Organizational Effectiveness = Corporate Performance? Why and How Two Research Traditions Need to be Merged

Organizational effectiveness and corporate performance research seem to deal with the same core construct: organizational effectiveness/performance.However, both research traditions have produced separate bodies of literature and have developed different strengths and weaknesses.Organizational effectiveness research has a rich conceptual tradition but recently shows a conspicuous inactivity in terms of empirical studies.Corporate performance research, on the other hand, is active in terms of empirical studies but faces criticism regarding its limited theoretical foundation and its narrow focus.This paper confronts the existing approaches to organizational effectiveness with recent insights in performance research.Based on an examination of their core construct(s), we promote a merger of both research traditions that makes use of their complementary strengths and combines conceptual depths with a vivid empirical orientation.Moreover, we formulate requirements for future progress in the merged area of organizational effectiveness/performance.