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Overt Interfunctional Conflict (and its Reduction Through Business Strategy)

Author

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  • Julio J. Rotemberg
  • Garth Saloner

Abstract

We study why production and sales departments tend to disagree, with the former wanting long production runs and the latter wanting a broad product line. We then analyze why these disagreements lead to overt conflict in which functional areas fight with each other by presenting arguments that damage each other's position. We show how the firm benefits from the information generated by this conflict. In spite of these benefits, the equilibrium conflict can exceed its profit-maximizing level. Finally, we show that concentrating innovative talent in only one department can help reduce interfunctional conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • Julio J. Rotemberg & Garth Saloner, 1995. "Overt Interfunctional Conflict (and its Reduction Through Business Strategy)," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(4), pages 630-653, Winter.
    • Handle: RePEc:rje:randje:v:26:y:1995:i:winter:p:630-653
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrea Fosfuri & Thomas Rønde, 2005. "Leveraging Resistance to Change and the Skunk Works Model of Innovation," CIE Discussion Papers 2007-10, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Industrial Economics, revised Jun 2007.
    2. Klaas J. Beniers & Robert A.J. Dur & Otto H. Swank, 2002. "Sequential Advocacy," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 02-016/1, Tinbergen Institute, revised 10 Jun 2003.
    3. Iain Cockburn & Rebecca Henderson & Scott Stern, 1999. "The Diffusion of Science-Driven Drug Discovery: Organizational Change in Pharmaceutical Research," NBER Working Papers 7359, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Eric Van den Steen, 2017. "A Formal Theory of Strategy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(8), pages 2616-2636, August.
    5. Ruckes, Martin & Rønde, Thomas, 2010. "Dynamic incentives in organizations: Success and inertia," Working Paper Series in Economics 7, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    6. Baliga, Sandeep & Sjostrom, Tomas, 2001. "Optimal Design of Peer Review and Self-Assessment Schemes," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(1), pages 27-51, Spring.
    7. Mark J. Zbaracki, 2007. "A sociological view of costs of price adjustment: contributions from grounded theory methods," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 553-567.
    8. John R. Hauser, 1998. "Research, Development, and Engineering Metrics," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(12-Part-1), pages 1670-1689, December.
    9. Stefan Brandauer & Florian Englmaier, 2009. "A model of strategic delegation in contests between groups," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 13(3), pages 205-232, September.
    10. Matejka, M. & De Waegenaere, A.M.B., 2000. "Organizational Design and Management Accounting Change," Other publications TiSEM 0c9d3756-e33d-43a3-9ba7-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Nicholas S. Argyres & Teppo Felin & Nicolai Foss & Todd Zenger, 2012. "Organizational Economics of Capability and Heterogeneity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(5), pages 1213-1226, October.
    12. Robert S. Huckman, 2003. "The Utilization of Competing Technologies Within the Firm: Evidence from Cardiac Procedures," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(5), pages 599-617, May.
    13. Mark J. Zbaracki & Mark Bergen, 2010. "When Truces Collapse: A Longitudinal Study of Price-Adjustment Routines," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(5), pages 955-972, October.
    14. Juan D. Carrillo & Denis Gromb, 2005. "Culture in Organizations: Inertia and Uniformity," Levine's Bibliography 172782000000000053, UCLA Department of Economics.
    15. Eric Van den Steen, 2010. "Culture Clash: The Costs and Benefits of Homogeneity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(10), pages 1718-1738, October.
    16. Moriya, Fumitoshi & 森谷, 文利, 2006. "The Optimality of Power in Organizations: Power Acquisition Process and Evaluation," Working Paper Series 036, Center for Japanese Business Studies (HJBS), Graduate School of Commerce and Management Hitotsubashi University.
    17. Jeremy C. Stein, 2000. "Information Production and Capital Allocation: Decentralized vs. Hierarchical Firms," NBER Working Papers 7705, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2373-2437 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Andrea Fosfuri & Thomas Rønde, 2009. "Leveraging Resistance to Change and the Skunk Works Model of Innovation," Post-Print hal-00699208, HAL.
    20. Fosfuri, Andrea & Rønde, Thomas, 2009. "Leveraging resistance to change and the skunk works model of innovation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 274-289, October.
    21. Ranjay Gulati & Jack A. Nickerson, 2008. "Interorganizational Trust, Governance Choice, and Exchange Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(5), pages 688-708, October.
    22. Scott Schaefer, 1998. "Influence Costs, Structural Inertia, and Organizational Change," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(2), pages 237-263, June.

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