Politics and Organizational Learning

In this paper it is argued that organizational learning is facilitated by a free and open form of politics in the workplace based on a system of political, social and civil rights and obligations within a framework of legitimate authority, parallel to the system that exists in the wider society. The argument is developed by examining issues at three related levels: why 'psychic' space is needed to nurture selfidentity and learning; the institutional pressures in the wider social environment that bring about learning within a whole business sector through open political activity; and how existing organizational learning theory and practice reveal numerous ways in which space for learning and innovation can be made available within work organizations through political processes. Finally, suggestions are made for ways of creating a framework within organizations that will enable such processes to develop.     

David L. Mason. From Buildings and Loans to Bail-Outs: A History of the American Savings and Loan Industry, 1831-1995. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2004. xii + 349 pp. ISBN 0-521-82754-X, $50.00.

This book provides a long-term history of the savings and loanindustry in the United States, outlining and developing fourthemes. First is the history of the enterprises themselves,from their earliest years to the crisis-ridden deregulationperiod of recent history. Author David Mason also charts thegenesis and impact of collective activity—the trade associationsthat attempted to represent or regulate the industry. Third,he chronicles the relationship between the sector and government;and finally, the author aims to assess the     

Managers' Innovations and the Structuration of Organizations

Drawing on interview data from managers in three organizations a theoretical framework based on structuration theory is offered for understanding the social construction of innovation in a way that overcomes the duality of individual and structural perspectives that fragments the literature on innovation and other related domains. Three case studies, one from each organization, illustrate and help link the elements of an argument that focuses first on how an organization's openness to its external environment allows for conflicting interpretations of necessary action. Individual agents exploit the ambiguity, making choices which help sustain or develop their self-identities, drawing on experience to shape innovations that promise to reconcile the constraints of the personal and organizational domains. Their capacity to transform circumstances in the desired direction depends on the extent to which they can deploy personal and organizational resources to negotiate appropriate meanings through social and political relationships with relevant others. The socio-political process and the substance of the innovation have reciprocal effects, yielding the possibility of agreement on a ‘working innovation’ which, once institutionalized, modifies the existing system and structures in ways that constrain, in new modes, the behaviours of all of those involved     

Managerial Culture and the Stillbirth of Organisational Commitment

The concept of organisational commitment continues to interest academics and practitioners despite evidence of low commitment in British companies. Explanations concentrate on why employees fail to respond to management policies or, more radically, on efforts to realign ‘corporate culture’. In this article the focus is changed by John Coopey to enable the effect of managerial culture on organisational commitment to be examined. the conceptual framework is of culture influencing individual attitudes via psychological processes (mediated through relationships). These themes are developed in a two-fold argument: first managers are seen as entrapped in a culture that protects prerogatives through processes of accountability and hence, second, managers find difficulty in acting as exemplars of organisational commitment for potential followers.