摘要:

ABSTRACTDrawing on Pepper'sWorld Hypotheseswe describe four different approaches to obtaining formal knowledge in management studies. These approaches are: formism, mechanism, contextualism, and organicism. All of them are valid ways of refining common sense that resist synthesis. Applying Pepper's framework in as extremely diverse a field as management studies (focusing on organizational behaviour (OB) and strategic management (SM) in particular) we show the different assumptions and knowledge claims made by different types of theorists in management and, moreover, we shed light on the sources of conceptual rivalry that often characterize the field. By way of illustration, the Mintzberg‐Ansoff debate on the nature of strategic management is focused upon for closer examination. It is shown that analysing this debate in terms of Pepper's framework one can understand and evaluate the epistemological differences between Mintzberg and Ansoff, which stem from their adherence to contextualist and mechanistic‐cum‐formistic types of knowledge respect

ISSN:0022-2380    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1994.tb00638.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTDecision‐making as a central concept in management and organization theory has had a colourful and controversial career spanning some 50 years. During this time its image and meaning has shifted substantially to the point where its explanatory value as an established conceptual category in management and organizational analysis has been questioned. In this article, I attempt a critical study of the concept of decision and try to show that the various attempts to replace it by other terms such as ‘action’, and ‘change’, overlook the ontological status of the decision‐making process. I argue here that decision is better understood as a series of interlocking pre‐definitive acts of punctuating the flow of human experiences in order to facilitate sense‐making and to alleviate our Cartesian anxiety. Decisions are not so much about ‘choice’or ‘intentions’as about the primordial ‘will to order’whereby interlocking configurations ofmicro‐incisionspunctuating our phenomenal experiences contrive to construct and reinforce a stable but precarious version of reality. When viewed thus, decision‐making takes on a very different meaning ‐ one that accentuates the concrete everydayness of micro‐decisional acts which re‐enact the ongoing contestation between order and disorder, routinization and breakdown, organization and disorganization, chaos and cosmos. Such micro‐decisionalontologicalacts are what produces and sustains a version of reality to which we then subsequently respond. It is this ‘becoming’theory of decision‐making which is offered as an alternative to the

ISSN:0022-2380    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1994.tb00639.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to demonstrate the importance and utility of the notion of organizational culture for scholars and practitioners in the field of information studies. It presents a theoretical and empirical examination of the effects of culture on communication and information in organizations. First, the concepts of organizational culture, information and communication are briefly explored. Then a case study of the effects of organizational culture on communication and information is presented. In particular, we make a detailed examination of how attitudes to communication and information that had their roots in a dominant organizational culture were a strong influence on the demise of the company (which was ultimately acquired by a stronger firm).

ISSN:0022-2380    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1994.tb00640.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTThis article analyses the processes of market‐driven change in two professional service sectors, Research and Development (R&D) and the National Health Service. Building on these sectors’common experiences, the article proposes a general model of market‐driven change in professional services, highlighting the complex and multi‐level nature of the process. It is argued that, while market‐driven change is an increasingly practised and observed phenomenon, its complexity has been widely underestimated. For managers, the problem is one of synchrony between different levels in the change process, with the top strategic level particularly liable to lag changes at other levels. For academic observers of new market forms of control, the risk is of repeating the simplifications of early ‘labour process’analyses of hierarc

ISSN:0022-2380    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1994.tb00641.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTRecent interest in the growth of subcontracting, as part of a broader trend towards greater ‘flexibility’in forms of employment relationship, has not as yet been matched by a full consideration of its organizational and managerial implications. In particular, the question of whether or not subcontracting has an impact upon, or is affected by, the organization's structural characteristics remains largely unexplored. the aim of this article is to report findings from a detailed study of subcontracting practices across a sample of British industry, which focuses upon the relationship between subcontracting and organizational characteristics. the results indicate several important points about the practice. Firstly, that there is wide variation in the use of subcontracting across industry, although the overall extent is limited. Secondly, that variation in the practice is significantly related to basic firm characteristics ‐ namely, industrial sector, type of production system and pattern of ownership and control. Thirdly, that, on balance, subcontracting is associated withmore, not less, structural complexity. Finally, that this greater complexity is found in particular types of firms ‐ notably, outside the manufacturing sector, in mass and process production systems and amongst British independents and subsidiaries, rather than in their foreign comp

ISSN:0022-2380    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1994.tb00642.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1994

数据来源: WILEY