IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecl/harjfk/rwp12-005.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

"Hard," "Soft," or "Tough Love": What Kinds of Organizational Culture Promote Successful Performance in Cross-Organizational Collaborations?

Author

Listed:
  • Kelman, Steven

    (Harvard University)

  • Hong, Sounman

    (Harvard University)

Abstract

One of the most-pervasive debates in literature on managing people is whether using "hard" or "soft" approaches produces better organizational performance--those seeking to influence behavior by pressuring or by nurturing. This paper examines this question in the context of a cross-organizational collaboration in English local government between police, probation, social work, and other organizations designed to reduce crime. Using a survey to gather data about cultural features of these collaborations and actual crime data, we find interaction effects between the joint presence of "hard" and "soft" cultural features in explaining crime reduction. Taking a phrase from pop psychology, it appears that cultures characterized by "tough love" perform better than those with only "hard" or "soft" features by themselves. We suggest that further research be conducted surrounding the relationship of the "tough love" construct to organizational performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Kelman, Steven & Hong, Sounman, 2012. ""Hard," "Soft," or "Tough Love": What Kinds of Organizational Culture Promote Successful Performance in Cross-Organizational Collaborations?," Working Paper Series rwp12-005, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/workingpapers/citation.aspx?PubId=8231&type=WPN
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Diether Gebert & Sabine Boerner & Eric Kearney, 2010. "Fostering Team Innovation: Why Is It Important to Combine Opposing Action Strategies?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 593-608, June.
    2. William A. Pasmore, 1998. "Organizing for Jazz," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(5), pages 562-568, October.
    3. Karen A. Bantel & Susan E. Jackson, 1989. "Top management and innovations in banking: Does the composition of the top team make a difference?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(S1), pages 107-124, June.
    4. Helen Dickinson & Jon Glasby, 2010. "‘Why Partnership Working Doesn't Work’," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(6), pages 811-828, November.
    5. Gautam Ahuja, 2000. "The duality of collaboration: inducements and opportunities in the formation of interfirm linkages," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 317-343, March.
    6. Daniel R. Denison & Robert Hooijberg & Robert E. Quinn, 1995. "Paradox and Performance: Toward a Theory of Behavioral Complexity in Managerial Leadership," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(5), pages 524-540, October.
    7. Kim S. Cameron, 1986. "Effectiveness as Paradox: Consensus and Conflict in Conceptions of Organizational Effectiveness," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(5), pages 539-553, May.
    8. Alan I. Murray, 1989. "Top management group heterogeneity and firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(S1), pages 125-141, June.
    9. Nicholas O Rule & Nalini Ambady, 2010. "Democrats and Republicans Can Be Differentiated from Their Faces," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(1), pages 1-7, January.
    10. Catherine Truss & Lynda Gratton & Veronica Hope‐Hailey & Patrick McGovern & Philip Stiles, 1997. "Soft and Hard Models of Human Resource Management: A Reappraisal," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 53-73, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kelman, Steven J. & Hong, Sounman, 2012. "Hard, Soft, or Tough Love: What Kinds of Organizational Culture Promote Successful Performance in Cross-Organizational Collaborations?," Scholarly Articles 8506868, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    2. van Olffen, W. & Boone, C.A.J.J., 1997. "The confusing state of the art in top management composition studies: A theoretical and empirical review," Research Memorandum 011, Maastricht University, Netherlands Institute of Business Organization and Strategy Research (NIBOR).
    3. Grey, Colette & Flynn, Antoinette & Adu, Douglas A., 2024. "An examination of how executive remuneration and firm performance are influenced by Chair-CEO diversity attributes," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    4. Talavera, Oleksandr & Yin, Shuxing & Zhang, Mao, 2016. "Managing the diversity: board age diversity, directors’ personal values, and bank performance," MPRA Paper 71927, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Sonja Sperber & Christian Linder, 2018. "The impact of top management teams on firm innovativeness: a configurational analysis of demographic characteristics, leadership style and team power distribution," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 285-316, January.
    6. Boone, Christophe & van Olffen, Woody & van Witteloostuijn, Arjen, 1998. "Psychological team make-up as a determinant of economic firm performance: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 43-73, February.
    7. Pham, Thuy-Dzung T. & Lo, Fang-Yi, 2023. "How does top management team diversity influence firm performance? A causal complexity analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PB).
    8. Krishnan, Hema A. & Park, Daewoo, 2005. "A few good women--on top management teams," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(12), pages 1712-1720, December.
    9. Ramos-Garza, Claudia, 2009. "TMT strategic consensus in Mexican companies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 854-860, September.
    10. Jijun Gao & Pratima Bansal, 2013. "Instrumental and Integrative Logics in Business Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 241-255, January.
    11. Theresa S. Cho & Donald C. Hambrick, 2006. "Attention as the Mediator Between Top Management Team Characteristics and Strategic Change: The Case of Airline Deregulation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 453-469, August.
    12. Rivas, Jose Luis, 2012. "Diversity & internationalization: The case of boards and TMT's," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 1-12.
    13. Michael Dahl & Toke Reichstein, 2007. "Are You Experienced? Prior Experience and the Survival of New Organizations," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(5), pages 497-511.
    14. Jerry Coakley & Aristogenis Lazos & Jose Liñares-Zegarra, 2022. "Strategic entrepreneurial choice between competing crowdfunding platforms," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 1794-1824, December.
    15. Naranjo-Gil, David & Hartmann, Frank, 2007. "Management accounting systems, top management team heterogeneity and strategic change," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(7-8), pages 735-756.
    16. Marte C. W. Solheim & Sverre J. Herstad, 2018. "The Differentiated Effects of Human Resource Diversity on Corporate Innovation," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(05), pages 1-25, October.
    17. Lee, Jeoung Yul & Kim, Sunghoon & Noh, Shinwon & Jang, Seung Hoon & Lee, Sang Youn, 2024. "Paradoxical organizational culture, authoritarian leadership, and international firm performance: evidence from international firms in China," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(1).
    18. Patricia Pitcher & Anne D. Smith, 2001. "Top Management Team Heterogeneity: Personality, Power, and Proxies," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, February.
    19. Deniz Ucbasaran & Andy Lockett & Mike Wright & Paul Westhead, 2003. "Entrepreneurial Founder Teams: Factors Associated with Member Entry and Exit," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 28(2), pages 107-128, March.
    20. Todd A. Finkle, 1998. "The Relationship between Boards of Directors and Initial Public Offerings in the Biotechnology Industry," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 22(3), pages 5-29, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-005. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ksharus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.