Organizational dynamics: culture, design, and performance

Timothy Besley and Torsten Persson

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We examine the two-way interplay between organizational cultures and organizational design, where culture is modeled as the prevailing social identities among workplace groups that can affect project choices. In a setting where cultural dynamics depend on the expected relative payoffs of holding different identities, we investigate how tribalism and charismatic leadership shape organizational dynamics and steady-state cultures. We show how a strong culture can be a virtue when it permits greater delegated authority, but a vice when the culture is poorly aligned with organizational objectives. We apply our analysis to concrete debates about the interaction of design, performance, and culture.

JEL-codes: L23 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2024-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-mic and nep-ppm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 1, July, 2024, 40(2), pp. 394 – 415. ISSN: 8756-6222

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/116651/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Organizational dynamics: culture, design, and performance (2024)
Working Paper: Organizational Dynamics: Culture, Design, and Performance (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:116651

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