Nicholas Berente University of Georgia Susan Winter National - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Nicholas Berente University of Georgia Susan Winter National Science Foundation University of Maryland - Jan 15, 2013 Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. 1

 Agricultural Revolution ◦ Plow, Land Ownership, Currency ◦ Small Family Farms and Businesses ◦ Independence and Decoupling  Components do not communicate, mutually adjust, and act in concert  Advantages?  Disadvantages?

 Industrial Revolution ◦ Steam Engine, Capital, Transportation, Mobile Labor ◦ Central Factory ◦ Tightly Coupled > Fully Integrated  Express a high degree of responsiveness among their subsystem components (Orton & Weick 1990)  Components communicate, mutually adjust, and act in concert  Advantages?  Disadvantages?

 Digital Revolution/Information Age ◦ Enablers  Information and Communication Technologies  Globalization of Operations ,  Shared Resources ( Databases, Equipment/Sensors) (Winter & Taylor 1996; Child & McGrath 2000) ◦ Flexible, Distributed Organizations ◦ Multiteam Systems ◦ Loosely Coupled  Components partially responsive to each other  Advantages?  Disadvantages?

Loose cou Loose couplin pling: Patterns of Action that are Distinct, or Separate, Yet Still Responsive to Each Other (Orton & Weick 1990) Buffering - Environment (Pfeffer & Salancik 1978) - Decisions (March 1978) - Subsystems (Perrow 1984) - Inspection (Meyer & Rowan 1977)

 Drivers ◦ Unpredictability ◦ Ambiguity ◦ Novelty ◦ Complexity  Distributed Competencies  Challenges ◦ Fragmentation ◦ Inefficiency

 Solutions ◦ Coordination/Integration  Leadership  Standardized Processes  Information Systems  Product Architecture Marks et al. 2005; DeChurch & Marks 2006; Hoegl et al.2004; Argyres 1999; Boland et al. 2007; Baldwin & Clark 2000; Browning 1998; DeChurch & Zaccaro 2010  = Tight Coupling!  Why Would You Want Loose Coupling?

Source: Orton & Weick 1990

Source: Berente & Yoo 2012

 Lifecycle Stage ◦ Forming ◦ Functioning  Degree of Novelty ◦ Novel ◦ Familiar

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 Striking a Balance ◦ Team Independence  Flexibility  Buffering  Innovation ◦ Cross-team Integration  Efficiency  Data to Test This?