters. Dagens konsultfirmor använder sig av ett historiskt framgångsrik finansiell struktur som bygger på debiterbara timmar. Fokuset på de debiterbara timmarna påverkar inte bara den finansiella strukturen, den influerar även hur konsultfirmorna struktureras, kulturen och ledarskapet. Fokuset på debiterbara timmar komplicerar för interna projekt via intraprenörskap och innovation kring affärsmodellen. För att undersöka detta vidare svarar denna uppsats på hur intraprenörskap integreras i affärsmodellen och till vilken del struktur, kultur och ledarskap influerar initiativen. Den genomförda studien visar att det finns två huvudsakliga sätt att strukturera integrerandet av intraprenörskap, strukturerat och hyrt intraprenörskap. Kulturen som kretsar kring debiterbar tid påverkar ledarskapets vilja att tillföra resurser till initiativet negativt och i många fall saknar ledningen kunskap om vad som behövs för att lyckas med affärsmodellsinnovation. Studien visar att strategin för intraprenörskap initiativet och kommunikationen samt acceptansen av visionen är två avgörande parametrar för hur initiativen implementeras i affärsmodellen.

Misunderstandings are often perceived as something to be avoided yet delineate an integrative part of everyday work. This book addresses the role that misunderstandings play in collaborative work and, above all, their effects on the organisational result. As exemplified by project collaboration across three offices of a multinational corporation in India, Frauke Mörike explores how misunderstandings shape the organisational system and why they prove not only necessary but even productive for organisational functioning. In doing so, she offers new ways to think about collaboration and establishes `misunderstanding' as a key factor of insight for the field of organisational research.

Innovations have always been an essential factor for the long-term success of corporations. This is all the more true at times like the present, which is becoming increasingly dynamic and fast due to such effects as digitalization and globalization. However, as important as innovations are for the success of corporations, their systematic development is just as challenging. This fact can be demonstrated not least by numerous practical examples in which formerly successful corporations were unable to react appropriately to changing market and competitive conditions and consequently had to give up their market position. The challenges in the development of innovations can be traced back to different organizational conditions, which are necessary for the efficient exploitation of existing products on the one hand and the exploration of new innovations on the other. The scientific literature recommends, among other things, the separation of exploration and exploitation into different organizational units to meet the challenges mentioned above. In addition to the operational business units, which are usually responsible for the exploitation of existing products, it is advisable to establish innovation units, such as corporate incubators or corporate venture capital units, and to entrust them with the exploration of innovations. For a detailed examination of the current state of research on corporate incubators and corporate venture capital, two systematic literature analyses were carried out within the scope of this thesis. As a result, it was discovered that further research is needed, particularly concerning the organizational integration of such innovation units into the overall organization and the associated conflicts of objectives. To make an initial contribution to closing the research gap mentioned above, a further study of this work is devoted to the organizational integration of different innovation programs in an established corporation. This study differs from previous studies in that it takes an overarching perspective and considers the entire organization, including the innovation units, as a holistic innovation system. Such a corporate innovation system consists of at least three different types of innovation units in addition to the operational business units: exploration-oriented innovation units for the generation of disruptive innovations, exploitation-oriented innovation units for the further development of existing products and transformation-oriented innovation units for the transformation of the corporate culture. Such a system can ensure the systematic and sustainable generation of innovations, especially in the interaction of the various innovation units. In addition to the basic establishment of the innovation units mentioned above, however, appropriate organizational framework conditions are required to ensure that innovations can be developed successfully. The fourth study in this thesis is dedicated to the question of how continuity, competence and cooperation affect the innovation performance of corporations. It could be analyzed that the continuous implementation of innovation activities has the greatest positive effect on the innovation performance of enterprises. While cooperation, in combination with continuity, has a short- to medium-term impact on innovation performance, competence and continuity have a long-term effect on innovation performance. Cooperation and competence are complementary concepts in that cooperation should be used for short-term innovation activities, while competence should be used for the long-term sustainable development of innovations within the enterprise. As a result, this work addresses existing research gaps with regard to the integration of innovation units and the organizational structures of corporations and provides valuable insights and approaches for further research. For this purpose, it was necessary to link findings from the field of innovation management and corporate venturing with concepts of organizational theory. Through this connection, we have succeeded in gaining new scientific insights that previously could not be gained independently within the individual research streams. We are convinced that our findings on Corporate Innovation Systems and the effects of continuity, competence and cooperation on innovation performance have made an important scientific contribution. That is all the more true at a time when successful innovation is becoming increasingly important for corporations and a growing number of newly emerging innovation units can be observed in practice. Innovationen stellen einen wesentlichen Faktor für den langfristigen Erfolg von Unternehmen dar. Dies gilt umso mehr in einer Zeit wie der heutigen, welche durch Effekte wie die Digitalisierung und Globalisierung zunehmend an Dynamik und Schnelligkeit gewinnt. So bedeutsam Innovationen jedoch für den Erfolg von Unternehmen sind, so herausfordernd stellt sich deren systematische Entwicklung dar. Dies lässt sich nicht zuletzt an zahlreichen Praxisbeispielen belegen, in welchen ehemals erfolgreiche Unternehmen nicht in der Lage waren angemessen auf veränderte Markt- und Wettbewerbsbedingungen zu reagieren und in der Folge ihre Marktposition aufgeben mussten. Die Herausforderungen bei der Entwicklung von Innovationen lassen sich dabei insbesondere auf unterschiedliche organisatorische Voraussetzungen zurückführen, welche einerseits für die effiziente Exploitation bestehender Produkte und andererseits für die Exploration neuer Innovationen benötigt werden. Zur Begegnung der Herausforderungen wird in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur unter anderem die Trennung von Exploration und Exploitation in verschiedene Organisationeinheiten empfohlen. Neben den operativen Geschäftseinheiten, welche für die Exploitation bestehender Produkte verantwortlich sind, empfiehlt es sich daher Innovationseinheiten wie beispielsweise Corporate Incubators oder Corporate Venture Capital Einheiten zu etablieren und diese mit der Exploration neuer Innovation zu betrauen. Zur Untersuchung des aktuellen Forschungsstands zu Corporate Incubators und Corporate Venture Capital wurden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit unter anderem zwei systematische Literaturanalysen durchgeführt. Im Ergebnis konnte hierdurch aufgedeckt werden, dass es insbesondere hinsichtlich der organisatorischen Einbindung solcher Innovationseinheiten in die Gesamtorganisation und damit verbundener Zielkonflikte noch weiterer Forschung bedarf. Um einen ersten Beitrag zur Schließung der angeführten Forschungslücke zu leisten, widmet sich eine weitere Studie dieser Arbeit der organisatorischen Einbindung unterschiedlicher Innovationsprogramme in ein etabliertes Unternehmen. Dabei differenziert sich diese Studie von vorangegangenen Arbeiten, indem sie eine übergreifende Perspektive einnimmt und die Gesamtorganisation samt der Innovationseinheiten als ein holistisches Innovationssystem (Corporate Innovation System) betrachtet. Ein solches Corporate Innovation System besteht dabei neben den operativen Geschäftseinheiten aus mindestens drei verschiedenen Typen von Innovationseinheiten: Exploration-orientierten Innovationseinheiten für die Generierung disruptiver Innovationen, Exploitation-orientierten Innovationseinheiten für die Weiterentwicklung bestehender Produkten sowie Transformation-orientierte Innovationseinheiten für die Transformation der Unternehmenskultur. Insbesondere im Zusammenspiel der verschiedenen Innovationseinheiten kann dabei ein solches System die systematische und nachhaltige Generierung von Innovationen gewährleisten. Neben der grundsätzlichen Etablierung der angeführten Innovationseinheiten bedarf es jedoch zusätzlich entsprechender organisatorischer Rahmenbedingungen damit Innovationen erfolgreich entwickelt werden können. Hierzu widmet sich die vierte Studie dieser Arbeit der Frage, wie sich Kontinuität, Kompetenz und Kooperation auf die Innovationsleistung von Unternehmen auswirken. Hierbei konnte analysiert werden, dass die kontinuierliche Durchführung von Innovationsaktivitäten die größte positive Auswirkung auf die Innovationsleistung von Unternehmen hat. Während sich Kooperationen im Zusammenspiel mit Kontinuität insbesondere kurz- bis mittelfristig auf die Innovationsleistung auswirken, wirken Kompetenz und Kontinuität langfristig auf die Innovationsleistung. Kooperationen und Kompetenz stellen hierbei sich ergänzende Konzepte dar, indem Kooperation für kurzfristige Innovationsmaßnahmen eingesetzt werden sollten, während die Kompetenz im eigenen Unternehmen langfristig für die nachhaltige Entwicklung von Innovationen zum Einsatz kommen sollte. Im Ergebnis nimmt sich diese Arbeit bestehender Forschungslücken hinsichtlich der Einbindung von Innovationseinheiten und die Organisationsstrukturen von Unternehmen an und liefert hierzu wertvolle Erkenntnisse sowie Ansätze für weitere Forschungsarbeiten. Wir sind überzeugt, dass unsere Erkenntnisse über Corporate Innovation Systems und die Auswirkungen von Kontinuität, Kompetenz und Kooperation auf die Innovationsleistung einen wichtigen wissenschaftlichen Beitrag geleistet haben. Dies gilt umso mehr in einer Zeit, in der erfolgreiche Innovation für Unternehmen immer wichtiger wird und in der eine wachsende Zahl neu entstehender Innovationseinheiten in der Praxis zu beobachten ist.

The digitised world of today has led to the development of new organisational structures within companies, resulting in new leadership styles in digital firms. Furthermore, customers’ demand is constantly increasing, which results in the importance of delivering an experience to the customers to stay competitive in the market. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate how leadership is applied in a successful e-commerce company with a Customer Experience focus. This thesis is conducted throughout a qualitative single case study of a successful e-commerce company focusing on customer experience(s). The empirical findings have been obtained through semi-structured interviews, which further have been analysed together with the given theories to gain an in-depth understanding to answer the research question (1) How does leadership manifest itself in an e-commerce company? Furthermore, the sub-question (a) Which leadership styles can be identified within the e-commerce company. The conclusion of this thesis presents the importance of having leadership connected to the corporate culture. This includes considering the culture in all decisions within the company and that leaders and employees live by the company’s values. This thesis presents leaders within the case company applying several attributes of different leadership styles. However, the primary leadership style that has been identified throughout all leaders is transformational leadership, including being a digital leader.

It is important for organizations to enforce corporate entrepreneurship in order to enable innovation and growth which can lead to more job opportunities and economic growth. Enforcing corporate entrepreneurship during growth is difficult and much of the current research contradicts each other by saying that growth is handled by formalizing and structuring while corporate entrepreneurship is enforced by having a simple and loose organization. This research aims to explore how a company can organize to prepare for growth while maintaining the ability to be innovative. An illustrative case study is conducted where a small company which is expecting growth in a rapidly changing industry is examined through interviews. The theory was thoroughly investigated and five central factors of entrepreneurial orientation (autonomy, proactiveness, innovativeness, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness) were cross examined with five central challenges that appear during growth (differentiation, heterogeneity, external complexity, internal change, internal turmoil). A framework is proposed which contains identified dilemmas of remaining entrepreneurial during growth and suggested guidelines of how to organize a firm to meet these challenges. The organizational structure is identified as one of the most important aspects which influence the entrepreneurial abilities of a firm and therefore the proposed guidelines are based on the central factors of organizational structure from the theory (formalization, centralization, complexity). The results point to formalizing rules and procedures, decentralizing some of the decision making and enforcing good integration in a low complexity (internal) environment in order to enable autonomy and proactiveness which allows the company to be innovative, even as internal and external changes are taking place. Future research is suggested for exploring the impact of the suggested guidelines and there is a possibility in elaborating the guidelines for other aspects of an organization than the structure. Det är viktigt för organisationer att vara entreprenöriella för att möjliggöra innovation och tillväxt vilket kan leda till fler arbetsmöjligheter och ekonomisk tillväxt. Att införa intraprenörskap medan organisationen växer är svårt och mycket av forskningen är motsägelsefull. För att företaget ska kunna växa krävs det formalisering och struktur medan intraprenörskap främjas genom att ha en enkel och rörlig organisation. Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka hur ett företag kan organiseras för att växa men samtidigt bibehålla förmågan att vara innovativa. Ett litet företag som förväntas växa i en snabbt skiftande industri undersöks genom en illustrativ fallstudie och intervjuer. Tidigare forskning visar på fem centrala faktorer av entreprenöriell orientering (autonomi, proaktivitet, innovativitet, risktagande, konkurrensvilja) och fem centrala svårigheter vid tillväxt (differentiering, heterogenitet, extern komplexitet, intern förändring, internt tumult). I ett ramverk korsexamineras svårigheterna med att vara innovativ under tiden företaget växer och dilemman identifieras samt besvaras med riktlinjer för hur man kan organisera företaget för att hantera dessa svårigheter. Organisationsstrukturen är identifierad som en av de viktigaste aspekterna som påverkar ett företags entreprenöriella förmåga och därmed är de föreslagna riktlinjerna baserad på de centrala aspekterna (formalisering, centralisering, komplexitet) av en organisationsstruktur. Resultaten visar att formalisera regler och rutiner, decentralisera vissa beslutsfattanden och upprätthålla god integration i en (intern) miljö med låg komplexitet främjar autonomi och proaktivitet. Detta tillåter företaget att fortsätta vara innovativa även när den interna och externa miljön förändras. Framtida forskning föreslås för att utforska riktlinjernas effektivitet. Det finns även möjligheter att utöka ramverket till andra aspekter än organisationers strukturer.

The study aims to research factors that impact organizational structure, communication, performance, and if the management system has any significant ability to improve the outcome. The study is a case study of an organization where twenty-five employees were invited to participate in the survey and express how they perceive the management system. Interview with a CEO of the organization and access to the intranet and management system gave another set of data analyzed and researched with the help of theories. The results show that the organizational structure, communication, and performance cannot function without each other. Structure impacts the communication and performance of the organization. Simultaneously, successful communication is a vital ingredient for the structure to function and increase performance. The management system is the center for organizational structure and performance. Successful integration of the management system improves the information flow, increasing efficiency, performance, and profitability in the organization. A functioning and collaborative management system is the key to increased quality in every area of the organization. It fulfills the social demand for sustainability and quality vital for surviving the competitive market and being prepared for unexpected future events such as Covid-19. Available various technological and digital tools for quality improvement and communication have been the savior for many businesses worldwide. Studien syftar till att undersöka faktorer som påverkar organisationsstruktur, kommunikation, prestanda och om ledningssystemet har någon betydande förmåga att förbättra resultatet. Studien är en fallstudie av en organisation där tjugofem anställda var inbjudna att delta i undersökningen och uttrycka hur de uppfattar ledningssystemet. Intervju med en VD för organisationen och tillgång till intranätet och ledningssystemet gav ytterligare en uppsättning data som analyserades och forskades med hjälp av teorier. Resultaten visar att organisationsstruktur, kommunikation och prestanda inte kan fungera utan varandra. Struktur påverkar organisationens kommunikation och prestanda. Samtidigt är framgångsrik kommunikation en viktig ingrediens för att strukturen ska fungera och öka prestanda. Ledningssystemet är centrum för organisationsstruktur och prestanda. Framgångsrik integration av ledningssystemet förbättrar informationsflödet, ökar effektiviteten, prestanda och lönsamhet i organisationen. Ett fungerande och samverkande ledningssystem är nyckeln till ökad kvalitet inom alla områden i organisationen. Det uppfyller den sociala efterfrågan på hållbarhet och kvalitet som är avgörande för att överleva den konkurrensutsatta marknaden och vara beredd på oväntade framtida händelser som Covid-19. Tillgängliga olika tekniska och digitala verktyg för kvalitetsförbättring och kommunikation har varit en undsättare för många företag världen över.

The Lega Nord (LN) has undergone a profound process of transformation since 2013, by replacing its historical regionalist populism with a new state-wide populist radical right outlook. However, very little is known about how such transformation impacted its organizational model, particularly the mass-party features that characterized it under its founding leader, Umberto Bossi. This article explores the organizational evolution of the party under Matteo Salvini by means of a qualitative in-depth analysis of 41 semi-structured interviews with representatives of the LN from four regions (Calabria, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, and Veneto) and primary documents. It underlines that the LN was turned into a disempowered and politically inactive “bad company,” charged with the task of paying the debts of the old party, while its structure, resources, and personnel were poured into a new state-wide organization called Lega per Salvini Premier (LSP). The LSP has not simply maintained the key features of the mass-party in the LN’s historical strongholds, but also pioneered a modern form of this organizational model grounded on the continuous interaction between digital and physical activism, i.e., “phygital activism,” which boosts the party’s ability to reach out to the electorate by delivering the image that the League is constantly on the ground. The LSP has sought to export this modern interpretation of the mass-party in the South; however, in that area its organizational development remains at an embryonic stage, and the party’s nationalization strategy has so far produced a “quasi-colonial” structure dominated by, and dependent on, the Northern elite.

The way the structure of systems and programs are designed is very important. When working with smaller groups of systems, the chosen architecture does not affect the performance and efficiency greatly, but as these systems increase in size and complexity, the choice of architecture becomes a very important one. Problems that can arise when the complexity of software scales up are waiting for data accesses, long sequential executions and potential loss of data. There is no single, optimal software architecture, as there are countless different ways to design programs, but it is interesting to look at which architectures perform the best in terms of execution time when handling multiple bigger systems and large amounts of data. In this thesis, a case called "The Income Deduction" will be implemented in a monolithic and an event-driven architectural style and then be put through three different scenarios. The monolithic architecture was chosen due to its simplicity and popularity when constructing simpler programs and systems, while the event-driven architecture was chosen due to its theoretical benefits of removing sequential communicating between systems and thus reduce the time systems spend waiting for each other to respond. The main research question to answer is what the main benefits and drawbacks are when building larger systems with an event-driven architectural style. Additional research questions include how the architecture affects the organisation’s efficiency and cooperation between different teams, as well as how the security of data is handled. The two implementations where put through three different scenarios within the case, measuring execution time, number of HTTP requests sent, database accesses and events emitted. The results show that the event-driven architecture performed 9.4% slower in the first scenario and 0.5% slower in the second scenario. In the third scenario the event-driven architecture performed 49.0% faster than the monolithic implementation, finishing the scenario in less than half the amount of time. The monolithic implementation generally performed well in the simpler scenarios 1 and 2, where the systems had fewer integrations to each other. In these cases it is the preferred solution since it is easier to design and implement. The event-driven solution did perform much better in the more complex scenario 3, where a lot of systems and integrations were involved, since it could remove certain connections between systems. Lastly, this thesis also discusses the sustainability and ethics of the study, as well as the limitations of the research and potential future work. Strukturen som system och program designas efter är väldigt viktigt. När en arbetar med mindre grupper av system så kommer den valda arkitekturen inte att påverka prestandan mycket. Men när dessa system växter i storlek och komplexitet så kommer valet av arkitektur vara väldigt viktigt. Problem som kan uppstå när mjukvarukomplexiteten ökar är väntandet på dataaccesser, långa sekventiella exekveringar och potentiell förlust av data. Det finns ingen optimal mjukvaruarkitektur, det finns oräkneligt många sätt att designa program. Det är intressant att kolla på vilka arkitekturer som preseterar bäst sätt till exekveringstid när en hanterar ett flertal större system och stora mängder data. I den här avhandlingen kommer ett fall, kallat "Ingångsavdraget", att implementeras i en monolitisk och en event-driven arkitekturell stil och sedan köras igenom tre olika scenarion. Den monolitiska arkitekturen var vald på grund av dess enkelhet och populäritet vid utveckling av enklar program och system. Den event-drivna arkitekturen valdes på grund av vissa teoretiska fördelar, så som att kunna undvika sekventiell kommunikation mellan systemen och därmed reducera tiden som systemen väntar på svar från varandra. Den huvudsakliga forskningsfrågan som ska besvaras är vad de största fördelarna och nackdelarna är när man bygger större system med en event-driven arkitekturell stil. Andra forskningsfrågor inkludera hur arkitekturen påverkar effektiviteten hos en organisation och samarbetet mellan olika team, samt hur datasäkerheten hanteras. De två implementationerna sattes igång tre olika scenarion inom fallet, där exekveringstid, antal HTTP-anrop skickade, databasaccesser och event skickad mättes. Resultaten visar att den event-drivna arkitekturen presterade 9.4% långsamare i det första scenariot och 0.5% långsamare i det andra scenariot. I det tredje scenariot presterade den event-drivna lösningen 49.0% snabbare än den monolitiska lösningen och avslutade därmed scenariot under hälften av tiden. Den monolitiska implementationen presterade generellt väl under de simplare scenarion 1 och 2, där systemen hade färre integrationer till varandra. I dessa fallen så är den den föredragna lösningen eftersom det är lättare att designa och implementera. Den event-drivna lösningen presterade mycket bättre i det mer komplexa scenario 3, där många system och integrationer var inblandade, eftersom den kunde ta bort vissa kopplingar mellan system. Slutligen så diskuteras även hållbarhet och etik i studien, samt begränsningarna av forskningen och potentiellt framtida arbete.

This article highlights organizational structure as a factor influencing conditions for helping relations. It is based on a survey study and an interview study, both directed at parents in families that have parallel contacts in different parts of Swedish personal social services (PSS). The aim is to describe and analyse conditions for helping relations when clients with complex needs encounter specialized PSS. Low system trust, people processing dimensions of work, and an organizational and a professional emphasis on formal organizational structures and boundaries were found to constitute unfavourable conditions. Conversely, an occurrence of individual trust, people sustaining and people changing dimensions of work, as well as informal organization and individual social workers’ boundary spanning efforts, constituted favourable conditions. The article concludes that greater understanding of how clients are affected by contextual service conditions can give some pointers towards how to generally improve services for vulnerable and disadvantaged populations.

Quantification theories assume that numbers govern and steer a policy field or an organisation. In order to steer successfully, however, the local interpretation of numbers takes centre stage as the meaning of numbers - and thus the way how actors respond to them - varies between systems or sectors. Empirically, this article reviews how a German university makes sense of political numbers and their implicit steering signals, and how quantification alters its organisational structures and reshapes the roles of academics. The article analyses the translation process distinguishing between three levels: the political discourse on university reform; the organisational adaptations; and the effects they have on the professional academic role. The article finds that the university has highly differentiated strategies to respond to the 'governance by numbers,' and that it has established independent number-based steering systems. We also find that such differentiation of programmes makes the university management more flexible, helping it deal with anticipated goal conflicts and unwanted allocative effects, but it also places serious strain on - and potentially overburns - the coordination provided by the university’s central administration. We also find that academics have started to align their behavioural strategies towards fulfilling their organisational goals and that they tend to deviate from professional expectations. Discussing these differentiated strategies, this article shows how the differentiation of governance approaches also contributes to the university becoming an 'organisational actor.' These preliminary findings suggest the need for and potential direction of further investigations.

This article aims to contribute both theoretically and empirically to the study of political parties in the EU context, focusing on party organisation. Theoretically, it draws on insights from various literatures to develop a novel typology of multilevel party organisation specific to the EU context. It argues that parties are goal-seeking actors that choose their organisation based on a cost-benefit analysis, involving both party characteristics and the institutional context. Empirically, the article applies this framework on the Flemish political parties. It finds that rational goal-seeking behaviour cannot fully account for parties’ organisational choices. Results show that normative and historical considerations play a crucial role in parties’ cost-benefit analysis. It therefore calls upon future research to expand the number of comparative studies and to further assess parties’ goal-seeking behaviour regarding their multilevel organisation.

Berlin : Springer Vieweg 1 Online-Ressource (XIX, 264 Seiten : Illustrationen) (2020). doi:10.1007/978-3-662-61560-7, Published by Springer Vieweg, Berlin

Organization design is a major factor determining an organization’s performance and how the people work together in these organizations. In the paper, we argue that designing organizations should be scientific-based and forward-looking. This raises challenges in designing organizations in contexts and situations that are new and have not been seen before. Experimentation of what is and what might be is the basis for exploring and examining what makes a good science for organizational design. Experimentation permits us to examine what might be for organization designs, which are not well understood or may not exist yet. Collaborative communities, new ventures, agile organizations, and temporary organizations are examples; experimentation permits us explore and examine what is and what might be and to examine the organizational design problem and perform experiments to understand the relationship between structure and coordination mechanisms of information, communications, decisions, trust, and incentives—the basis for the multi-contingency theory of organizational design. An organizational design must specify the fit between the structure of division of tasks in the organization with its coordination, or how to make these tasks work in concert. These tasks can be interdependent and uncertain. To design good organizations, we need empirical evidence about what is and exploration about what might be; we need a good theoretical basis for being able to generalize our knowledge. To illustrate our point, we examine two experiments on the classic M-form hypothesis—a computer simulation that examines coordination, organization structure, and interdependency and a laboratory experiment that examines the effect of incentives on opportunism and performance. Together, we find that the M-form is a robust organizational design, but with contingent conditions. Finally, we discuss how observation and experimentation together is the foundation for the development of scientific-based theory of organizational design.

Background Occupational Burnout is one of the greatest challenges affecting the labour markets today. It is mainly caused by prolonged stress exposure due to the psychosocial work environment and is nowadays the fastest growing cause of long-term sick leave in Sweden. It therefor affects both the society, organisation and individual. It is thus a managerial concern to manage and structure the organisations in a sustainable way that maximises the use of human resources, rather than burning them out. Purpose The aim of the thesis is to investigate the high level of sick-leave or burnout due to organisational and managerial factors in the Swedish educational sector, by focusing on the role leadership, organisational and psychosocial work environment plays in preventing/causing employees’ burnout. The authors attempt to contribute knowledge on why theory may not match reality in this case, as statistics of sickleave due to stressrelated illness remains high. Methods In this qualitative study principals, administrators, and teachers of four public compulsory schools in Jönköping and Öckerö are interviewed. Using semi-structured interviews, data is gathered, coded and analysed in relation to modern research literature on the topic of burnout as well as Swedish Work Environment Authority guidelines, to spot key elements of positive and negative factors which have affected the stress situations of the schools’ employees. Several factors from organizational and leadership perspective are examined to assist organizations to avoid or prevent burnout. Results Prevalence of high burnout rates in schools in the cases studied, was associated with recent large reorganization of employees and administration; weak and inefficient leadership which did not strive to build relationships and open communication with teachers; low integration between sectors and working groups; lack of support and monitoring of stressed employees; low ability of employees to contribute to their workplace environments; the shortage of budgets issued by municipality. Conclusions 1.The reason sick leave related to stress and burnout is high in the cases studied, is that implementation of research and policy guidelines is lacking behind in schools which suffer from employee stress related issues. As well as the current management model of the public sector may not benefit to prevent employee burnout. 2. It is possible to avoid employee burnout through adjusting the management and organizational structure, as adaptations toward dealing with employees’ stress are showing a positive sign on preventing the development of burnout.

What does representation mean when applied to international organizations? While many scholars working on normative questions related to global governance often make use of the concept of representation, few have addressed specifics of applying the concept to the rules and practices by which IOs operate. This article examines representation as a fundamental, albeit often neglected, norm of governance which, if perceived to be deficient or unfair, can interfere with other components of governance, as well as with performance of an organization’s core tasks by undermining legitimacy. We argue that the concept of representation has been neglected in the ongoing debates about good governance and democratic deficits within IOs. We aim to correct this by drawing on insights from normative political theory considerations of representation. The article then applies theoretical aspects of representation to the governance of the International Monetary Fund. We determine that subjecting IOs to this kind of conceptual scrutiny highlights important deficiencies in representational practices in global politics. Finally, our conclusion argues scholars of global governance need to address the normative and empirical implications of conceptualizing representation at the supranational level. (author's abstract)

Modern bureaucratic organisations are characterized by hierarchical structure, control and accountability. Post-bureaucratic organisations, which are widely established in the postmodern world, encourage empowerment, initiative, creativity and responsibility of their members while transferring control functions to the corporate culture and a clearly defined and comprehensible mission of their organisation. Despite the fact that the postmodern, or post-bureaucratic, type of an organisation that came into being in the 1960s is being increasingly integrated in various aspects and areas of society, including public institutions and universities, the question whether this type of organisation gains ground over the modernist type is still yet to be answered. This paper has been written on the basis of the materials from 3 focus groups, representing administration and faculties of one university, that summarise their seven-year experience of EU Structural Funds project management. The paper presents insights into the issues arising due to the interplay between different corporate values and cultures and considers alternatives of solving these issues.

This article analyses four emerging refugee support organisations in Austria, founded before the so-called refugee crisis in 2015. It argues that these organisations have managed to occupy a middle space between mainstream NGOs and social movements with structures of inclusive governance, a high degree of autonomy, personalised relationships with refugees, and radical critique combined with service delivery. Based on interviews with the founders of each organisation, we show that their previous NGO and social movement experience formed a springboard for the new initiatives. It not only allowed them to identify significant gaps in existing service provision, but also provided the space of confrontation with the asylum system inspiring a strong sense of outrage, which in turn developed into political critique. We argue that this critique combined with identifying the needs of asylum seekers and refugees has produced a new type of organisation, which both delivers services and articulates radical demands. Each organisation offers a space of encounter, which undoes the ‘organised disintegration’ of the asylum system.

This paper explores the perspectives of Bosnian organizations in Germany on the institutional and structural conditions for transnational engagement in post-war recovery processes in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its point of departure is the empirical finding that Bosnian organizations in Germany are not intensively and regularly involved in transnational activities directed toward Bosnia, despite a continued emotional attachment to the origin country and an estimated strong capacity for such engagement among the Bosnian population in Germany. The paper argues that this situation can in large part be explained by taking an actor-centered perspective and analyzing Bosnian organizations’ perceptions of the structural conditions created by the Bosnian authorities. The empirical data have been obtained from an explorative research on Bosnian organizations in Germany, which studied how Bosnians in Germany organize and what types of transnational activities oriented toward the settlement and origin country they pursue. First, the paper introduces a distinction between capacity and willingness of migrants and their organizations to engage in the origin country and outlines why this distinction is important in the context of conflict-generated migrants’ involvement in a post-conflict setting. Second, it identifies the limited efforts the Bosnian government has made so far to mobilize its population abroad and discusses why there is such reluctance to develop a diaspora strategy. Third, the paper presents the perspectives of Bosnian organizations in Germany on the conditions for transnational engagement in post-war recovery processes in the origin-country, including opinions on the Bosnian government and the relationship with the local population in Bosnia. The empirical findings presented in this paper suggest that the researched organizations’ perception of the unfavorable Bosnian context severely decreases their willingness to transnationally engage in origin-country developments. Thus, the structural constraints in the origin country and the way how they are perceived by the researched organizations form crucial limits to stronger transnational engagement in post-war recovery processes.

© 2016 by the authors; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). The selection of leading candidates by the political families, the so-called Spitzenkandidaten, is relatively groundbreak-ing as it is the first form of political recruitment organized at the EU level. The literature on candidate selection proce-dures has so far concentrated on national parties and their procedures. To our knowledge the analytical model has not yet been applied at the EU level. This article will fill this gap by examining the selection procedures of Europarties, more particularly for their EC presidency candidates, a novelty of the 2014 European Parliament elections. Based on the anal-ysis of the procedures applied within the European People’s Party (EPP), the Party of European Socialists (PES), the Alli-ance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE), the European Green Party (EGP), and the Party of the Europe-an Left (EL), one of the main findings of this article is that the procedures are largely copy-paste from the Europarties’ internal procedures for selecting a president. This can largely be explained by the lack of time and experience their par-ty elites had in the run-up to the 2014 elections. We therefore expect the Europarties to further professionalize their selection procedures and start the process earlier with more high profile politicians to stand as candidates in 2019. ispartof: Politics and Governance vol:4 issue:1 pages:9-22 status: published

Banks have progressively evolved from being standalone institutions to being subsidiaries of increasingly complex financial conglomerates. We conjecture and provide evidence that the organizational complexity of the family of a bank is a fundamental driver of the business model of the bank itself, as reflected in the management of the bank's own balance sheet. Using micro-data on global banks with branch operations in the United States, we show that branches of conglomerates in more complex families have a markedly lower lending sensitivity to funding shocks. The balance sheet management strategies of banks are very much determined by the structure of the organizations the banks belong to. The complexity of the conglomerate can change the scale of the lending channel for a large global bank by more than 30 percent.

Outsourcing von Softwaredienstleistungen gehört heute zu den wichtigsten und stetig wachsenden Wirtschaftsfaktoren. Outsourcing bietet nicht nur Kosteneinsparungspotenziale, sondern vielmehr auch die Möglichkeit des ad hoc Aufbaus und Zugriffs auf Personalressourcen. Jedoch erfordert Outsourcing eine gute Organisation bzw. ein effizientes Management um auch die gewünschten positiven Ergebnisse zu erzielen. Eine der häufigsten Problemfelder bei Software-Outsourcing sind kulturelle Unterschiede und verschiedene Denkweisen zwischen Auftraggeber und Outsourcing-Dienstleister. Das Bewusstsein darüber gehört zu den kritischen Erfolgsfaktoren einer effizienten Kommunikation und eines effizienten Managements, gleichermaßen wie die passende Organisations- und Teamstruktur auf beiden Seiten. Dieser Artikel stellt einen Erfahrungsbericht aus 10 Jahren Software-Outsourcing zwischen Unternehmen in Österreich und der Ukraine dar und behandelt insbesondere aktuelle und künftige Herausforderungen einer solchen Kooperation.

Etienne Koo Linz, Univ., Master-Arb., 2015

"Globalization is transforming the German manufacturing production model. German manufacturing MNCs are shifting from servicing global demand via exports to a strategy of 'produce where you sell' FDI expansion in emerging global markets. This strategy is generating recursive dynamics that are transforming the demographic and role composition of German home country production locations. This, in turn, poses challenges for the German systems of industrial relations and for industrial policy that are only beginning to be addressed. Overall, the article's take home conceptual message is that contemporary manufacturing globalization processes are recursive: i.e.: actions taken outside of Germany, on all levels, have consequences for -- and involve change in -- organizations and practices within Germany." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

ACLN; International audience; We conduct a case study of the linkages of task organization, human capital accumulation and wages in Morocco, using matched worker-firm data for Electrical-mechanical and Textile-clothing industries. In order to integrate task organization into the interacting processes of workers’ training and remunerations, we assume a recursive model, which is not rejected by our estimates: task organization influences on-the-job training that affects wages. Beyond sector and gender determinants, assignment of workers to tasks and on-the-job training is found to depend on former education and work experience in a broad sense. Meanwhile, participation in on-the-job training is stimulated by being assigned to a team, especially of textile sector and for well-educated workers. Finally, task organization and on-the-job training are found to effect wages.

This paper shows that top management structures in large US firms radically changed since the mid-1980s. While the number of managers reporting directly to the CEO doubled, the growth was driven primarily by functional managers rather than general managers. Using panel data on senior management positions, we explore the relationship between changes in executive team composition, firm diversification, and IT investments - which arguably alter returns to exploiting synergies through corporate-wide coordination by functional managers in headquarters. We find that the number of functional managers closer to the product (product functions i.e., marketing, R&D) increase as firms focus their businesses, while the number of functional managers farther from the product (administrative functions i.e., finance, law, HR) increase with IT investments. Finally, we show that general manager pay decreases as functional managers join the executive team suggesting a shift in activities from general to functional managers - a phenomenon we term functional centralization.

The search for competitive advantage serves as the basis for organizational strategy. This book argues that there are four key sources of competitive advantage and financial success that have not been given the attention they deserve. Firstly, that organizational design and management processes may be strategic resources in their own right. Secondly, that organizational design and management processes can be deployed to create new strategic resources. Thirdly, that managers have begun to think of organizational design and management processes in a proactive way rather than seeing them more passively as necessary facilitators of success. Fourthly, that this new way of looking at organization and management requires a search for new ways of structuring organizational design and managerial processes. These points are driven home through case studies of the Danish firms LEGO Group, Vestas Wind Systems, Coloplast, Chr. Hansen, IC Companys and NKT Flexibles

There are estimates that up to 30% of hospital costs are due to inefficiently coordinated hospital processes. As a result many hospitals have tried to model and to reengineer their business processes. These efforts have very often been abandoned, because the normally constructed total models of hospital processes could hardly cope with the rapid technological and medical progress as well as with changing staff. We discuss approaches for a qualitative and quantitative process modularization which improve the understanding of processes and enables better planned simulations. Various methods are discussed which allow a qualitative modularization on the basis of a disaggregated process graph. To cope with this modularization numerically simple semi-stochastic formulas are developed for the calculation of expected values and variances of cycle times and costs from micro-data up to the modular level. Thus a qualitative as well as quantitative discussion of hospital business processes on the modular level become possible.

The German Federal government has allowed some regions (Approved Local Providers) to be solely responsible for the care of long-term unemployed. The remaining regions had to form Joint Local Agencies, where the local social benefit administrations work together with the local public employment services. We find that despite positive self-selection Approved Local Providers do not perform better than Joint Local Agencies. Even more interestingly, using a unique data set on organisational characteristics we are able to show that the organisational features implemented primarily by Approved Local Providers are positively correlated with the job finding probability of the long-term unemployed. Thus, regions that self-selected into Approved Local Providers seem to have implemented a better organisational structure. However, their relatively poor performance overall compared to Joint Local Agencies suggests that they underestimated the benefits of having the local public employment service merged with the local social benefit administration.

Recent literature on international trade has established that the most productive firms become multinationals. But our data reveal a startling variation in productivity levels of foreign affiliates across the countries in Eastern Europe of the same European multinational parent firms suggesting that not all multinationals transplant their home productivity advantage to the new EU Member States and Emerging Europe. One candidate for this startling difference in productivity levels among foreign affiliates is the ability of European multinationals to transport their business model abroad. This paper examines the conditions under which European multinationals give autonomy to their subsidiaries and delegate authority to them. We also analyse the conditions under which European multinationals transplant their business model to Eastern Europe. We collect original and unique matched parent and affiliate data on the internal organization of 660 German and Austrian parent firms and 2200 of their subsidiaries in Eastern Europe including the former Soviet Union. We test the hypothesis that the ability of European multinationals to transplant their business model to foreign affiliates is determined by the organization of European multinationals on the one hand and the market environment their affiliate firms face in Eastern Europe on the other hand. We show that the business culture of parent firms accounts for about 50 percent of the variation of the organization of subsidiaries, while the market environment of subsidiaries contributes the rest.

Strukturelle Veränderungen der Wettbewerbslandschaft, insbesondere die Deregulierung von Märkten und der rasante technologische Fortschritt, nehmen Einfluss auf die optimale Gestaltung von Wertschöpfungsprozessen. Zwei wesentliche Trends sind beobachtbar: die zunehmende Desintegration von Produktionsprozessen und die Neuinterpretation der Rolle des Kunden im Wertschöpfungsprozess. Im Rahmen von drei empirischen und einer konzeptionellen Analyse werden wesentliche Implikationen für die erfolgreiche Gestaltung von Wertschöpfungsprozessen abgeleitet und erwartete Erfolgswirkungen struktureller Veränderungen entlang der Wertschöpfungskette kritisch reflektiert.

This paper studies the impact of innovation on the organizational structure. The theoretical framework predicts that a larger parental pool of knowledge raises the probability of offshoring. This holds in a national as well as an international context. However, when the producer loses territorial protection, the changeover from non-integration to integration is delayed. Employing data on German firms investing in Eastern Europe finds empirical evidence for the theoretical predictions. The results are robust to different measurements and an instrumental variable regression.