Conformity: Resolving the trade-off between performance and standardization in multi-unit organizations
研究多单元组织如何通过促进单元经理间的知识共享和一致性行为，在提高分权程度的同时兼顾绩效与标准化，发现特定沟通网络结构下分权可同时提升两者，但单元相互依赖时仍需集中控制。
Multi-unit organizations are a form of organizations where the geographically dispersed units provide similar products or services in different markets. Deciding on an appropriate level of centralization in such organizations presents a unique challenge. One the one hand the organizations want to maintain a consistent brand identity in all units through centralized control, but on the other hand, they want to provide the units with sufficient autonomy to respond to the challenges they face locally. Traditionally, this challenge was perceived to require a trade-off between performance and standardization, with performance demanding more decentralization and standardization requiring more centralized control. However, our research explores how organizations can potentially resolve this trade-off by promoting norms for knowledge-sharing and setting up the right communication channels, relying on the unit managers’ intrinsic tendency to conform to the behavior of their peers. We build an agent-based model of an organization with multiple interdependent units facing highly similar task environments to investigate how unit managers’ ability to communicate, share knowledge, and conform to peer practices might influence organizational dynamics. We find that, under specific communication network structures, increased decentralization can enhance both performance and standardization without sacrificing one or the other. Furthermore, we discover that centralization might still be preferable for standardization if the units are interdependent. • Multi-unit organizations face a trade-off between performance and standardization. • Peer conformity can resolve this trade-off without centralized control. • Direct peer connectivity enables conformity to boost both performance and standardization. • When units are interdependent, conformity alone cannot fully replace centralized control.