Managers’ Interactions and Their Effect on Productivity: A Case Study on a Product-Design Organization

Abstract

A new methodology for assessing managers’ face-to-face (F-to-F) interactions in a hierarchical organization is proposed, and its effect on productivity was tested. On the basis of the proposed methodology, the centrality of F-to-F interactions across hierarchical layers in an organization is calculated. Unlike the traditional survey method, the F-to-F interaction is automatically captured from socio-metric sensors. An empirical test at two product-design organizations demonstrated that the high-productivity organization has the proposed F-to-F centrality in the middle layer, whereas the low-productivity organization has the centrality in the top layer. By clarifying the whole KM process of the target organizations through document update histories, field observations, and interviews, it was found that the autonomous task execution in the lower layers and the future strategy planning in the top layers are the underlying behavioral cause producing F-to-F centrality in the middle layer. The proposed methodology is thus a suitable index for assessing managers’ behaviors that increase productivity and sustainability.