ORGANIZATIONS AS RHETORIC: KNOWLEDGE-INTENSIVE FIRMS AND THE STRUGGLE WITH AMBIGUITY

This article discusses the concepts of knowledge-intensive workers and firms. the functional view is questioned and a perspective on knowledge as institutionalized myth and rationality-surrogate is proposed. the ambiguity of knowledge work is emphasized and it is argued that a crucial dimension of a knowledge-intensive organization concerns the struggle with this ambiguity, which leads to efforts to refine various rhetorical strategies. Besides those stressing knowledge, science and rationality, the article points to rhetoric describing employees in knowledge-intensive firms as possessing other personal qualities and orientations than personnel employed in bureaucracies.     

House price depreciation rates and level of maintenance

My objective in this paper is to estimate different depreciation rates of house prices depending on the level of maintenance of the property and the location of the property. I do this by supplementing transaction price data with owner information about level of maintenance. The result indicates that the level of maintenance has a substantial impact on the price level. Since maintenance offsets some of the physical deterioration of the property, the depreciation rate will be lowered by maintenance, ceteris paribus. To be able to estimate maintenance effects on depreciation rates, I isolated the interaction effect between the level of maintenance and the age of the property to allow for the fact that maintenance has an impact on the effective age of the property. In this study, I separate maintenance into indoor and outdoor maintenance levels (or absence of maintenance).My results show that the depreciation rates are significantly different for a maintained property and for a property that is not maintained. The price difference between a 40-year-old property (built in 1960) and maintained both indoors and outdoors and a property of the same age that is not maintained is about 13% (−10% compared to −23% in total age effect). The absence of outdoor maintenance has more impact on price depreciation rates.     

Reflecting on Reflexivity: Reflexive Textual Practices in Organization and Management Theory

abstract    This paper identifies four sets of textual practices that researchers in the field of organization and management theory (OMT) have used in their attempts to be reflexive. We characterize them as multi-perspective, multi-voicing, positioning and destabilizing. We show how each set of practices can help to produce reflexive research, but also how each embodies limitations and paradoxes. Finally, we consider the interplay among these sets of practices to develop ideas for new avenues for reflexive practice by OMT researchers.     

Lessons for Crisis Communication on Social Media: A Systematic Review of What Research Tells the Practice

This study analyzes explicit pieces of advice for effective social media crisis communication given by researchers in various subdisciplines of strategic communication. The themes are identified by a systematic content analysis of peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers (n = 104) published between 2004 and 2017. Five overall thematic “lessons” are identified and critically discussed. These are that effective social media crisis communication is about: (1) exploiting social media’s potential to create dialogue and to choose the right message, source and timing; (2) performing precrisis work and developing an understanding of the social media logic; (3) using social media monitoring; (4) continuing to prioritize traditional media in crisis situations; and finally, (5) just using social media in strategic crisis communication. These guidelines mainly emerged from quantitative research conducted in the context of the United Stated and on Twitter. There is need for more research focusing on other platforms and other empirical material. There is also a future need for an in-depth methodological discussion of how to further bridge the gap between research and practice on a global scale, and how to develop more evidence-based recommendations for strategic crisis communication practitioners.     

Absorptive capacity and interpretation system's impact when ‘going green’: an empirical study of ford,volvo cars and toyota

Whether or not it pays to be green or under what circumstances is an important ongoing debate among economic researchers. However, this question, with its rather instrumental rationality, may underestimate another key issue: the ability of companies to create value that can be captured from customers. This paper reports on three companies in the automotive industry developing and launching cars with improved eco‐environmental performance and less petrol consumption. The study reveals that, despite being captured in the same technological paradigm, the individual company's mode of environmental interpretation and its aspiration to exploit new technology may be two important explanatory factors in its ability to go green profitably. The study indicates that an enacting mode of environmental interpretation may be superior to a discovering mode, and suggests that for companies having a discovering mode there may be a need to complement existing engineering practice with insights into consumer psychology, and bundling of common good versus private good product attributes. The research upon which this paper is based was conducted using an insider/outsider approach in studying the three companies. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

TRANSACTION COSTS, CLANS AND CORPORATE CULTURE

For a long time it has been recognized that traditional bureaucratic modes of control are not very efficient in many highly uncertain, rapidly changing or otherwise troublesome situations. Inspired by transaction cost thinking different authors have suggested that clan form control or certain types of corporate cultures should do better in these circumstances. Among these, Ouchi (1980) and Wilkins and Ouchi (1983) stand clearly in the foreground and the transaction cost related clan developed by these authors is discussed at length in the article. Further we examine some empirical case studies indicating that other types of mechanisms than suggested by transaction cost reasoning seem to be involved. As a result we propose an extension of the clan concept to include three different kinds of clans: (1) the Economic-co-operative Clan, (2) the Social-integrative Clan, and (3) the Blood-kinship Clan. Next we discuss how clans or local cultures become established, including the possibilities for management to develop these kinds of patterns intentionally. Finally we set up some tentative hypotheses concerning the significance of‘economic’and ‘social’types of clans in ambiguous situations and the limits of the ideas of the transaction cost approach in explaining complex exchange issues in organizations.     

ORGANIZATIONAL SYMBOLISM AND IDEOLOGY*

The purpose of this article is to discuss organizational symbolism research from a critique of ideology perspective. Various aspects of ideology as a metatheoretical concept are discussed. Criteria governing when it might be appropriate to conduct a critical analysis of ideological elements in research texts are also suggested. These include restricted social autonomy of researchers, socio-political relevance and ideological usefulness of research products, social fashionability of research areas, pseudo-objective style, absence of indicated self-reflection and lack of manifested awareness of the social context of research in research publications. The organizational symbolism research field is discussed in relation to ideology and some influential texts are interpreted in the light of ideology-critique. the criteria for a sensitive reading of research texts in terms of problematical ideological elements are applied and their relevance illustrated. the article also discusses the field of organizational symbolism in terms of Habermas' concepts of cognitive interests, emancipation and undistorted communication.     

The First Century of The Scandinavian Journal of Economics

This paper surveys the history of The Scandinavian Journal of Economics and the early contributions of e.g. Davidson, Wicksell, Cassel, Heckscher, Ohlin, Myrdal and Lindahl. It also analyses the population dynamics of economics journals. Finally, it addresses some issues concerning the publishing and editing of professional journals, raised by the emergence of new electronic media, internet publication, etc.     

DIVISION HEADQUARTERS GO ABROAD - A STEP IN THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF THE MULTINATIONAL CORPORATION*

Why are division headquarters of multinational corporations in some cases located abroad? In the multinational corporation the physical location of division headquarters is a problematic issue because of the need for close links both to corporate headquarters and the foreign subsidiaries. This paper develops a model explaining this location as a consequence of power relations associated with the internationalization of the corporation and tests it on a sample of divisions of Swedish multinationals. the results support the view that power relations have an impact on location of division headquarters. One interesting result is the clear indication of countervailing forces, consisting of an attraction force of foreign dominant subsidiaries and a resisting force related to the interests of corporate headquarters.     

Work with and implementation of new concepts for management of product development—experiences for the Swedish Manufacturing Industry

Extensive organizational changes in the management of product development work of industrial companies are currently taking place. Speediness (time-based competition) and/or 'high' quality (total quality) are emphasized and for this purpose concepts such as simultaneous, concurrent or integrated product development have been introduced. This paper describes a study of the importance of these concepts in 29 large Swedish manufacturing companies and how these companies deal with the implementation of the new product development concepts. In addition, three in-depth studies have been carried out to enable a more detailed study to be made of the effects of the product development work on time and quality variables.