Multiple Organization Goals with Feedback from Shared Technological Task Environments

Hu, S., & Bettis, R. Multiple organizational goals with feedback from shared technological task environments. Organization Science, Forthcoming

44 Pages Posted: 6 Mar 2018

See all articles by Songcui Hu

Songcui Hu

University of Arizona - Department of Management and Organizations

Richard Bettis

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - Kenan-Flagler Business School

Date Written: February 26, 2018

Abstract

Goals and the performance feedback on those goals are fundamental to organizational learning and adaptation. However, most research has focused on single overall, high-level organizational goals, while ignoring important operational goals farther down in the goal hierarchy. This paper explores the important issue of interdependent feedback on multiple operational goals with shared task environments. We conjecture about the impact of shared technological task environments on feedback across goals. We then empirically examine these conjectures using panel vector autoregression (PVAR) analysis of performance feedback from three strategically important operational goals with shared technological task environments in the automobile industry. We find that interdependent feedback can lead to severe and misleading confusion regarding learning from feedback on such goals with shared task environments. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings. These include the following for technological goals with shared task environments: the absolute intractability of the problem of meeting multiple goals with interdependent task environments as the number of goals increases; limits on the modularity of organization structure; severe challenges in ex post credit assignment and ex ante planning when goals share technological task environments. Finally, we discuss the application of PVAR to interdependent feedback problems in organizations.

Keywords: goal feedback interdependency, shared technological task environments, intractability of engineering design, organization design, panel vector autoregression (PVAR)

Suggested Citation

Hu, Songcui and Bettis, Richard, Multiple Organization Goals with Feedback from Shared Technological Task Environments (February 26, 2018). Hu, S., & Bettis, R. Multiple organizational goals with feedback from shared technological task environments. Organization Science, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3130285

Songcui Hu (Contact Author)

University of Arizona - Department of Management and Organizations ( email )

405 McClelland Hall
P.O. Box 210108
Tucson, AZ 85721-0108
United States

Richard Bettis

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill - Kenan-Flagler Business School ( email )

McColl Building
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3490
United States

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