Search results for "organizational systems"

Organization Theory and the Study of European Union Institutions: Lessons and Opportunities

2015

Most scholarship in modern organization theory maintains a near-exclusive focus on private-sector settings. In contrast, this article argues that complex public-sector organizational systems – such as the European Union (EU) – can provide a very relevant laboratory to both fine-tune organization theoretical propositions and test them empirically. I first draw attention to the value-added of organization theory for the study of EU institutions. Then, I turn to these institutions’ capacity to present a springboard for theoretical development in organization theory, and bring forward a number of avenues for further research on the intersection of EU studies and organization theory that can pus…

Organizational Systems: Managing Complexity with the Viable System Model (Book review)

2013

A Norm-Governed Holonic Multi-agent System Metamodel

2013

Modeling and designing systems that require a high level of coordination, control and automation is a very difficult task. The problem is the lack of design processes able to cover all the features these systems present. This paper presents an extension of the ASPECS metamodel for supporting organizational and normative principles and it allows to define models not only from an holonic agent viewpoint but also from a normative organization perspective. Moreover, our work emphasizes and makes it explicit the norms that regulate the structural, behavioral and finally adaptive aspect of an organizational system. The extended metamodel was experimented creating a Virtual Enterprise model for th…

Advancing Design Science Research with Solution-based Probing

2019

We propose solution-based probing as an extension of action design research. The core idea is that researchers bring a prototype solution (probe) into one or more fields and explore to synthesize robust and generalizable design knowledge, along with knowledge of the phenomena and correlations we discover. We believe proposing solutions creates opportunities for researchers to innovate and to document the impact. In addition, solutions can be effective probes for advancing theory, in terms of design theories and in creating exploratory foundations for behavioral and causal theory. We illustrate solution-based probing with four exemplar studies in the areas governance of municipalities, polic…

Narrowing the Theory’s or Study’s Scope May Increase Practical Relevance

2019

Numerous articles in top IS journals note as a limitation and lack of generalizability that their findings are specific to a certain type of technology, culture, and so on. We argue that this generalizability concern is about limited scope (e.g., explanatory breadth). The IS literature notes this preference for generalizability as a characteristic of good science and it is sometimes confused with statistical generalizability We argue that such generalizability can be in conflict with explanation or prediction accuracy. An increase in scope (e.g., increasing explanatory breadth) can decrease explanation or prediction accuracy. Thus, in sciences such as cancer research, where explanation and …