Cranfield Management Research Paper Series

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Browsing Cranfield Management Research Paper Series by Author "Harrison, Alan"

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    Coordinating supply relationships: rhetoric and reality
    (2007-02-01T00:00:00Z) Harrison, Alan; Koulikoff-Souviron, Marie
    Two reciprocally interdependent, dyadic supply relationships – one inter- organizational, the other intra-organizational - were investigated across a broad front in this study. The focus was on the logistics relationship between supply partners, and on how these relationships were co-ordinated in practice. We probed co-ordination between the partners using four constructs – goal congruence, information sharing, co-ordination mechanisms and joint decision making. Based on these two studies, we propose that the process of mutual adjustment creates a ‘together-separate’ tension that has to be managed in practice. This process may lead to the development of new capabilities that transcend the boundaries of the firm: equally, it is a fragile process that may be thrown into reverse by a variety of factors such as people turnover and failure to maintain established coordination mec
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    Tension management in logistics service innovation projects
    (2006-11-01T00:00:00Z) Kohler, Thomas; Harrison, Alan
    Innovation projects create tensions, which may be envisaged as conflicts between different perspectives on how such projects should be managed. Such tensions have been described in such terms as autonomy versus standardisation. By tracking the origins and life cycle of tensions as they arose in an innovation project in practice, we sought to understand the nature of tensions and to gain insights into how they could be managed. The findings of an exploratory longitudinal case study were used to develop an optimised process model as well as to propose seven ways in which tensions could be managed pro-actively in innovation projects. In a second longitudinal case study, we tested these propositions by means of action research. In both cases, one of us was both project manager and researcher. This provided detailed operational access to the people and processes involved in two systems innovation projects at DHL Express in Germany.