IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eurman/v30y2012i6p475-489.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coordination practices in extreme situations

Author

Listed:
  • Isabelle, Bouty
  • Cécile, Godé
  • Carole, Drucker-Godard
  • Pascal, Lièvre
  • Jean, Nizet
  • François, Pichault

Abstract

This article addresses coordination practices in extreme situations. Whereas past literature has heavily focused on a structural and contingent approach of the phenomena, we argue that a practice-based approach of coordination fruitfully enhances our understanding. We draw on an abductive approach and perform a systematic comparative analysis of four case studies: the crew of a sailing boat engaged in a race, military air and ground forces in theater, medical staff in a neonatology unit and a polar expedition confronted with polar bears. We outline highly heterogeneous coordination practices along four dimensions (formalization, verticality, openness, and specificity). Our results lead to invalidate both a configurational and a contingent perspective on coordination. We show that despite high heterogeneity, these four attributes represent a useful framework for managers to leverage coordination practices produced in situ.

Suggested Citation

  • Isabelle, Bouty & Cécile, Godé & Carole, Drucker-Godard & Pascal, Lièvre & Jean, Nizet & François, Pichault, 2012. "Coordination practices in extreme situations," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 475-489.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:30:y:2012:i:6:p:475-489
    DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2012.03.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237312000333
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.emj.2012.03.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Samer Faraj & Yan Xiao, 2006. "Coordination in Fast-Response Organizations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(8), pages 1155-1169, August.
    2. Unknown, 1958. "Conference Organisation and Arrangements-A Review," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 13(4), pages 1-7.
    3. Benoît Journé & Nathalie Raulet-Croset, 2007. "Of Organizations and Situations : A Pragmatist view of Organizing Through the Process of Inquiry," Post-Print hal-00263346, HAL.
    4. N. G. P. Krausz, 1958. "Corporate Organization of Family Farms," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 40(5), pages 1624-1633.
    5. Jody Hoffer Gittell, 2002. "Coordinating Mechanisms in Care Provider Groups: Relational Coordination as a Mediator and Input Uncertainty as a Moderator of Performance Effects," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(11), pages 1408-1426, November.
    6. L. J. Bourgeois, III & Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, 1988. "Strategic Decision Processes in High Velocity Environments: Four Cases in the Microcomputer Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(7), pages 816-835, July.
    7. Kevin Crowston, 1997. "A Coordination Theory Approach to Organizational Process Design," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(2), pages 157-175, April.
    8. Dubois, Anna & Gadde, Lars-Erik, 2002. "Systematic combining: an abductive approach to case research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 553-560, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jordan Vazquez & Cécile Godé & Jean-Fabrice Lebraty, 2021. "Environnement big data et prise de décision : maintien de l'ordre durant un évènement sportif d'ampleur," Post-Print hal-03252399, HAL.
    2. Jordan Vazquez & Cécile Godé & Jean-Fabrice Lebraty, 2018. "Environnement big data et décision : l'étape de contre la montre du tour de France 2017," Post-Print halshs-02188793, HAL.
    3. Magni, Massimo & Palmi, Pamela & Salvemini, Severino, 2018. "Under pressure! Team innovative climate and individual attitudes in shaping individual improvisation," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 474-484.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cécile Godé, 2008. "Les Pratiques De Coordination En Environnement Volatile : Le Cas Des Forces Aeriennes Françaises En Situation Operationnelle," Post-Print hal-00293535, HAL.
    2. Acero, Maria-Ximena & Minvielle, Etienne & Waelli, Mathias, 2023. "Understanding the activity of oncology nurse coordinators: An elaboration of a framework based on an abductive approach," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    3. Ganco, Martin, 2017. "NK model as a representation of innovative search," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1783-1800.
    4. Tan, Alvin & Brewer, Paul & Liesch, Peter, 2018. "Rigidity in SME export commencement decisions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 46-55.
    5. Margherita, Alessandro & Elia, Gianluca & Klein, Mark, 2021. "Managing the COVID-19 emergency: A coordination framework to enhance response practices and actions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    6. Nutt, Paul C., 2007. "Intelligence gathering for decision making," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 604-622, October.
    7. Fehr, Dietmar, 2017. "Costly communication and learning from failure in organizational coordination," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 106-122.
    8. Sara Parker‐Lue & Marvin Lieberman, 2020. "The impact of diversification on task performance: Evidence from kidney transplant centers," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7), pages 1169-1190, July.
    9. Matt Beane & Wanda J. Orlikowski, 2015. "What Difference Does a Robot Make? The Material Enactment of Distributed Coordination," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(6), pages 1553-1573, December.
    10. Kouaib, Amel & Jarboui, Anis, 2017. "The mediating effect of REM on the relationship between CEO overconfidence and subsequent firm performance moderated by IFRS adoption: A moderated-mediation analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 338-352.
    11. Feduzi, Alberto & Runde, Jochen, 2014. "Uncovering unknown unknowns: Towards a Baconian approach to management decision-making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 268-283.
    12. Marlo Raveendran & Phanish Puranam & Massimo Warglien, 2016. "Object Salience in the Division of Labor: Experimental Evidence," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(7), pages 2110-2128, July.
    13. Proudfoot, Devon & Kay, Aaron C. & Mann, Heather, 2015. "Motivated employee blindness: The impact of labor market instability on judgment of organizational inefficiencies," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 108-122.
    14. Maoliang Ye & Jie Zheng & Plamen Nikolov & Sam Asher, 2020. "One Step at a Time: Does Gradualism Build Coordination?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(1), pages 113-129, January.
    15. Liu, Zuoming & Jayaraman, Vaidy & Luo, Yadong, 2017. "The unbalanced indirect effects of task characteristics on performance in professional service outsourcing," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 281-293.
    16. Park, Tae-Youn & Kim, Seongsu & Sung, Li-Kuo, 2017. "Fair pay dispersion: A regulatory focus theory view," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 1-11.
    17. Kirchler, Erich, 1995. "Studying economic decisions within private households: A critical review and design for a "couple experiences diary"," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 393-419, September.
    18. Paula A. Jarzabkowski & Jane K. Lê & Martha S. Feldman, 2012. "Toward a Theory of Coordinating: Creating Coordinating Mechanisms in Practice," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 907-927, August.
    19. Grove, Nico & Baumann, Oliver, 2012. "Complexity in the telecommunications industry: When integrating infrastructure and services backfires," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 40-50.
    20. Skiba, Jenifer & Saini, Amit & Friend, Scott B., 2016. "The effect of managerial cost prioritization on sales force turnover," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 5917-5924.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:30:y:2012:i:6:p:475-489. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.