Entrepreneurial activities fit poorly with traditional organizational approaches–-the rules, procedures and structure to delimit members’ response that seek to constrain behavior to a predetermined program. Nevertheless, in response to increasing competition, organizations have emerged to support broad entrepreneurial activity. Three interrelated elements appear necessary to support organizational entrepreneurship: pervasive sharing of managerial tasks and responsibilities, mindful alertness to anomalies, and ambiguity absorption by means of mutual support and information sharing. These elements render organizations more flexible, but also increase ambiguity, requiring further action incompatible with traditional organizational approaches. Entrepreneurship is not only inconsistent with traditional organizations, but with traditional organization theory. To effectively analyze entrepreneurial organizations requires a shift from the static, deterministic paradigm of traditional organization and theory to a cognitive paradigm which focuses on individual sensemaking and collective decision processes, and on the organizational context that shapes and influences them. This article outlines basic elements of an emerging cognitive paradigm to describe organizational entrepreneurship in theoretical and pragmatic terms, contrasting with traditional theory and practice. Benefits and hazards of entrepreneurial approaches are discussed. The Implications for research and management practice are also suggested.
In developing techniques and guides for many of the regular or routine activities of managers, the Systematic Management movement of the late nineteenth century performed an important service for American business. The movement's response to breakdowns in the internal co-ordination of manufacturing firms was especially significant and forms the basis for Professor Litterer's analysis of the relevant literature.
A comparative examination of late nineteenth-century worker productivity, machine utilization, and management methodology reveals the importance of process-oriented organization in American factories, where the highest technical skills were directed not at making products, as in Europe, but at making production lines. This orientation, together with a rapidly changing environment, required a particular kind of management and a new awareness of the management function.
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