In an unpublished paper (that was subsequently published as a substantially revised and changed version), I had thought about linking issues underlying Six Sigma quality improvement (SSQI) with foundations of organizational theory. Below, I am presenting some important aspects that I had proposed:
In a typology proposed by Pfeffer (1982), organizational theories are classified based on their perspectives on action and their level of analysis. Three perspectives on action are suggested. These are:
- Purposive, intentional, goal-directed, rational
- Externally constrained and controlled
- Emergent, Almost-Random, Dependent on Process and Social Construction
The level of analysis can be categorized into two types:
- Individuals, Coalitions or Subunits
- Total organization
Based on the three perspectives on action and the two levels of analysis, organization theories can be categorized into six types as shown below:
Pfeffer’s typology of theoretical perspectives in organization theory; Source: Pfeffer (1982)
Category
I
In these theories the focus is on individual-level concepts such as preferences, goals, values, or needs and the social action is often implicitly assumed to be resulting from the aggregation of individual-level behavior or behavior-determining processes. Rational utility-maximization is the core idea. These theories presume a preexisting purpose or intent and rely on cognitive information-processing capability of an individual. Context does not play an important role in these theories. Specific theoretical perspectives in this category are presented below:
Expectancy theory argues that people undertake actions according to the probability that these actions will lead to some instrumentally valued outcome.
Goal Setting suggests a rational, consciously chosen, motivated individual behavior emphasizing cognitive processes to achieve their goals.
Needs theory & job design argues that people act purposefully to fulfill their needs or to overcome need deficiencies.
Political theories assert that individual action is motivated to achieve some desired outcome such as more resources, promotion, or additional power.
Category II
The basic premise of these theories is that individuals are adaptive to their environments and therefore to understand behavior it is both necessary and largely sufficient to consider only the characteristics and constraints of the environment in which the individuals act. Specific theoretical perspectives are presented below:
Operant conditioning perspective argues that behavior is a function of its consequences. Positive reinforcement increases the frequency of a behavior in the future, whereas, negative reinforcement decreases the frequency of future occurrences of the behavior.
Social learning theory considers the role of cognition in the learning process and admits learning through a variety of means such as vicarious learning, in which behavior and consequences to another individual serve as a learning experience, and learning from explicit emulation.
Socialization emphasizes the understanding of the organization’s culture, way of doing things, and decision-making style that is internalized in the individual.
Role theory argues that organizations are systems of mutual social constraint in which the activities of any given role occupant are determined by the demands and expectations of others in his or her role set.
Social context effects & groups perspective emphasize the effects of the attitudes and behaviors of others in the individual’s environment on his or her own attitudes and behavior.
Retrospective rationality theories, unlike theories that assert that behavior is prospectively rational and consciously chosen to obtain some goal, suggest that behavior is largely under some external control and behavior is rationalized after the fact.
Social information processing theories suggest that social context affects the perceptions of the work environment, attitudes, and need statements; perceptions and attitudes are linked; and an individual’s own past behaviors, which are partly socially mediated, affect self-perceptions of attitude.
Category III
These theories recognize individuals as the creator of meaning and the focus has been on the subjective nature of reality and on the constraining effects of social definitions of reality on behavior. The theoretical perspectives in this category are presented below:
Ethnomethodological approach is characterized by its relative emphasis on a situation-specific frame of reference and its emphasis on cognitive sense making.
Cognitive theories of organizations consider organizations as bodies of thought or causal schemata which are characterized by two dimensions – the differentiation & complexity and the specific relationships embodied in the causal structure.
Language in organization perspective argues that language is important in understanding organizations and how they are managed because language is one of the key tools of social influence, and organizations are contexts in which social influence is exercised.
Affect-based processes assert that it is the affect or emotion that maintains the repetitiveness of behavior and maintain the interlocked cycles of interaction.
Category IV
These theories presume rational and conscious action and address large-scale organizations as a whole rather than as environments in which individuals work, and are influenced by power, status and fulfillment of various needs and goals. The main points underlying the theoretical perspectives in this category are presented below:
Structural contingency theory argues that the design of the organization depends on various contextual factors. The motivational assumptions are efficiency and strategic choice and the dependent variables typically relate to the form and structural dimensions.
Market failures approach also referred to as the “transaction cost approach” emphasizes the role of transaction costs which could arise due to a number of conditions such as, small numbers or noncompetitive markets; opportunism; environmental uncertainty; and bounded rationality. The motivational assumption is efficiency and the dependent variables include, boundaries and integration, form and organization of employment relations.
Marxist analysis of organizations focuses on the premise of conscious, rational, strategic action taken on the part of the capitalist class and organizations, controlled by that class. The motivational assumptions are power, accumulation, intergenerational transmission and the dependent variables include, organization of employment relations, accumulation and allocation, patterns of association and the choice of technology.
Category V
Theories in this category address the issue of how, or if, organization-level rational choice or decision making gets produced. The two variants of this perspective, population ecology and resource dependence, differ in terms of behaviorism and social information processing seen at the individual level of analysis. Population ecology focuses attention on birth and death processes impacted by environmental conditions and the resource dependence theory focuses on internal adaptations and the politics that occur inside organizations. Specific points pertaining to the theoretical perspectives in this category are presented below:
Population ecology theory argues that change in population of organizations occurs, in part, because of the operation of selection processes working on those organizations.
Resource dependence theory argues that organizations are externally constrained and therefore organizations seek to manage or strategically adapt to their environment. According to the theory it is important to pay greater attention to internal organizational political decision-making processes.
Category VI
Organizations are conceived as paradigms and processes, and the explanation and prediction of behavior proceed by incorporating structural and contextual effects, while retaining some of the developmental perspective and the theme of social construction of reality. Specific theoretical perspectives in this category are presented below:
Organizations as paradigms perspective conceptualizes organization in terms of the concept of paradigms, which refers to the shared understanding and beliefs about cause-effect relations and standards of practice and behavior.
Decision process theories and administrative rationality perspective argue that organizations develop performance programs, standard operating procedures, and rules of thumb, to make decisions; hence, it is necessary and largely sufficient to understand these performance programs or procedures.
Institutionalization theory argues that the process of institutionalization is the main reason for practices or procedures to be continued and transmitted without question and for meanings to be shared without thought or evaluation. The theory on one end imparts permanence to an organization that extends beyond the requirements of the task at hand and on the other end addresses the processes by which social processes, obligations, or actualities come to take on a rule like status in social thought and action.
He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.
-- Leonardo da Vinci
In the paper I present ten potential areas that need to be studied further to have a better understanding of SSQI. In the following table I present the research issues pertaining to SSQI within the framework of organization theory typology.
The following table succinctly presents the potential linkages between the ten areas
of SSQI discussed in the paper and the various theoretical perspectives.
Reference:
Pfeffer, J. 1982. Organizations and Organization Theory. Marshfield, MA: Pitman Publishing Inc.
Source: Nair, A. 2005. Towards a Theory-Driven Research Agenda in Six Sigma Quality Improvement: Linking Research Opportunities with Organization Theory Typology.