Organizational Alternatives for Large Projects

Organizing large construction projects can be as confusing and challenging as managing them. Many organizational variations are possible. This paper describes five major organizational alternatives and reviews the advantages and disadvantages of each. The alternatives include: (1) Strong functional organization; (2) functional organization with area coordination; (3) functional organization wth area management; (4) area management with craft discipline staff; and (5) autonomous area organization. This paper also proposes a method for selecting a project organization that involves developing organizational criteria and using these criteria in an evaluation matrix. Such a process could aid managers in meeting the challenge of effective project organization.     

Abusive supervision and subordinates' organization deviance.

The authors developed an integrated model of the relationships among abusive supervision, affective organizational commitment, norms toward organization deviance, and organization deviance and tested the framework in 2 studies: a 2-wave investigation of 243 supervised employees and a cross-sectional study of 247 employees organized into 68 work groups. Path analytic tests of mediated moderation provide support for the prediction that the mediated effect of abusive supervision on organization deviance (through affective commitment) is stronger when employees perceive that their coworkers are more approving of organization deviance (Study 1) and when coworkers perform more acts of organization deviance (Study 2). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in the awareness of memory benefits associated with different types of picture organization.

First-, 3rd, and 5th-grade children judged the relative ease of recalling a list that was organized semantically, physically, or randomly. Results suggest that awareness that semantic organization yields higher recall than physical organization appears at a later age than the simpler understanding that semantic organization yields higher recall than no organization. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Web-based recruitment: Effects of information, organizational brand, and attitudes toward a Web site on applicant attraction.

Recruitment theory and research show that objective characteristics, subjective considerations, and critical contact send signals to prospective applicants about the organization and available opportunities. In the generating applicants phase of recruitment, critical contact may consist largely of interactions with recruitment sources (e.g., newspaper ads, job fairs, organization Web sites); however, research has yet to fully address how all 3 types of signaling mechanisms influence early job pursuit decisions in the context of organizational recruitment Web sites. Results based on data from 814 student participants searching actual organization Web sites support and extend signaling and brand equity theories by showing that job information (directly) and organization information (indirectly) are related to intentions to pursue employment when a priori perceptions of image are controlled. A priori organization image is related to pursuit intentions when subsequent information search is controlled, but organization familiarity is not, and attitudes about a recruitment source also influence attraction and partially mediate the effects of organization information. Theoretical and practical implications for recruitment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stimulus configuration and context effects in perceptual organization in schizophrenia.

Two studies assessed perceptual organization in schizophrenia to determine (a) whether inpatient and outpatient groups with poor premorbid schizophrenia have comparable levels of perceptual organization deficit; and (b) whether the deficit could be eliminated by task manipulations. In Study 1, inpatients demonstrated clear evidence of a perceptual organization deficit, whereas outpatients performed similarly to the control groups. In Study 2, a performance pattern that operationally defined a perceptual organization deficit was eliminated by a task manipulation thought to aid in context processing. The perceptual organization deficit is most pronounced in actively symptomatic patients with poor premorbid schizophrenia, and the deficit reflects, in part, deficient top-down influences to basic perceptual processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reconciling simplicity and likelihood principles in perceptual organization.

Two principles of perceptual organization have been proposed. The likelihood principle, following H. L. E von Helmholtz( 1910/1962), proposes that perceptual organization is chosen to correspond to the most likely distal layout. The simplicity principle, following Gestalt psychology, suggests that perceptual organization is chosen to be as simple as possible. The debate between these two views has been a central topic in the study of perceptual organization. Drawing on mathematical results in A. N. Kolmogorov's ( 1965 ) complexity theory, the author argues that simplicity and likelihood are not in competition, but are identical. Various implications for the theory of perceptual organization and psychology more generally are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental organization of maps.

Previous studies deconfounding spatial and temporal proximity during map learning have found a temporal influence on mental map organization. The authors explored whether this observed priming effect reflected the manner in which a map was learned by having people either name objects or point to them during learning. Naming objects resulted in temporal organization but pointing to objects resulted in spatial organization, suggesting that mental map organization is sensitive to emphasizing different types of map information during learning. The authors also explored whether the temporal organization observed in the naming group was influenced by the ease of using spatial information during learning, such as when the expectancy to use spatial information was made explicit or when a consistent temporal order was absent. When naming map objects, evidence for a spatial organization was weak, whereas a temporal organization was observed when a consistent temporal order was present. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple professional identities: Examining differences in identification across work-related targets.

Although there is a growing literature on organizational identification, relatively little research has investigated other possible targets of identification. In a sample of veterinarians working in a wide range of organizations, the authors compared their identification with the veterinary profession, their organization, and their workgroup. The authors found different patterns of identification across these targets depending on whether the individual (a) worked in a veterinary medicine or nonveterinary medicine organization and (b) was an owner/partner or an associate. Owners of veterinary medicine organizations identified more with the organization than with either the profession or their workgroup. Associates in veterinary medicine organizations identified more with the organization and the workgroup than with the profession. Veterinarians in nonveterinary medicine organizations identified more with the profession and their workgroup than with the organization. Identification with each of the targets provided independent predictive validity of job satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived organizational support and employee diligence, commitment, and innovation.

Two studies report a positive relationship of employees' perception of being valued and cared about by the organization with (a) conscientiousness in carrying out conventional job responsibilities, (b) expressed affective and calculative involvements in the organization, and (c) innovation on behalf of the organization in the absence of anticipated direct reward or personal recognition. In Study 1, involving six occupations, positive relationships of perceived support with job attendance and performance were found. In Study 2, using manufacturing hourly employees and managers, perceived support was positively related to affective attachment, performance outcome expectancies, and the constructiveness of anonymous suggestions for helping the organization. These results favor the extension and integration of emotion-based and calculative theories of organizational commitment into a social-exchange approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why hierarchical retrieval schemes do not facilitate recall: A cue overload explanation.

Compared recall using single- vs dual-level retrieval schemes and predicted that the dual-level (hierarchial) scheme would be used more. 30 college students were induced to encode 128 words using either a single-level organizational scheme consisting of 32 categories, or a multilevel organizational scheme consisting of 8 superordinate categories each divisible into 4 subordinate categories. Subsequent recall was quite high and did not differ in either organization condition. Furthermore, analyses of recall protocols provide independent evidence for greater use of hierarchical organization during retrieval in the multi-level vs single-level condition. A cue-overload explanation is offered for the failure of hierarchical organization to facilitate recall. Results challenge the assumption that the human memory is inept at recalling more than 7 units without employing hierarchical organization. (French abstract) (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Combined effect of goal organization and test expectations on organization in free recall following learning from text.

24 high school students read a 10-page passage with a list of learning goals available that was organized either by topic or attribute. Prior to reading they were trained to expect (a) a completion test, given a topical organization of the goals list; or (b) a sorting test, given an attribute organization of goals list. After reading, Ss took a free-recall test. Results indicate that the combination of topic goals and an expectation for a completion test produced topical organization in free recall, while the combination of attribute goals and an expectation for a sorting test produced attribute organization in free recall. The practical implications for the use of goals to produce organizational effects is emphasized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the perceptual organization of speech.

A general account of auditory perceptual organization has developed in the past 2 decades. It relies on primitive devices akin to the Gestalt principles of organization to assign sensory elements to probable groupings and involves secondary schematic processes to confirm or to repair the possible organization. Although this conceptualization is intended to apply universally, the variety and arrangement of acoustic constituents of speech violate Gestalt principles at numerous junctures, cohering perceptually, nonetheless. Three experiments are reported on organization in phonetic perception, using sine wave synthesis to evade the Gesalt rules and the schematic processes alike. These findings falsify a general auditory account, showing that phonetic perceptual organization is achieved by specific sensitivity to the acoustic modulations characteristic of speech signals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations between Chinese adolescents' perception of parental control and organization and their perception of parental warmth.

It was hypothesized that the inconsistent relation between perceptions of parental control and parental warmth found in past studies was due to the undifferentiated measure of parental control. Parental control was distinguished from organization in this study, according to Moos' (1976) conceptualization. Parental control was primarily restrictive, dominating, and interfering in nature, whereas organization was functional in maintaining coordination and order in the family. As predicted, both dimensions correlated very differently with parental warmth. Greater parental control was associated with less cohesion and more conflict with parents, whereas the opposite was true for organization. Similar control–warmth and organization–warmth relations were also found in the classroom context between teachers and students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's classroom behavior: The unique contribution of family organization.

Sixty-three 2-parent families participated in a study examining whether family organization—cohesion, parental leadership, and strong family subsystems—is related to teachers' perceptions of children's classroom behavior in 1st grade. Independent observers assessed whole-family organization and the quality of the interaction process in marital and parent-child dyads from videotapes of mothers, fathers, and children working together on a structured (difficult puzzle) and unstructured (building a model) task. Results indicate that adaptive family organization during the difficult puzzle task makes a significant, unique contribution to the prediction of children's externalizing behavior, over and above the quality of marital interaction and parenting style. No significant relationship was found between adaptive family organization in either task and teachers' perceptions of children's internalizing behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived organizational support.

Administered a survey of perceived organizational support (SPOS) to 361 employees (among them postal clerks, financial trust company employees, and manufacturing firm workers) and 71 private high school teachers in 2 studies. Teachers also completed an exchange-ideology questionnaire that measured their belief that work effort should depend on treatment by the organization. Results show that (a) employees in an organization form global beliefs concerning the extent to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being, (b) such perceived organizational support reduces absenteeism, and (c) the relation between perceived organizational support and absenteeism is greater for employees with a strong exchange ideology than those with a weak ideology. These findings support the social exchange view that employees' commitment to the organization is strongly influenced by their perception of the organization's commitment to them. Perceived organizational support is assumed to increase the employee's affective attachment to the organization and his/her expectancy that greater effort toward meeting organizational goals will be rewarded. It is concluded that the extent to which these factors increase work effort depends on the strength of the employee's exchange ideology favoring the trade of work effort for material and symbolic benefits. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interviewers' perceptions of person–organization fit and organizational selection decisions.

Amodel of person–organization fit and organizational hiring decisions is developed and tested, using data from 38 interviewers making hiring decisions about 93 applicants. Results suggest that interviewers can assess applicant–organization values congruence with significant levels of accuracy and that interviewers compare their perceptions of applicants' values with their organizations' values to assess person–organization fit. Results also suggested that interviewers' subjective person–organization fit assessments have large effects on their hiring recommendations relative to competing applicant characteristics, and that interviewers' hiring recommendations directly affect organizations' hiring decisions (e.g., job offers). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Volunteer recruitment: The role of organizational support and anticipated respect in non-volunteers' attraction to charitable volunteer organizations.

In 3 experiments the authors examined how specific characteristics of charitable volunteer organizations contribute to the recruitment of new volunteers. In line with predictions, Study 1 revealed that providing non-volunteers with information about organizational support induced anticipated feelings of respect, which subsequently enhanced their attraction to the volunteer organization. However, information about the current success of the volunteer organization did not affect anticipated pride (as among those who seek paid employment) and in fact caused potential volunteers to perceive the organization as being in less need for additional volunteers. Study 2 further showed that information about support from the volunteer organization is a more relevant source of anticipated respect and organizational attraction than support from co-volunteers. Study 3 finally showed that information about task and emotional support for volunteers contributes to anticipated respect and organizational attractiveness and that this increases the actual willingness of non-volunteers to participate in the volunteer organization. Interventions aimed at attracting volunteers and avenues for further research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Multilevel Model of Safety Climate: Cross-Level Relationships Between Organization and Group-Level Climates.

Organizational climates have been investigated separately at organization and subunit levels. This article tests a multilevel model of safety climate, covering both levels of analysis. Results indicate that organization-level and group-level climates are globally aligned, and the effect of organization climate on safety behavior is fully mediated by group climate level. However, the data also revealed meaningful group-level variation in a single organization, attributable to supervisory discretion in implementing formal procedures associated with competing demands like safety versus productivity. Variables that limit supervisory discretion (i.e., organization climate strength and procedural formalization) reduce both between-groups climate variation and within-group variability (i.e., increased group climate strength), although effect sizes were smaller than those associated with cross-level climate relationships. Implications for climate theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dental museums and collections in Illinois

The article explores the relationship between the cost and the quality of hospital care by elaborating a conceptual model of hospital performance. The model relates the financial health status of an organization (financial integrity) to the quality of care provided by that organization (clinical integrity) within an environment that is characterized by various forms of risk. The model suggests that both concepts determine the corporate destiny (success, bankruptcy, or merger) of the organization. If this model proves valid empirically, the results could be used as an early warning system to identify hospitals that might experience financial or clinical distress.