Organizational Linkages Understanding the Productivity Paradox (1994) / Chapter Skim
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3 INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY: LINKAGES AND PROCESSES
3 INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY: LINKAGES AND PROCESSES
Pages 54-80
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From page 54... ...
What is the nature of the linkages between indi This chapter addresses the nature of linkages between vidual and organizational levels of productivity that facilitate or inhibit changes at one level being transferred to another level? How do changes in individual productivity contribute to organizational productivity?
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From page 55... ...
While measures of partial factor productivity are useful in certain contexts, they provide an incomplete picture for this analysis. Thus, the focus of this chapter is total factor productivity and how changes in individual productivity can contribute to total factor productivity.
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From page 56... ...
We selected these dimensions because they should help to explain how changes in individual productivity can contribute to changes in organizational productivity. In the closing section on research opportunities, we speculate about how our analysis of these dimensions may apply to other linkage dimensions (e.g., social linkages)
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From page 57... ...
Our first proposition, then, is as follows: · Forms of interdependence moderate the extent to which changes in individual productivity affect organizational productivity. The connections between changes in individual and organizational productivity are stronger in organizations with uncoupled systems or pooled forms of interdependence.
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From page 58... ...
ANALYSIS As discussed in Chapter 2, two logical conditions may explain why interventions at the individual level do not contribute to organizational changes. First, interventions may be introduced at the individual level, but no change, a marginal change, or only a temporary change in productivity results.
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From page 59... ...
From this concept of intrarole linkages, our third proposition is as follows: · If an intervention increases individual productivitys in a given subtask but has a negative impact on productivity in other subtasks, the probability is low that the changes will contribute to changes in organizational productivity. A study by Kraut et al.
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Our fourth proposition is as follows: · If an intervention increases individual productivity in a subtask but that leads to increases in the level of slacks in the role or broader production systems, the probability that the changes will contribute to changes in organizational productivity is low. The slack concept can be illustrated in the context ofthe U.S.
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Thus, our fifth proposition is as follows: · If an intervention increases individual productivity in periph
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Our sixth proposition is as follows: · If an intervention increases productivity in a given role but negatively affects productivity in other roles, the probability that the intervention will contribute to positive changes in organizational productivity is Tow. The Kraut et al.
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From page 63... ...
Constraints along this flow can reduce the impact of any productivity increases. For example, if the automation section increases productivity by processing mail in less time but the mailhandling or delivery system cannot handle the increased mail processing rate, the increases in the automation section will create excess inventory and slack and should not increase productivity at the facility level.
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From page 64... ...
Interrole Linkages and Core ant] Peripheral Activities 1: Our fifth proposition, presented in the discussion of intrarole linkages, states that if an intervention increases individual productivity in peripheral activities, the probability that the changes will contribute to organizational productivity is low.
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From page 65... ...
accelerate the effect of individual productivity on organizational productivity. Inhibitors can be identified by focusing on the individual level and asking what factors at that level prevent productivity increases from increasing productivity at other levels?
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Our eighth proposition is as follows: · Individual productivity contributes to organizational productiv ity when (1) the five processes of coordination, problem solving, focus of attention, organizational evolution, and motivation are operative and (2)
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Fifth, the fact that downtime in any subsystem of the lean production system shuts down the total system further affects process requirements. When downtime occurs, specific processes are needed, such as a fast and effective problem-solving process.
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For example, highly productive lean production systems tend to provide employment security and reduced status barriers. Employment security can directly affect motivation and commitment to the organization.
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High-productivity lean production exhibits coordination and problem-solving activities that fit the linkage conditions, places a focus of attention on productivity improvement, possesses qualities of high motivation and commitment, and implements evolutionary processes to create structural improvements over time. Example2: Gain Sharing In this section we use gain-sharing programs to illustrate how organizational interventions can affect individual and organizational productivity.
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From page 70... ...
It advocates tapping the knowledge base of labor and management joint problem solving through shared information leads to productivity improvements. The committee structure exists to generate and evaluate productivity-related suggestions and to coordinate intra- and interdepartmental activities.
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The focus-of-attention mechanisms also keep the focus on organizational productivity and direct organizational evolution along the lines of organizational productivity improvement. The Scanlon plan also stimulates the two other processes that enable changes in individual productivity to contribute to organizational productivity coordination and problem solving.
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From page 72... ...
These concepts and analytic steps are also tools for explaining and predicting the relationship between individual and organizational productivity. In this section we integrate the major concepts and analytic steps for creating organizational conditions that enable changes in individual productivity to contribute to organizational productivity.
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From page 73... ...
For example, as linkage complexity increases, so does the probability of the existence of inhibitors to the relationship between individual and organizational productivity. Remova/ of Inhibitors In an earlier section, we identified a set of inhibitors, including the following: · negative consequences for some objects that are linked to operations or other objects that have achieved increases in productivity; · slack-the inability to use excess resources to reduce inputs or increase other outputs; · constraints the inability to absorb increases in productivity from a prior linked operation; and · focusing productivity improvements on peripheral, rather than core, tasks.
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From page 74... ...
The processes are important because they can remove inhibitors, create the conditions necessary for individual productivity to have an effect on organizational productivity, or accelerate the effect of individual productivity on organizational productivity. We view the processes (and the identification of inhibitors)
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Organizational Evolution The process of organizational evolution can accelerate the effect of individual productivity on organizational productivity by performing two functions. First, it can focus on learning and change over time.
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We conceive of the process of organizational evolution as creating continuous cycles of change whereby individual change contributes to organizational productivity, which in turn creates more individual productivity changes. The second function of organizational evolution is that it focuses on structural change.
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can be used to examine why increases in individual productivity do not contribute to increases in organizational productivity. In our analysis we treated the concepts one at a time, but their interactions have yet to be explained.
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For example, we have argued that slack created through individual productivity increases can inhibit subsequent increases in organizational productivity. We also argued that organizational evolution is a necessary process for enabling changes at the individual level to appear at the organizational level.
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From page 79... ...
Would the five facilitative processes influence quality in the same way we have hypothesized productivity changes are transferred from the individual to the organizational level? REFERENCES Goodman, P.S., and B
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