Coordination in temporary organizations

Gaffers, Gofers, and Grips: Role-Based Coordination in Temporary Organizations

Temporary organizations are known to provide flexibility for industries that rely on them, but we know little about their implications for how work is accomplished and coordinated. In this paper, I propose that common portrayals of temporary organizations as ephemeral and unstable are inaccurate: Temporary organizations are in fact organized around structured role systems whose nuances are nego...

Status and Coordination in Organizations∗

Firms can motivate workers by offering them social status. Much of the literature argues that a rise in status is a powerful work incentive while ignoring its impact on coordination. However, when workers need to collaborate while having individual vested interests, too large a difference in status distorts how workers coordinate, i.e., one worker compromises too much with respect to his most p...

Working Paper Alfred P. Sloan School of Management Modelling Coordination in Organizations Modelling Coordination in Organizations

Observability and Overcoming Coordination Failure in Organizations

Motivated by problems of coordination failure in organizations, we examine how overcoming coordination failure and maintaining coordination depend on the ability of individuals to observe others’ choices. Subjects’ payoffs depend on coordinating at high effort levels in a weak-link game. Treatments vary along two dimensions. First, subjects either start with low financial incentives for coordin...

Coordination in networked organizations : the Paradigm approach

An extension of the coordination specification language Paradigm is presented. In this set-up Paradigm models cater for multiple managers sharing the coordination of a set of common employees. A transition system semantics for the language is provided, that allows for reasoning about such constructions as delegation and selfmanagement in matrix and general network organizations. An elaborated e...