Organization Studies

Learning and Innovation in Organizations and Economies

Bart Nooteboom

This book develops a general ‘logic’, or heuristic of discovery, to explain the emergence of novelty in individual thought, organizations, industries, and economies. It draws on a ... More

This book develops a general ‘logic’, or heuristic of discovery, to explain the emergence of novelty in individual thought, organizations, industries, and economies. It draws on a variety of literatures, discussing theories of organizational learning, evolutionary and institutional economics, knowledge, and language. It brings these together in a unifying framework and applies that for an analysis of innovation systems and the management of learning. Unification is based on the resource- or competence-based view in economics, in combination with a theory of learning by interaction. The central theme of the book is the relation between stability and change. In business literature this theme appears in the relation between exploitation and exploration. In evolutionary economics it appears in the relation between selection and adaptation. The general heuristic shows how exploitation can provide the basis for exploration. The analysis is illustrated with many phenomena and empirical results from the different literatures. Less

Life on the Line in Contemporary Manufacturing: The Workplace Experience of Lean Production and the `Japanese' Model

Rick Delbridge

Much is stated and written about the new world of work but how much do we know about the contemporary workplace? What influence have Japanese management techniques (Just-in-Time ... More

Much is stated and written about the new world of work but how much do we know about the contemporary workplace? What influence have Japanese management techniques (Just-in-Time Production and Total Quality Management, for example) had on the way work is organized in ‘transplants’, and more broadly in other firms and sectors? Have the systems and mechanisms of control changed radically in recent years, or are they much the same as they have always been? This book is in a long tradition of ethnographic research in industrial sociology and management/labour studies. Not only does it offer rich empirical data on the lived reality of work and a management practice that may share little in common with that found in the textbooks, it also raises a number of important issues about the best ways to understand the complex and changing nature of work. Less

Management Consultancy: Boundaries and Knowledge in Action

Andrew Sturdy, Karen Handley, Timothy Clark, Robin Fincham

Drawing on a three‐year, in‐depth, ‘fly‐on‐the‐wall’ study of client‐management consultant interactions, knowledge flow in management consultancy projects is shown to be mediated by ... More

Drawing on a three‐year, in‐depth, ‘fly‐on‐the‐wall’ study of client‐management consultant interactions, knowledge flow in management consultancy projects is shown to be mediated by multiple and shifting boundaries or ‘insider‐outsider’ relationships. This challenges dominant assumptions about management consultancy as being either a source of new ideas and processes or simply the legitimation of client knowledge. Rather, different actors, roles, and types of knowledge are involved in an interactive and dynamic process where various boundaries are constructed, reinforced, negotiated, and transformed. The chapters selectively explore these dynamics, revealing the importance of boundary complexity; the role of humour and challenge in often tense relationships; and the importance of shared knowledge domains such as sector knowledge. They are based upon a model of client–consultant relationships developed from theories of knowledge and social boundaries. A wide range of consultancy contexts are covered, including: a US‐based strategy firm and a multinational client; the public and private sectors; a sole practitioner consultant; and IT implementation in financial services. These have a wider significance in terms of our understanding of project working, innovation/change, inter-organizational relations and professional and business services. Less

Managing Employment Change: The New Realities of Work

Huw Beynon, Damian Grimshaw, Jill Rubery, Kevin Ward

This book looks at how large organizations have managed and adapted to changing conditions of employment shaped by the recent economic and political environment. Additional data are ... More

This book looks at how large organizations have managed and adapted to changing conditions of employment shaped by the recent economic and political environment. Additional data are presented based on evidence from other significant actors such as agency employment firms and trade unions. The book also engages with important North American debates on the changing nature of work, careers, and employment. Less

Managing the Unions: The Impact of Legislation on Trade Unions' Behaviour

Roger Undy, Patricia Fosh, Huw Morris, Paul Smith

Roderick Martin (ed.)

During the 1980s, the government aimed to reform industrial relations through imposing the following measures: political initiatives and campaigning; a changed economic and social ... More

During the 1980s, the government aimed to reform industrial relations through imposing the following measures: political initiatives and campaigning; a changed economic and social environment; and a programme of industrial relations legislation that increasingly curtailed the role and influence of trade unions. This book examines the policies and legislation intended to change union behaviour. It considers its origins, purpose, and impact on union behaviour and structure, focusing on the role of ballots as the central mechanism chosen for changing union decision making. The changes that occurred as a consequence of this legislation are placed in the wider union context and the relative influence of the balloting legislation is assessed against other developments affecting union behaviour, including the strategies adopted by the unions' leaders. It finds that the results were not always as intended by the Conservative governments. The concluding chapter compares and contrasts the UK's union structures with those of other EU countries. Less

Manufacturing Rationality: The Engineering Foundations of the Managerial Revolution

Yehouda Shenhav

Management is a powerful mode of thought and code of conduct in the modern world, closely associated with the American way and a natural extension of economic progress. This is a book ... More

Management is a powerful mode of thought and code of conduct in the modern world, closely associated with the American way and a natural extension of economic progress. This is a book about the history and development of management and managerial rationality in the United States of America in the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century. Through careful analysis of contemporary records in the engineering profession, the author shows how management invented itself and carved its own domain in the face of hostility and resistance from both manufacturers and workers. The book demonstrates how the new language and rhetoric of management emerged, and how it confronted and replaced the language of traditional capitalism: ‘system’ instead of ‘individuals’; ‘jobs’ instead of ‘natural rights’; ‘planning’ instead of ‘free initiatives’. It can be read simultaneously as an historical account of the genesis of modern management, a chapter in the history of American capitalism, a critical analysis of industrial engineering, and as a sociology of (managerial) knowledge. Less

Materiality and Organizing: Social Interaction in a Technological World

Paul M. Leonardi, Bonnie A. Nardi, Jannis Kallinikos (eds)

The book is a collective meditation on the role of materiality in social affairs. The recent and growing interest in the concept of “materiality” certainly has diverse origins. Yet, it ... More

The book is a collective meditation on the role of materiality in social affairs. The recent and growing interest in the concept of “materiality” certainly has diverse origins. Yet, it is closely associated with the diffusion of technological objects and artifacts through society and many have questioned how human choice and social practice are conditioned by the characteristics of such devices and systems. Many traditional technologies are easy to call “material” — they are made up of wood, steel, and other physical substrates that afford and constrain particular uses. Other technologies, such as software and rhetorical tropes, are not made up of such physical substrates, but they still have implications for human action in many of the same ways as the more traditional technologies. Thus, it is unclear how to talk about the materiality of technology in a way that includes both physical and nonphysical artifacts while still accounting for their effects. The book gathers together a group of scholars from various disciplines who approach the issues materiality raises from various angles, making evident that there is no single answer as to how the concept can be used to approach the perennial question of the ways technologies and humans bear upon one another. The book contributes to untangling the various meanings of materiality and clarifying the positions or perspectives from which they are produced. Less