TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Walls or boxes'
T2 - the effects of professional identity, power and rationality on strategies for cross-functional integration
AU - Vad Baunsgaard, Vibeke
AU - Clegg, Stewart
PY - 2013/9
Y1 - 2013/9
N2 - Small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are recognized as drivers of economic growth, yet commonly face low innovation and organizational success due to insufficient cross-functional integration. We pose the simple question: what factors hinder cross-functional integration from occurring? We analyse cross-functional integration at management level by developing the framework of dominant ideological modes of rationality, composing professional identity, power relations and rationalities and through the construct of 'members' categorization devices' (MCDs). The article builds theory from a longitudinal in-depth empirical investigation of 'everyday' micro-political processes involved in cross-functional integration by drawing on political and ethnomethodological perspectives. It provides novel findings on the dynamics between power relations and cross-functional integration, the influence of 'thought worlds' of different functions involved in the innovation process, and contributes empirical evidence that professional identity produces power relations and rationality. Implications for theory, method and practice are considered.
AB - Small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are recognized as drivers of economic growth, yet commonly face low innovation and organizational success due to insufficient cross-functional integration. We pose the simple question: what factors hinder cross-functional integration from occurring? We analyse cross-functional integration at management level by developing the framework of dominant ideological modes of rationality, composing professional identity, power relations and rationalities and through the construct of 'members' categorization devices' (MCDs). The article builds theory from a longitudinal in-depth empirical investigation of 'everyday' micro-political processes involved in cross-functional integration by drawing on political and ethnomethodological perspectives. It provides novel findings on the dynamics between power relations and cross-functional integration, the influence of 'thought worlds' of different functions involved in the innovation process, and contributes empirical evidence that professional identity produces power relations and rationality. Implications for theory, method and practice are considered.
KW - cross-functional integration
KW - dominant ideological modes of rationality
KW - power relations
KW - professional identity
KW - strategy-as-practice
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84884144809&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0170840612464756
DO - 10.1177/0170840612464756
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84884144809
VL - 34
SP - 1299
EP - 1325
JO - Organization Studies
JF - Organization Studies
SN - 0170-8406
IS - 9
ER -