Dimensions of Organizational Task Environments

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Industrial classifications were used as a basis for operational definitions of both industrial and organizational task environments. A codification of six environmental dimensions was reduced to three: munificence (capacity), complexity (homogeneity-heterogeneity, concentrationdispersion), and dynamism (stability-instability, turbulence). Interitem and factor analytic techniques were used to explore the viability of these environmental dimensions. Implications of the research for building both descriptive and normative theory about organization-environment relationships are advanced.

Assembling Frameworks for Strategic Innovation Enactment: Enhancing Transformational Agility through Situational Scanning

“…Change is difficult then, due to a lack of predictability (Dess and Beard 1984). In some cases, there is a higher dependency between the domains than expected.…”

“…Ideally, increased system responsiveness and predictability are desired following or during a change. The complexity and dynamism of this network should not be underestimated, and so, a system approach is necessary (Dess and Beard 1984).…”

“…It is clear, therefore, that an accurate awareness of a situation through an evaluative framework is critical to task selection and prioritization (Hambrick 1982), helping leaders navigate obstacles (Bossidy et al 2002;De Pree 2004). Conversely, even though some objective environmental attributes may differ (Bourgeois 1985;Snow 1976;Starbuck 1976), narrow, parochial, or superficial views are not adequate to handle the complexity of scanning (Dess and Beard 1984;Slaughter 1999).…”

Improving cycle time performance: the role of market turbulence and cultural competitiveness

“…MT) that conceptually has an impact on the affiliation has been studied (e.g. Dess & Beard, 1984). Additionally, we put specific focus on the idea that management observations, specifically concerning the decisionmaking, form strategic option and uncertainty of market (Child, 1972).…”

Ethnic and gender diversity, process and performance in groups of business students in Sweden

“…Johnson and Schulman, 1989) Gender diversity influences the team's performance in higher education since females tend to perform better than males (Byrne, Flood and Willis, 2001), implying that with an increased number of females in a group, the group might perform better. However, a team homogeneous in gender will be restricted in input variety and opinion diversity, thus reducing performance in a complex assignment or/and complex environment (Dess and Beard, 1984). Therefore, it is not the proportion of men or women, but the mix that influences performance.…”