SOME EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE RELATED TO THE CASE OF THE SUPERORDINATE INTEGRATOR

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Abstract
This empirical study seeks to characterize processes of integration in complex organizations. The need for integration is examined initially in terms of the ideas of Weber, Pugh et al., Child, Lawrence and Lorch, and Pettigrew. Subsequently integration is related to a system's view of the problem of organizational control that underlines how the environment tends to both ‘fractionalize’ and ‘factionalize’ an organizational decision‐making system. The integrative task is then represented in terms of processes that seek to effect stable combinations of interrelationships between differntiated sub‐units.The evidence is presented in the form of a series of cases and incidents obtained during a one‐year participant observation study in a large multi‐national company. The research aims to identify ‘contingency’ guidelines in the design of integrative mechanisms by exploring differences in: the characteristics of integrative sub‐systems, the organizational environments in which they operated and the kinds of (intergroup) decision conflicts in which they were engaged. This exploratory study suggests that important conditions include: the identification of the integrative unit members, how ‘ill‐structured’ the decision problems encountered are and the degree of support for integrators that is perceived to be provided by senior management.

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