Territory management in organizations

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

The main objective of this project is to further scholarly understanding about the phenomenon of territory management among groups in organizations. Territory management in organizations is a natural behavior stemming from evolutionary pressures to reinforce or expand one's own group's territory within an environment, but can have both beneficial and harmful outcomes in modern day organizations. While beneficial outcomes of territory management in organizations can include decision efficacy, team cohesion, and clear expectations about work, harmful outcomes include lost market share, missed opportunities, gridlock, and a cycle of relational deterioration among groups. Little is currently understood about what territory management looks like in organizations, what the conditions are that lead to harmful versus beneficial consequences, and how territory management might be reinforced in organizations. The proposed research uses a mixed method approach to study this phenomenon in organizations. Two studies will be conducted. The first involves a qualitative study into the behaviors and forms through which territory management manifests in organizations, and possible conditions that lead to harmful versus beneficial effects. The second study will involve a dynamic computation modeling study to test factors that may reinforce cycles of territory management in organizations. Findings will be used to help managers identify if a cycle of territory management among their groups is occurring and possible leverage points they may have to break the loop of territory management among their groups if necessary. Further, the proposed research will help future researchers more advantageously target their resources in conducting research on cross-group conflict over organizational territories. Territory management in organizations is a natural behavior stemming from evolutionary pressures to reinforce or expand one's own group's territory within an environment, but can have both beneficial and harmful outcomes in modern day organizations. The current project seeks to better understand this phenomenon in organizations using a mixed method approach by (1) collecting empirical data to articulate the behaviors and forms in which territory management between groups manifest, and to begin linking these behaviors and forms to antecedents and consequences; (2) formally modeling key theoretical features relevant to territory management among groups in organizations through a computational model informed by literature and data from the empirical study; and (3) begin testing propositions and emergent predictions within the extended theoretical space that only computational modeling allows (e.g., enabling the exploration of emergent outcomes arising from individual groups interacting and reacting to one another and their environment over time). This project will help develop and refine a conceptual model of territory management and offer a new lens through which to understand cross-group interactions. A territory management lens has the potential to synthesize aspects of intergroup conflict, such as group identity, finite resources, uncertainty and change, legitimacy, and control and autonomy, into a more parsimonious model. The proposed computational modeling approach will help to test which variables are fundamental in a system view of territory management, while the proposed empirical study may help begin to untangle what types of territory management behaviors may be beneficial or harmful to groups (and their organizations).