ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE AS A DEPENDENT VARIABLE

Most studies of organizational performance define performance as a dep endent variable and seek to identify variables that produce variations in performance, Researchers who study organizational performance in t his way typically devote little attention to the complications of usin g such a formulation to characterize the causal structure of performan ce phenomena. These complications include the ways in which performanc e advantage is competitively unstable, the causal complexity surroundi ng performance, and the limitations of using data based on retrospecti ve recall of informants. Since these complications are well-known and routinely taught, a pattern of acknowledging the difficulties but cont inuing the practice cannot be attributed exclusively to pear training, lack of intelligence, or low standards. Most researchers understand t he difficulties of inferring causal order from the correlations genera ted by organizational histories, particularly when those correlations may be implicit in the measurement procedures used. We suggest that th e persistence of this pattern is due, in part, to the context of organ izational research, Organizational researchers live in two worlds. The first demands and rewards speculations about how to improve performan ce. The second demands and rewards adherence to rigorous standards of scholarship. Ln its efforts to satisfy these often conflicting demands , the organization at research community sometimes responds by saving that inferences about the causes of performance cannot he made from th e data available, and simultaneously goes ahead to make such inference s. We conclude by considering a few virtues and hazards of such ii sol ution to dilemmas involving compelling contradictory imperatives and t he generality of the issues involved.