Organizational effectiveness at seaports: a systems approach

Organizational Effectiveness (OE) is a rather new concept in the port business literature and not widely studied before. From the systems perspective, this concept focuses on the goals of the organization, the resources needed to achieve these goals, and the relationship between the organization and its environment. The reason behind choosing a systems approach is the significant role of seaports as open systems affected by changes and developments in world trade, supply chain and logistics trends, maritime transport, and technological developments. While seaports are multi-faceted organizations that constitute different interdependent and integrated units in their structure, they can also be regarded as the subsystems of the supply chain system. As being the social and technical systems, port organizations have unique characteristics that should be examined in detail to assess their effectiveness. To assess the effectiveness of port organizations, principally a set of effectiveness measures applicable to seaports should be determined. The main aim of this study is to assess the relative importance of the main effectiveness criteria in seaports and to determine the significance of main inputs and port subsystems which can be referred as the means to achieve effectiveness. By using the systems approach, the inputs, the processes, and the outputs of the port organizations are clearly defined with a conceptual model. Thirty-three statements have been developed under the main categories in the systems model and a two-round delphi survey is conducted, and qualitative analysis of the experts’ opinions is carried out. The results of the delphi survey show that the main port inputs are port infrastructure, equipments, technology, and port labor; the major port processes are ship and cargo operations together with the logistics services, safety and security, information technologies, and marketing; and the most important effectiveness measures for the seaports are productivity, efficiency, service quality, adaptability, information and communication management, profitability, human resource quality, and customer satisfaction.

[1]  K. Cullinane,et al.  The Efficiency of European Container Terminals and Implications for Supply Chain Management , 2006 .

[2]  Norman P. Uhl,et al.  Using the delphi technique in institutional planning , 1983 .

[3]  Khalid Bichou,et al.  A logistics and supply chain management approach to port performance measurement , 2004 .

[4]  Paul M. Hirsch,et al.  Organizational Effectiveness and the Institutional Environment. , 1975 .

[5]  W. Martz.  Evaluating Organizational Effectiveness , 2008 .

[6]  Shamima Ahmed.  The emerging measure of effectiveness for human resource management , 1999 .

[7]  T. Notteboom,et al.  Structural changes in logistics: how will port authorities face the challenge? , 2001 .

[8]  Maurice Gosselin,et al.  PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS : BRIDGING THE GAP , 2002 .

[9]  Thomas A. Mahoney,et al.  Managerial Perceptions of Organizational Effectiveness , 1967 .

[10]  3 – A Framework for an Integrated Model of Organizational Effectiveness1 , 1983 .

[11]  F. Glen.  The social psychology of organizations , 1976 .

[12]  S Ramnarayan,et al.  Organizational Effectiveness: An Alternative Perspective , 1983 .

[13]  Jose L. Tongzon,et al.  DETERMINANTS OF PORT PERFORMANCE AND EFFICIENCY , 1995 .

[14]  John P. Saldanha,et al.  The potential for British coastal shipping in a multimodal chain , 2002 .

[15]  Benoit Morel,et al.  Through the Looking Glass of Complexity: the Dynamics of Organizations As Adaptive and Evolving Systems , 1999 .

[16]  Gregory J. Skulmoski,et al.  Journal of Information Technology Education the Delphi Method for Graduate Research , 2022 .

[17]  John Rohrbaugh,et al.  A Spatial Model of Effectiveness Criteria: Towards a Competing Values Approach to Organizational Analysis , 1983 .

[18]  Peter Bernard Marlow,et al.  Fourth generation ports – a question of agility? , 2003 .

[19]  R. Kilmann,et al.  Towards A Systemic Methodology For Evaluating The Impact Of Interventions On Organizational Effectiveness , 1976 .

[20]  F. Friedlander,et al.  Components of Effectiveness in Small Organizations , 1968 .

[21]  Paul S. Goodman,et al.  New perspectives on organizational effectiveness , 1977 .

[22]  Lourdes Trujillo,et al.  Privatization and Regulation of the Seaport Industry , 1999 .

[23]  B. Chakravarthy.  Measuring strategic performance , 1986 .

[24]  Peter Bernard Marlow,et al.  Measuring lean ports performance , 2003 .

[25]  J. Stewart,et al.  Is the Delphi technique a qualitative method? , 2001, Medical education.

[26]  Ronald J. Webb.  Organizational Effectiveness and the Voluntary Organization , 1974 .

[27]  James E. Rosenzweig,et al.  Organization and management : a systems and contingency approach , 1979 .

[28]  R. Duncan.  Mltiple Decision-making Structures in Adapting to Environmental Uncertainty: The Impact on Organizational Effectiveness , 1973 .

[29]  C. A. Harrison,et al.  BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION , 1938 .

[30]  Murray Turoff,et al.  The Delphi Method: Techniques and Applications , 1976 .

[31]  C. Carnall.  Managing change in organizations , 1990 .

[32]  Wayne F. Cascio,et al.  What is Strategy , 2012 .

[33]  C. Barros,et al.  Efficiency in European Seaports with DEA: Evidence from Greece and Portugal , 2004 .

[34]  Valentina Carbone,et al.  The changing role of ports in supply-chain management: an empirical analysis , 2003 .

[35]  P. Wright.  The Social Psychology of Organizations, (2nd Ed): Daniel Katz and Robert L. Kahn New York: Wiley, 1978, 838 pp. , 1979 .

[36]  R. Kahn,et al.  The Social Psychology of Organizations , 1966 .

[37]  Richard M. Steers.  Problems in the Measurement of Organizational Effectiveness , 1975 .

[38]  Thomas A. Mahoney,et al.  Managerial Models of Organizational Effectiveness. , 1969 .

[39]  B. C. Reimann,et al.  Task Environment, Decentralization and Organizational Effectiveness , 1973 .

[40]  L. L. Cummings,et al.  Organizational Effectiveness and Organizational Behavior: A Critical Perspective. , 1981 .

[41]  J. Rosenzweig,et al.  General systems theory: applications for organization and management. , 1972, The Journal of nursing administration.

[42]  S. Robbins.  Organization theory: Structure, design, and applications , 1987 .

[43]  C. Carnall.  Managing Change , 1991 .

[44]  Stuart Jay Deutsch,et al.  Organizational Effectiveness: A Multiple-Constituency Approach , 1980 .

[45]  A. Gunasekaran,et al.  Agile manufacturing: The drivers, concepts and attributes , 1999 .

[46]  Van der Horst,et al.  New indicators to measure port performance , 2007 .

[47]  H. Smalley.  The systems approach. , 1972, Hospitals.

[48]  R. Robinson.  Ports as elements in value-driven chain systems: the new paradigm , 2002 .

[49]  Amitai Etzioni,et al.  Two Approaches to Organizational Analysis: A Critique and A Suggestion , 1960 .

[50]  Jose L. Tongzon,et al.  Efficiency measurement of selected Australian and other international ports using data envelopment analysis , 2001 .

[51]  J. Crisp,et al.  The Delphi method? , 1997, Nursing research.

[52]  J. Cunningham.  Approaches to the Evaluation of Organizational Effectiveness , 1977 .

[53]  E. Yuchtman,et al.  A System Resource Approach to Organizational Effectiveness , 1967 .

[54]  Arnold S. Tannenbaum,et al.  A Study of Organizational Effectiveness , 1957 .

[55]  W. Bennis,et al.  The Social Psychology of Organizations , 1966 .

[56]  Kau Ah Keng,et al.  A Delphi forecast for the Singapore tourism industry: future scenario and marketing implications. , 2013 .

[57]  Kathy K. Franklin,et al.  Idea Generation and Exploration: Benefits and Limitations of the Policy Delphi Research Method , 2006 .

[58]  C. Argyris.  Integrating the individual and the organization , 1964 .

[59]  Noel Sproles.  The difficult problem of establishing measures of effectiveness for command and control: A systems engineering perspective , 2001 .

[60]  P. Lawrence,et al.  Organization and environment , 1967 .

[61]  Prabir De,et al.  Causality between performance and traffic: an investigation with Indian ports , 2003 .

[62]  M. Adler,et al.  Gazing into the oracle : the Delphi method and its application to social policy and public health , 1996 .

[63]  James H. Donnelly,et al.  Organizations : structure, processes, behavior , 1973 .

[64]  R. Rojas.  A Review of Models for Measuring Organizational Effectiveness Among For‐Profit and Nonprofit Organizations , 2000 .

[65]  S. Pettit,et al.  An Assessment of Long-Term United Kingdom Port Performance: A Regional Perspective , 2008 .

[66]  Kim S. Cameron,et al.  Critical questions in assessing organizational effectiveness , 1980 .

[67]  James G. Hunt,et al.  Environment and Organizational Effectiveness. , 1974 .

[68]  Danielle W. Mendoza,et al.  Putting Organizational Effectiveness into Practice: The Preeminent Consultation Task. , 1993 .

[69]  M. Budden.  Focus groups: Theory and practice , 1999 .

[70]  ej.  Amitai Etzioni, Modern Organizations, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1964, 120 s. , 1965 .

[71]  Athanasios A. Pallis,et al.  European Union Port Policy , 2002 .