Organizational Design of Novel Organizational Forms

We propose to study if and where extant theories of organizational design require elaborations in order to explain the emergence and effectiveness of so-called new organizational forms such as open source software or new business models. Building on our own on-going work, we suggest that classic theories of organizational design among them the Carnegie School and its derivatives (e.g. contingency theory), while still capturing important features of even novel forms of organizing, may benefit from elaborations regarding three distinct sub-questions. These are as follows: First, how relevant are authority and hierarchy, traditional solutions to the design challenge of dividing labor and integrating effort, to new organizations? Second, under which conditions is self-selection, considered to be an important solution to the organizational design challenge in new forms of organizing, truly effective? Third, how do different solutions to the design challenges of task division, task allocation, rewards distribution, and information provision complement one another? We plan on pursuing the three distinct sub-questions of our broader research question by conducting five empirical studies. The first empirical study is intended to shed light on the first sub-question, and is meant to draw on archival data of OSS projects stored in the SourceForge Research Data Archive (SRDA). More specifically, we plan to examine if OSS projects are truly authority-less in the classic sense as has recently been argued, or not. The large-scale quantitative test appears feasible given clearly competing theoretical predictions. The second empirical study plans to examine the skill- matching hypothesis (see sub question 2), an assumption usually taken for granted, in more detail. Again, we suggest resorting to available SRDA data on OSS projects to create a large-scale empirical base for testing purposes. Given the relative ignorance on the mechanistic underpinnings pertaining to the emergence of self-selection, we propose to complement the second study with a third one. This latter investigation seeks to examine the antecedences of skill-matching in a more qualitative way through comparative case study analysis and ethnographic observation of new entrepreneurial ventures. In a fourth study we seek to shed light on sub-question 3 by studying observable complementarity patterns between organizational solutions for a set of published examples of new forms of organizing using Boolean qualitative comparative analysis. Again, and in order to delve deeper into the mechanistic underpinnings of these complementarities, we plan on complementing our fourth study with a fifth one in which we observe new entrepreneurial ventures over extended periods of time. The goal of this study is to uncover the micro-mechanistic factors that account for observable complementarities. We suggest that our research will contribute to a reconciliation of the emergence of novel empirical phenomena with extensions of extant theories that have proven powerful in the past.

To achieve more as a whole than just being the sum of its employees, organisations have to intelligently distribute the work load among its members, and merge contributions again later. Both designing different task packages and assigning tasks to personnel, as well as the remuneration of and communication between employees, and the solving of internal conflicts were traditionally planned and executed by management. For about 20 years, however, there has been a tendency towards so-called new organizational forms, in which authoritarian design and leadership are superseded by intelligent design and group decision-making. There can be many motives for deciding on one of these modern organisational forms - automation, motivation of employees, financial constraints, an overwhelmed traditional management - and many challenges and solutions. This project investigated the practicability and functionality of new organisational forms in three main studies. Depending on the research question, the methods used were: formal mathematical modelling (1), simulation (2), as well as ethnographic (3), a small number of case-based (4), larger sized archival (5) and, based in laboratories, experimental (6) empirical analyses. The analysis of 40 new organisational forms reveals that the design of stable new organisational forms usually falls under one of three archetypes: competitions, communes, and collectively lead teams. Novel developments can occur for single organisational dimensions - e.g. task segmentation and allocation; more often for many organisational dimensions simultaneously. Regarding the (de-)motivational effects of authority on employees we could establish different effects. Via random sampling of more than 600.000 of Wikipedia's article discussion pages it could be demonstrated that lateral authority, in contrast to traditional authority, is viewed by employees as quite motivating and helpful. Lateral authority, targetting the solving of specific problems, rather than holistic evaluation of employees, is perceived the more positive in the solving of organisational disputes, the bigger the conflict, the more competence the authority figure has, and the younger and more specialised the employees are. In a laboratory experiment with over 440 participants we further demonstrate that, searching for solutions for their company, employees' search behaviour is less risk-averse, and more open to less obvious alternatives, the stronger the procedural control of the superiors; even negative feedback has a more motivating effect than none at all. Increases in motivation achieved through workers' self-selection to tasks can further be improved through skilful project design, which will attract talented employees more. Thus, another study focused on a panel of 50.000 staff project-months on the platform GitHub shows that talented employees react more strongly to measures such as the inclusion of their input and fast feedback. Other results, e.g. regarding the effectiveness of new organisational forms or their lasting efficiency, can be found in the detailed report.