Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 28, Number 3
Summer 1997
An Empirical Study of the Impact of Just-in-Time Task Scope
Versus Just-in-Time Workflow Integration on Organizational
Design
Richard Germain
Department of Marketing, College of Business Administration,
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, email: germainr@pilot.msu.edu
Cornelia Dröge
Department of Marketing and Logistics, The Eli Broad College of
Business, North Business Complex, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI 48824-1122, email:
droge@pilot.msu.edu
ABSTRACT
The research tests a theory of JIT as a technology having task
scope versus workflow integration dimensions. The results show that
JIT task scope predicts JIT workflow integration, and that only the
former is associated with organizational designs that are more
specialized, decentralized, integrated, and reliant on formal
performance measurement control. The findings imply that
organizational structure does not necessarily follow from workflow
structure. Rather, both organizational structure and workflow
structure follow from the knowledge capital that JIT task scope
represents.
Subject Areas: Just-in-time, Learning, Organizational
Structure, Organizational Theory, and Structural Equation Model.
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