The author explores determinants of organisational flexibility in this examination of four family-owned companies, two flexible and two less flexible, from the edible oil and pharmaceutical industries. By means of an innovative analysis - including longitudinal analysis, coding analysis, statistical analysis and the use of original display charts - he illustrates the determinants of organisational flexibility and sheds light on the process of transformation and adaptation of family firms, an area that has not yet been the subject of extensive empirical inquiry. The management literature has claimed that the complexity of business contexts has forced firms to confront hypercompetitive or high-velocity environments. Behind such claims lies a new interest in the dynamics of adaptation, and in particular a firm's flexibility as a way of adjusting under conditions of uncertainty. The businesses studied here have had to contend with the environmental volatility that characterized Argentina for some years. The author identifies five determinants of flexibility as a set of organisational and managerial capabilities that enabled some firms to adapt quickly in a highly competitive environment: heterogeneity of the dominant coalition, centralisation and formalisation of decision-making, low macroculture embeddedness, environmental scanning, and a strong organisational identity. These findings were analyzed and interpreted by developing theoretical ideas from three areas between which historically there has been no interface: organisational flexibility, organisational innovativeness and institutional embeddedness. This insightful examination into what enables some family-owned businesses to survive and thrive and causes others to fail will be of interest to academics concerned with business flexibility and adaptation, as well as to managers and owners of family businesses.
Andrés Hatum is Associate Professor in Human Resource Management at IAE Business School, Austral University, Argentina. He has done his PhD in Management and Organization at Warwick Business School (University of Warwick), England. He also obtained a BA in Politics and International Relationships at the Catholic University in Argentina. He later furthered his education with an Executive MBA at IAE Business and Management School, Austral University, Argentina.
He has published articles in different journals such as British Journal of Management, Management Research, Harvard Business Review and Family Business Review. He has also published books in Spanish such as Dirigiendo Personas, (Temas, 2004); Organizaciones que Crecen, (Temas, 2006); La Carrera Profesional (Granica, 2007) ; Alineando la Organización (Granica, 2009); and in English (Adaptation or Expiration in Family Firms: Organizational Flexibility in Emerging Economies, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007) and Next Generation Talent Management (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
Prof Hatum´s research focuses are: organizational flexibility in organizations, talent management, and career development.
