Search

We draw on first-hand experience and empirical evidence to address current concerns that the mission approach carries too much emphasis on technological innovation and top-down state-led action. We identify the concept of smaller scale 'micro-missions' that address place-based challenges. In so doing, we show a role for universities that extends beyond the entrepreneurial triple helix and demonstrate how a mission approach can be effective beyond an emphasis exclusively on science and technology and economic outcomes. We highlight universities as safe, convening spaces and their role in bringing together local actors in designing and delivering a micro-missions approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To confront the climate crisis requires fundamental system change in order to break the convention of relentless economic exploitation of nature. In this Special Issue we extend understanding of the opportunities for an organizing perspective on sustainability in order that organization studies might contribute more effectively to the challenges of organizing sustainably. This organizing perspective is particularly sensitive to (1) a variety of forms and practices of sustainable organizing in different societal spheres and on different levels, (2) the social institutions, logics and value systems in which these forms and practices are embedded, (3) the power and politics of promoting (or blocking) sustainable organization, and (4) the ways in which work, voice, participation, and inclusion are organized and contribute to developing societal capabilities. These features formed the basis of our original call for papers and we review selected literature on sustainability, including the contribution of organization studies and the articles in this Special Issue, through this organizing perspective. In so doing we identify four key themes of a future research agenda that builds from the foundations of existing research and addresses key current limitations in both theory and practice: sustainability requires social justice; connecting local and global scale shifts; democratizing governance; and acting collectively. We conclude with some implications for our own scholarship in organization studies if we are to meet the twin challenges of the need for new theorizing in combination with devising practically relevant support for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this chapter, we underscore the enduring importance of research on work, workers, labour markets, and the places and spaces of work. We then examine the particular and valuable contributions that come from ethnographic research in providing detailed studies of work, particularly when these are situated and interpreted in their wider socio-political contexts. We discuss the key dimensions of ethnography before overviewing the contributions to the volume. The volume presents cutting-edge ethnographic research on contemporary worlds of work and the experiences of workers from a range of contexts including an alternative community, working online, the gig economy, and the hospitality industry. Alongside novel empirical chapters, the collection includes the reflections of ethnographers with regards to, for example, the experience as a young female management researcher working amongst journalists in a media firm, personal feelings of precarity within and beyond the field, and how to navigate the challenges of researching inequalities ethnographically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how meso-level actors (MeLAs) contribute to HR practice transfer in diffusion and adaptation processes, drawing on the System-Society-Dominance-Corporate Effects (SSDC) framework to interpret the role of MeLAs in the transfer of the Japanese management model to the Indonesian automotive industry. We focus on two issues: i) the way Japanese MeLAs' training regimes in Japan affect the diffusion of the model and ii) the coordinated Japanese and Indonesian MeLAs strategy in seeking procedural influence through knowledge-sharing and in facilitating transfer activities over how the Japanese model is adapted in Indonesia. Our research adds to our limited understanding of the significance of MeLAs in processes of diffusion-adaptation in emerging market economies characterized by weak regulatory regimes and asymmetric socioeconomic power relations. Drawing on interviews with 75 key informants across Japan and Indonesia, we explore the significance of MeLAs from corporate and labor spheres alongside those of non-corporate MeLAs. Theoretically, this study extends the SSDC framework by highlighting MeLAs' influence in both diffusing conceptions of dominant management 'best practice' (dominance effects) and their role – and that of dominance effects – in shaping societal effects that inform how the model is adapted. We theorize the complex processes through which the effects identified in the SSDC framework are experienced by local actors, showing that they are neither monolithic nor mechanical in nature and thereby elaborating the inter-relationship in how dominance effects inform societal effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While resistance to human resource management (HRM) practice transfers from multinationals has been widely researched in economically advanced countries, emerging economies are generally assumed to be institutionally more welcoming. This article contributes to debates on international HRM diffusion both by highlighting hitherto neglected arenas of host-country resistance and identifying the multiple levels at which this plays out. Specifically, this article examines the transfer of Japanese multinational corporations' HRM practices into Indonesia. The study reveals that alongside apparently consensual micro-level (organization) relations between home- and host-country management, important political power games are occurring at the meso-level (subnational). These games involve competing notions of 'best practice' with host-country actors more powerful than deterministic models of diffusion would predict. The study shows how local actors seek to defend elements of the established Indonesian business system, while Japanese actors bypass host-country regulations by mobilizing corporate business associations. The findings extend current understanding of cross-border management practice transfer, highlighting contestation and negotiation at the meso-level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We apply Weber's distinction between instrumental (outcome focused) and substantive (values driven) rationality to offer both a conceptually underpinned explanation for the mounting criticism of business schools and to provide the basis for a new business school model. We begin by extending Brewer's (2013) treatise on the public good of social science to articulate a substantively rational public value business school. We then report how processes of waysetting, wayfinding, and strategic obliquity informed the iterative development of this approach at Cardiff Business School in the United Kingdom. Our case study illustrates the significant challenges and tensions that arise from trying to introduce a substantively rational approach and change process within an institutional context of instrumental rationality. Our analysis underscores the importance of combining both purposive action (away from the current) and substantively rational purposeful action (a direction of travel informed by particular values). It also highlights the potential for some business schools to combine substantive rationality with strategic obliquity in attempts to enhance public good through systemic, institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How have organisations sought to manage tensions between the needs for flexible labour in neoliberal market economies and the benefits of a committed and motivated workforce? Through an in-depth, qualitative study of a Chinese company, we identify and theorise a novel variation of paternalism that was developed by the organisation to manage the tensions under neoliberal capitalism. We label this management regime 'centrifugal paternalism' since it organises employment relations along the lines of 'adult-like' employers and 'child-like' employees but involves the diminution of employee dependency over time with an ultimate impulse away from the employing organisation. We find that the emergence of centrifugal paternalism is closely related both to the socio-demographic identity of the company's employees as China's second-generation migrant workers and to the economic context of the organisation. Through a 'tough love' approach, this regime allows the firm to secure flexible labour while responding to migrant workers' needs for personal skills development and a fruitful rural-to-urban transition. Our research responds to recent calls for reconnecting organisation studies with society and situating workplace practices within their contexts. It also underlines the enduring importance of paternalism for understanding the dynamic and evolving nature of capitalist employment relations and management regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to understand the nature of managerial work in Japan during an era of widespread corporate reform and changing human resource management (HRM) practices. To achieve this, a qualitative multi-method investigation was designed in which data were collected from company documents, ethnographic observations, and principally in-depth interviews with senior, middle and junior managers. These managers worked for five large Japanese corporations whose operations were based respectively in a range of industrial and commercial sectors. Silhouetted against widespread corporate restructuring and assessing managers' personal rationalizations of key HRM concerns – vis-a-vis job security levels, payment systems, promotion/career systems, trades union activities and work-time expectations – the study found significant age, experience and gender-related differences in the experience of managerial work and working environments. Finally, in conceptual terms, the project adopts an approach in which Weickian sensemaking and business systems theory are deployed to frame evidence that reflects macro (institutional), meso (organizational) and micro (individual) levels of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a special issue on Situating Human Resource Management (HRM) Practices in their Political and Economic Contexts. We develop a novel multilevel framework for exploring the political economy of HRM and use this to position the articles in this special issue. We argue that the study of HRM is often too narrowly constructed within a psychological, positivistic paradigm and at an organisation‐level, and that situating HRM in its political and economic context requires a more inclusive, interdisciplinary approach that includes the use of kaleidoscopic imagination and meta‐theoretical bricolage. By embracing a theoretically pluralist approach to studying HRM, researchers are better able to analyse how different levels of the political economy interact with specific HRM practices to impact value creation. We conclude by discussing the contribution of this article and the special issue, as well as highlighting avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including the diversity of management theory, the social, political, and structural aspects of knowledge, and management styles in an era of globalization.

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This chapter presents an in-depth inductive analysis of a parent organization and the network of subsidiaries that it has created. The authors identify the significance of organizational processes label as "disciplining entrepreneurialism." These are activities that encourage entrepreneurial individuals to propose and lead new businesses while also promoting strong identification with the parent firm. The authors explore the emergence of this phenomenon through an examination of subsidiary-headquarter relations. While conventional conceptualization of inter-organizational collaboration has tended to exclude ­subsidiary-headquarter network relationships, we use the Systems of Exchange framework (Biggart & Delbridge, 2004) to categorize disciplined entrepreneurship alongside market, hierarchy, and network relations. Disciplining entrepreneurialism is not experienced as either market nor hierarchy by the individual members in the subsidiaries, and these subsidiaries move between the two in ways that are not adequately captured as a network either. This disciplining entrepreneurship approach can thus be contrasted with networks as well as differentiated from both markets and hierarchies. Entrepreneurship is encouraged while maintaining commitment to the overarching enterprise of the parent company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a classification scheme of systems of exchange using concepts from network analysis, economics, and cultural sociology. This classification illustrates that the "free market" is but one possible type of economy and that other types are not best understood as imperfections. This classification helps to distinguish analytically among qualitatively different types of exchange arrangements and suggests bases from which to develop theories about the organization of markets and exchange systems of various types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese motor industry is held up as an exemplar of world class manufacturing, setting the standards by which Western manufacturers measure themselves Just-in-time or lean manufacturing is receiving particular attention. This paper analyses stock turnover data on eight Japanese vehicle assemblers and 33 major components suppliers over the period 1975-1988, and that of 15 Western assemblers and 41 suppliers over a similar period. This analysis reveals that Japanese manufacturers are not uniformly 'lean' but exhibit a wide range of performance, with Toyota standing out as the best. Although improving, Western assembler performance falls far short of the Japanese, and there is no sign of the gap narrowing. The gap between Western suppliers and their Japanese counterparts actually widened during the 1980's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Japan's corporate governance and employment relations systems have been under considerable pressures to reform towards a more Anglo‐American model, against a back‐drop of intensified global competition and slow economic growth over two ‘lost’ decades. But what is the relationship between these systems, and specifically, how does corporate governance structure condition employment relations practice? This paper adopts the ‘Systems, Society, Dominance and Corporate (SSDC) effects’ framework in order to contextualize and evaluate the outcomes of these pressures, particularly in the period following the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It reports case study data from various parts of the Japanese economy drawn from a series of firm‐based interviews and a variety of secondary sources. It is argued that there has been a strong degree of continuity in certain employment practices, such as lifetime employment, even in relatively new high technology firms, but that the pattern for other practices, such as seniority‐based pay, is more mixed with increasing differentiation between industries and individual organizations. We articulate a layered assessment of the varying SSDC effects at play in corporate Japan. This differentiation across industries and organizations is a function both of strategic choice (corporate effects) and also the increasing variation in the meso‐level institutional pressures that are experienced at organizational level; that is, the differentiation in the sources and nature of dominance effects that are relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The meaningfulness of the physical place within which resistance is nurtured and enacted has not been carefully considered in research on space and organizations. In this article, we offer two stories of middle managers developing resistance to managerial policies and decisions. We show that the appropriation and reconstruction of specific places by middle managers helps them to build autonomous resisting work thanks to the meanings that resisters attribute to the place in which they undertake resistance. We contribute to the literature on space and organizations by showing that resistance is a social experience through which individuals shape physical places and exploit the geographical blurring of organizations to develop political efforts that can be consequential. We also suggest the central role played by middle managers in the subversion of these meaningful places of resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the debate regarding employee discretion and neo-normative forms of control within interactive service work. Discretion is central to core and long-standing debates within the sociology of work and organizations such as skill, control and job quality. Yet, despite this, the concept of discretion remains underdeveloped. We contend that changes in the nature of work, specifically in the context of interactive service work, require us to revisit classical theorizations of discretion. The paper elaborates the concept of value discretion; defined as the scope for employees to interpret the meaning of the espoused values of their organization. We illustrate how value discretion provides a foundational basis for further forms of task discretion within a customized service call-centre. The study explores the link between neo-normative forms of control and the labour process by elaborating the concept of value discretion to provide new insights into the relationship between managerial control and employee agency within contemporary service labour processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lying is an endemic feature of social life but has remained under-researched in organization studies. This paper examines the case of VoiceTel, a market leader in the high-quality virtual reception business that practised 'strategic deception' (Patwardhan et al., 2009). Receptionists concealed that they were not physically located in their clients' premises and lying was an intrinsic and enduring feature of their work. We adapt and extend Ashforth and Anand's (2003) 'normalization of corruption' framework to develop a new model of the 'normalization of lying'. We examine how lying becomes institutionalized, rationalized and socialized into the structure and culture of an organization such that it becomes embedded, maintained and strengthened over time as a legitimate and integral part of the job. Our model of normalization integrates organizational and group levels to examine the significance and interaction of 'bottom-up' as well as 'top-down' processes. Employees gained recognition from their proficiency in deception and drew considerable satisfaction, self-esteem and status as employees who are 'trusted to deceive'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations are spaces and places of work. In this introductory essay to the Special Issue of Organization Studies dedicated to ‘Worlds of Work’, we lay out our vision for placing the study of work and workers back at the centre of organization studies. We advance four inter-related work-world metaphors or ways of seeing organizations: as physical worlds, as worlds of hierarchy, as spaces of innovation, and as fields of actors. Research that puts work at the centre of organizational analysis, and places organization within its context of economy, politics and society, will provide important new insights into the experience of work and nature of contemporary organization. Such an agenda will be founded on both a recognition of the socially constructed nature of these phenomena and their dialectics, tracing how these tensions play out in new and hybrid forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marxist theory, we argue, can be a valuable resource as organization studies turns to the urgent societal problems of our times. In order to address these problems, organizational studies needs greater historical depth and interdisciplinarity. We argue that these imperatives necessitate a return to grand theory. Grand theories provide the frameworks needed for integrating in a systematic as opposed to an ad hoc manner both scholarship across disciplines and middle-range theories within disciplines. We show that marxism offers a particularly fruitful grand theory for organization studies and for the social sciences more broadly, because it affords a platform for integrating various social sciences and because it offers penetrating insight into both the longue durée of history and the political-economic dynamics of capitalism. In making our case, we present and defend the core ideas of marxism, including its theory of modes of production, its distinctive theory of “soft” technological and economic determinism, its labor theory of value, and its account of the key developmental tendencies of capitalism—concentration and centralization of capital, socialization, and recurrent crises. We illustrate the power of these ideas by showing how they can be used to enrich organizational research on the 2007-8 financial crisis. And we introduce the four articles in this Special Themed Section, which show the capacity of marxist concepts to reframe and enrich research on traditional and emerging topics in organization studies, including organizational learning and communities of practice, knowledge work, teamwork and collaboration, social media and digital capitalism, and organizational routines and path dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages with the question 'does Japan still matter' by systematically reviewing publication patterns in peer-reviewed academic journal articles addressing Japanese firms and their management practices, illustrating the academic discourse surrounding Japanese firms over four decades, and by identifying future research opportunities. Initially, particularly from the 1980s when Japanese firms came to prominence, these practices tended to be identified as 'best practice'. However, at least in part due to socio-economic changes, this tendency has become less prominent since the 'bubble economy' burst. Instead, three broader developments are observed: the examination of the continuity and change in the traditional Japanese model, a more complex approach that involves multiple themes of research, and leveraging new contexts to examine Japanese firms, including the long-term recession, the rise of the East Asian economy, and the increasing importance of corporate social responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While psychologists and economists have concerned themselves with employee happiness and well-being, critical organizational theorists have rarely examined employees’ positive responses at work. To explain why call-centre employees in our study responded positively to their organization we adopt a relational sociological approach to examine employee happiness and well-being. This approach emphasizes two main features: firstly, it is sensitive to the interaction of management practices and employee agency in how ‘happiness’ is constructed and interpreted in organizations, including an assessment of power relations; secondly, this approach acknowledges the importance of the wider external context in explanations of why organizations pursue happiness. This article applies these sociological insights to the organizational identifications literature to assess the mechanisms of employee identifications. In this case, there are three mechanisms of identification, a) the organizational value system; b) social relations at work including interactions between employees, the owners and their clients and c) the nature of work. Significantly, these three features converged to produce overlapping and mutually reinforcing identifications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper assesses developments in Japanese human resource management (HRM) practices and employment relations since the country's ‘post-bubble’ economic decline and in particular following the global financial downturn of 2008. Our research findings are broadly consistent with others that have provided a mixed picture of continuity, change and diversification but the most recent financial crisis has made the negotiated nature of workplace relations more apparent. These characteristics are not readily explained by conventional understandings of Japanese HRM as a culturally or institutionally determined phenomenon. We present new empirical evidence of developments in eight automotive plants and interpret these through the application of a conceptual framework that distinguishes between the actors' orientations to action and social relations in specific exchange relations. This framing allows a better assessment of the agency involved in the emergence of a more differentiated articulation and manifestation of ‘Japanese HRM’. We explain these dynamics through reference to strategic choice and the negotiations both between local and corporate managers, and between managers and trade unions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The development of mainstream human resource management (HRM) theory has long been concerned with how people management can enhance performance outcomes. It is only very recently that interest has been shown in the parallel stream of research on the link between employee engagement and performance, bringing the two together to suggest that engagement may constitute the mechanism through which HRM practices impact individual and organisational performance. However, engagement has emerged as a contested construct, whose meaning is susceptible to ‘fixing, shrinking, stretching and bending’. It has furthermore not yet been scrutinised from a critical HRM perspective, nor have the societal and contextual implications of engagement within the domain of HRM been considered. We review the contribution of the seven articles in this special issue to the advancement of theory and evidence on employee engagement, and highlight areas where further research is needed to answer important questions in the emergent field that links HRM and engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports different managerial approaches to engaging employees in two contrasting organizations. We categorize these approaches to employee engagement as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’, and examine how these reflect the different external contexts in which management operate and, in particular, their influence on management's ability to promote a supportive internal context. The paper extends the existing literature on the antecedents of engagement by illustrating the importance of combining practitioner concerns about the role and practice of managers with the insights derived from the psychological literature relating to job features. We build from these two approaches to include important features of organizational context to examine the tensions and constraints management encounter in promoting engagement. Our analysis draws on the critical organizational and HRM literature to make a contribution to understanding different applications of employee engagement within organizations. In so doing, we outline a situated and critical reading of organizations to better appreciate that management practices are complex, contested, emergent, locally enacted and context specific, and thereby provide new insights into the inherent challenges of delivering engaged employees. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper builds on recent contributions to understanding conditions of institutional complexity by developing a theoretical framework to elaborate the interdependencies between actions, contexts and institutional logics. Our aim is to refine existing explanations of how actors inhabit complex institutional settings. Drawing on a critical realist ontology, we treat agency and structure as analytically distinct phenomena to advance our understanding of conditioned action. This is subject to relational analysis in order to explain the structural conditioning that shapes particular socio-historical contexts, the potential ‘action options’ contained within these contexts and the processes through which actors draw upon these. This reading of institutional reproduction and transformation allows us to reassess the ‘paradox of embedded agency’ by advancing understanding of the historically grounded and multilevel nature of structures and agency in institutional processes. Our approach offers conceptual refinements, a new sensitizing framework and methodological insights to guide studies of the ways actors inhabit complex institutional settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on how issues on redundancy and network overload in interorganizational networks are dealt with. It explores the concepts of latent and potential ties and their implication for understanding why and how networks evolve, emerge, and change. It presents a longitudinal empirical study which shows that companies in the European motorsport industry are taking strategic actions in searching for reactivate latent ties to solve the overload and network redundancy problems. It examines the interrelationship between redundancy and search as well as the strategic action's scope alongside structural influences and path dependence on network processes.

Researchers have demonstrated the variety of interactive service sector work yet relatively little research has focused on the middle ground of 'mass customised service work'. In particular , the complex character of emotional work in such workplaces remains under investigated. This article applies Bolton's emotion management framework to a high-commitment mass customised call centre to extend understanding of the skills and content of such work. The findings show how workers produce 'appropriate' emotional displays informed by multiple influences beyond management prescription. The article documents the skilled emotional dexterity shown by such workers and elaborates Bolton's framework in demonstrating the negotiated and interactive nature of emotion management. In so doing, it demonstrates the significance of heretofore largely unacknowledged skills in the work of mass customised service workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of what might constitute Critical Human Resource Management (CHRM). Consideration is given to ideas from critics of HRM, both from within the field and those external to it, in particular Critical Management Studies, and to mainstream scholars who have voiced concerns regarding the moribund and limited nature of mainstream HRM. CHRM is advanced in order that HRM might be better contextualized within the prevailing socio-economic order of capitalism; managerialist assumptions and language may be denaturalized and challenged; and that voices excluded in mainstream HRM, such as workers (especially minorities and those in non-standard employment), trade unions and those involved outside large Western corporations, may be heard. The analytical coherence of CHRM builds from a theorization of the employment relationship and requires acknowledgement of the sociological, psychological, economic, political and ethical aspects of working, managing and organizing. In our view, HRM research will be enriched by the variety of methodological and theoretical approaches of CHRM and by the inclusion of a wider range of different research settings and research questions. However, a fruitful and reflexive engagement between CHRM and mainstream HRM seems unlikely until the latter critically assesses rather than assumes the managerial perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional theory suggests that organizations pursue legitimacy by conforming to isomorphic pressures in their environment. We extend previous research on institutional theory by distinguishing between two definitions of conformity (compliance and convergence) and by taking a comprehensive view of the organizational characteristics that might be subject to isomorphic pressures. This framework is applied to change between 2001 and 2004 in the internal characteristics of 101 public organizations in England. We find substantial evidence of compliance but more limited support for convergence. Furthermore, the impact of isomorphic pressures was stronger on organizational strategies and culture than on structures and processes. Thus, the relevance of institutional theory to change in the public sector depends on the definition of conformity that is used and the organizational characteristics that are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we theorize the early moments of non-isomorphic institutional change. In avoiding the 'hero imagery' of the individual institutional entrepreneur we emphasize the role of different actors and broader historical processes in explaining the substantive changes and developments in the superyacht industry between the late 1960s and early 1980s. Particular attention is given to explaining the significance of entrepreneurialism, opposition, opportunity creation and change consumption during the early moments of de- and pre-institutionalization. Broader processes of consumption, authentication, regulation and technological development are also key. In summary, the article demonstrates the value of a relational approach for understanding institutionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, the UK has been regarded as good at innovation - with many inventions and scientific breakthroughs. So, can this nation rest easy? No. Based on extensive research by the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM), it would appear that the agenda for keeping Britain competitive is a demanding one. Six AIM authors report on what the UK needs to know. And do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon a survey of the life science and biotechnology regions of Oxford, Central Scotland and South West England to examine the innovation and embeddedness traits of the regions. The insights into the compositional weaknesses and strengths of the regions suggest opportunities and threats for the future development of the UK's life sciences and biotechnology. The discussion moves forward debates on biotechnology, regional innovation, regional economic development and policy by posing research questions relating to the gap of knowledge of two under-researched regions, the need for a differentiated view of regions and a public policy approach tailored towards them, as well as the prospects of 'engineering' high-tech regions. Some of the highlighted policy challenges are common to the three regions, while others are region-specific and reflect the variations of regional make-up and stage of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the EU Structural Fund intervention framework is critically assessed in an effort to reflect on the problems faced by policy-makers when trying to make sense of the complexity associated with innovation. An assessment is made of the 'evidence-based' approach for reporting on EU Structural Fund interventions in the Welsh economy. It is argued that the measurement of quantifiable inputs and outputs fails to engage sufficiently with the process qualities of innovation. Building on this critique, the paper reports on a study of innovation practice and performance in a sample of Welsh manufacturing SMEs to demonstrate empirically the problems of assuming universal best practices and linear models of innovation. The evidence leads to recommendations for policy improvements in two areas: the need to improve the identification and support of innovative practice in SMEs; and the need to improve the monitoring and evaluation of innovation effects from policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the use of the British Workplace Employment Relations (WERS) survey data in HRM research. While the WERS surveys contain much material of relevance to key debates in the HRM area, there is a prima facie case that there has not been as much WERS-based research in the HRM area as might have been consequently expected. This paper examines why this might be the case, and considers the prospects for the further use of WERS data by HRM researchers. While noting the limits of survey data to address key questions in the area, it suggests that there is a need for a programme of research that builds upon the valuable insights that can be obtained from WERS-based research by the complementary generation of more context-rich information via focused case studies and associated qualitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the EU Structural Fund intervention framework is critically assessed in an effort to reflect on the problems faced by policy-makers when trying to make sense of the complexity associated with innovation. An assessment is made of the 'evidence-based' approach for reporting on EU Structural Fund interventions in the Welsh economy. It is argued that the measurement of quantifiable inputs and outputs fails to engage sufficiently with the process qualities of innovation. Building on this critique, the paper reports on a study of innovation practice and performance in a sample of Welsh manufacturing SMEs to demonstrate empirically the problems of assuming universal best practices and linear models of innovation. The evidence leads to recommendations for policy improvements in two areas: the need to improve the identification and support of innovative practice in SMEs; and the need to improve the monitoring and evaluation of innovation effects from policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evidence on current developments in work organization suggests that the outcome is often one of `conflicted collaboration', where there is simultaneous interdependence and disconnection resulting in both coercive and collaborative experiences for workers. It is argued here that analysis and explanation of these findings requires engagement with both the active role of agency and the social structures of capitalist development. These analyses must also locate the workplace in wider social contexts. A critical realist approach to understanding hegemony offers considerable potential in this endeavour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances a relational sociology of organization that seeks to address concerns over how organizational action is understood and situated. The approach outlined here is one which takes ontology seriously and requires transparency and consistency of position. It aims at causal explanation over description and/or prediction and seeks to avoid pure voluntarism or structural determinism in such explanation. We advocate relational analysis that recognizes and engages with connections within and across organization and with wider contexts. We develop this argument by briefly reviewing three promising approaches: relational pragmatism, the social theorizing of Bourdieu and critical realism, highlighting their ontological foundations, some similarities and differences and surfacing some methodological issues. Our purpose is to encourage analysis that explores the connections within and between perspectives and theoretical positions. We conclude that the development of the field of organization theory will benefit from self conscious and reflexive engagement and debate both within and across our various research positions and traditions only if such debates are conducted on the basis of holistic evaluations and interpretations that recognize (and value) difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Purpose--The purpose of this paper is to evidence the emergence of new forms of work organisation which if observed could be seen as consistent with the concept of the "learning factory". This is attempted through reporting the views of those workers engaged in team based operations and reflects upon the emerging role of first-line and team-based supervisors. The implications of such developments are then considered from the perspective of the current HR plant managers. Design/methodology/approach--This paper reports on a study of 18 US and UK automotive component suppliers. The information gathered included questionnaire data detailing management practices and giving plant level performance measures. The paper draws primarily on data gathered from interviews conducted with workers, team leaders and managers, including HR managers. Findings--While the majority of plants may be some way from a "learning factor" model there is evidence of changing practices, structures and expectations in each that are in varying ways broadly consistent with elements of this approach. As a consequence of the prioritisation for increases in devolution of responsibility to other employees, the traditional role of the HR manager was seen to be evolving which to a number of managers was creating difficulties. Originality/value--This paper contributes to the growing evidence of the devolvement of traditional "managerial" responsibilities to lower levels within increasingly "lean" manufacturing organisations. It also comments on the evolving role of HR managers in contemporary manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to the September 2005 issue of the journal "Organization."

Most established companies recognize the need for innovation. But the trouble is, they are simply not enough. This article looks at how companies can get better at managing discontinuous innovation. The problem is that discontinuous innovation is very difficult to do. Research conducted by the Advanced Institute for Management Research reveals some valid approaches that will increase a company's chances of success. The approaches include: building a specialized venture unit; development of a system innovation program; and creating a more innovative culture.

Interest has grown in the methods that trade unions can use to organise and represent the substantial proportion of the workforce engaged in 'contingent work'. This article examines trade union representation of self-employed freelances in the UK. Empirical material is presented from case studies of the media and entertainment unions, with their long history of representing freelances, and more recently established unions representing freelance tour guides, interpreters and translators. The analysis indicates that there is a distinctive form of freelance unionism in the UK which is distinguished by its emphasis on organising and representing workers in the external labour market where they seek work and develop a mobile career. This orientation 'beyond the enterprise' distinguishes freelance unionism from the dominant form of unionism in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates HRM practices in eighteen automotive component plants in the US and UK and is based on data obtained from interviews and a questionnaire survey of the plants. HR practices are reviewed and consideration is given to whether the firms in the study display evidence of a 'human capital' approach. This is important given that there is growing evidence to suggest that high-performance workplaces depend on 'high skill' strategies that make better use of, and continuously develop, human capital. In particular, we consider practice in areas of recruitment, reward systems, training and development. In addition, we briefly review the relationship between HR practices and the continuous improvement activities that have increasingly come to be associated with manufacturing 'best practice' under the learning factory model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]