Operations Management (OM) is concerned with the processes involved in delivering goods and services to customers (Hopp and Spearman 2000, Shim and Siegel 1999). While recent surge in service and professional white collar work has greatly changed the arena of OM practice, OM research has not yet well address the management of white collar work. This study, drawing on knowledge from fields, such as operations management, economics, sociology, and organizational behavior, aims to (1) build a framework for studying white collar work system by identifying gap between current state of OM research and the needs for organizing white collar work; (2) understand collaboration network formation and its structural properties as a consequence of worker behaviors; and (3) understand the impact of existing collaboration network structures on white collar work performance. In Chapter 2, we systematically review disparate streams of research relevant to understanding white collar work from an operations perspective. In Chapter 3 and 4, we seek to understand the formation and structural properties of white collar worker collaboration network as a consequence of worker behaviors. In Chapter 3, we characterize the optimal collaboration network structure of heterogeneous white collar workers based on a mathematical model. In Chapter 4, we examine the dynamic process of collaborative team formation among knowledge workers. We shows that managers may help improve the process by intervening the decentralized team formation through centralized policies. In Chapter 5 and 6, we study the impact of existing network structure empirically. In Chapter 5, we examine the impact of network positions and interdisciplinary ties on white collar work performance in academic research environment. Our results show that (1) Eigenvector centrality has an inverted-U shape impact on research productivity and impact; (2) inter-disciplinary research discussions promote research impact; and (3) peripheral positions in the awareness network tend to promote research productivity and impact. In Chapter 6, we extend our empirical study on white collar performance to the top 25 engineering schools. we found that having more interdisciplinary collaborators promotes research performance at individual, department, and school levels.

Last modified

• 09/10/2018

Creator

• Fang Liu

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/N2MB1X

Subject

• Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences

Keyword

• Collaboration
• Operations
• Network

Date created

• 2008-05-09

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright