Wuhan University of technology

School of management

Organizational behavior in Serbia

-The Science and technology park in Belgrade case-

Subject: Organizational behavior

Professor: Luo Fan

Student: Stefan Vojnić

Student No. And class: 064, MBA 2019

24.06.2020.
 ABSTRACT

This paper tackles the efficiency, efficacy and the desirable organizational
model for the Science and technology park in Belgrade, Serbia. The process of
evolution of the aspiration of the Republic of Serbia to create a business ecosystem
where more start ups and companies can become relevant in the global market by
acquiring the much needed know how and technology, as well as organizational
behavior principles that successful global businesses already have has been
described in the introduction. Going from the theoretical base consisting of two
major organizational behavior theories, the hybrid organization theory and the
complexity theory, to the continuance of the timeline provided in the introduction
by dissecting the current situation in the Science and technology park in Belgrade
all the way to the underlying issues that this organizational model has, concluding
with an attempt of providing solutions to those issues using the two relevant
theories of Organizational behavior, the Hybrid organization theory and the
Complexity theory. The suggestions that could provide a solution to those
underlying issues are radically changing the way this organization operates now
and would need a totally new outlook on the purpose of the organization.

KEYWORDS

Organization, approaches, business development, Serbia, Science and

technology park, Hybrid theory of Organizational behavior, Complexity theory of
Organizational behavior, start up, company, manager, collaboration, business
ecosystem, dissemination, innovation, data, public, private, profit, public good,
development, contract

INTRODUCTION

The last ten years have been very interesting when it comes to new business
in Serbia, since the organizations created in that period have been radically
different than those that came before them. At the beginning of the twenty first
century Serbia is trying to catch up with the vast technological advances that have
happened in the world while we were at war with our neighbors or recovering
from it. The country is doing a modest, but steady job with our Prime Minister Ms
Ana Brnabić. Various start ups, social media marketing firms, e-commerce
businesses using the drop-shipping model, co-working spaces and technology
firms opened in that period. Even a strong gaming company was created and some
seed investments by renowned corporations in Serbia in sister tech companies.
Many Foreign direct investments and start ups were drawn to Serbia to make sure
our business develops. The Foreign direct investments came but didn’t care about
Serbia, only cheap labor and profit. The start ups weren’t equipped with the know
how in this new global setting. So some progress has been made so far, even
though poorly adapted to the situation, and lately it has been crowned by a new,
state run network of Science and Technology parks throughout Serbia. Those are
big office spaces that allow companies and start-ups to work in the same setting as
their competition, and use the same specialized teams for their needs. It is a great
investment in technological growth because it pools resources of barely
competitive companies so that they have a fighting chance in the market if they
make use of all the services that the Science and technology park is offering.
Another benefit is that our start-ups now have a chance to collaborate with each
other and big corporations like Huawei and Zepter, getting familiar with their
know how and sharing solutions.

When it comes to Organizational behavior in this setting, firms have to make sure
that they fuse and use various approaches to keep their employees satisfied,
properly motivated and happy. This is especially important for Serbia as a country
because young, educated people are massively leaving the country because of low
wages. Perceptions, attitudes and values are becoming crucial inside of these parks
because it is a new way of working that puts a heavy emphasis on collaboration,
instead of competition. The adjustments still haven’t been made in using
Organizational behavior theories to transition these companies to a collaboration
mindset, and this papers goal is to inspire those changes. There is a strong belief
that with this mindset adjustment companies in Serbia will become much more
relevant in the market.

BODY

I Overview of the Organizational behavior theories used in this case –

Theoretical review
 To help improve the Organizational behavior framework in the Science and
technology park in Belgrade, this paper is going to present two different, but
relevant Organizational behavior theories. One theory that is being used is the
Hybrid organization theory, and another theory being used is the Complexity
theory of Organizational behavior.

• Hybrid organizations are naturally very hard to define. One of the definitions
states that a hybrid organization is an organization that mixes elements,
value systems and action logic (social impact and profit generation) of
various sectors of society like the public sector, the private sector and the
voluntary sector. By incorporating elements from multiple economic sectors
into their business models and everyday operations, hybrids often exhibit
qualities of both nonprofit and for-profit enterprises. The core of any hybrid
organization lies in a commitment to making positive social or
environmental impacts. Whether responding to a lack of traditional sources
of philanthropic funding or simply in response to growing demand from a
more socially conscious consumer market, these organizations are
proliferating rapidly, and are poised to assume a much larger role in the
future of the corporate world.

• Complexity theory is an interdisciplinary theory that grew out of systems

theory in the 1960s. It draws from research in the natural sciences that
examines uncertainty and non-linearity. Complexity theory emphasizes
interactions and the accompanying feedback loops that constantly change
systems. While it proposes that systems are unpredictable, they are also
constrained by order-generating rules. This theory has been used in the fields
of strategic management and organizational studies. Application areas
include understanding how organizations or firms adapt to their
environments and how they cope with conditions of uncertainty.
Organizations have complex structures in that they are dynamic networks of
interactions, and their relationships are not aggregations of the individual
static entities. They are adaptive in the sense that the individual and
collective behavior mutate and self organize corresponding to a change-
initiating micro-event or collection of events.
II The current situation in the Science and technology park

The current situation in this park is that there are numerous start ups and
local companies completely operating in this ecosystem, and also Research &
Development departments of some foreign multinational corporations. The state
owned Science and technology park provides the framework and good conditions
to attract firms to work in this ecosystem. The way it is being done is by promising
a good business climate, low taxes, low wages and the full support of the state for
foreign companies. For local companies and start ups the promise is being able to
collaborate with the rest of the companies in the park, share the know how
between firms and share the support provided by the park.

This is, in theory, a good way to boost the seeded fourth Industrial revolution
based start ups in Serbia, and a good way to attract foreign companies. In reality,
there are many underlying problems.

III Issues, conclusions and potential solutions

The first issue with this organizational setting is that the companies still
operate solely for profit, and not at all for the betterment of the business climate in
Serbia, which is natural from a standpoint of private companies. If the country
wants the park to operate more socially responsible toward the betterment of
Serbia, it has to legally coerce that goal to the companies involved by changing the
framework of the park itself. For example, it has to enforce a limit on researching
and developing products or services that Serbia needs, not the ones that only these
foreign companies need. It has to legally bind these companies to said constraints
and involve the public sector into the work of the Science and technology park, to
provide transparency and mitigate possible, and in hybrid organizations very
common, cases of corruption. The conclusion here is that it needs to transform into
a fully operational hybrid organization.

The second important issue affects the small and medium local companies that are
operating in the park. For now there is formal collaboration between companies,
but it is minimal and all of the actors are trying to take other companies know how
without giving their own know how to others. Power play and corporate espionage
is the name of the game when it comes to relationships in this kind of a setting.
Even in an ideal situation where all of the information and innovation would flow
freely, it would still be unequally beneficial to the big companies because they
would get all of the information from all of the other companies in the park, while
giving back only the information that they gained in that park, not globally. Which
means that even with an ideal information sharing within the park, the competitive
gap between the big corporations and small local firms would still be bigger and
bigger. On the other side, all of the benefits of sharing knowledge is only being
shared within the parks ecosystem, not Serbia in its entirety. The solution to this
would be to change the organizational setting by using the complexity theory of
Organizational behavior so the park itself collects this solution driven data
centrally, refines it and then gives it to companies that ask for it themselves. Of
course, it would not be done by interfering in the collaboration and information
sharing within the park, but by complementing and expanding it. This feat can be
done by introducing a new type of manager into the parks administration, a
“Solutions manager” that collects all of the innovation, information and the
solutions created in the park, stores them and disseminates that data to companies
that need it. This is needed to provide not just a platform for cooperation and
work, but to improve the work done by companies in this park and Serbia in
general. The chosen solution relies on the complexity theory of Organizational
behavior because that theory emphasizes interactions and the accompanying
feedback loops that constantly change systems. While it proposes that systems are
unpredictable, they are also constrained by order-generating rules, which is a
perfect theory, along with the hybrid organization theory, for this case.

Another fairly big underlying problem is the selection process for entering the
Science and technology ecosystem. Since it is state owned its selection process, if
unchecked, can be biased to favor those in favor of the current political power.
Another issue besides the selection process is managing dissent, since
organizations in general tend to discourage dissent, and this one has even more
reason to do so. The problem here is that innovative and smart people, which we
need for this park to complete its purpose, are usually prone to dissent or even
outright disobedience. Will they be sanctioned for that even though they provide
value with their work, will their business suffer for it, and will the park lose some
great people because of this issue? Is stability really more important than
innovation?
There is always a possibility to obtain better overviews and information about the
company and individual satisfaction with the way the park operates. For that
purpose a Human resource manager of the park itself is needed to regularly
provide support in the cross – company communication and is also needed to
conduct quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews so the organizational
model of the park itself gets constantly updated, in accordance with the complexity
theory of Organizational behavior and common sense.

Lastly, to make sure that the public part of this hybrid organization reaps the
benefits of the Science and technology parks findings, it is advised to add one
more manager to the structure, the “Public benefit manager” whose biggest
responsibility would be to make sure any findings that can be beneficial to the
public good of the Republic of Serbia gets the deserved attention of the public
sector in Serbia.

METHODOLOGY

The issues and potential solutions from the previous, third subsection of the
papers’ body are derived from an extensive qualitative research conducted in the
form of an open/unstructured interview that also contained a couple of multiple
choice questions concerning the current and potentially improved organizational
structure of the Science and technology park in Belgrade. The interview was
conducted with five people that are organization members with relevant roles such
as the Head of business development, marketing and PR Coordinator, two
Associates of business support and the Associate for International cooperation and
Project Management. The interview was audio recorded, without the permission to
publicly share the audio copies of these conversations. Interview findings were
then connected to the theoretical framework of before mentioned Organizational
behavior theories.

Overall results from some concrete questions that all of the interviewees were
being asked about the Organizational behavior helped to uncover the main flaws
of the current organizational setting in the Science and technology park in
Belgrade in a bit more measurable way.

Possible answer to this set of questions were:

Good/Somewhat good/Acceptable/Improvement needed/Unacceptable
Questions were answered like this:

1. How would you describe the collaboration and information sharing between
companies in the park?

Answers: 3 interviewees – Improvement needed, 1 int. - Unacceptable, 1 int. -

Acceptable

2. How would you describe the park managements selection process of

companies?

Answers: 1 int. - Good, 2 int. - Acceptable, 1 int. - Improvement needed, 1 int. -

Unacceptable

3. How would you qualify the Organizational structure of the park?

Answers: 2 int. - Acceptable, 3 int. - Improvement needed

4. How would you describe the quality of the Organizational behavior in the park?

Answers: 2 int. - Acceptable, 3 int. - Improvement needed

5. How do you perceive the effects of the Science and technology parks efforts to
provide development and support for Serbian companies?

Answers: 1 int. - Somewhat good, 2 int. - Acceptable, 2 int. - Improvement needed

6. What effects regarding those efforts do you think would result from an
organizational transition to a hybrid organization?

Answers: 1 int. - Good, 2 int. - Somewhat good, 2 int. - Acceptable

7. What effects regarding those efforts do you think would result from creating
more interactions and feedback loops by applying the principles of the Complexity
theory in the park?

Answers: 3 int. - Good, 2 int. - Somewhat good

 RESEARCH RESULTS

The obtained research results pointed to an organizational restructuring

leading to the transformation of the organization that would introduce three new
unusual but applicable and needed managerial positions, the Solutions manager,
the Human resource manager and the Public benefit manager of the Science and
technology park. Other crucial results are uncovering the three underlying issues
in the organization, and suggestion of the three solutions to these issues. The
issues uncovered are: for – profit focus, inadequate collaboration and information
sharing of companies (in this case also employees in a way) involved and the
potentially flawed selection process, respectively. The solutions suggested are: the
transformation to a hybrid organization, introduction of the three new managers
and update or transformation of the selection process, respectively.

REFERENCES

Borys and Jemison (1989). Hybrid Arrangements as Strategic Alliances:

Theoretical Issues in Organizational Combinations. Academy of Management
Journal.

Ciesielska, Malgorzata (2010) Hybrid Organizations – A study of the Open Source

business setting. Copenhagen Business School Press

McElroy, Mark W. (2000).”Integrating complexity theory, knowledge management

and organizational learning”. Journal of Knowledge Management

Burnes, Bernard (2005). "Complexity theories and organizational change".

International journal of management reviews

http://www.hybridorganizations.com/

https://ntpark.rs/