New research by INSEAD faculty questions whether we are looking in the right places for solutions and answers. Themes include self-organisation, purchasing and supply management strategies amid uncertainty, organisational innovation, and what’s really behind the narrowing gender wage gap. The researchers also look to multinational organisations such as 3M, Holcim and the World Wildlife Fund for insights on effective collaboration across organisational, geographical and other boundaries. 

Would we find self-organisation in self-governing systems?

Self-organisation has been a topic of interest in organisational science. Yet, instances where order is produced directly through self-organisation are rare. Phanish Puranam argues in his new paper that global influence structures can emerge as a result of self-organisation – when driven by local interactions. 

His study contributes three ideas: First, self-organisation and self-governance are conceptually distinct. Second, self-organisation is a matter of degree. Third, the observed order in a system could result from influence structures that themselves come about through self-organising processes.

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Learning from purchasing and supply management in humanitarian settings

Purchasing and supply management (PSM) plays a critical role in humanitarian organisations. From the perspective of the disaster management lifecycle, PSM is not merely a transactional function but a strategic enabler of humanitarian missions. 

The convergence of boundary conditions – with increasing uncertainty and disruptions across all operations contexts – means companies can benefit from the PSM strategies and practices developed by humanitarian outfits. In their new paper, Luk Van Wassenhove, Iman Parsa and their co-authors* highlight key characteristics of humanitarian PSM and identify five key themes: make-or-buy decisions, global or local sourcing, collaboration and alliances, sustainable sourcing and digitalisation. 

* Bublu Thakur-Weigold, ETH Zurich, and Burcu Balçık, Ozyegin University.

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Evidence of organisational innovation in patent data

Organisation theorists have long claimed that organisational innovations are non-technological, in part because they cannot be patented. But the rise of organisational software (OrgSoft) opens opportunities to embody organisational knowledge in digital tools and turn organisational innovations into technological innovations that can be patented.

In their study, Shuping Wu and her co-author Valery Yakubovich (University of Pennsylvania) analysed United States patent applications for OrgSoft submitted between 1971 and 2020 and found that 68.8 percent of them represented organisational innovation. This shows that these innovations contribute to the patenting of OrgSoft and their recognition as technological innovations. In fact, digital transformation is now shifting the debate: from organisational innovations being seen as technologies to the challenge of designing practical organisational tools and making them applicable across contexts.

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Do narrowing industry wage premiums reflect a decline in the gender wage gap?

In trying to understand what drives the gender wage gap, recent research has sought to disentangle the extent to which women sort into lower-paying firms and the extent to which they are paid less within a given firm, both relative to men with comparable skills. A new study, based on data from France between 2002 and 2019, shows that the gender pay gap has narrowed since the 2000s due to a significant decline in the wage differential between firms. 

However, Alexandra Roulet, Mark Stabile and their co-author Marco G. Palladino (Banque de France) found that this reduction is not driven by an improvement in women’s relative position. Instead, it’s due to changes between and within industries. Their findings highlight how structural changes in the economy can affect gender wage gaps even in the absence of changes in women’s relative labour market position.

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Lateral collaboration across multinational enterprises 

Amid growing complexity in the global environment, multinational enterprises need less hierarchical and more agile global collaboration across structures. In particular, lateral collaboration is the interaction of managers in multinational enterprise across organisational and other boundaries to develop joint solutions – without going “up or down” the hierarchy. Mechanisms to facilitate this interaction include industry sector expert groups, global key account teams, global technology councils and multi-country task forces and initiatives.

In their recent paper, Yves L. Doz and his co-authors detail the different relationships that drive commitment in this context. They synthesised these insights with an integrative model emphasising the reciprocal relationship between interdependence mechanisms and social interactions.

*Andreas P. J. Schotter and Martha Maznevski, Western University, and Günter K. Stahl, Vienna University of Economics and Business.

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