This paper examines employee reactions to the introduction of work teams, reduced job classifications, and skill-based pay as established through the Modern Operating Agreement (MOA) between Chrysler Corporation and the United Auto Workers. Survey data suggest that workers responded favorably to...

Assessments of the appropriateness and inappropriateness of behaviors play an important role in interactions in multinational corporations (MNCs). We develop a model of appropriateness that that illustrates how various arrangements in MNCs (e.g., geocentric staffing) may work to influence the...

Depictions of organizational life have ranged from depictions of extreme alienation (Erikson, 1986) to extreme commitment (Butterfield, 1985; Kunda, 1992). However, the emotional portrait of workers may not be so easily captured by simple shades of positive or negative feelings. Rather, the rapid...

This research poses the following basic research question: What is the value of emotional and informational responsiveness in service interactions and what are their antecedents? Through a cross-sectional study of 250 service interactions, this dissertation provides evidence regarding individual...

This paper examines the effect of product variety on manufacturing performance, defined here as total labor productivity and consumer-perceived product quality. Using data from the International Motor Vehicle Program (M.I.T.) study of 70 assembly plants worldwide, the paper examines three...

This paper uses case studies of shop-floor problem-solving at three automotive assembly plants to examine organizational influences on process quality improvement. Three complex quality problems---water leaks, paint defects, and electrical defects---were chosen because they are universally found...

Multinational companies are a conduit by which superior organizing principles can be transferred across national, institutional, and cultural environments. However, for such transplantation efforts to be successful, the companies face the challenge of adapting their practices and principles to...

This paper starts from the observation that firms are increasingly engaging in collaborations with their suppliers, even as they are reducing the extent to which they are vertically integrated with those suppliers. This fact seems incompatible with traditional theories of the firm, which argue...

Early research on inter-organizational trust drew on theories about social ties among individuals, for example, duration of ties and amount of interaction, yet these proved inadequate to explain the diverse arrangements arising in international business. Dyer and Chu's award-winning JIBS paper...

Using a unique international data set from a 1989–90 survey of 62 automotive assembly plants, the author tests two hypotheses: that innovative HR practices affect performance not individually but as interrelated elements in an internally consistent HR “bundle†or system; and...