Webinar
Research in Progress Webinar:
"How Does Organization Design Influence Organizational Adaptation in Healthcare Contexts?"
Thursday, September 22nd, 2022 at 9AM EST
In this ODC “Research in Progress” (RiP) webinar, two PhD students—Jisoo Park (Carnegie Mellon University) and Jay (Jinwon) Park (UC Irvine)—working on research at the intersection of organization design and healthcare will present their recent working papers on how organization design influences organizational adaptation in healthcare contexts. The two presentations (each about 25-30mins) will be followed by a commentary by Professor Jody Hoffer Gittell (Brandeis University). The webinar will end with feedback/comments from the participants. Please see below for the abstracts of the papers and the bios of the presenters.
How Employing Contractors Affects Organizational Learning: Evidence from U.S. Hospitals (by Jisoo Park)
This study examines when hiring contractors facilitates organizational learning. Learning-by-hiring literature has implicitly assumed that individuals in hiring organizations effectively integrate knowledge transferred by individuals moving across organizations, such as contractors working in multiple organizations. On the other hand, the broader knowledge transfer literature and team receptivity to newcomers literature suggest that contractors’ knowledge might not be effectively integrated with the knowledge of full-time employees in hiring organizations. Drawing from the research on minority-majority relations, I theorize that increasing the proportion of contractors in an organization triggers both positive and negative effects on the extent of knowledge integration across two types of employees. Focusing on the net additive effects of both processes, I hypothesize that organizational learning will peak when organizations employ a moderate proportion of contractors. I test this hypothesis in the healthcare context in which an important new guideline on the use of stents was promulgated in 2006. This is a fruitful context for study because some physicians worked as full-time employees and some as contractors across hospitals. I find evidence for my hypothesis using data on 85,567 patients treated in 40 New York state hospitals between 2004 and 2007. In addition, I find that organizations with a low or high proportion of contractors can improve organizational learning by increasing the weight of particular types of contractors that can mitigate the negative effects of employing contractors in their organizations. This paper contributes to the literature on organizational learning, organizational design, and strategic human capital.
Capacity through Comprehension: Information Processing, Mutual Understanding, and Organization Design in Healthcare (by Jay (Jinwon) Park)
This study examines the relationship between information processing and organization design. While this relationship has been examined previously, a definitive answer has not been forthcoming largely because of the difficulty in identifying the causal effects of greater information processing capacity. Using a natural experiment and a difference-in-differences approach, we demonstrate the causal effects of the implementation of a healthcare information technology system on the delegation of tasks among care unit members within hospitals. In extending theory, we argue that because information processing is not only about capacity but also about meaning construction, information processing may be expanded through more information (via IT) and through better collective comprehension of that information. We theorize that information processing and hence delegation will be sensitive to the ability to establish mutual understanding among interacting care unit members. We focus on the mutual understanding developed through experience working together and through common training. Our study contributes to theories of information processing, organizational learning, and organization design.
Bios of Presenters
Jisoo Park is a Ph.D. Candidate in Organizational Behavior and Theory at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University. Her research examines the conditions that facilitate organizational learning by investigating how various individual-level mechanisms jointly affect organizational learning. Her research examines various learning processes, including learning from one’s own and others’ failures, adoption of new practices, and knowledge transfer. The empirical context of her research mainly focuses on the healthcare industry.
Jay (Jinwon) Park is a doctoral student in Strategy at the UCI Paul Merage School of Business. His research domains are focused on the Behavioral Theory of the Firm, Attention-based View of the Firm, and Organization Design. His research involves how temporal horizons impact organization’s reaction to negative attainment discrepancy, how conflicts within an online user community influences user innovation, and how changes in an information communication technology system impacts organization design. He conducts research projects using professional sports, video game distribution platforms, and healthcare industry context.
Jody Hoffer Gittell is Professor of Management at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy & Management where she leads the Relational Coordination Collaborative, a global community of researchers and change agents working to build relationships for high performance and positive change. Gittell is currently exploring the relational dynamics of multi-level systems change in complex systems. She received her PhD from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and currently serves as treasurer for the Seacoast NAACP, on the board of directors for Greater Seacoast Community Health, on the board of the Academy of Management Organizational Development and Change division, and as chair of the Brandeis Faculty Senate.
The event is open to all!
Non-member can register as guest for the event.
Registration closes 20th September, 2022 at 10 am (eastern time)
Hope you will be able to join us!
Best regards,
Organizational Design Community
