Emergence of strategic direction, organizational structure and employee integration : a framework for the Dialectic Organization

[摘要] The main objective of this thesis is to develop a system dynamics model of organizational change. The Organizational Studies, Strategic Management and System Dynamic fields will be reviewed, concluding that there are gaps in the extant literature: none of them has been successful in defining the minimum set of processes and variables required to characterize organizational change. Through an exploratory study using a comparative-case study analysis, it was found that, on the one hand, under low requirements for change (i.e. stable organizational-environment fit), organizations tend to increase their inertia (i.e. tend to be more bureaucratic). On the other hand under high requirements for change (i.e. unstable organizational-environment fit), organizations tend to try to reduce their inertia (i.e. increasing their ability to change), as a way to adapt themselves to the environment. Through an analysis of previous simulation models of the organization and environment interface, it was found that the inertia-performance relationship follows an inverted U-shape. When this relationship is included in current models of organizational change, they become highly instable. Through the development of a system dynamics model, it was found that the stability of the system is achieved through the inclusion of two additional sectors: employee motivation and employee integration. Thus, this exploratory study establishes that apparently three main processes are required, as a minimum, to characterize organizational change: the emergence of strategic direction, the emergence of organizational structure and the emergence of employee integration. Within this view, the organization could be seen as a double-edged reduction of complexity system: on the one hand the organization needs to reduce the complexity of the environment in order to create an ;;internal order;;. But on the other hand, it needs to reduce the complexity of the employees in order to motivate them to participate in its internal processes. We define this system as a ;;Dialectic Organization;;.

[发布机构] Massachusetts Institute of Technology