Abstract
Now the underlying theory of this work will be introduced. According to the research questions not only the early warning behavior of CEOs of medium-sized companies has to be assessed in general but also factors that influence this behavior have to be analyzed. Therefore, in the following the contingency theory which aims to explain organizational structure and design by considering contextual variables will be presented. First, the classical approach will be explained, followed by its extension. Then, the criticism of the contingency theory is presented and discussed. After that, it will be discussed whether this theory is appropriate to answer the research questions. In part four, the research model and its variables will be deduced by combining the classical approach of the contingency theory and its extension with the model of DAFT and WEICK. Finally, in part five the state of empirical research will be presented.
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References
See Weber (2006).
See Taylor (1998).
“[I]t must be admitted that [Weber’s] conceptualization in terms of ideal types... presents many difficulties to the research worker.... [T]he main problem for the researcher has been how to use Weberian concepts in analysis with data on real functioning organization.” Pugh, Hickson, Hinings, MacDonald, Turner and Lupton (1963), p. 293f.
See Staehle (1973), p. 30. For further also theoretically based critics of Weber’s theory see Bennis (1971), p. 436f.
“It appeared that different technologies imposed different kinds of demands on... organizations, and that these demands had to be met through an appropriate form of organization.” Woodward (1975), p. 16. See also Woodward (1980) p. 247f.
Burns and Stalker for example analyzed the influence of dynamics of the environment on the organizational structure. See Burns and Stalker (1961), p. 19ff.
See Kieser and Kubicek (1992), p. 61f.
Child (1973), p. 237.
Parallels between the contingency approach and the biological evolutionary theory exist. “The idea is an elaboration of the biologist’s functionalist view of the adaptation of living forms to their environment. For example, elephants have trunks to enable them to feed from their great height, and apes have prehensile fingers and toes to enable them to swing from trees. Contingency theory indicates the kinds of structure that may be appropriate responses to each of several different organizational contexts or situations.” Khandwalla (1977), p. 237.
See Breilmann (1990), p. 2.
See Gerdin and Greve (2004), p. 307 and Donaldson (1996), p. 57ff.
Pugh, Hickson, Hinings and Turner (1968), p. 65.
See Hickson, Hinings and Turner (1968) Ibid., p. 72ff.
See Child (1975) and Burns and Stalker (1961).
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See Hickson, Pugh and Pheysey (1969), Child and Mansfield (1972) and Woodward (1975).
For an overview of possible contingency variables see Kieser and Kubicek (1992), p. 224 and Kieser (1999), p. 175.
See Gerdin and Greve (2004), p. 304ff.
Ibid., p. 304.
See Burns and Stalker (1961). See also Lawrence and Lorsch (1967), Bourgeois, McAllister and Mitchel (1978) and Argote (1982).
See Rushing (1966) and Pugh, Hickson, Hinings and Turner (1969).
See Woodward (1975). Other contingency variables were considered as well. For example Chandler analyzed the history of the 70 largest organisations of the United States. See Chandler (1966). He found out that the decentralized multidivisional structure was depending on the growth strategy of the organisation. A decentralized multidivisional structure was wide-spread for organizations in pursuit of a diversification strategy. The opposite was true for organizations pursuing a growth strategy within one single industry. This was later validated by Fouraker and Stopford. See Fouraker and Stopford (1968).
See Mintzberg (1979), p. 299.
Ibid., p. 300.
The assumption of a limited number of structural types is in line with the Darwinistic view. “[S]pecies at any one period are not indefinitely variable, and are not linked together by a multitude of intermediate gradations, partly because the process of natural selection will always be very slow and will act, at any one time, only on a very few forms; and partly because the very process of natural selection almost implies the continual supplanting and extinction of preceding and intermediate gradations.” Darwin (1968), p. 231.
See Mintzberg (1979), p. 305ff.
See Miller and Friesen (1984), p. 31ff.
Miles and Snow (1978), p. 35.
See Gerdin and Greve (2004), p. 306.
See Lawrence and Lorsch (1967), p. 186.
“The organizational setting limits and influences people’s behavior[.]” Payne and Pugh (1976), p. 1126. See also Breilmann (1990), p. 16 and Lawrence and Lorsch (1967), p. 17.
For an overview of effect of the organizational structure on the individual see Kieser and Kubicek (1992), p. 422f.
Adapted from Kubicek (1992) ibid, p. 61.
See Silverman (1968), p. 223.
See Child and Mansfield (1972).
See Mansfield (1972) Ibid., Hrebiniak and Joyce (1985) and Hrebiniak and Einhorn (1990).
Lorsch, in Child (1984), p. 7.
Child (1972), p. 13.
See Miles (1975), p. 31ff., DiMaggio and Powell (1983) and Meyer and Rowan (1977).
See Breilmann (1990), p. 105ff., Hambrick and Brandon (1988), p. 3f. and Baligh, Burton and Obel (1990), p. 35ff.
See Montanari (1979).
See Breilmann (1990), p. 175ff. for an overview of the most important empirical studies about the influence of the individual on the organizational structure.
Kets de Vries and Miller (1984), p. 1 (format of source not adopted). See also Romanelli and Tushman (1988), p. 129ff.
See Lang von Wins (2004), p. 29ff., Brandstätter (1997), p. 168ff., Eisenhardt and Schoonhoven (1990), p. 520f. and Rauch and Frese (2000), p. 130ff.
See Bobbitt and Ford (1980), p. 13ff.
See Meyer and Starbuck (1992), p. 102ff.
See Stopford and Baden-Fuller (1990).
See Dale (1962) and Clee and Sachtjen (1964).
See Channon (1973), p. 76 and Mayer (1974), p. 187.
See Sloan (1963).
See Greenwood (1974).
In addition, researcher also analyzed the influence of CEOs’ beliefs and values on organizational design. See Hambrick and Brandon (1988), Meyer and Starbuck (1992) and Baligh, Burton and Obel (1990).
Lewin and Stephens (1994), p. 189. See also Rokeach (1968), p. 82ff.
See Bass, Barnett and Brown (1989), p. 184 and Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), p. 5 and 21ff.
See Robinson, Shaver and Wrightsman (1991) in Lewin and Stephens (1994), p. 189.
See Miller, Kets de Vries and Toulouse (1982), Miller and Dröge (1986), Miller and Toulouse (1986) and Miller, Dröge and Toulouse (1988).
Miller and Dröge (1986), p. 539.
Miller, Dröge and Toulouse (1988), p. 544.
See Miller and Dröge (1986). For a detailed explanation of this attitude see D 2.3.
See Miller, Kets de Vries and Toulouse (1982), p. 244ff. For a detailed explanation of this attitude see D 2.1.
See Burns and Stalker (1961), p. 34f.
Lewin and Stephens (1994), p. 185.
Daft and Lewin (1990), p. 3. Other researchers employ the term organizational design as a synonym to organizational structure. See Galbraith (1977), p. 5ff.
Lewin and Stephens (1994), p. 183f. Nevertheless, they still consider the environment to be a fundamental contingency factor influencing organizational design.
Ibid., p. 190.
Ibid., p. 190.
For a detailed overview see Krohmer (1999), p. 44f.
See Schreyögg (1978), p. 6.
See Child and Mansfield (1972), p. 369.
See also Pennings (1992), p. 274.
See Brown (1978), p. 378.
See Smiricich (1983).
See Silverman (1968).
See Kieser (1999), p. 170.
For an example of such a procedure see Burns and Stalker (1961), p. 94f. Within this context two points have to be differentiated: 1) the reason of systematic relations and 2) the statistical explanation for them. A high correlation does not automatically imply a high degree of scientific explanation because variables that are statistically highly correlating can be independent from a scientific point of view. Therefore, a systematic check of statistical correlation is indispensable. See Rasch, Friese, Hofmann and Naumann (2004), p. 118.
See Frese (1992), p. 191.
See Otley (1980), p. 419.
See Child, Ganter and Kieser (1987), p. 87.
See Köhl, Esser, Kemmner and Förster (1989), p. 252f. and Schultz-Wild, Nuber, Rehberg and Schmierl (1989), p. 172ff.
See Hickson, Hinings, McMillan and Schwitter (1964).
See Clegg and Dunkerly (1980), p. 433ff., Clegg (1981), p. 545 and Benson (1977), p. 10.
See for example Miller and Dröge (1986) and Miller, Dröge and Toulouse (1988). For an overview of such studies see Breilmann (1990), p. 175ff.
See Kieser and Kubicek (1992), p. 223.
Lewin and Stephens (1994), p. 187.
Ibid., p. 188.
See Stephens (1994) Ibid., p. 188.
See Stephens (1994) Ibid., p. 202. See Kiesler and Sproull (1982), p. 556 for scanning as a specialized form of information processing.
See Gerdin and Greve (2004), p. 322 and Donaldson (2001), p. 141ff. Yasai-Ardekani and Nystrom also followed this approach for their analysis of the contingency theory in the context of scanning. See Yasai-Ardekani and Nystrom (1996).
See Burns and Stalker (1961), Child (1975), Bourgeois, McAllister and Mitchel (1978), Argote (1982) and Lawrence and Lorsch (1967).
See Aguilar (1967), Daft, Sormunen and Parks (1988), Sawyerr (1993), Auster and Choo (1993), Yasai-Ardekani and Nystrom (1996), Elenkov (1997) and May, Stewart and Sweo (2000).
See Yasai-Ardekani and Nystrom (1996), p. 198.
See Aguilar (1967), Daft, Sormunen and Parks (1988), Sawyerr (1993), Yasai-Ardekani and Nystrom (1996) and Elenkov (1997).
See Yasai-Ardekani and Nystrom (1996).
See Hambrick (1981), p. 305, Hambrick (1982), p. 163, Farh, Hoffmann and Hegarty (1984), p. 203, Daft, Sormunen and Parks (1988), p. 125 and Elenkov (1997), p. 293.
See Aldrich and Herker (1977), p. 218ff.
See Aguilar (1967), p. 63f.
See Ibid., p. 64f., Elenkov (1997), p. 294 and Daft, Sormunen and Parks (1988), p. 126.
See Aguilar (1967), p. 64, Culnan (1983), Rhyne (1985), p. 323 and Daft, Sormunen and Parks (1988), p. 126 and Elenkov (1997), p. 294.
See Aguilar (1967), p. 65, Kefalas and Schoderbek (1973), p. 66 and Smeltzer, Fann and Nikolaisen (1988), p. 60.
Own compilation. A similar overview is provided by Aguilar (1967), p. 66.
See Yasai-Ardekani and Nystrom (1996), p. 189.
See Nystrom (1996) Ibid., p. 189f. and Choudhury and Sampler (1997), p. 27f.
Daft and Weick (1984), p. 293.
Only the possibility of a change in the environment is interpreted to be a threat or an opportunity is analyzed in related studies. See Mintzberg, Raisinghani and Théorêt (1976), Nutt (1984), Dutton and Duncan (1987) and Thomas and McDaniel (1990). Additionally, Martins and Kambil analyze a personal bias in managers’ interpretation of new information technology. See Martins and Kambil (1999). See also Dentson, Dutton, Kahn and Hart (1996), Sharma (2000) and Gioia and Thomas (1996).
Daft and Weick (1984), p. 285.
For a detailed presentation of internal models see Schäffer (2001), p. 107ff.
Johnson-Laird (1983), p. 3f. “Like a pane of glass framing and subtly distorting our vision, mental models determine what we see.” Senge (1992), p. 235. See also Kim (1993), p. 39.
Senge (1992), p. 8. See also Krieg (1971), p. 81.
See Weber, Grothe and Schäffer (2000), p. 241.
See Daft and Weick (1984), p. 286.
See Herzhoff (2004), p. 162. For the importance of this instrument see Leemhuis (1985), Schoemaker (1995) and Tessun (1997).
See Yasai-Ardekani and Nystrom (1996), p. 194.
See Lewin and Stephens (1994), p. 188.
Tushman and Nadler (1978), p. 614.
See Galbraith (1977).
See Leifer and Huber (1976).
See Aguilar (1967), Auster and Choo (1993), May, Stewart and Sweo (2000) and McGee and Sawyerr (2003).
See Daft, Sormunen and Parks (1988), Sawyerr (1993) and Elenkov (1997).
See Yasai-Ardekani and Nystrom (1996), p. 196.
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(2007). Contingency Theory as an Approach to Explain Early Warning Behavior. In: A Contingency-Based View of Chief Executive Officers’ Early Warning Behavior. Gabler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8350-5504-9_3
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