The Tyranny of the SBU of the Firm in Competence Perspective

The new terms of competitive engagement cannot be understood using analytical tools devised to manage the diversified corporation of 20 years ago, when competition was prima- rily domestic (GE versus Westinghouse, Gen- eral Motors versus Ford) and all the key play- ers were speaking the language of the same business schools and consultancies. Old

Developing Strategic Architecture of the Firm in Competence Perspective

The fragmentation of core competencies be-comes inevitable when a diversified com-pany’s information systems, patterns of com-munication, career  paths, managerial rewards, and processes of strategy develop- ment do not transcend SBU lines. We believe that senior management should spend a sig- nificant amount of its time developing a cor-poratewide strategic architecture that estab- lishes objectives

Developing Strategic Architecture of the Firm in Competence Perspective

The idea that top management should develop a corporate strategy for acquiring and deploying core competencies is relatively new in most U.S. companies. There are a few exceptions. An early convert was Trinova (previously Libbey Owens Ford), a Toledobased corporation, which enjoys a worldwide position in power and motion controls and engineered plastics. One

Redeploying to Exploit Competencies in Corporation

If the company’s core competencies are its critical resource and if top management must ensure that competence carriers are not held hostage by some particular business, then it follows that SBUs should bid for core compe- tencies in the same way they bid for capital. We’ve made this point glancingly. It is impor- tant

The relational view: Sources of relational rents

1. Theoretical Discussion By examining the relevant characteristics of arm’s-length market relationships, we find clues that guide our search for relational advantages. Arm’s-length market relationships are charac- terized by nonspecific asset investments, minimal information exchange (i.e., prices act as coordinating devices by signaling all relevant information to buyers and sellers), separable technological and functional

The relational view: Mechanisms that preserve relational rents

An explanation of how firms generate relational rents necessarily requires an explanation of why competing firms do not simply imitate the partnering behavior, thereby eliminating any competitive advantages that might be gained through collaboration. There are a variety of isolating mechanisms that preserve the rents generated by alliance partners. First, it is important to

Comparing the relational RBV, and industry structure views

Although an individual firm’s ability to work effectively with other firms may be classified as a firm-specific capability (which may generate relational rents), there is value in distinguishing a relational view, which offers a distinct, but complementary, view on how firms generate rents. A relational view considers the dyad/ network as the unit of

Decision-making and the execution of organizational decisions

It is clear that the actual physical task of carrying out an organization’s objectives falls to the persons at the lowest level of the administrative hierarchy. The automobile, as a physical object, is built not by the engineer or the executive, but by the mechanic on the assembly line. The fire is extinguished, not by

Choice and behavior of organizations

All behavior involves conscious or unconscious selection of particular actions out of all those which are physically possible to the actor and to those persons over whom he exercises influence and authority. The term “selection” is used here without any implication of a conscious or deliberate process. It refers simply to the fact that,

Value and fact in organizational decision

A great deal of behavior, and particularly the behavior of individuals within administrative organizations, is purposive—oriented toward goals or objectives. This purposiveness brings about an integration in the pattern of behavior, in the absence of which administration would be meaningless; for, if administration consists in “getting things done” by groups of people, purpose provides

Decision-making in the administrative of organizations process

Administrative activity is group activity. Simple situations are familiar where a man plans and executes his own work; but as soon as a task grows to the point where the efforts of several persons are required to accomplish it this is no longer possible, and it becomes necessary to develop processes for the application

Modes of organizational influence

Decisions reached in the higher ranks of the organization hierarchy will have no effect upon the activities of operative employees unless they are communicated downward. Consideration of the process requires an examination of the ways in which the behavior of the operative employee can be influenced. These influences fall roughly into two categories: (1)

The equilibrium of the organization

The question may next be raised why the individual accepts these organi- zational influences—why he accommodates his behavior to the demands the organization makes upon him. To understand how the behavior of tion, it is necessary to study the relation between the personal motivation of the individual and the objectives toward which the activity

Organization and personality

In recent years, organizations have not had a good press. Large organizations, especially large corporations and Big Government, have been blamed for all manner of social ills, including widespread “alienation” of both workers and executives from their work and from society, with resulting “bureaucracy” and organizational inefficiency. As we shall see later, the empirical

Meaning of the term “organization”

The tendency to downplay organizational factors in executive behavior stems from misunderstanding of the term “organization.” To many persons, an organization is embodied in charts or elaborate manuals of job descriptions and formal procedures. In such charts and manuals the organization takes on more the appearance of a series of orderly cubicles following an

Organizations and markets

One cannot discuss organizations as coordinators of human action without referring to another powerful coordinating mechanism in modem societies: markets. In fact, the currently popular denigration of organizations is the obverse face to the acclamation of markets as the ideal mechanism for economic and social integration. The dissolution of the Soviet Union was widely

Organizational decision-making and the computer

The first edition of this book was published shortly after the first modern electronic computer came into the world and some years before it found even the most prosaic applications in management. In spite of the extensive use of computers in organizations today, we still live pretty much in the horseless carriage stage of

Vertical decision-making: the anatomy of the organizational decision process

Chapter I refers to “vertical” specialization: the division of decision-making duties between operative and supervisory personnel. The chapter also notes that the subdivision of decision-making into components goes much farther than this. Any important decision is based on numerous facts (or suppositions of fact) as well as numerous values, side conditions, and constraints. We

The sociology and psychology of organizations

The question is sometimes asked whether an analysis of organizations in terms of decision-making processes is “sociological” or “psychological.” The question is a bit odd; it is like asking whether molecular biology is biology or chemistry. The correct answer in either case is “both.” This book analyzes organizations in terms of the decision-making behavior

Developments in organizations and their theory

A major function of the commentaries appended to the chapters of this edition is to discuss the changes in organizations and the changes in different matter from changes in organizations, and the former might occur even if there were none of the latter (or vice versa). In any event, we need to distinguish the