Mapping organizational complexity: a network-based approach to behavior through machine learning tools

The current uncertain, dynamic scenario calls for a systemic perspective when referring to organizational complexity and behavior. Our research contributes to the analysis of organizational complexity through multidimensional behavioral mapping. Our method uses machine learning tools to detect the interconnections between the different behaviors of a person in his/her operating context. First, the research project dealt with prototyping a model to read the organizational behavior, the related detection tool, and a data analysis methodology. It used machine learning tools and ended with a data visualization phase. We set our model to read the organizational behavior by comparing the literature benchmark theories with our field experience. The model was organized around 4 areas and 16 behaviors. These were the basis for singling out the indicators and the questionnaire items. The data analysis methodology aimed at detecting the interconnections between behaviors. We designed it by joining univariate analysis with a multivariate technique based on the application of machine learning tools. This led to a high-resolution network map through three specific steps: (a) creating a multidimensional topology based on a Kohonen Map (a type of unsupervised learning artificial neural network) to geometrically represent behavioral relationships; (b) implementing k-means clustering for identifying which areas of the map have behavior similarity or affinity factors; and (c) locating people and the various identified clusters within the map. The research highlighted the validity of machine learning tools to detect the multidimensionality of organizational behavior. Therefore, we could delineate the networking of the observed elements and visualize an otherwise unattainable complexity through multimedia and interactive reporting. Application in the field of research consisted of the design and development of a prototype integrated with our LMS platform via a plugin. Field experimentation confirmed the effectiveness of the method for creating professional growth and development paths. Furthermore, this experimentation allowed us to obtain significant data by applying our model to several sectors, namely pharmaceutical, TLC, banking, automotive, machinery, and services.

Real Effects of Private Country-by-Country Disclosure

We investigate the effects of mandatory private Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR) to European tax authorities on multinational firms’ capital and labor investments as well as their organizational structures. We exploit the threshold-based application of this 2016 disclosure rule to conduct difference-in-differences and regression discontinuity tests. We document increases in capital and labor expenditures in Europe, but these effects are more pronounced in countries with preferential tax regimes. Cross-sectional tests and analysis using consolidated financial data provide evidence consistent with multinational firms reallocating capital across Europe to mitigate increased tax enforcement risk, as well as with CbCR hindering capital investment efficiency. We also find evidence consistent with firms responding to CbCR by reducing organizational complexity. Collectively, our results support the conclusion that mandatory private CbCR causes firms to change real investment activities to substantiate their tax avoidance activities in Europe while reducing the appearance of aggressive tax practices.

The Demsetz’s Evolutionary Theory of Property Rights as Applied to Rural Land of China: A Supplement

The main objective of this article is to contribute to the literature on land issues, especially with regard to the evolutionary theory of China’s rural land property rights. This article applies the Demsetz’s evolutionary theory of property rights as a framework into an analysis of the evolutionary process of property rights in rural land of China. It is found that externality, compactness, productivity, and organizational complexity—four principles in Demsetz’s framework—are at the core of understanding the evolution of property rights from collective control of land to family based control of land in China. However, the framework is incomplete due to being unlikely to notice the role of land titling so that a property rights game is developed in this article to extend the evolutionary theory of property rights. Importantly, it suggests the necessity of “split-rights” from family based control land to private control land in China. To sum up, this paper refreshes the dominant framework of analysis on the evolution of property rights in mainstream economics, and makes it discern when collective ownership does not evolve into pure privatization, finally, instead of into private control of land, as is currently applied to rural area in China.

Higher Education Color Design Based on Organizational Vision

The vision of higher education organizations is needed to show the goals and how the higher education organizations work. With a vision, the activities of organizational members can be moved, directed and controlled to achieve organizational goals. In addition to being disseminated to members of the organization, the vision must also be introduced to stakeholders and the wider community as a way to create an institutional branding. One of the ways that a vision can be remembered easily is to use color symbols of the institution strategic elements. This article discusses how to design color concepts based on organizational vision and apply them to architectural elements of buildings. Vision always changes over time. On the other hand, buildings have a relatively longer life. The architect's task is to align the design age of higher education architecture so that it is always in line with its vision. Research location at Unhas Tamalanrea Campus Makassar with consideration of the level of organizational complexity. The research method uses a constructive paradigm. Data collection was carried out using the review of institutional documents, in-depth interviews, FGD, and transactional dialogue with the academic community. This research is conducted since the preparation of the Unhas Strategic Plan’s 2006-2010, 2011-2015, and 2016-2020. The results of the discussion are in the form of a concept recommendation for the vision color of the institution.

Russian Ethnofederalism: Evolution and Development Prospects

Introduction. The authors analyze the peculiarities of the formation, evolution and prospects of Russian ethnofederalism, based on the achievements of Russian and Western researchers. Methods and materials. Along with classical approaches to the nature of ethnofederalism, the authors proceed from the concept that relations between the elites of the center and the regions in the Russian Federation are based on the so-called “incomplete contract”, which is characterized by the absence of guarantees for its implementation. Analysis. This political practice comes as a source of the elites desire to change the distribution of power and resources in their favor while the Constitution remains unchanged, the “pendulum” nature of relations along the “federal center – regions” line. In modern Russia federalism does not have a value dimension, both for the elites of the center and the elites of most regions, and it remains a purely instrumental concept. The authors build their analysis of interethnic relations and the prospects of ethnic federalism in Russia, proceeding not from any ideal model, but starting from the existing ethnic political reality with its already existing imperfect institutions of ethnic federalism. At the same time, a differentiated approach is used to assess the correlation between federalism and ethnicity. Results. The authors come to the conclusion that, despite the numerous shortcomings of the ethnic model of federalism (organizational complexity, special requirements for political elites, asymmetry with its inherent “injustice”, etc.), there is no real alternative to it in Russia.

Impact of innovation in oncology: more questions than answers

Oncology is going through the fastest innovation period in the history of medicine and a growing number of patients improve or experience increased chances of survival. The declining death rate, starting from 1991, resulted in 2.9 million deaths avoided in the United States so far. A growing prevalence of patients is observed in all Western countries. New cancer drug approvals between 2000 and 2016, linked to other diagnostic, surgical, and health care improvements, were significantly associated with death reduction for the most common cancers. Alongside many positive aspects, other effects of innovations in oncology also deserve attention, especially challenges associated with the substantial increase of knowledge volume, the sharp growth of prevalence, and a concomitant or consequent increase in clinical, social, and organizational complexity. We analyse some of the consequences of oncology innovation on healthcare systems and professionals and present some suggestions on how these could be addressed by healthcare systems.

A Multi-criteria Approach in the Project Selection Process in Multi-Project Context

In a multi-project environment, organizational complexity refers to the difficulties that organizations often face in choosing projects to build their portfolios, since they do not aim to achieve the same strategic business objectives. It is for this reason that the project selection process requires the implementation of an effective decision-making tool when composing a project portfolio. The objective of this paper is to propose an adapted framework for a better project selection procedure inspired by the approaches of strategic relevance, profitability criteria, uncertainty, and risk analysis, the ability to dispose of scarce resources, and the determination of interdependencies between different projects. 

Moral responses to uncertainty: The economies of worth towards a reconceptualization of decision making and management

The sizeable literature that deploys Boltanski and Thévenot’s (1991, 2006) “economies of worth” model of moral cognition to study organization and management under conditions of uncertainty and value pluralism is connoted by a striking variety of interests, terminology, and theorizing approaches. This review argues for the literature’s emerging cumulative cohesiveness and for its value as a source of concepts and problems for researchers exploring organizational behavior, organizational complexity, knowledge and innovation, organizational justice, and leadership. By mapping the literature onto the elements of the source model, the review induces several constructs that – though requiring integration and development – outline a distinctive conception of organization: the collective exercise of moral sense is necessarily coterminous with decision and policy making; information and formal structures and practices arise out of it, as opposed to forming its context; the core concern of management is the functionality of the socio-material networks in which it unfolds. After defining several integrative and developmental research questions and locating the roots of the literature’s variety in the specificities of the economies of worth’s interdisciplinary translation, the review concludes by proposing a research approach based on four epistemological and methodological shifts that retains the model’s core assumptions but moves beyond its special conceptual confines and uses more general tools.