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This paper is concerned with analysing the role of rhetoric and literary criticism in research and scholarship. It is argued that critical debate and dialogue are the hub of the process of research and scholarship and that social science and literature have more in common than is normally recognized. Most of these debates are carried out in writing and involve elaborate writing and reading of texts - or literature as we prefer to call it. We argue the case that management researchers may have something to learn from literary criticism. A model of literary criticism comprising four different modes of criticism - mimetic, expressive, pragmatic and objective - is described and the implications for management research are suggested. The paper concludes with a number of reflections on what can be gained from this type of analysis and on the role of reflexivity in the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines similarities between the worlds of managers and critical management researchers. It attempts to illustrate the practices of division in which both sets of actors are engaged. Through a comparison of the contexts of managerial and critical managerial action, coupled with the use of Burke's (1969) notion of the scapegoat, the paper suggests that battles between academic disciplines and across the academy! practice divide may be more productively recognized as essential resources for identity work and self care. The paper concludes with a brief consideration of the value of the approach suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a grounded theory study on the development of strategic ideas in a multinational organization. By drawing on the rich data generated from this longitudinal in-depth field study, this paper provides a theoretical framework for the development of strategic ideas. The theoretical framework developed offers an interesting and useful way of understanding and explaining the complex process of the early steps of the strategic decision process. This research illustrates the development or strategic ideas through strategic debate, the key theme that emerged from the study and the interaction of its four constituent themes: strategic warriors, patterns of interaction, strategic language and strategic syntheses. Drawing on the empirical findings, this study also discusses some implications for developing strategic ideas in managerial practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between culture and organization has often been discussed, but rarely explored directly. This paper implements a cultural values instrument taken from Hofstede together with a behavioural instrument derived from Van de Ven to matched samples of British and French managers working on the Channel Tunnel project. The results largely replicate the findings of Hofstede regarding cultural values, but do not support the predicted implications for behaviour. In essence, the British were found to be more bureaucratic and more team-oriented than their French counterparts, who tended to be more fonceur and competitive. This indicates that the relationship between culture and behaviour might be more complicated than research to date suggests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that the literature on organization control could benefit from more attention to 'disconnections', particularly those that take the form of extrusions and effacements from organization processes. Pointing out that current organization researchers depend almost exclusively on 'connections' for their theorizing on control, the paper illustrates the importance of disconnections in the form of gaps, breaks and absences in three field studies. The argument of the paper is that control is an effect that is enacted in practice by a distribution of connections alongside disconnections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to debate and answer two questions: (1) Does multi-disciplinary research in management constitute a distinctive approach? To which the brief answer is `no', because multi-disciplinary research is not one approach among all those others which can also be applied when researching management. Multi-disciplinary research into management is, as it were, the only game in town. (2) Can we rationally choose multi-disciplinary research into management as such at all? To which the response is also `no', because management research and multi-disciplinarity are inseparable, by reason of the fad that management is, in its very essence, multi-disciplinary, rather than mono-disciplinary, in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the ways in which leadership at middle management level in the public realm is gendered. This is attempted largely through a consideration of academic literature, supported by some empirical findings from a research investigation into higher education and social work in Sweden and England and a review of literature that reveals varying types of leadership characterized as masculinist. Taking the position that context shapes social relationships and subject positions, and provides opportunities as well as constraints, we consider leadership in the public sector under the sway of new public management, framed by neo-liberalism and the valorization of competition, self-interested instrumentality, uncertainty and risk, operationalized in public sector organizations through performative regimes. It is argued that while some women and men are willing participants in the new regimes, others are antagonistic or ambivalent, finding themselves mired in neo-bureaucratic processes of surveillance and control, often stuck in occupational cul-de-sacs. It is contended that neo-liberalism and new public management are associated with masculinist forms of rationality that elevate individual winners and losers and divert attention from collective issues of gender. Rather than focus on gendered styles of leadership it is suggested that it is more important to look at their gendered performance and effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Managing change’ appears a simple enough term. However, no common ontological assumption underlies either the notion of ‘managing’ or that of ‘change’. In this paper, we identify different assumptions about both what it means to manage and the nature of change outcomes. From these assumptions we derive six different images of managing organizational change: directing, navigating, caretaking, coaching, interpreting and nurturing. We show how each image is underpinned by different organization theories. We then take each image and show how the differing ontological assumptions about managing and change outcomes are associated with different research agendas. We illustrate this by focusing on three elements commonly associated with managing organizational change: vision, communication and resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out to investigate the possibility that employees may challenge management through their colonization of work space, facilitated by the transportation of ‘private’ behaviours and activities into the ‘public’ world of organization. It does this within the context of a broader project on the management of emotions within a special care baby unit characterized as a high risk, emergency working environment. Focusing on the experience of night nurses and drawing on the concept of differential space the article seeks to demonstrate how the dominant form of emotion work (characterized as masculine) on the unit may be contested. This is done through the creation of the unit at night as a space of empowerment, achieved through the visible enactment of a feminized form of emotion work. In this sense the analysis explores how the performance of feminine emotion work can be understood as acts of spatial resistance to the authority of the masculine emotion regime. In other words night nurses make the special care baby unit into a space which challenges the masculinist emotion management which dominates the unit. It will be suggested that our understanding of the performance of emotion management practices in particular and management practices in general may be limited if space is ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of a survey of 250 British managers, exploring their experience and perceptions of organization politics. Political behaviour appeared to be common. Most managers viewed political behaviour as ethical and necessary, and aspects of organizational effectiveness, change, resourcing and reputation were attributed to political tactics, although 80% had no training in this area. Tactics experienced frequently included networking, using ‘key players’ to support initiatives, making friends with power brokers, bending the rules, and self-promotion. Tactics experienced as rare, but not unknown, included misinformation, spreading rumours, and keeping ‘dirt files’ for blackmail. A consistent pattern of responses concerning willingness to engage in politics, the need to act ruthlessly and the appropriateness of reciprocity when faced with political behaviour implies an attitude of ‘you stab my back, I'll stab yours’. Findings are discussed using an ‘antecedents–behaviours–consequences’ framework of perceived organization politics to guide research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores user-driven organizational change in the National Health Service (NHS). The NHS Plan (Department of Health, 2000) created Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) to provide information, solve problems and drive user-led change. Evidence is drawn from a study of PALS in London acute, primary care, mental health and specialist trusts, drawing on discussion forums, interviews with PALS officers and documentation. From context and role profiles, two conclusions are evident. First, organizational instability, boundary disputes, variable management support, resource limitations, financial insecurity and multi-site working characterize the context in which PALS operate, and the officer role is characterized by problem diversity, overlap with complaints systems, monitoring problems, relationship building and ‘serial users’. Second, these context and role attributes restrict PALS to ‘repair and maintenance’, ensuring that established systems work correctly. While PALS sit on the bottom rung of a ‘participation ladder’, their contribution is more than tokenistic. However, a processual perspective demonstrates how a fluid, networked, and diversified context isolates PALS structures from management decision-making, constraining their power base, and inhibiting the promotion of substantive change agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study is to analyse the strategic and organizational evolution of large firms in a current time period and within a specific geographical context (Spain). In order to achieve this purpose, the paper combines the Chandlerian programme with processual analysis. We draw on documentary sources (annual reports, company histories, business directories and so on) and interviews. We have found that in the model of corporate development some characteristics of new organizational structures will coexist with some features of old ones. In line with previous studies our findings highlight the existence of the ‘multidivisional network’ but, most importantly, our findings also reflect the emergence of a new kind of organizational form that we call ‘holding network’. The ‘holding network’ is more decentralized, both strategically and operationally, than the multidivisional form. However, its level of decentralization is less than in the N-form. Furthermore, whereas the multidivisional form is a hierarchy, the ‘holding network’ emphasizes the communication among people of different levels. This multilevel communication differs from that in the N-form. Apart from the horizontal communication in the same level there is vertical and horizontal communication between different levels. We conclude by emphasizing the need to explore in future empirical studies to what extent these patterns and new organizational forms should be considered as a transitory or consolidated phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marks & Spencer (M&S) was one of the world's great retailers, enjoying legendary and iconic status, being often held up as one of the best managed and admired businesses in the world. Its ‘fall from grace’ has been spectacular and dramatic and the company is currently fighting for its life. Based on extensive in-depth interviews with company managers and utilizing a case-study approach, this paper provides an exploratory study into failure at M&S and presents this in the context of the wider literature on organizational and managerial failure. It concludes that whilst external factors in the various trading environments affected the business, there were internal aspects of the crisis which exacerbated the situation and the problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relevance of Kanter's early work on the numerical distribution of women in organizations for an understanding of the position of highly qualified women managers today. Despite the progress that women managers have made over the last twenty years, various consistencies stubbornly remain, particularly concerning the impact of the gender mix of the organization on women's progress and experience of career barriers. The results of this research on the nature of these barriers and how they vary with the numerical distribution of women are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the potential relationship between individual cognition and organizational performance. A series of causal maps are elicited from the owner-managers of retail businesses which are either growing or static and contracting. The maps are compared using a series of propositions to establish whether individual cognition is consistent with the contrasts which would be expected between relatively high and low performing businesses. When the general characteristics of the maps are compared no significant differences are found when the propositions are evaluated. However, a subsequent inductive phase of analysis suggests that more detailed insights can be gained through a focus on the relationships between specific types of concept within the individual maps. In contrast to the assumptions made in many mapping studies, this finding suggests that it is the idiosyncratic details of map content and structure which provide the basis for exploring the relationship between cognition and performance, rather than the overall characteristics of the maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how organization studies controls the subject through its use of representational devices. Different theoretical and methodological approaches may appear to offer epistemological guarantees concerning the validity of data about the research subject but they remain representations, beyond which we can know nothing except through representation. Research is not about wrenching truth from a recalcitrant 'reality': the devices it uses to represent its research subject create and control in the way silence to give voice to aspects of that subjects. All data are 'collaborative products' created in accordance with 'the practical procedures and background assumptions of the participating actors' (Knorr-Cetina, 1981). Thus the relations between research subject, researcher and the protocols that comprise the research process both embody and obscure power. For this reason, it is important that theory strives for a high degree of reflexivity (Marcus, 1994) in accounting for its own theorizing, as well as whatever it is that it theorizes about. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turbulence and rapid change in the business environment have been associated for some time with the development of new network organizational forms which put various types of strategic alliance and other inter-organizational collaborations into effect. This paper traces the rationale for the formation of such networks and the associated vertical disaggregation of functions and implications for internal organizational design. This leads to the proposal of a classification framework for network forms. Using the dimensions of volatility of environmental change on the one hand, and the type of inter-organizational relationship involved (collaborative or transactional) on the other hand, network forms are classified as: hollow networks, flexible networks, value-added networks and virtual networks. In each case it is possible to identify the environmental and organizational contingencies most likely to be associated with the emergence and adoption of a particular type of network arrangement. This argument leads to the identification of a new research agenda which has the goals of developing more robust conceptualizations of network characteristics; heifer under- standing the contingencies surrounding the emergence of network forms and their relative efficiencies and specifying some of the major implications of network formation for internal organizational design. In parallel the paper identifies a number of managerial implications for setting strategic priorities and developing appropriate management systems in these new organizational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hierarchies, markets and networks have been described as three alternative styles of organizing, each of which may call for distinctive managerial orientations and styles. The question arises as to whether there is now a deep-seated shift underway from organizational forms based on markets and hierarchies and towards more network-based forms of organization. This paper assesses the significance of these broader developments with reference to changing managerial practice within a major UK organization (the NHS). It seeks to access the developing theory of network-based organizations; to assess empirically the significance of these developments for managerial practice within public-sector organizations such as the NHS; and to consider the organizational and managerial implications, for example, Human Resource Management (HRM) strategy. There have so far been few studies which have taken public-sector settings for study or which have sought to connect network theory to practice, and this paper can make a useful contribution in these regards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper claims that organizational cognitions are manifested as argumentation. Such argumentation can be represented as organizational construct systems (systems of constructs shared by important organization members). Such organizational construct systems enable us to detect structural features of an organization's cognition which indicate its chances of survival or failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers and quality practitioners are familiar with the linkage of the words quality and systems to denote a systematic approach to quality, as in BS5750 Quality Systems, say. There is, however, a more specialized use of the word systems that indicates the application of systems thinking and which gives rise to the adjective systemic (of, or pertaining to a system) rather than systematic (carrying out in a planned and orderly fashion). This paper examines the potential for applying systems thinking to the management of quality with particular reference to one branch of systems work: the study of failures. The paper draws comparisons between quality and systems analysis of failures and points out that some failures could equally well be described as quality problems and vice versa. The paper argues that problems at the system level are frequently overlooked or avoided by those undertaking quality improvement programmes, partly because individuals within an organization may experience only different, smaller aspects of a systemic problem and partly because the problem solvers may lack the means or motivation to tackle complex, poorly defined problem messes. It then goes on to suggest that use of a meta-method for problem analysis would enable such problems to be addressed. One such method that has been widely applied in the study of failures, the failures method, is described in detail and its application to a failure/quality problem is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increased interest in the widespread dissemination of outcome performance data to secure enhanced strategic control of public sector organizations. This paper adumbrates the rationale for such schemes, and outlines the potential distortions induced by excessive reliance on outcome-related performance indicators, inferred from experience in the management control and Soviet literature. The paper gives an outline of the performance review process in the United Kingdom National Health Service, and presents the results of a case study of the impact of the publication of outcome performance data in the maternity services. The research detected many of the expected distortions arising from reliance on performance indicator schemes, and concludes that they may have significant dysfunctional consequences. The paper does not however advocate the abandonment of performance audit in the public sector. Instead, it warns that great attention should be given to the managerial incentives implicit in any strategic control scheme, and that the style with which the scheme is applied will have important bearings on its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One interpretation of the concept of organizational legitimacy is that it stems from the cultural values of society, and suggests that businesses operate under a mandate that may be withdrawn if organizations are seen not to be doing the `right' things. This suggests there is something in the nature of a principal-agent relationship in existence, and that some form of accountability is then owed by the agent (the organization) to the principal (society). This paper seeks to investigate the nature of this accountability, distinguishing between the accountability which exists towards those elements of society with which an organization has a contractual relationship, and those where it does not. Adopting a pluralist stance, stakeholder theory is then used to illustrate the possible nature of both the form of legitimacy relationship extant, and of the account- ability that the principal might expect of the agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Action research has become increasingly prominent among management researchers as an espoused paradigm used to justify the validity of a range of research outputs. In this paper we introduce and discuss 12 contentions which, we argue, justify an action research project as quality research. The contentions are presented through a discussion of a number of important issues: generality and theory generation, the type of theory development appropriate to action research, the pragmatic focus of action research, designing action research and validity of action research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review paper examines the effect of matching and mismatching leaning style and learning activity and matching and mismatching trainer and trainee learning style on learning achievement. It also explores the possibility of creating a match by promoting learner adaptability or modifying the trainer's training style. The implications of this discussion for training and development are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corporate board is a common feature of both private sector and public sector enterprises. The roles undertaken by boards are therefore a significant area of interest for writers on organizations. This paper makes two contributions to the study of corporate boards. First, it presents the results of an intensive study of the performance of the board of directors of a first wave National Health Service (NHS) Trust based on three sources of data: actors' accounts; minutes; and observation. This study concludes that the hoard has made only a marginal contribution to the governance of the Trust. Second, it provides a critique of the three methodological approaches which are available to researchers undertaking such studies and argues that most reported studies of boards are unreliable as they are based on only one, or at best two, of the three available sources of data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kirton has proposed that creative styles form a continuum from the most adaptive (implying a preference for solving problems through incremental improvement with the system) to the most innovative (preference for restructuring the system in order to solve the problem). This dimension of creative style has traditionally been measured by the Kirton adaption-innovation inventory (KAI), a 32-item measure that contains three factors: sufficiency vs. proliferation of originality, efficiency and rule-conformity. Studies of mid-career MBA students in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States indicate that members of the more externally orientated managerial functions (such as marketing and strategic planning) score more innovatively than more internally orientated managers (e.g. in production management, accounting and quality control). However, the research shows that within each of the major functional areas of management, relatively internally orientated and relatively externally orientated management groups can be identified; moreover, the latter score significantly more innovatively than the former. The paper discusses the relevance of these findings to the management of change in organizations (especially in view of recent claims that all managers must embrace and cope with radical and turbulent change), and for the composition and management of effective task groups. Recent criticism has alleged that abridged measures of the KAI (consisting respectively of 20 and 13 of its items) provide more coherent and orthogonal subscales, and that use of the factors comprising adaption-innovation would elucidate managerial behaviour. These propositions are tested by employing all three versions of the KAI in the analysis. The results lead to the conclusion that the three versions of the KAI produce identical results with respect to the creative styles of managerial functions and subfunctions and that the use of the subscales adds little, if anything, to our understanding of managerial creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The non-profit sector has become increasingly important in diverse economic, political and social environments. It is not clear that we have effectively communicated, to colleagues, students and decision makers, theoretical developments useful for understanding and managing non-profit organizations. This paper discusses the potential implications of institutional theory to the management of one type of non-profit organization, the publicly supported non-profit organization with input-output relationships that are not well understood. We review institutional theory and discuss the implications of institutional theory to the management and evaluation of publicly supported non-profit organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper results from parallel large scale studies of strategic decision making in Sweden and the United Kingdom are reported. Swedish decision makers arc found to employ a decision making style which emphasizes negotiation within a restricted group. This style, which involves considerable information search, leads to very long decision times. Strategic decisions in Britain are made among groups which include fewer strongly committed participants. Delays are common and often serious, but do not lengthen the process unduly. Decision styles in both countries include contrasting tendencies which produce a dynamic tension in the decision arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the relationship between the competitive processes between and within organizations, we use selection system theory to link resource value to product value. We identify three dimensions (in-selection, before-selection and after-selection) that facilitate determining the value of resources based on the functions they serve in the competitive process between organizations in the product market, i.e. the external selection system. Subsequently, we use these dimensions to explore the competitive process among resource providers within organizations, i.e. the internal selection system. This leads us to formulate three propositions that link the competitive process within organizations to the competitive process between organizations. First, we posit that if resources that individually score highly along only one of the three dimensions are bundled, it is more likely that organizational performance can be sustained. Second, we argue that providers of resources scoring highly along multiple dimensions will enjoy stronger means of appropriation in comparison with providers of resources scoring highly along only one of the three dimensions. Third, we contend that the extent to which an organization endeavours to remunerate its resource providers based on their perceived contribution to the organization's competitive position has a curvilinear (inverted U-shaped) relationship with organizational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a lack of research that problematizes solidarity behaviour and the Queen Bee label for women in management. Few studies contextualize the propensity for women to support each other to reach senior management or surface the shadow side of relationships between women in management. Underpinning assumptions of solidarity behaviour and Queen Bee focus upon individual women's behaviour. Neither questions whether women are enabled ‘natural allies’. It is assumed that women align themselves with women; in senior management women are responsible for the ‘women in management mantle’, and when they do not conform they are pejoratively labelled Queen Bees. Queen Bee ‘blames’ women for not supporting each other, constructs women as out of place in senior management and maintains a gendered status quo. This article provides a conceptual critique of solidarity behaviour and the Queen Bee as labels researchers and the popular media attach to women's behaviour in organizations. The aim is to challenge assumptions and inherent contradictions and highlight the negative impact of the sexist Queen Bee label, prompting us to reflexively question and challenge our own assumptions about solidarity behaviour and use of the Queen Bee label, to prevent unrealistic expectations of senior women and continued pejorative construction of women in management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relevant literature is synthesized to provide a holistic picture of our current knowledge of innovation in small, project-based firms, highlighting significant gaps in the broad areas of ‘focus and outcome’, ‘organizational capabilities’, ‘context’ and ‘process’. Research findings from fieldwork focused on the construction industry are offered to address these gaps. In particular, a consensus model is given of the organizational factors dynamically at play. It is shown that typically the innovations of small, project-based firms are closely tied to their operational activities and are pushed forward by owners who utilize very scarce resources to make progress in the interstices of normal business. This leads to an emphasis on taking up established technologies through ‘learning on the job’. Growth per se is not an important target. The motivation to act is generally to get past a survival mode of operating and to achieve stability by satisfying clients. These characteristics contrast with large organizations, especially in terms of the role of the owner, the close focus on niche markets and the lack of slack resources to innovate in parallel with normal business. It is hoped that these results will be of interest to other sectors where small, project-based firms operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss why surprises, defined as events that happen unexpectedly or expected events that take unexpected shapes, are important to organizations and should be considered in the organization and management literature as an umbrella concept, encompassing a variety of related phenomena. The concept of organizational surprises is unpacked and a typology is built around the (un)expectedness of the issue and the (un)expectedness of the process. This typology uncovers the several types of surprising events that organizations may face, and contributes to the literature by identifying how different types of surprises require distinct managerial approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports a longitudinal study that examined mergers between three large multi-site public-sector organizations. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis are used to examine the effect of leadership and change management strategies on acceptance of cultural change by individuals. Findings indicate that in many cases the change that occurs as a result of a merger is imposed on the leaders themselves, and it is often the pace of change that inhibits the successful re-engineering of the culture. In this respect, the success or otherwise of any merger hinges on individual perceptions about the manner in which the process is handled and the direction in which the culture is moved. Communication and a transparent change process are important, as this will often determine not only how a leader will be regarded, but who will be regarded as a leader. Leaders need to be competent and trained in the process of transforming organizations to ensure that individuals within the organization accept the changes prompted by a merger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, boundary spanning has primarily been conceived of as an activity relating an organization to its environment, including other organizations with which it cooperates and competes. In contrast, this study focuses on the boundary spanning practices of individuals acting as change agents to implement boundary- shaking change initiatives across intra-organizational boundaries. These boundary-shaking individuals all work for blue-chip organizations in sectors as diverse as pharmaceuticals, consultancy and automotive. The change initiatives are equally diverse, including post-merger integration, exploitation of across-business synergies and implementing more integrative structures. Through our examination of boundary-shakers we are able to extend what we know about internal change agency and change agent skills and practices. Our starting point is that organizations are comprised of networks of people with a degree of common interest. Our research shows our research subjects to be active movers and shakers in these networks, using their knowledge of the organizational political context and the motivations of others to create new networks (or new meanings within old networks), which then enables them to pursue their change objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the key contributors to radical organizational change in five New Zealand state-owned enterprises during their ownership transition between 1985 and 1995. Abrupt government reform policies, organizations' market positions, realization of rapid technological innovation, proactive managerial actions and the new owners' strategic intent are established as key conditions of radical change in state-owned enterprises. We integrate our findings with institutional theory and resource dependency theory to argue that organizational dynamics in times of uncertainty depend on de-institutionalization of old and institutionalization of new patterns of resource dependency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we put forward a novel way of exploring difference and contradiction in merging organizations. We examine how the media (re)constructs meanings in a major cross-border merger. Based on an analysis of press coverage, we attempt to specify and illustrate how particular issues are (re)constructed in media texts through interpretations of ‘winning’ and ‘losing’. We also show how specific discourses are drawn on in this (re)construction. In the merger studied, discourse based on economic and financial rationale dominated the media coverage. Discourse promoting nationalistic sentiments, however, provided an alternative discursive frame to the dominant rationalistic discourse. We argue that the two basic discourses are enacted in three analytically distinct discursive practices in the media: factualizing, rationalizing and emotionalizing. We suggest that the ability of different actors such as top managers to make use of different discursive strategies and resources in promoting their ‘versions of reality’ in the media (or public discussion) is a crucial avenue for research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic or managing culture has been central to organizational culture research for the last two decades. Although critical theorists argue that culture management efforts are prone to unintended consequences, few empirical studies have explicitly explored this issue. The study reported in this article is designed to redress this imbalance in the literature through focusing on the exploration and description of the unintended consequences of culture management interventions. The aims of the study are to locate and describe how management actions during culture change initiatives result in unintended consequences and then subsequently to explore and describe these effects. The article begins with an overview of contemporary research into the nature of culture, the rationale, approaches and perspectives on culture management as well as research into unintended consequences. After a discussion of the research design and methods employed, the results of the study are presented. These findings review and elucidate eight forms or management action during culture change programmes that resulted in unintended consequences, which had serious consequences for the organizations concerned. The article concludes with the discussion of implications and conclusions for theorists and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publication of the Starkey and Madan (2001) report represents a timely and valuable contribution to an ongoing debate across a range of applied disciplines, concerning the nature and purpose of social research. The call for stakeholder alignment, culminating in the production of new knowledge that is both theoretically and methodologically rigorous on the one hand, and socially relevant on the other, is, in our view, to be greatly welcomed. However, the Mode 2 approach advocated by Starkey and Madan will not satisfy these fundamental requirements. Drawing on recent analyses of the nature, causes and consequences of the academic-practitioner divide in the subfield of industrial, work and organizational psychology, we offer an alternative, four-fold taxonomy of the varieties of managerial knowledge. Within our alternative framework, research that is low on rigour but high on relevance (a likely consequence of the wholesale adoption of a Mode 2 approach) is characterized as ‘Popularist Science’. ‘Pedantic Science’, by contrast, is high on rigour but low on relevance, while ‘Puerile Science’ meets neither requirement. Only ‘Pragmatic Science’ will meet the twin imperatives of rigour and relevance. Whilst it is highly desirable that Pragmatic Science should dominate the management field, there are considerable barriers that impede its widespread adoption at the present time, not least the limited availability of researchers who possess the requisite sociopolitical and methodological competencies. The immediate imperative that has to be addressed, therefore, is the question of how best to close this competency gap, a fundamental precondition of stakeholder realignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the development of organizational processes and structures, emphasizing the development of the concept `core competencies', from an organizational perspective. Features of resource-based theories; Argument that core competencies enhance the components of strategic management; Features of the resource-based approach to strategic management; Relationship between core competencies and organizational theory.

While the act of faith approach to management development assumes that training and development will improve performance, and that attention to the people factor will give organizations a competitive advantage, there has been little systematic study of the business benefits of management development. The extent to which competence-based management development made identifiable improvements to individual, organizational and business performance was examined in sixteen organizations using an in-depth embedded case-study protocol developed following the preparatory work of an expert group convened by the Department of Education and Employment (DfEE). Interviews were conducted with senior strategic managers, line managers and members of management work teams, and triangulation was sought with documentary evidence. Case reports were validated with the organizations, then evaluated and ranked by an independent consultancy not involved in the fieldwork. The results provide support for attributing business benefits to management development, particularly in relation to individual and business performance. The performance improvements were found to be most significant where management development is linked with organizational strategy and where Human Resource Development (HRD) systems and processes adopt the management standards developed by Management Charter Initiative (MCI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the formation of issues on the organizational agenda of a manufacturing firm. We find that the patterns of issue formation vary markedly and we develop an analytic framework to examine a number of emerging, potentially ambiguous issues. We emphasize the importance to the organization of perceptions of collective freedom to construct an issue, the role of issue labeling and perceptions of emerging consensus over the construction of an issue. Jointly, these considerations affect whether an issue gains salience on the agenda and whether it is resolved constructively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perceived obligations of the two parties to the employment relationship, the employee and the organization, were explored using the critical incident technique. Incidents were elicited which exceeded or fell below the treatment which each party might reasonably expect from the other; obligations were then inferred from these incidents. Respondents were a representative sample of UK employees (n = 184), and a sample of UK managers (n = 184) (the organization group). Twelve categories of organization obligation and seven of employee obligation were inferred from these data. While the two groups identified the same content categories as each other, they did so with different relative frequency. The organization group quoted more relational than transactional forms of organizational obligation, the employee group the reverse. This finding was attributed to a lack of trust of the organization by employees, and to their job insecurity. The groups, however, did not differ in terms of the frequency of the most commonly cited employee obligations; timekeeping, good work and honesty. This was taken to indicate the prevalence of a traditional and input-oriented view of employee obligations. Examples were discovered of a reciprocal element to the contract. It was concluded that, despite the level of agreement between the two parties regarding the elements of the psychological contract, they were in danger of holding different perceptions of its balance; and that organizations should only expect employee commitment if they themselves have fulfilled their side of the contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative field study explores how geographically dispersed teams learn and accomplish challenging work by drawing on knowledge situated in the multiple physical locales they span. We propose the construct of situated knowledge as important for understanding the learning process in dispersed teams. Data collected on seven development projects, each spanning multiple sites, reveal that situated knowledge is at the same time a valuable resource and a source of communication difficulty for dispersed teams. We find that, because their members understand and participate in locale-specific practices, dispersed teams can easily access and use unique locale-specific knowledge resources to resolve problems that arise in those same locales. However, when dispersed teams need knowledge situated at a site other than where the problem occurred, they must first recognize and adjust for locale-specific practices within which that knowledge is embedded before they can use it. The paper reports on analyses of 44 learning episodes that involved identifying and engaging situated knowledge, and draws from these data to identify implications for research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]