Frank H. Knight's Criticism of Henry George

A bstract .   The ferocity of Knight's comments on Henry George may come as a surprise to those who are not familiar with his criticisms of other economists and philosophers. But, in fact, his criticisms of George are not due to specifically Knightian insights on George's approach, but rather reflect the different philosophical framework from which neoclassical economists like Knight think. At the core of Knight's disagreements with George is his neoclassical theory of rent, as the Georgist critics of Knight understand. The article reviews the philosophical, economic, and ethical ideas that underlay Knight's neoclassicism, and hence inform his criticism of George.     

Managerial Behaviour Research in Private and Public Sectors: Distinctiveness, Disputes and Directions

A managerial behaviour approach is identified that has sought to understand managerial work by analysing the day‐to‐day behaviour of individual managers: what do managers do? It is argued that this approach is distinctive and that its distinctiveness is valuable and has not received adequate attention. The distinctiveness is defined by its research background, object, focus and methodology. The managerial behaviour approach has developed from research over nearly fifty years: long enough for there to have been a variety of disputes about what has, or ought to have been, achieved. The relevance of these criticisms and what later research has done to meet them is assessed. Recent research directions are identified and suggestions are made for building on the distinctiveness. It is concluded that the institutional embeddedness of managerial work should attract further scholarly attention, and that the contribution of researchers in the public sector, who come from a differentdisciplinary background, needs to be integrated with that of researchers from organizational behaviour as they can contribute new conceptual approaches, which could help to revivify this field of research.     

Organizational goals and values: A socialization model

Research on the content of socialization has incorporated multiple content areas into one general framework. However, it has been suggested that the organizational content areas actually assess different constructs, thus, researchers should examine the content areas independently. The purpose of this article is to present a model of socialization that focuses on the antecedents and outcomes of socialization in one specific content area: organizational goals and values. The model suggests that an individual's agreement with the organization's values (work value congruence) and the importance of the individual's own work values interact to determine the outcomes of socialization to the organizational goals and values. When there is low work value congruence, the individual may engage in detrimental behaviors if the individual has a strong belief in his/her own values.     

Economics, Sociology, and the "Professional Complex"

A bstract .   This article discusses the relationship between economics and sociology in the context of Parsons's analytical theory of action and systems and his criticisms of orthodox and institutional economics. The article also addresses his view of the importance of the professions to an understanding of the nature of advanced capitalism. The professions are discussed as both an illustration of his theoretical argument and a substantive problem that stimulated the development of his theory. The "professional complex" is an emergent phenomenon in capitalism that modifies its operation and points to the complexity of systems of social action that require to be analyzed without being reduced to one of their elements. This reductionism is evident in orthodox economic theory and also in the more sociologically-oriented approach of institutional economics. Parsons argues that each is a form of what, following Whitehead, he calls the "fallacy of misplaced concreteness." Although Parsons offers a significant critique of dominant approaches in economics, major flaws within his own theory create the appearance that he has simply carried over the deficiencies of orthodox theory into his own general statement of theory. These flaws contribute to major misunderstandings of Parsons's project and, therefore, indicate continuing problems in the relation between economics and sociology.     

Workplace innovation,employment relations and HRM: two electronics companies in South Korea

Analysing two electronics companies (unionized LG Electronics and non-union Samsung SDI) in Korea, the present paper investigates the impact of union status on workplace innovations and the effects of workplace innovations on organizational performance. Both case firms are considered highly innovative, model companies in terms of their sophisticated human resource management (HRM) and cooperative employment relations (ER). We first provide a conceptual framework and generate three propositions. The framework is composed of three main components: input, organizational system and output. The major findings include: (1) the adoption of high performance work organizations (HPWO) is highly dependent upon top management and union/employee representatives; (2) the two case firms adopted two different production modes (a team production mode in LG Electronics and a lean production mode in Samsung SDI); and (3) alignment among organizational design and work processes, ER systems and HRM systems would lead to high organizational performance. We also discuss the transferability of HPWO to other cultural settings in a universalism-contingency context.     

Respect,bullying, and public sector work outcomes in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

This article examines empirical links between a subordinate’s felt recognition respect from his/her supervisor, the subordinate’s appraisal respect for that supervisor, and bullying, work engagement, and organizational citizenship behaviour in Vietnam’s public sector. Data from 274 employees in six branches of a public sector agency were used to test the hypothesized model. Within Vietnam’s public sector, the followers who receive recognition respect from the leaders have greater appraisal respect for their leaders, experience less bullying, and reveal higher work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviour. This article theoretically and empirically contributes to the respect literature developed in the Western context.     

Reprint of: Spacing identity: Unfolding social and spatial-material entanglements of identity performance

In this paper, we analyze how architectural design, and the spatial and material changes this involves, contributes to the continuous shaping of identities in an organization. Based upon a case study of organizational and architectural change in a municipal administration at a time of major public sector reforms, we examine how design interventions were used to (re)form work and professional relationships. The paper examines how engagements with spatial arrangements and material artifacts affected people's sense of both occupational and organizational identity. Taking a relational approach to sociomateriality, the paper contributes to the further theorizing of space in organization studies by proposing the concept of spacing identity to capture the fluidity of identity performance.     

ENVIRONMENT, ORGANIZATION AND EFFECTIVENESS: A BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH[1]

Answers to the question of what makes an organization effective have proved elusive despite more than 20 years of intensive theorizing and research. Yet the search for answers, which gained momentum with Lawrence and Lorsch's (1969) Organization and Environment, clearly has had salutary effects on students of organizations and their work. This paper offers an approach to analysing organizations explicitly based on two of those benefits. The first is the shift toward a more dynamic orientation for explaining organizational configurations and outcomes. The second is the identification of strategic decisionmaking as the key link between organizational environment, structures, and effectiveness. By merging these two, we construct a biographical approach to the study of organizations. This approach sees organizations as evolving through time in response to, or in anticipation of, both external and internal forces. We view effectiveness as the outcome of a variety of decisions taken by one or more groups of organizational actors - elites or coalitions - in the context of bounded rationalities and environmental and structural constraints. So decision processes underpin observed configurations of environmental and structural features and link these configurations to effectiveness. An organization's biography - the pattern of its evolution - can be conceptualized as a succession of decisions and their consequences, with some decisions having a major long-term influence on the direction taken by the organization and its effectiveness, while others have but an incremental influence. This article is an initial effort to make concrete our ideas. The opening section discusses organizational decision-making and organizational effectiveness. This is the core of our approach: a basis for categorizing organizational decisions and in particular for singling out those which can be regarded as strategic. It is our contention that significant decisions vary across organizations and that it will embrace rather than ignore history and context. And ultimately, it will enhance our understanding of organizational effectiveness.     

Factors influencing processes of radical change in organizational belief systems

The recent development of a cognitive, interpretive approach to organizational analysis has helped to increase our understanding of organizational action. This paper discusses the relationship between organizational beliefs and organizational change. Based upon a review of empirical studies of strategic reorientations, the article presents a model of factors that influence processes which lead to changes in organizational belief systems. It is argued that radical changes in organizational belief systems are influenced by organizational results, by characteristics of the organizational environment, by intra-organizational factors, and by characteristics of the current organizational belief systems. These factors are discussed and some ways to further augment our knowledge of this phenomenon are indicated.     

Stochastic Index Numbers: A Review

The stochastic approach is a new way of viewing index numbers in which uncertainty and statistical ideas play a central role. Rather than just providing a single number for the rate of inflation, the stochastic approach provides the whole probability distribution of inflation. This paper reviews the key elements of the approach and then discusses its early history, including some previously overlooked links with Fisher's work contained in his book The Making of Index Numbers. We then consider some more recent developments, including Diewert's well-known critique of the stochastic approach, and provide responses to his criticisms. We also provide a review of Theil's work on the stochastic approach, and present and extend Diewert's work on this topic within the context of the Country Product Dummy method which measures price levels internationally. The paper also contains some recent material on the value of information from the perspective of the stochastic approach, as well as illustrative applications.     

Spacing identity: Unfolding social and spatial-material entanglements of identity performance

In this paper, we analyze how architectural design, and the spatial and material changes this involves, contributes to the continuous shaping of identities in an organization. Based upon a case study of organizational and architectural change in a municipal administration at a time of major public sector reforms, we examine how design interventions were used to (re)form work and professional relationships. The paper examines how engagements with spatial arrangements and material artifacts affected people’s sense of both occupational and organizational identity. Taking a relational approach to sociomateriality, the paper contributes to the further theorizing of space in organization studies by proposing the concept of spacing identity to capture the fluidity of identity performance.     

Human resource management in action. The paradox of participation: Lessons from the tennessee valley authority

The three year Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) quality of work life experiment was one of eight large scale projects developed by the American Center for Quality of Work Life and assessed by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. The key themes of this research program involved union–management collaboration and employee participation in organizational change. This article presents major outcomes of the experiment, with particular emphasis on the participatory change process that was the central focus at TVA. The implications of participation are discussed in terms of the paradoxes of change, leadership, and process. Based on data from interviews and observation of events throughout the experiment, recommendations are provided for similar quality of work life programs.     

Accelerating the culture change!

Exide Electronics, a major supplier of uninterruptible power system equipment, embarked on a journey of changing a culture to improve quality, enhance customer responsiveness, and reduce costs. This case study examines the evolution of change over a period of seven years, with particular emphasis on the most recent years, 1992 through 1995. The article focuses on the Raleigh plant operations and describes how each succeeding year built on the successes and fixed the shortcomings of the prior years to accelerate the culture change, including corrective action and continuous improvement processes, organizational structures, expectations, goals, achievements, and pitfalls. The real challenge to changing the culture was structuring a dynamic approach to accelerate change! The presentation also examines how the evolutionary process itself can be created and accelerated through ongoing communication, regular feedback of progress and goals, constant evaluation and direction of the process, and measuring and paying for performance.     

On the Validity of Veblen's Criticisms of Economic Orthodoxy: An Analysis of His Positions in the Light of Current Conditions and Economic Thought

A bstract . Thorstein Vehlen has received his share of brickbats and bouquets over the years. Rather than add to them, this study examines the validity of some of his criticisms of economic orthodoxy in the light of contemporary economic conditions and currents of economic thought Attempt is made to understand the ways in which orthodox theorists have viewed this heterodox thinker and to delineate the influence Veblen has exerted on us in modifying our approach to economic analysis.     

The myth of flexibility in organizational change

In this article we examine the complex nature of organizational flexibility. We question the myth of flexibility as exclusively a top management interpretation of constant adaptiveness to environmental change by exploring the various rigidities involved in a seemingly adaptive organization. Our long-term study of a major Finnish commercial bank under deregulation identified several dominant forms of temporal flexibility–rigidity configurations: formal rigidities, flexible rigidities, rigid flexibilities and defensive rigidities. These configurations were revealed by focusing on the structural tensions which emerge between different levels of management and on the different interpretations given by competing groups to the notion of “organizational flexibility” within a process of change.     

Communicating change

Communicating organizational change is a difficult task. Many attempts at change end in failure, and many times the failure is due primarily to poor communication and lack of acceptance of the change by employees. This article examines (1) the process of communicating for change, (2) some major reasons for communication failure, and (3) a variety of successful techniques used in organizations. Empirical evidence about communicating for change is also incorporated. Finally, guidelines for managers, with particular relevance for human resource managers, to follow in effectively communicating for major changes are presented. © 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The ‘Human’ Touch

Abstract

This article critically discusses the almost mythical conception of voluntary and ‘grass-roots’ organizations as problem solvers in current welfare policy – a myth, which over the last twenty years has become increasingly dominant in social policy programmes in advanced liberal welfare states. In particular, the article examines the assumption that voluntary and local organizations are permeated by a different rationality that enables human beings to act as ‘real humans’ rather than as professionals and clients – a rationality which is, however, permanently at risk of being contaminated by bureaucratic influence. It is demonstrated that among the conditions of possibility for this discourse are explanatory models and concepts in modern organizational theory and in voluntary sector studies. The article argues that the conceptualizations of power, rationality and social change dominant in these studies are unsatisfactory. Instead, it applies a Foucauldian approach to the domain of drug addiction treatment, analysing a social work ‘regime’ that transgresses the traditional boundaries between state and voluntary sector.     

STRATEGY AND STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT TO REGAIN FIT AND PERFORMANCE: IN DEFENCE OF CONTINGENCY THEORY

Comparative, contingency approaches to organization structure have been criticized as being inherently static. The present article argues that functionalist theories and quantitative methods can explain structural change. This is exemplified by a diachronic enquiry into strategy and structure. Several propositions about organizational dynamics relating diversification, reorganization and performance are supported. However, the notion of contingency adjustment to structure to attain match as a frequent alternative to structural adjustment to contingencies is not borne out. Neither of the two prevailing theories of structural change, ‘contingency determinism’nor ‘strategic choice’, is completely adequate and a third formulation is advanced: that of ‘structural adjustment to regain fit’. While structural-functional enquiry into organizations using comparative quantitative methods has yielded information about structural statics, the contribution to knowledge of dynamics seems more problematic. This article seeks to record that structural-functionalism does inform the analysis of organizational change and to show that quantitative contingency approaches can illuminate change if the theory used in the analysis is formalized properly. This involves the partial abandonment of both of the main prevailing theories of structural change: contingency determinism and strategic choice. In their place this article offers as a potentially more fruitful model the structural adaptation to regain fit formulation. Within this the role of performance is shown to be important. The advantage of this framework is demonstrated empirically by means of an examination of the relationship between strategy and structure.     

Climate Change and Reorganizing Land Use: Flood Control Areas as a Network Effect

Although climate change appears to be a relatively new public issue, it has not emerged onto a tabula rasa; it affects ‘traditional’ policy sectors. How, then, does this ‘new issue’ interact with established organizational processes, and how is climate change ‘operationalized’ in local practice? Since major events linked to climate change include such things as desertification, climatic migrations, floods and landslides, one might assume that one of its main implications would be a substantial change in land use, or at least a transformation in land organization and management. This article explores the implementation of a ‘flood control area’ as an adaptation practice in the face of climate change. What theoretical and empirical tools should analysis adopt to account for the multiple actors, types of knowledge, artefacts, socio‐technical systems and governance configurations engaged in developing such practices? In other words, to what extent does climate change become a reorganizing category? This article adopts a theoretical approach inspired by actor‐network theory and considers adaptation practice not as a standardized top‐down solution, but as the result of specific local connections among actors, materials and discourses. The analysis suggests that climate change is indeed a reorganizing category, but one that depends on the specific local materializations of the adaptation measure.     

From issues to checkpoints and back: managing green issues in R&D

The article is based on a qualitative study of how green issues affect the R&D work in two large Swedish manufacturing firms. Both internal (environmental staff, top management) and external (regulators) actors drive the greening processes and our firms seem to be far reaching in their green works. In our discussions, we rely on a dynamic model of organizational change to emphasize that if green issues, in our cases perceived as strategic issues, are to change the firm and its R&D work, there has to be a focus on not only technological (tangible) components, but also on cultural (intangible) aspects. A proactive environmental product development strategy might therefore benefit from widening its focus to the whole organization. In addition to a more holistic approach, a basic argument in the paper is also that if green issues are to survive, they have to be kept evergreen. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.