Foster, Dawn Marie (2018) Understanding collaboration in fluid organizations, a proximity approach. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich.

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Abstract

As fluid organizations become increasingly important and more commonly used, continued volution in approaches to understanding collaboration within organizations is required. The aim of this study was to understand collaboration in a fluid organization through the exploration of proximity and the role of networks. This study used proximity theory to determine the role of cognitive, organizational, social, institutional and geographical proximity on the likelihood of collaboration within the Linux kernel, a fluid organization. This research contributes to the literature on fluid organization in three ways. First, five criteria are proposed to determine whether an organization is fluid, and those criteria are used to demonstrate that the Linux kernel is a fluid organization. Second, the research demonstrates that proximity theory can be used as a theoretical lens to better understand intraorganizational collaboration in fluid organizations. Third, the impact of third party organizations is shown to influence collaboration in fluid organizations. In addition to these contributions to theory, several implications for practice are also explored. The results of this work showed that cognitive and social proximities increased the likelihood of collaboration, and that individuals were also more likely to collaborate with others who work for the same employer. The findings for geographical proximity were mixed, but indicated that it provides a small increase in the likelihood of collaboration. There was no consistent evidence that institutional proximity influences the likelihood of collaboration. This research also demonstrated the use of several alternative ways to operationalize proximity and found several interactions between dimensions of proximity. Finally, it was found that network effects also influenced the likelihood of collaboration in this fluid organization.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	fluid organization, proximity theory, network structure, Linux
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Greenwich Business School
Last Modified:	14 Apr 2025 15:43
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/50211

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