IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v29y1983i1p12-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Uncertainty, Social Location and Influence in Decision Making: A Sociometric Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Michael L. Tushman

    (Columbia University)

  • Elaine Romanelli

    (Columbia University)

Abstract

This research investigates the relative impacts of formal status and informal communication roles on influence in administrative and technical decision making. While external information enters the organization via boundary spanning individuals, the exercise of influence at lower levels of the organization is dependent on mediating critical organizational contingencies. As the locus of task uncertainty shifts, so too does the relative influence of boundary spanning individuals and internal stars; the greater the task and environmental uncertainty, the greater the influence of boundary spanning individuals. Senior management are influential across task areas. The formal hierarchy and informal social processes complement each other in the exercise of influence. These results extend research which indicates that different information processing requirements require systematically different organizational processes to attend to that uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael L. Tushman & Elaine Romanelli, 1983. "Uncertainty, Social Location and Influence in Decision Making: A Sociometric Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(1), pages 12-23, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:29:y:1983:i:1:p:12-23
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.29.1.12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.29.1.12
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.29.1.12?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
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Au, Kevin Y. & Fukuda, John, 2002. "Boundary spanning behaviors of expatriates," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 285-296, January.
    2. Srikanth Paruchuri, 2010. "Intraorganizational Networks, Interorganizational Networks, and the Impact of Central Inventors: A Longitudinal Study of Pharmaceutical Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 63-80, February.
    3. Bai, Feng & Ho, Grace Ching Chi & Liu, Wu, 2020. "Do status incentives undermine morality-based status attainment? Investigating the mediating role of perceived authenticity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 126-138.
    4. Ah Jung Kim & Myung-Ho Chung, 2023. "Psychological Ownership and Ambivalent Employee Behaviors: A Moderated Mediation Model," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    5. Smita Prashant Chattopadhyay & Madhuchhanda Das Aundhe, 2021. "Vendor boundary spanning in Indian Information Technology (IT) companies," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 1139-1177, September.
    6. Mathijs de Vaan & Saqib Mumtaz & Abhishek Nagaraj & Sameer B. Srivastava, 2021. "Social Learning in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Community Establishments’ Closure Decisions Follow Those of Nearby Chain Establishments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(7), pages 4446-4454, July.
    7. Mudambi, Ram & Pedersen, Torben & Andersson, Ulf, 2014. "How subsidiaries gain power in multinational corporations," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 101-113.
    8. Chiu, Junmao & Li, Yi-Hua & Kao, Tsai-Hsuan, 2022. "Does organization capital matter? An analysis of the performance implications of CEO power," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    9. Massimo Maoret & Marco Tortoriello & Daniela Iubatti, 2020. "Big Fish, Big Pond? The Joint Effect of Formal and Informal Core/Periphery Positions on the Generation of Incremental Innovations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(6), pages 1538-1559, November.
    10. Yuosre F. Badir & Björn Frank & Marcel Bogers, 2020. "Employee-level open innovation in emerging markets: linking internal, external, and managerial resources," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 891-913, September.
    11. Julio J. Rotemberg, 1993. "Power in Profit‐Maximizing Organizations," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(2), pages 165-198, June.
    12. Katja Rost, 2006. "Der Einfluss von Erfindernetzwerken auf die Relevanz von Patenten," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 363-389, May.
    13. Henk Flap & Bert Bulder & Beate V#x00D6;lker, 1998. "Intra-organizational Networks and Performance: A Review," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 109-147, June.
    14. Mariia Petryk & Michael Rivera & Siddharth Bhattacharya & Liangfei Qiu & Subodha Kumar, 2022. "How Network Embeddedness Affects Real-Time Performance Feedback: An Empirical Investigation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(4), pages 1467-1489, December.
    15. Huang, Yuhong & Gao, Yajia, 2023. "Labor protection and the digital transformation of enterprises: Empirical evidence from China's social insurance law," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    16. Kannan-Narasimhan, Rangapriya (Priya) & Wang, Ruixiang & Zhu, Pengcheng, 2023. "Founder versus agent CEOs: Effects of founder status and power on firm innovation and cost of capital," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    17. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2373-2437 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Atul Nerkar & Srikanth Paruchuri, 2005. "Evolution of R&D Capabilities: The Role of Knowledge Networks Within a Firm," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(5), pages 771-785, May.
    19. Schminke, Marshall & Cropanzano, Russell & Rupp, Deborah E., 2002. "Organization structure and fairness perceptions: The moderating effects of organizational level," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 881-905, September.
    20. Michelle Rogan & Marie Louise Mors, 2014. "A Network Perspective on Individual-Level Ambidexterity in Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(6), pages 1860-1877, December.

    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:inm:ormnsc:v:29:y:1983:i:1:p:12-23. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.