Strategies for integrating individual and organizational interests.

Abstract

It is of the greatest theoretical and practical importance to understand the problem of integrating individual and organizational interests. Some organizational theorists have expressed concern about what will induce individuals to work and what will reconcile their interests with those of the organization. However, there have been relatively few studies dealing with the matter and, in general, there is very little known about what promotes the overlapping of the interests of the parties. This research was conducted in an attempt to shed some light on this area. Specifically, the objectives of this study were: 1. To compare individual and organizational perceptions of goal integration strategies utilized by the organization for increasing the possibility of overlap between individual and organizational interests. 2. To investigate, from both the individual and the organizational perspective, which particular strategy, or set of strategies, if any, is associated with a higher degree of goal integration. This study was carried out based on a theoretical model developed at the University of Michigan. The model encompasses three goal integration strategies for promoting the overlap between individual and organizational interests. This research applied the model to two sets of data from branches of Brazilian organizations operating in London. The main contributions of this study are the following: a) It clarifies the concepts of exchange, socialization and accommodation in organizational settings. b) It proposes an extension of the original model to take into account the political perspective of organizations. In very general terms, the findings led us to conclude that there seems to be no universal or unconditional strategy capable of integrating the individual and organizational interests. Although a particular strategy may predominate at certain times, it does not preclude the concurrent use of other strategies.

Date of Award	1983
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath