Promoting collaboration: the role of relational multiplexity in an interorganizational health justice network

Organizations need to collaborate to achieve complex goals. Although interorganizational relations often take the form of multiplex ties, our understanding of how multiplexity itself may facilitate interorganizational collaboration is limited. We use dynamic network analysis (SIENA) to test the role of relational multiplexity – specifically, relationships involving communication outside of coalition meetings and expertise-seeking – in promoting collaboration in a health justice coalition over three years. The results offer strong support for the role of multiplexity in the formation of interorganizational collaboration, indicating that having multiple ties between organizations facilitates collaboration, and that certain types of ties (i.e. communication relationships outside of coalition meetings) are more influential than others. We conclude that coalitions hoping to support successful interorganizational collaboration will benefit from offering opportunities for member organizations to communicate outside of group meetings, because such small acts of dyadic interaction can build into deeper levels of engagement. Additionally, our study demonstrates how network analysis can help organizational coalitions to track and suggest potential partnerships between member organizations.     

Network dynamics of interorganizational cooperation: the Croatian civil society movement

Throughout the world, social cause organizations and independent media organizations work together, despite their differences and competition with each other for resources, toward creating civil society. This paper assesses the network dynamics of a system of cooperative competitors in Croatia. The research is framed from the theoretical perspectives of resource dependency, cooperation competition, and structural holes with results that describe the roles of various organizations in the development of civil society. Network relationships are described among 18 civil society organizations from their initial participation in the Croatian transformation in the year 2000 to a democratic nation to two years later. Results identify benefits and drawbacks of the general system structure, specific organization's network roles, and reputations associated with networking activities. Theoretical implications address the complementary contributions of using multiple theoretical perspectives to approach interorganizational relationships and their pragmatic utility with respect to building stronger networks among civil‐society partners.     

The Evolution of Networks and the Resilience of Interorganizational Relationships after Disaster

This study uses social capital and evolutionary theory to examine organizational resilience in terms of interorganizational networks of disaster-struck organizations following Hurricane Katrina. Approaching post-disaster organizational resilience using social network analysis highlights the way pre-disaster relationships and networking patterns play a vital role in post-disaster rebuilding. Data support the idea of structural inertia, suggesting that disaster is an event that further strengthens pre-existing networks and is not a time when organizations might benefit from forging new networks in seeking support and fueling survival. Implications suggest that the social capital accrued through long-standing partnerships and efficient pre-disaster networking through building communities of practice significantly impact post-disaster resilience.     

Masters of the Universe? Resource Dependency and Interorganizational Power Relationships at NASA

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it re-entered the atmosphere. Months later, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board determined the immediate cause of the crash, but it also alluded to relationships NASA has with other organizations as being problematic, suggesting that Columbia was a painful symptom of a deeper disease. This paper uses resource dependency theory and structuration theory together to examine NASA's interorganizational network, illustrating that NASA is involved in multiple toxic relationships and that a pattern has developed through NASA miscues in the last 20 years. This case study demonstrates the advantages of using these two theories together, how such integration provides a useful perspective for understanding power and change in interorganizational relationships. The paper also discusses practical suggestions for NASA specifically, but also for others as organizations become more dependent on external stakeholders and interorganizational relationships.     

Divergent Perspectives on Language-Discordant Mobile Medical Professionals' Communication with Colleagues: An Exploratory Study

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it re-entered the atmosphere. Months later, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board determined the immediate cause of the crash, but it also alluded to relationships NASA has with other organizations as being problematic, suggesting that Columbia was a painful symptom of a deeper disease. This paper uses resource dependency theory and structuration theory together to examine NASA's interorganizational network, illustrating that NASA is involved in multiple toxic relationships and that a pattern has developed through NASA miscues in the last 20 years. This case study demonstrates the advantages of using these two theories together, how such integration provides a useful perspective for understanding power and change in interorganizational relationships. The paper also discusses practical suggestions for NASA specifically, but also for others as organizations become more dependent on external stakeholders and interorganizational relationships.     

Assessing the Effectiveness of Collaborative Interorganizational Networks Through Client Communication

A hallmark of today’s civil society sector is the prevalence of collaborative interorganizational networks. The purpose of this study is to investigate how collaborative interorganizational network structures affect interactions within client networks, and how this in turn impacts assessments of collaborative interorganizational network effectiveness. In particular, we focus on recommendations as key indicators of collaborative interorganizational network effectiveness in relation to client networks. We identify client networks of phantom populations as an important but unexamined aspect of collaborative interorganizational network effectiveness that warrants further research. We present an empirical investigation of a collaborative interorganizational network of social service agencies working to address the problem of homelessness in Boulder County, Colorado (USA). Findings indicate that organizations with a greater number of connections with other organizations generate more recommendations within client networks. Our study demonstrates a relationship between the degree of connections within a collaborative interorganizational network structure and the recommendations generated with a phantom population.     

Communication during job promotions: A case of ongoing assimilation

This interview study examines communication during job promotions as part of the ongoing assimilation process. Results suggest promoted employees experience phases similar to those experienced by newcomers or transferees: a Pre‐Promotion Phase during which they gain experience; a Shifting Phase in which their communication changes as they develop and negotiate their new roles; and an Adjustment Phase when they feel comfortable in their new roles. Results indicate that those promoted must develop new communication relationships and skills despite remaining in the same organizational location. Unlike others making role transitions, those promoted frequently experience testing or hazing, but also appear to have more ability to change and influence their organizations.     

Determinants of Journalists' Professional Autonomy: Individual and National Level Factors Matter More Than Organizational Ones

This article seeks to map systematically predictors of journalists' perceived professional autonomy. On the basis of survey responses of 1,800 journalists from 18 countries, the study tests the extent to which journalists with different backgrounds and jobs, who work for different media and organizations, under different kinds of ownerships and pressures, in democratic and nondemocratic regimes, can perform their roles as society's main providers of information. We demonstrate that predictors of professional autonomy are twofold: comprising journalists' perceived influences on news work, and objective limits of autonomy that exist beyond journalists' perceptions. The latter reside on 3 levels: the individual journalist level, the organizational level, and the societal level. Journalists' subjective perceptions of political, organizational, procedural, professional, and reference group influences proved to be strongest predictors of professional autonomy. Of the hypothesized objective determinants of journalists' autonomy, ownership, editorial rank, and professional experience had the highest predictive value.     

Communication network dynamics during organizational crisis

Communication network is a personal or professional set of relationships between individuals or organizations. In other words, it is a pattern of contacts which are created due to the flow of information among the participating actors. The flow of information establishes various types of relationships among the participating entities. These relationships eventually form an overall pattern that could form a gestalt of the total structure within organizational context. In this paper, we analyze the changing communications structure in order to investigate the patterns associated with the final stages of organizational crisis. Organizational crisis has been defined as organizational mortality, organizational death, organizational exit, bankruptcy, decline, retrenchment and failure to characterize various forms of organizational crisis. We draw on theoretical perspectives on organizational crisis proposed by social network analysts and other sociologists to test 5 key propositions on the changes in the network communication structure associated with organizational crisis: (1) a few actors, who are prominent or more active, will become central during the organizational crisis period; (2) reciprocity within the organizational communication network will increase during crisis period; (3) organizational communication network becomes less transitive as organizations experience crisis; (4) number of cliques increases in a communication network as organizations are going through crisis; and (5) communication network becomes increasingly centralized as organizations go through crisis.     

Collaborative Tensions: Practitioners' Experiences of Interorganizational Relationships

Organizations and the relationships they create are rife with tensions that pull individual participants and whole organizations in opposing directions. When multiple organizations form relationships with one another these tensions may take on new forms and create new challenges for individual and organizational participants. This study utilized a focus-group methodology to explore how participants in collaborative interorganizational relationships (IORs) experience and cope communicatively with tensions. The data suggest that tensions exist across two areas: relationships and structures. We found that tensions in collaboration are common, acknowledged, and that the tensions manifest and are addressed through communication.     

Towards end-to-end government performance management: Case study of interorganizational information integration in emergency medical services (EMS)

A recent line of e-government research has emphasized the importance of interorganizational information sharing in the public domain. This research extends these information-sharing dimensions to explore information sharing relative to service performance. It utilizes a time-critical information services (TCIS) conceptual framework as an analytical lens. TCIS highlights multiple dimensions of information sharing, including operational, organizational, and governance factors as well as timeliness and quality as key performance metrics. A case study approach was employed to examine the exchange of performance-related information in a key time information critical service: a county-wide emergency medical services (EMS) system. The paper first explains the theoretical foundations for the study, stemming from interorganizational systems (IOS) literature, e-government IOS, and even more specifically, IOS in emergency medical services (EMS). The paper discusses performance measures in EMS, describes the TCIS analytical lens, the study methodology, and the case study under investigation. Case study findings are reported along operational, organizational, and governance dimensions. In general, the case study illustrates promising factors that can enhance information sharing across organizations, while noting that considerable gaps remain in achieving an end-to-end IT-enabled performance approach. Future research should aim to better understand how to overcome these gaps, including addressing the usability constraints that can confront professionals working in time information critical circumstances, such as trauma conditions.     

E‐mail communication in workplace romantic relationships

This study examined workplace romantic relationship partners’ e‐mail practices and perceptions. Results suggest that the relationship may play an integral role in determining participants' uses and perceptions of e‐mail Workplace romantic couples used e‐mail as frequently as face‐to‐face communication to interact with romantic partners and rated it as both rich and important Participants used e‐mail for both work‐related and social tasks. In addition, participants used business e‐mail addresses for communicating with relational partners and perceived that few organizational policies existed regarding its use. Theoretically, these findings suggest the importance of studying the relationship as a factor that affects e‐mail practices and perceptions. Practically, results indicated that e‐mail may present an additional channel for enhancing communication and connectedness in workplace romantic relationships, and that organizations may need to reflect more carefully about policies concerning e‐mail use in the workplace.     

Organizational Responses to Consumer Complaints: An Examination of Effective Remediation Tactics

Mistakes are common in business and can lead to negative repercussions for organizations. However, through the use of explanations, firms can diminish the negative consequences of their errors. The current study used a field stimulation to examine organizational explanations (excuses, justifications, and excuses) and their components (believable, appropriate, considerate, and responsible) to determine which factors make a difference in consumer satisfaction following organizational failures. Results, interpreted through the lens of expectancy violations theory, suggest that various components of explanations and the form of explanations used in remedial responses influence people's perceptions of organizations and organizational responses following complaints about failures.     

The Message Design Logics of Organizational Change

This study investigated the influence of context in the production of messages by stakeholders about organizational change. We analyzed messages produced in response to hypothetical organizational change scenarios. The message production task was implemented within a 2×2 experimental design (N = 1,205) fielded at three different organizations. We included multiple replications for each manipulation, and multilevel structural equation modeling allowed for analysis across scenario replications. Results indicated that perceptions of change and context do influence message design mediated by intensity of beliefs about a change. The study extends message design logics theory and contributes to a conceptualization of stakeholder interaction during organizational change as a problem of communication design.     

Organizational Dissent as a Function of Organizational Justice

This study examined the relationships between perceptions of organizational justice and enacting organizational dissent. Participants were 107 full-time employees working in various organizations. Results indicated that employee perceptions of distributive and interpersonal justice negatively predicted latent dissent, while perceptions of informational justice positively predicted latent dissent. Perceptions of interpersonal justice were the strongest predictor of latent dissent. Perceptions of justice were not related to articulated or displaced dissent. Future research should continue to explore triggering agents of dissent in organizations.     

Exploring the relationship between workplace freedom of speech,organizational identification,and employee dissent

The purpose of this study was to examine how subordinates' perceptions of workplace freedom of speech related to their levels of organizational identification and their strategies for expressing dissent. Full‐time working adults from various organizations in the Southwest completed self‐report survey instruments. Results indicated that organizational identification as well as the expression of articulated dissent and latent dissent varied as a function of workplace freedom of speech.     

Investigating the relationship between superior‐subordinate relationship quality and employee dissent

The purpose of this study was to examine how subordinates’ perceptions of superior‐subordinate relationship quality (LMX) related to their strategies for expressing dissent. Employees from various organizations completed self‐report survey instruments. Results indicated that subordinates who perceived having high‐quality relationships with their supervisors reported using significantly more articulated dissent than subordinates who perceived having low‐quality relationships with their supervisors. Conversely, subordinates who perceived having low‐quality relationships with their supervisors reported using significantly more latent dissent than subordinates who perceived having high‐quality relationships with their supervisors.     

Channel use,channel choices and organizational life cycle stages

This study found empirical support for the proposition that channel use and channel choice of face‐to‐face, group, memo, organizational and external media differ in organizations in the birth, growth, maturity, revival and decline stages of the organizational life cycle.