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Purpose – This paper reviews what has been written on leadership development from the leadership-aspractice (L-A-P) perspective, which views leadership as emerging in everyday activities and interactions of a collective in a specific context. This paper aims to deepen the theoretical understanding of how leadership can be learned and developed from the L-A-P perspective. Design/methodology/approach – An integrative literature review was undertaken to review and synthesise what has been written on the topic in journal articles and scholarly books. Findings – The importance of the context and the practices that are embedded in it is the most central aspect affecting leadership development from the L-A-P perspective. This places workplace leadership development centre stage, but several papers also showed that leadership programmes have an important role. Not only collective capacity building is emphasised in the papers, but the importance of individual-level leader development is also recognised. Originality/value – The contribution of this study is twofold: First, it brings the currently fractured information on L-A-P development together to enhance theory building by providing a synthesis of the literature. Second, a conceptual framework is constructed to show how the L-A-P perspective on leadership development can take both leadership development at the collective and individual levels into account, as well as the learning that takes place either inside or outside the workplace. This study’s results and framework show that the development has its own specific purpose and suggested methods in both levels, in both learning sites.

This study explores how the adoption of management ideas is conditioned by wider macro-level mentalities that are not company based but that instead reflect professionally or nationally rooted ways of managing. Drawing from studies on professional mentalities and practices, we study Finnish top executives working in globally operating multinational corporations in the metal and forestry industries, showing how, starting in the 1980s, they adopted new management practices during the rise of globalisation, market liberalisation and post-Fordism. Altogether, a traditional engineering mentality strongly conditioned the dissemination of new management ideas, which needed to adapt with the existing mentality. As a result, we find three ways of management idea dissemination: (a) new ideas had to fit in with the old business elite mentality, (b) new ideas were side-lined and belittled by the old mentality and (c) new ideas were smuggled into management by reframing and widening the old mentality. By extending Guillén’s work on elite mentalities, the study contributes to the research on management ideas by exploring the role of societal macro-level mentalities in management learning, highlighting their role in times of societal transformation.

Purpose The literature on the past triggering learning in strategy practice is scant. To fill this gap, this study aims to examine the meaning of the past to learning in strategy practice and expands on the strategy-as-practice (SAP) literature. Understanding the relationship between the past and learning in strategy practice is important because learning is what keeps strategy practice in motion and remains in place, even if organizations and strategy practitioners change. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a longitudinal case study design combined with historical methods to examine how the past is embedded in present strategy practice. To capture learning in strategy practice over time, the authors applied a four-stage methodology in our analysis of document and interview data. Findings The authors identified four dimensions of the past embedded in the present strategy practice. These dimensions emerged from the analysis of the interviews and document data. The study’s results showed that the past appears in structures and routines, materiality, positioning and reflecting over repeated rounds of strategic planning. According to the study’s results, reflecting on strategy practice draws on past structures and routines, positioning and materiality. The past facilitates reflecting and reflecting on the past enables learning in strategy practice. Originality/value The authors constructed a conceptual model and showed that in strategy practice, reflection triggers learning. The authors contributed to theory development by demonstrating how the past is embedded in present strategy practice and is available for use by strategy practitioners. The authors showed that strategy practice is a continuous learning process.

We review the research conducted to date on media events and media spectacles. We posit that the main phenomena challenging the current conceptualizations of media event and media spectacle are (1) the understanding of risk, (2) the context of disasters and (3) globalization and the mediation of news in the context of transnational and transitional societies. We suggest that more research on disruptive events is needed. In the context of the new media landscape in particular, the ritual researcher may need to take into account the concepts of temporality and unpredictability as inherent features of media events and rituals – the traumatic events researcher may benefit from the concept of global risk society. Finally, we argue that more research needs to be carried out on transitional societies, as we need to learn more about the role of mediation, events and spectacles in democratization processes and in contemporary revolutions. Overall, our findings indicate that in the context of global risk society, constant disruptions and unplanned events, together with the changes in news transmission, need to be taken as a starting point also in the research frames used to understand the mediation of events in contemporary society.

This paper assesses the recent contribution of Michel Foucault to the study of power and subject in organizations. First, we theoretically examine Foucault's thinking by dividing his works into archaeological, genealogical and aesthetic/ethical phases. We then conduct a review of 113 international journal articles from between the years 2000 and 2009. We do this in order to obtain an overview of the phases of Foucault's thinking that are prevalent in recent organization studies. We find that recent academic studies drawing on Foucault are increasingly leaning towards Foucault's writings on governmentality, as well as on his genealogical works, which have sustained their popularity. Reflecting the growing interest in governmentality and genealogy, we end by pointing out some avenues for future research.

Purpose – This paper aims to examine when and how the main management paradigms have emerged and prevailed in Finnish management research. It seeks to offer a country-specific case on the diffusion of management paradigms in the field of management research. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a historical study that uses quantitative content analysis as a methodology. The data consist of research proposals funded by eight of the largest Finnish funding agencies during the period 1937-2007. The results obtained from these data are compared to the emergence and prevalence of the paradigms in Finnish academic management education, as depicted by course descriptions obtained from the study guides of eight main Finnish academic institutions that provide graduate level education in management. Findings – Management research and management education do not seem to follow the same patterns of adopting different management paradigms. Management paradigms seem to experience upswings in their patterns of use, on average a decade earlier in management research than in education. Originality/value – As the position of formal scientific management knowledge varies greatly across countries and historical periods, the study contributes to this line of research by giving a descriptive account of the paradigmatic development of management research schemes in Finland which can be compared and contrasted to the development of management research in other countries. The relevance of the study for management theory-building is in contemplating the relationships between the actors creating, diffusing and using managerial knowledge.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine what employee agency entails for psychological contract theory. The paper aims to explore how employee agency manifests itself, how it is reflected in employees' perceptions of their psychological contract obligations, and what it implies for psychological contract theory. Design/methodology/approach – The study draws on a qualitative interview study of employees from the mobile phone content production industry in Finland. The analysis is based on 15 semi-structured employee interviews, which were supported by a discussion of the interviewees' weekly agendas. Findings – This study reveals that employee agency manifests itself as self-actualisation, action, influence and creativity, all of which have implications for employees' psychological contracts. Employees emerge as active parties to the psychological contract, consciously modifying and constructing it instead of simply reacting to employer behaviour, as is assumed in current research. Originality/value – This study contributes to psychological contract theory by providing one of the few empirical attempts to demonstrate how employees actively manage the exchange relationship captured by the psychological contract. It highlights the importance of acknowledging employee agency in future psychological contract research.

This article examines the legacy of the seminal human relations school theorists, their major works in particular, to scientific discussion in international journals, and compares the adoption of these ideas in Finland and Japan. We first examine how often the human relations school’s theorists and their books have been cited in academic discussion, by conducting systematic searches on the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). We then look at how these theories have been discussed and adopted in Finland and Japan by carrying out bibliometric analysis and literature research. We find it interesting to compare the adoption of the human relations school in these particular countries, as the developments of Finland and Japan in the 1900s resemble each other in many respects. The findings indicate that both countries adopted the human relations paradigm as a complementary paradigm to scientific management. Bibliometric analysis of the SSCI database indicates that the seminal theorists of the human relations school have not lost their topicality, and that the importance and seminal works of the paradigm seem to be most influential in the field of organizational sciences.

Kriisitilanteissa erilaisten organisoitumiseen liittyvien ongelmien on todettu hankaloittavan kriisin onnistunutta hoitoa. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan organisoitumistavoista kahta: byrokraattista ja jälkibyrokraattista toimintamallia. Keskeisenä tutkimuskysymyksenä on, näkyivätkö jälkibyrokratian ominaispiirteet Nokian vesikriisiä johtaneen kriisiryhmän toiminnassa, ja jos näkyivät, niin miten. Tarkastelemalla erilaisten organisoitumismallien toimivuutta kriisitilanteessa voimme ymmärtää toimintamallien vahvuuksia, ongelmakohtia ja rajoituksia. Jälkibyrokratian ilmenemismuotojen ja ominaisuuksien tutkimusta on tehty melko paljon. Tutkimusta on kuitenkin tehty normaalioloissa. Jälkibyrokraattisen toimintatavan soveltuvuutta kriisitilanteiden hoitamiseen onkin tarkasteltu hyvin vähän. Tämän artikkelin avulla pyrimme paikkaamaan tätä puutetta ja avaamaan keskustelua jälkibyrokraattisen mallin toimivuudesta kriisitilanteissa. Keskeinen havaintomme on, kuten Nokian vesikriisi osoittaa, että byrokraattista ja jälkibyrokraatista toimintaa ei ole mielekästä tarkastella erikseen. Sen sijaan on syytä ymmärtää molempia malleja sekä tarkastella sitä, miten ne toimivat yhteen. Nokian vesikriisi tarjoaa esimerkin siitä, mitä tapahtuu, kun byrokraattiset organisaatiot alkavat kriisin johtoryhmätasolla toimia jälkibyrokraattisesti. Tämä ei ole yksiselitteisesti helppoa, sillä vaikka kriisiryhmä toimisi jälkibyrokraattisesti, organisaatiot, joista kriisiryhmien edustajat on koottu, toimivat usein byrokraattisesti. Haasteena on näiden kahden toimintakulttuurin yhdistäminen akuutissa kriisitilanteessa.

The article analyses when and how different management paradigms have been adopted for teaching, in the subject of organization and management, by examining the curricula and study guides of the eight main business schools in Finland.The data was analysed in three ways: (1) the analysis of all the reading lists in curricula and study guides, (2) the analyses of subject descriptions in the study guides and (3) the analysis of individual course descriptions in the study guides.Theoretically, the study draws on the literature on German-style and American-style business schools, and on the literature on management paradigms and their dissemination.Our findings indicate that there are differences in the adoption of different management paradigms in management education in German-style and American-style business schools in Finland. For example, between 1980 and 1995, the most commonly used paradigm in teaching in German-style schools was the human relations paradigm, while in American-style schools the most popular paradigm was structural analysis.The results suggest that different traditions in arranging higher management education may have an impact on the content of teaching.This provides an interesting point of departure for investigating the contents of management education in other countries, too.

The article contributes to the literature on management dissemination by looking at how management fashions are diffused into and circulated in politics. The ideas of management have been increasingly disseminated into the realm of politics during recent decades. To illustrate how this takes place, this article examines the spread of Michael Porter’s ideas on national politics. Porter’s work is considered a management fashion that has been skilfully packaged; a new form of the 20th-century tradition of state-led social engineering which takes the form of management fashion-style packaging. For this he is seen as a global guru in national politics, and this development is regarded as a new form of consultocracy in the realm of democracies. In consultocracy, the ideas of management consulting are often adopted into politics as a common justifying rationality of power for the political elites. Thus we call for further research on the underlying dynamics of the power involved as management fashions are disseminated into the realm of politics.

This article presents a review of recent research on factors that influence employee innovativeness at the workplace. Based on a literature search on 15 peer-reviewed journals published during the period 2000–2005 and other relevant materials, it summarizes and discusses individual, job, team and organizational level factors that have been found to influence innovativeness in organizations. The article concludes with an evaluation of the current state of innovativeness research.

This study aims to revitalise the concept of relational vulnerability in advancing the theory of managerial identity work. Drawing on 35 semi-structured interviews and 12 podcast interviews with top managers in Finland, we identify two entwined themes through which top managers practise identity work by negotiating their vulnerabilities in the workplace. Our study illustrates the embodied subtlety of relational vulnerabilities in top managers’ identity negotiations by showing they can function as a tool for the managers’ professional development. Our study contributes to the broader discussion on a more humane working life by investigating the ways in which top managers can foster workplaces in which vulnerabilities are used as a starting point for improvement rather than as a tool for disparaging the self and the others. This is an aspect of managerial identity work that deserves to be more profoundly considered in both academic debate and managerial practice.