Journal
ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
Volume 30, Issue 3, Pages 467-488Publisher
INFORMS
DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2019.1291
Keywords
organization design; organizational learning; spatial design; spatial proximity; seating arrangements; individual-level exploration; microfoundations of strategy; natural experiment
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Funding
- William H. Newman Award for Best Paper Based on a Dissertation
- Business Policy and Strategy Division Distinguished Student Paper Award at the 2017 Academy of Management Conference
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This research proposes that individual-level exploration can be promoted by reconfiguring the spatial proximity between organizational members' workspaces. To test this idea, I exploit a natural experiment in an e-commerce company where the spatial distances between organizational members' workspaces were reconfigured. Consistent with the theory I develop on learning, results suggest that individuals whose workspaces were moved closer to those of previously separated peers engaged in more individual-level exploration. This pattern was stronger for individuals who had higher prior organizational experience and those who did not have ties with previously separated peers. Finally, I found that the relocated individuals also achieved higher financial performance. Overall, this study highlights the importance of an underexamined organization design element-spatial design-and its implications for organizational learning, individual-level exploration, and firm performance.
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