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This paper proposes a model of adding relation to a linking pin organization structure where every pair of siblings in a complete binary tree of height H is adjacent such that the communication of information in the organization becomes the most efficient. For a model of adding an edge between a node with a depth M and its descendant with a depth N, we formulated the total shortening distance which is the sum of shortening lengths of shortest paths between every pair of all nodes and obtained an optimal pair of depth (M,N)* which maximizes the total shortening distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical international organizations are formally governed by ministers who have their primary institutional affiliation at the national level. The European Commission, on the other hand, represents a notable organizational innovation in the way that executive politicians at the top, i.e., the commissioners, have their primary institutional affiliation at the international level. Thus, the Commission constitutes a ‘laboratory’ for experiments in supranational institution-building: what is the relative importance of nationality and organizational position with regard to explaining actual decision behaviour? This article takes stock of the existing literature in the field, and also launches a future research agenda. Concerning Commission officials, nationality seems to play a minor role. Nationality matters somewhat more regarding commissioners' behaviour, but makes up only one of several components of their highly compound role, thus making behaviour at the top of the Commission qualitatively different from behaviour in, for example, the European Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-organizing multi-agent systems provide a suitable paradigm for developing autonomic computing systems that manage themselves. Towards this goal, we demonstrate a robust, decentralized approach for structural adaptation in explicitly modeled problem solving agent organizations. Based on self-organization principles, our method enables the autonomous agents tomodify their structural relations to achieve a better allocation of tasks in a simulated task-solving environment. Specifically, the agents reason about when and how to adapt using only their history of interactions as guidance. We empirically show that, in a wide range of closed, open, static, and dynamic scenarios, the performance of organizations using our method is close (70 - 90%) to that of an idealized centralized allocation method and is considerably better (10 - 60%) than the current state-of-the-art decentralized approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A gap exists in knowledge and the observed frequency with which patients with diabetes actually receive treatment for optimal cardiovascular risk reduction. Many interventions to improve quality of care have been targeted at the health systems level and provider organizations. Changes in several domains of care and investment in quality by organizational leaders are needed to make long-lasting improvements. In the studies reviewed, the most effective strategies often have multiple components, whereas the use of one single strategy, such as reminders only or an educational intervention, is less effective. More studies are needed to examine the effect of several care management strategies simultaneously, such as use of clinical information systems, provider financial incentives, and organizational model on processes of care and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How states choose to organize and structure their human service agencies determines to a great extent how state human service systems function and how human services are delivered to clients. Little attention has been paid in the social work administration literature to this obviously important issue. Using data from the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), the authors look at how states have organized their human service systems at three times (1986, 1997, 2006) over a 20-year period. Specifically, the article looks at change and continuity in: 1) the structures and functions of the 50 designated state human service agencies, and (2) preferences for larger centralized umbrella-type agencies versus multiple smaller more specialized human service agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of physical proximity between schedulers and operators within manufacturing firms. In literature, a small distance between interdependent employees is assumed to be a prerequisite for a high level of coordination. This study investigates this assumption empirically for the relationship between scheduling and manufacturing and shows effects of proximity that are only partly in line with literature. Design/methodology/approach – Consequences of relocating the scheduling department within a production firm are studied using a longitudinal case study approach. Data have been collected within three phases: before, three months after, and one year after the relocation. Findings – Findings show that schedulers and operators communicate more face-to-face and less by phone after the relocation, especially during rescheduling. Furthermore, schedulers and operators perceived positive changes in ease of coordination and performance due to the relocation. Research limitations/implications – Scheduling and rescheduling are usually treated in literature as a mathematical puzzle to be solved. The authors do not contest this in itself, but the findings indicate that communication and collaboration are important aspects as well. In the case company, the possible negative aspects of close proximity, such as more interruptions, are offset by the advantages for rescheduling such as fast response and improved quality of communication. As the study was done in only one manufacturing firm, further research is needed to determine what firm characteristics specifically determine the appropriate location of the scheduling department. Practical implications – The paper demonstrates the need to carefully design, manage, and facilitate the interface and critical task interdependencies between scheduling and manufacturing departments. Originality/value – The paper contributes to operations management literature by providing a detailed empirical analysis concerning the effects of physical proximity between schedulers and manufacturing operators, including behavioural and organizational factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paperllghts on the Indian local government past history and mainly local government's administrative system their structure and components and what is vital role and what are principles of local government, the administrative structure how to be working in Indian democracy. India has the world's largest democracy system in the world and now days the democracy system going on successfully and vwy effectively in the country. About six lakhs villages are there in India also 80% peoples (lying at the village level in India. So, in this circumstance the local government's administrative system is the vital key for the infrastructure development, without decentralization power can't give the effective government's quality service delivers to the local people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a model of placing a liaison which forms relations to two members of different levels in a pyramid organization structure such that the communication of information between every member in the organization becomes the most efficient. For the model of adding a node of liaison which gets adjacent to a node with a depth M and its descendant with a depth N in a complete K-ary tree of height H which can describe a pyramid organization structure with K subordinates, we obtained an optimal pair of depth (M,N)* which maximizes the sum of shortening lengths of the shortest paths between every pair of all nodes in the complete K-ary tree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Administração e Inovação (RAI) is the property of Revista de Administracao e Inovacao- RAI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Aim. This paper is a discussion of the derivation of the Nursing Services Delivery Theory from the application of open system theory to large-scale organizations. Background. The underlying mechanisms by which staffing indicators influence outcomes remain under-theorized and unmeasured, resulting in a 'black box' that masks the nature and organization of nursing work. Theory linking nursing work, staffing, work environments, and outcomes in different settings is urgently needed to inform management decisions about the allocation of nurse staffing resources in organizations. Data sources. A search of CINAHL and Business Source Premier for the years 1980-2008 was conducted using the following terms: theory, models, organization, organizational structure, management, administration, nursing units, and nursing. Seminal works were included. Discussion. The healthcare organization is conceptualized as an open system characterized by energy transformation, a dynamic steady state, negative entropy, event cycles, negative feedback, differentiation, integration and coordination, and equifinality. The Nursing Services Delivery Theory proposes that input, throughput, and output factors interact dynamically to influence the global work demands placed on nursing work groups at the point of care in production subsystems. Implications for nursing. The Nursing Services Delivery Theory can be applied to varied settings, cultures, and countries and supports the study of multi-level phenomena and cross-level effects. Conclusion. The Nursing Services Delivery Theory gives a relational structure for reconciling disparate streams of research related to nursing work, staffing, and work environments. The theory can guide future research and the management of nursing services in large-scale healthcare organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Semantic interoperability of mineral exploration geodata is a long-term concern in mining projects. Inconsistent conceptual schemas and heterogeneous professional terms among various geodata sources in a mining project often hinder their efficient use and/or reuse. Our study of a controlled vocabulary focuses on interoperability of mineral exploration geodata of different mining projects of a mining group in China. In order to achieve this purpose, a proper representation of concepts and their inter-relationships in the knowledge domain of mineral exploration for mining projects is proposed. In addition, we propose that for wider interoperability of mining project geodata the controlled vocabulary underpinning them should be interoperable with concepts in related applications in the mineral exploration domain. In developing our controlled vocabulary, we adopted/adapted national standards of geosciences taxonomies and terminologies. The organization structure of terms, coding method, metadata schema for database applications and an extensible structure of our controlled vocabulary are discussed. The controlled vocabulary we developed was then used to reconcile heterogeneous geodata and to set up integrated databases for various mining projects of the mining group. Our study shows that a properly organized controlled vocabulary not only allows for efficient reconciliation of heterogeneous geodata sources in similar or related projects, but also makes related geodata to be interoperable with extramural applications in the same knowledge domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economics / Ekonomija is the property of Rifin d.o.o. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We develop a theoretical perspective on how inconsistencies between formal and informal organization arising from reorganization can help create ambidextrous organizations. We argue that under some conditions, the informal organization can compensate for the formal organization by motivating a distinct but valuable form of employee behavior that the formal organization does not emphasize, and vice versa--an effect we label compensatory fit. We illustrate the concept of compensatory fit by drawing on qualitative data from a reorganization at Cisco Systems. We also derive formal boundary conditions for compensatory fit using a simple game theoretic representation. We show that compensatory fit can only work when there is a powerful informal organization already in existence, and when the gains from ambidexterity are substantial. Further, depending on the strength of the informal organization, breakdown in the conditions necessary for compensatory fit may lead to performance declines and further reorganizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional organizational studies emphasize department groupings and the management style of different organizations that are often based on common tasks, products, geography and processes. They also mainly emphasize the connection between construction supply chain and procurement methods but have not analysed of how external factors shape the organization structure and consequently the supply chain. Three things are analysed: the impact of competitive pressure, required competence and degree of flexibility on various modes of construction organization used for producing multi-family residential housing in Sweden from a transaction cost theory perspective. Organization structures depend on the level of project engagement, competence demanded by the preferred organization mode as well as the economic environment, and the level of construction activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work was aimed to explore the effects of different thawing strategies on the properties of sea bass myofibrillar protein (MP) and organization structure. Results revealed that magnetic nanometer combined with radio frequency thawing (RT-Mag) and magnetic nanometer combined with microwave thawing (MT-Mag) increased the α-helical content and decreased β-sheet content, while RT-Mag had minimal effect on the secondary protein structure. Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance and SEM analysis revealed that RT-Mag and radio frequency thawing (RT) reduced the mobility and loss of immobilized and non-mobile water, had the most compact and ordered network structure. Decreases in the T max and enthalpies were observed in the thawing treatments expect for RT-Mag during the thawing process. The appearance of polymerized protein band of SDS-PAGE indicated that RT-Mag and MT-Mag occurred a mild oxidation. In addition, the changes of particle size indicated that MP pretreated by RT-Mag and MT-Mag had less aggregation and degradation. The UV second derivative showed that the effect of RT-Mag treatment was closer to that of FS, and the improvement effect of protein aggregation and oxidation was better. Therefore, RT-Mag of New thawing method can be used as an alternative method to improve MP performance and meat quality. ● The two new thawing method of RT-Mag and MT-Mag were adopted. ● Protein structure and thermal stability of sea bass thawed by different methods were studied. ● RT-Mag and MT-Mag could improve MP performance and meat quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes two models of adding relations to a linking pin type organization structure where every pair of siblings in a complete K-ary tree of height H is adjacent: (i) a model of adding an edge between two nodes with the same depth N and (ii) a model of adding edges between every pair of nodes with the same depth N. For each of the two models, an optimal depth N* is obtained by maximizing the total shortening path length which is the sum of shortening lengths of shortest paths between every pair of all nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses the establishment and evolution of effective internal communications in pre-IPO start-ups, with a focus on 6 variables: employee communications, organizational structure and culture, public relations and communication models, leadership styles, decision-making approaches, and employee motivation. The qualitative study explores how these variables establish effective internal communications in growing pre-IPO start-ups. In addition, the study provides an ideal internal communications model to guide entrepreneurs in establishing start-ups. The findings also emphasize human resources (HR) as a 7th influential variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the results of a study analyzing the impact of an entrepreneurial company's initial organization on the structure of its reward and incentive systems, using data from entrepreneurial firms in Germany. The results suggest that the educational level of employees has the strongest impact on the application of different financial and nonfinancial rewards. Our findings also suggest that entrepreneurial companies in Germany rarely implement sophisticated financial reward systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Valuable knowledge in organizations is too often ‘locked in’ within one unit. The contribution of this paper is to provide insights into the knowledge-sharing effect of inter-unit coordination mechanisms. This topic has not yet received in-depth study. We fill this gap with a case study of a UK-based multinational, in which we explore knowledge sharing between business units. Data was collected using a questionnaire and interviews. The findings from our study highlight that formal coordination is preferable. Informal networking as an inter-unit coordination mechanism was not perceived as beneficial for knowledge sharing. The knowledge-sharing enablers, trust and knowledge complexity, largely dominated the possibilities for inter-unit knowledge sharing whatever coordination was used. Especially, the perceived knowledge complexity caused problems that could not be fully compensated for by any type of coordination mechanism. The study also highlights the unexpectedly minor role of common knowledge and the only indirect effect of coordination through values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers often see new organizational design as the solution to many problems. This paper explores the relationship between organization structure (design), functioning of organizations, and effectiveness. A study of 320 companies showed that the structural variable, decentralization, marginally affected the way in which organizations function. Functional variables had a minor impact on profitability. No direct relationship between structure and effectiveness was found. When functioning is conceptualized as a mediating factor no direct causality between structure and effectiveness is implied, but a relationship between structure, function and effectiveness. To improve effectiveness, reorganizing is probably not the first option to consider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School districts have made several attempts at decentralizing. However, decentralization in school districts can mean so many different things that the term has nearly lost its meaning. This paper reports a study of three large urban school districts that, over almost 30 years, adopted nearly identical approaches to decentralizing, granting control to principals and expanding freedom of choice for families. In all three cases, the goal of improving student achievement was achieved, although with a very small sample. These three districts are compared to the three largest public districts in North America. The comparisons reveal that the three decentralized districts attained a high level of principal control over school budgets, staffing, schedule, and teaching methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bank may use the private information that it acquires through monitoring to hold up borrowers. This “information monopoly” of the bank may inefficiently distort the borrower’s investment decisions in environments where moral hazard is prevalent. The paper analyses how this problem is resolved within bank-firm relationships. In the benchmark case when the bank can contractually commit to future actions, the optimal contract turns out to be ambiguous in nature. When commitment contracts cannot be written, firms have an incentive to develop multiple banking relationships in order to decrease the “inside” banks’ bargaining power. However, with costly monitoring, this may defeat the initial purpose for contracting with a financial intermediary, namely information production. The paper argues that when contractual commitment is not feasible, bank size may serve as an alternative commitment device that prevents the bank from holding up borrowers in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past half-century, the study of organizations has been an active area within sociology. I provide an overview of the emergence of this specialty during the second half of the twentieth century, its relation to the larger field of organiza-tion studies, and the important theoretical advances associated with the adoption of an open system framework during the 1960s. Among the recent trends I describe are changes in our conceptions of organization boundaries, strategies, and controls, and the beginning of a shift from an entity-based to a process-based view of organiza-tion. Evidence of success--the number of sociologists now employed in professional schools--simultaneously raises concerns about the source of future organizational sociologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information technology is providing manufacturers with additional flexibility with regard to their supply chain network choices. Our research studies supply chain network organization structures categorized by the organic and mechanistic management control structures. The structural impacts on cost and fill rate performance are studied in two-echelon and two-supply-chain network organization models under different market coordination conditions using system dynamic simulations. Our results show significant effects of demand and network structural factors, and their interactions, on these measures. As demand becomes dynamic, the cooperative interaction model, where supply chains cooperate to satisfy customer demand, is found to have better system performance than the competitive supply chain model. The analysis also suggests that increasing the responsiveness at the downstream plant is particularly important to the overall system performance improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes a study of how three multi-unit service organizations cope with contingent problems in the context of contrasting strategy and structure configurations. The study examines the role of the multi-unit manager through the medium of communication. Six communication variables are measured through a diary method. Both organizational and individual variables were measured. Although the organizations could be differentiated by two communication variables most of the variance was accounted for by the human capital of the multi-unit managers. The portrait than emerges is of a rather messy role which has the task of containing uncertainty and preventing it from rising up the hierarchy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study tests marketing theory concerning market orientation in the context of the chartered surveying industry. Using data collected in a mail survey from 179 UK general practice chartered surveying firms, it is found that firms with more risk tolerant senior managers and more formalized and specialized marketing organization structures have higher levels of market orientation. The data indicate also that market orientation positively impacts firms' business and marketing performance, and that this relationship is robust across different environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of public organizations have long been interested in understanding how organizational structures shape organizational performance. This is an important question because if links between structure and performance exist, then manipulating organizational structures may lead to improvements in organizational performance. This study examines how one structural attribute, span of control, shapes performance in a large set of public organizations. Specifically, our focus is on how structure shapes performance when task difficulty varies. We hypothesize that structural attributes such as spans of control have limited effects on performance when organizations address very easy or very difficult tasks. When organizations address moderately difficult tasks, the impact of structure on performance should be greatest. Our analysis of 678 school districts in Texas covering the years 1994 to 1997 reveals that span of control variables have the greatest impact on student performance under moderately difficult task scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational theories frequently rely on notions of sharing and dependence among organizational participants, but researchers usually focus on characteristics of the actors themselves instead of the relational patterns among the actors. Loose coupling is one conceptual tool that emphasizes relational patterns. Loose coupling, however, is an abstract metaphor that is simultaneously fertile and ambiguous. This paper develops a rigorous and comprehensive framework that sharpens the theoretical contributions of loose coupling to our understanding of structural relationships. Characteristics of loose coupling capture some important and underexplored features of multidimensional fit and interdependence in organizations. The proposed framework clarifies these theoretical contributions of loose coupling with concepts and equations modified from network analysis. Testable hypotheses are proposed with respect to three key independent variables that may affect patterns of coupling: organization strategy, technology, and environmental turbulence. Additional hypotheses are advanced with respect to the use of the multidimensional approach to loose coupling in studying new organizational forms. Initial psychometric and empirical evidence are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing globalization of business, there has been growing interest in how to create and manage a successful international enterprise. Although researchers and practitioners have grappled with the issue of globalization for some time, there is no one model that encompasses the range of phenomena we observe in the global economy, nor have those models that do exist been precisely formalized. This paper provides an expanded approach to thinking about the organizational forms and linkages that exist in international business operations. Building on the popular integration-responsiveness framework of international strategic orientation, we develop a more expansive approach that is better able to account for the diversity of organizational forms and strategic choices open to managers. By adding a third set of environmental pressures, incorporating the beliefs of managers, and by employing the idea of efficient frontiers, we reformulate the integration-responsiveness framework, making it more consistent with modern economic models of the firm. Our integration-responsiveness- completeness (IRC) model argues that global firms can respond to these fundamental and competing pressures by configuring themselves in a variety of ways--rather than normatively prescribing that the transnational form is optimal. In addition, our model has methodological ramifications. Its formal structure suggests that empirical techniques that focus on the best rather than average performance are necessary to adequately investigate the performance differences among alternative organizational forms. This may explain the paradoxical lack of empirical support for a link between organizational form and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As aerospace and defense companies compete for scarcer contracts at fixed costs, they have been compelled to recognize that manufacturing efficiency is central to their competitive position. Companies that can […]

Industrial engineers are great at solving problems. Ironically enough, there is still one age-old problem they are unable to solve -- identity. And the problem is not getting any easier […]