Enhancing Organizational Performance (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 1-10
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Although research approaches in this field are still in their infancy and need to be further developed and validated, the field is fertile ground for greater understanding of organizations, organizational performance, and organizational change broadly conceived. ENHANCING PERFORMANCE THROUGH CONSTRUCTIVE CHANGE Organizations through the ages have been characterized by a tension between the forces of stability and the need for change.
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Only the earlier Industrial Revolution and the more gradual mechanization of agriculture were comparable in their magnitude of change and ramifying societal effects. The driving force of these changes is technological and primarily involves information technology.
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The committee's charge is similar in approach to that which guided its previous work on individual and team performance: to summarize current knowledge in the field but not to focus specifically on the military. Elaborating its charge to the committee, the sponsor noted that the Army is cognizant of its own organizational features; of more use to it would be a summary and explication of the wider organizational literature in a way that is accessible to the informed but not specialized reader.
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The types of performance covered in those previous studies include individual performance, such as the execution of learned motor, cognitive, and social skills; performance as changed mental or emotional states; team performance and cohesion; joint decision making; and coordination. We continue to focus on these types of performance here.
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NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE The diverse and fragmentary nature of the research evidence available to us has important implications for what we can say about organizational performance. Studies of factors that may influence organizational performance include laboratory simulations, field studies, comparative and organization-specific surveys, and descriptive accounts of organizational processes and interventions.
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In still other areas in which there is very little published research, such as on new organizational forms, the committee relied primarily on its collective informed judgment. Another problem is the differing levels of analysis of studies on organizational performance.
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Similarly, experimental findings on the way people resolve conflicts in negotiating or mediating roles contribute to an understanding of the sorts of contact skills needed to meet the challenges of peacekeeping missions. When used in conjunction with nonexperimental analyses of the broad contexts within which organizations function, these studies help to elucidate the factors that may lead to effective collaborations or missions.
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Developing theory and doing research on these relationships should take priority in any research agenda on organizational performance. In carrying out research on interventions, such as total quality management, a primary challenge is the development of precise and bounded measures of effectiveness.
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PART I Organizational Responses to Environmental Change
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