| Titre : | Hierarchical structure and search in complex organizations (2010) |
| Auteurs : | Jürgen Mihm, Auteur ; Christoph H. Loch, Auteur ; Dennis Wilkinson, Auteur |
| Type de document : | Article : texte imprimé |
| Dans : | Management science (Vol. 56 N° 5, Mai 2010) |
| Article en page(s) : | pp. 831-848 |
| Note générale : | Management |
| Langues : | Anglais |
| Index. décimale : | 658 (Organisation des entreprises. Techniques du commerce) |
| Tags : | Search Complexity Oscillations Coordination Decentralized problem solving Hierarchy |
| Résumé : | Organizations engage in search whenever they perform nonroutine tasks, such as the definition and validation of a new strategy, the acquisition of new capabilities, or new product development. Previous work on search and organizational hierarchy has discovered that a hierarchy with a central decision maker at the top can speed up problem solving, but possibly at the cost of solution quality compared with results of a decentralized search. Our study uses a formal model and simulations to explore the effect of an organizational hierarchy on solution stability, solution quality, and search speed. Three insights arise on how a hierarchy can improve organizational search: (1) assigning a lead function that “anchors” a solution speeds up problem solving; (2) local solution choice should be delegated to the lowest level; and (3) structure matters little at the middle management level, but it matters at the front line; front-line groups should be kept small. These results highlight the importance for every organization of adapting its hierarchical structure to its search requirements. |
| DEWEY : | 658 |
| ISSN : | 0025-1909 |
| En ligne : | http://mansci.journal.informs.org/content/56/5.toc |
