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According to mainstream policy wisdom, knowledge utilization is a function of both political and scientific consensus. The substantial technical core in environmental policy, and its wide-ranging impacts on decisions and behaviors of firms, households, and consumers, only underscores this double requirement. This chapter argues that the problematic relationship between knowledge use and political choice can be understood as a particular instance of boundary work at the politics-science nexus, that is, the dialectics between the scientization of politics and the politicization of science. Problem structuring, like the idea of quality control through extended peer review, aims at an escape from the potential dilemma between democratic political choice and technocratic use of scientific knowledge. The problem thus appears to be moderately structured. However, there is evidence that the theory fails to grasp the real life situation with respect to Dutch fisheries.

The Virtual Worlds Exploratorium is a multidisciplinary project dedicated to the study of communication-related behaviors using data from massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). In a partnership with a corporation that hosts an MMO, a 20-person team of scholars is engaged in the study of behavior within a game and also game activities that parallel those in "real life" (e.g., economic activity, social networking, group processes). A key aspect of our approach is a unique multidisciplinary collaboration of social and computational scientists to help advance the state of the research. This article discusses the methodological, measurement and organizational challenges of the project, the game, the data, and several representative research streams. It also articulates several measurement issues that the research team has faced in order to provide best practices and lessons learned for others considering similar investigations. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

The paper is a first effort at examining the potential of scientometrics analysis to the field of development in the expectation that this type of analysis will make general patterns of knowledge within development more visible. In particular, we assume that it will reveal information on these patterns and in particular on knowledge divergences and divides within the sector. Semantic maps make it possible to compare semantics across the three domains under study, and reveal implicit frames within them. This methodology is tested using a pilot study comparing the semantics around Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in three domains involved in development: policy, science and the mass media. In particular, it compares the semantics on MDGs in the website of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in scientific articles authored by Dutch scholars, and in Dutch newspaper articles. In conclusion, the semantic maps method provided fruitful insights into comparing the semantics of the debate around MDGs in the t...

Harry Sminia and Antonie Van Nistelrooij provide the guest editorial to this special issue of Journal of Change Management on exploring theoretical foundations for organization development

By combining concepts from scientometrics and organisation studies, we hypothesise a basic ‘life cycle’ of organisational research units (institutes, laboratories or groups), if internal and external conditions are stable. Three output indicators enable a comparison of historical patterns with the lifecycle pattern, to reveal basic dynamics and changing conditions. We tested the model for a specific case: the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University. The ‘standard’ life cycle was found from the start of CWTS in the early 1980s until the beginning of this century. Then, a boost of activities indicates the start of a second life cycle, explained by increased demand for performance studies and increased ability of CWTS to deliver standardised products. Recent changes in funding and key membership are expected to start a third cycle with reorientation of CWTS's activity profile. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

The current study aims to further investigate earlier established advantages of an error mastery approach over an error aversion approach. The two main purposes of the study relate to (1) self-regulatory traits (i.e., goal orientation and action-state orientation) that may predict which error approach (mastery or aversion) is adopted, and (2) proximal, psychological processes (i.e., self-focused attention and failure attribution) that relate to adopted error approach. In the current study participants' goal orientation and action-state orientation were assessed, after which they worked on an error-prone task. Results show that learning goal orientation related to error mastery, while state orientation related to error aversion. Under a mastery approach, error occurrence did not result in cognitive resources "wasted" on self-consciousness. Rather, attention went to internal-unstable, thus controllable, improvement oriented causes of error. Participants that had adopted an aversion approach, in contrast, experienced heightened self-consciousness and attributed failure to internal-stable or external causes. These results imply that when working on an error-prone task, people should be stimulated to take on a mastery rather than an aversion approach towards errors. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Ties often have a strength naturally associated with them that differentiate them from each other. Tie strength has been operationalized as weights. A few network measures have been proposed for weighted networks, including three common measures of node centrality: degree, closeness, and betweenness. However, these generalizations have solely focused on tie weights, and not on the number of ties, which was the central component of the original measures. This paper proposes generalizations that combine both these aspects. We illustrate the benefits of this approach by applying one of them to Freeman's EIES dataset. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

The framing of issues in the mass media plays a crucial role in the public understanding of science and technology. This article contributes to research concerned with the analysis of media frames over time by making an analytical distinction between implicit and explicit media frames, and by introducing an automated method for the analysis of implicit frames. In particular, we apply a semantic maps method to a case study on the newspaper debate about artificial sweeteners, published in the New York Times between 1980 and 2006. Our results show that the analysis of semantic changes enables us to filter out the dynamics of implicit frames, and to detect emerging metaphors in public debates. Theoretically, we discuss the relation between implicit frames in public debates and the codification of meaning and information in scientific discourses, and suggest further avenues for research interested in the automated analysis of frame changes and trends in public debates. © The Author(s), 2010.

Combining different data sets with information on grant and fellowship applications submitted to two renowned funding agencies, we are able to compare their funding decisions (award and rejection) with scientometric performance indicators across two fields of science (life sciences and social sciences). The data sets involve 671 applications in social sciences and 668 applications in life sciences. In both fields, awarded applicants perform on average better than all rejected applicants. If only the most preeminent rejected applicants are considered in both fields, they score better than the awardees on citation impact. With regard to productivity we find differences between the fields. While the awardees in life sciences outperform on average the most preeminent rejected applicants, the situation is reversed in social sciences. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd.

Most research on similarity in friendship networks focuses on clearly visible individual attributes (i.e. attitudes and behaviors) in contexts where choices whom to befriend are relatively unconstrained. These studies often reveal that social selection rather than social influence is the dominant cause of similarity among friends. We argue that in a setting where social collaboration is crucial and friendship choices are more constrained, influence might be the main reason for similarity found among friends. In addition, we examined whether social categorization and peer control amplifies the social influence process among friends. Using a stochastic actor-based model for network dynamics, we analyzed a three-wave dataset of first year Royal Netherlands Naval College officer students on friendship formation and military discipline. The data supports our first hypothesis that students adjust their own military discipline to that of their friends. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find support for the idea that individuals adjust their discipline more to friends who are of the same military specialty, and neither more to friends who exert peer control. We elaborate on these findings in the discussion. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

13 páginas, 6 figuras, 3 tablas, In the context of the Entrepreneurial Universities, new stakeholders and new roles for the old ones have emerged. Accordingly, university entrepreneurship support services have to behave in a creative and innovating manner in order to actively support business creation at the university. This means that a common framework is necessary that includes the different stakeholders and goals, which gives a clear picture of the entrepreneurship encouragement and business development support (EE&BDS) process. We show a model for knowledge transfer and companies’ growth within the context of entrepreneurial universities. This alternative integrating approach of the different stakeholders, actors, activities, tools, goals and needs, help us to arrange and manage them in a better way. Our analysis allows us to show the role and relationships among the different university stakeholders and how this integrating approach contributes to enhance the EE&BDS process for this institution.

Although almost all Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have adopted the internet and e-mail, only those entrepreneurs that realise how these innovations can be applied in their business are able to recognise opportunities to create value. Based on a sample of 614 Dutch SMEs, we examine what factors determine the recognition of such opportunities. Particularly, we argue that the use of the internet and e-mail has a positive relationship to organisational and strategic value creation; that organisational value creation precedes strategic value creation; and that entrepreneurs who are able to actually create strategic value - and thus have actually recognised entrepreneurial opportunities from these technologies - have higher levels of knowledge and experience, are more proactive networkers and have higher levels of entrepreneurial orientation. Our findings suggest that there are clear possibilities for SMEs to capitalise on adopting the internet and e-mail because all the associated factors can be enhanced through choices consciously made by the entrepreneurs. Copyright © 2009, Inderscience Publishers.

Knowledge-intensive work in modern global organisations is largely organised in teams or groups. Most of this work can be classified as knowledge creation with outcomes such as plans, contracts, proposals and analyses. Cooperating for knowledge-intensive work is recognised as a social process in which identification and organisational climate play an important role. Yet despite the mutual interdependence of members, their relations in teams are not necessarily closely knitted. Teams in multinational companies consist of members with different national, ethnic, functional and educational backgrounds, who are often situated at different locations, using a combination of means to communicate. These are not the most favourable conditions for an open way of exchanging knowledge and insights. On the other side, diversity in expertise is supposed to be a necessary condition for knowledge creation. It offers the requisite variety that is needed to cope with complex problems and the cognitive distance that is supposed to stimulate organisational learning. It is expected that identification of team members with their group can counterbalance the negative effects of diversity, while it can enforce the positive effect of task interdependence. This research is directed to the relations between social identification, diversity, interdependence and knowledge sharing in corporate teams. Social identification is an important issue since it is known as a builder of extra role behaviour in organisations. Diversity and interdependence are team features that shape the identification with a team. Social identification is considered as an important mediator between these independent variables and knowledge sharing as a dependent variable. The research has been carried out in a large beverage company with plants and agencies all over the world. A questionnaire has been used with validated scales. The research data stem from a sample of 169 respondents from 30 teams. A strong relation between knowledge sharing and social identification was found, while diversity of teams plays an intriguing role in stimulating and inhibiting knowledge sharing between team members. © 2009 Operational Research Society. All rights reserved.

In this paper we investigate the position of a review network within a research specialty; the network of scholars who write reviews of their colleagues’ work. This is one of the voluntary activities that researchers perform as a prerequisite for the functioning of the invisible college. We compare this network to other networks within the specialty, and this allows us to distinguish various roles: stars, influentials, members, reviewers and juniors. As scholars are characterized by different role-configurations, the invisible college becomes stratified. We discuss the implications for the development of a referee factor and review factor, norms for refereeing and reviewing, and the development of systems-based research evaluations.

This study investigates the influence of error incident characteristics on organizational learning among operators in the chemical process industry. The study asks operators to describe recently occurred error incidents at time 0 (n = 87), followed up by measurements for learning 6 weeks later (n = 48). Organizations learn more from error incidents with more severe consequences. Severity of consequences relates positively to learning. When consequences are more severe, communication about an error is higher. Communication is subsequently related to learning. Error incidents without imminent negative consequences, however, can also be a platform for learning. This research recommends attention towards the promotion of learning from conditions that do not necessarily encourage employees to learn. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the main obstacles for innovation in Dutch consultancy firms by focusing on the strength of informal knowledge sharing as an avenue for innovation.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is the result of an empirical study based on in‐depth interviews with 29 consultants in the Netherlands.FindingsThe process of innovation can be problematic in consultancy firms. Consultants do simply not find the time to innovate, since they are mainly rewarded for client related work (billable hours). In order to innovate consultants need to share knowledge with clients, colleague consultants and their experienced superiors. The knowledge sharing routes the consultant can use, as described in this paper, are: codified, formal knowledge and informal knowledge sharing. This paper claims that the most fruitful route to innovation is informal knowledge sharing.Originality/valueThe importance of informal knowledge is supported by Hofstede's description of the Dutch business culture as being feminine, cultivating low power distance (low degree of inequality) and being highly individualistic. However, despite the support of the Dutch cultural setting, which supports informal knowledge sharing, this research describes the lack of management support in the innovation process as one of the main barriers to innovation.

Interpersonal conflict at work correlates with stress related outcomes such as psychological strain and exhaustion. Consistent with conflict theory, we argued that this relationship is moderated by the way conflict is managed. Cross-sectional data collected in The Netherlands, from students with part-time jobs (Sample 1, n = 104), healthcare workers (Sample 2, n = 191), and mid-level administrative personnel (Sample 3, n = 161) indeed revealed that conflict was related to psychological strain and exhaustion especially when interpersonal conflict was managed passively (through avoiding and yielding). Active conflict management strategies (forcing and problem solving) did not moderate the relationship between interpersonal conflict and employee strain. Implications for conflict theory, for future research, and for practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personality integration has been related to individual well-being. The present study focused on the combined influence of personality integration through the personal-striving goal construct, active-passive approach toward achieving one's goals, and inner resources on well-being. Specific attention was given to how this process works out in two culturally different countries: the Netherlands and Spain. Results indicated that goal integration, passive thinking, active thinking, and vitality were higher in the Netherlands compared to Spain. It was also shown that inner resources combined with active thinking to function as a buffer for the possible negative effects on vitality. Results were similar in both countries, a finding that provides an indication for possible cross-cultural generalization of this process. The overall results present active-passive thinking combined with inner resources as an influential factor in the relation between goal integration and well-being. © 2009 The Author(s).

The creation of new innovative enterprises, the support for spinoff companies and the development of startups are important priorities for the stimulation of economic growth, both within the European Union (EU) and worldwide. In the period of 1999?2006, a European programme, the Pilot Action of Excellence in Innovative Start-ups (PAXIS), dealt with these themes by gathering and transferring new ideas and policy recommendations throughout the continent. As part of this programme, universities and other institutions were invited to propose projects that developed original support models for innovative startup creation and transfer their successful concepts to other regions. One such project was GlobalStart. This preface introduces papers dealing with GlobalStart issues.

Error occurrence cannot be fully eliminated. A strict differentiation between errors and their consequences is used to (a) discuss error prevention and error management, and (b) to show how organisations can promote an error mastery culture that combines the best of both. This article uses two 1996 Everest expeditions as an illustration of what can go wrong in complex high-risk systems. The point of this article, however, is not restricted to high-risk industries. A mastery error culture aims at control of negative error consequences − most relevant in high-risk industries − but also fosters positive error consequences needed for adaptation and innovation. The article discusses both general and recent empirical literature on safety, quality and error handling. (Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 65, 22-34.)

In this article we have tried to establish how the nature of professional routines affects the ICT supported standardization and scripting of work performed by operators in Dutch colocated emergency response control rooms. In this type of multidisciplinary emergency control room three professions - police, fire rescue services and ambulance services - share the same technical facilities and are housed under the same roof. In the control rooms under study, efforts to create a more integrated control room are accompanied by a pursuit to further script and standardize operator intake and dispatch routines with the help of ICTs. Findings suggest that important impediments to the ICT supported scripting and standardization of operator intake and dispatch routines are not of a Human-Machine Interface (HMI) nature, but can mainly be attributed to differences in the nature of each of the three disciplines' professional routines themselves. These impediments are primarily related to ostensive as well as performative aspects of distinct sets of routines in the colocated control room.

On the basis of a case study of two sequential alliances between the same firms, we develop a more integrative perspective on alliance governance, providing insights into the interactions between structural and relational aspects, both within and between transactions. In particular, we disentangle (1) how contracts with a similar degree but different nature of formalization (narrow versus broad) trigger different kinds of trust dynamics (negative versus positive) at both operational and managerial levels, (2) how trust dynamics and contract application (rigid versus flexible) coevolve over time, and (3) how relational dynamics in previous transactions influence the design of contracts in subsequent transactions.

Les theories institutionnelle et organisationnelle laissent entendre que les systemes de mesure de la performance (SMP) actuellement utilises dans les organisations publiques ne sont en general pas adaptes a la nature reelle de ces organisations professionnelles. Des etudes longitudinale et transversale dans les secteurs des soins de sante et de l’enseignement superieur aux Pays-Bas revelent qu’en depit des pressions exterieures, la mise en œuvre de ces systemes est plus lente que souhaite et qu’elle semble intervenir en dehors du processus primaire de l’organisation. Deux series d’entretiens realises en 2003 et 2006 avec des coordinateurs de la qualite revelent qu’un ecart persiste entre les systemes de mesure de la performance et le processus operationnel, meme si sa nature a evolue. D’une maniere generale, les coordinateurs de la qualite reagissent de facon pragmatique aux changements qui leur sont imposes, l’examen par les pairs et la confiance collegiale jouant un role essentiel. Les observations empiriques montrent que les theories institutionnelle et professionnelle se completent mutuellement.Resume a l’intention des praticiensLes decideurs du secteur public qui s’occupent de la gestion de la qualite et de l’assurance qualite doivent savoir que les systemes de mesure de la performance (SMP) bien structures ne garantissent pas une bonne mise en œuvre. Au contraire, la mise en œuvre merite que l’on s’y interesse en propre. Plus le SMP est sophistique et exigeant, plus grandes sont les chances que le personnel trouve des moyens de contourner le systeme et de ne l’utiliser que de facon superficielle ou accommodante. Lorsque la mise en œuvre n’est pas serieusement prise en compte, le fosse entre la realite et le discours ne fera que se creuser.

This article examines the knowledge component in cluster literature from its origins to the present. A chronological perspective is deployed in order to shed light on how the concept of clusters has evolved. Given the increasing interest in clusters as knowledge repositories, and the apparent conviction among policymakers of the manageability of clusters, lessons learned from knowledge management (KM) practices in organizations might well be applied to the many policy efforts aimed at governing clusters. We argue that introducing KM initiatives on a regional level should be accompanied by an understanding of the possible downfalls that are associated with KM failures.

Increasing demands for accountability and applicability raise the question of how organizational factors affect researchers' performance and career choices. In a study of Dutch medical Ph.D. student's experiences, organizational culture and climate and attitudes towards research quality are related to performance and career choices. Ph.D.s who chose a career in science differ from those who did not, with regard to several organizational culture and performance measures. Correlation analyses revealed relations among culture, opinions about quality of research and performance measures.

Contains fulltext : 73544.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Societal developments have forced universities all over Europe to replace their 'professional' strategies, structures, and values by organizational characteristics that could be stereotyped as 'private sector' features. This trend is known as 'managerialism'. Since university employees generally stick to professional values, a conflict may emerge between professional employee values and managerial organization values. This conflict can result in lower organizational commitment and, consequently, lower quality of job performances. Since managerialism is, however, aimed at efficient and effective quality improvement, this situation is what we regard as a managerialism contradiction. Affecting university employees' performances may solve or reduce such a contradiction. Since levels of managerialism differ among countries, this paper examines which factors affect the quality of job performances of 1,700 university employees in low-, middle- and high-managerialism countries. The analyses reveal that there are large differences and some similarities between the countries regarding which human resource management (HRM) practices affect the quality of employees' job performances. Furthermore, it appears that there are clear differences among the countries regarding how the HRM practices affect the quality of their job performances. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. 22 p.

This research note addresses the governance structure of innovation processes in high-tech alliances, focusing on the content and role of formal contracts. Contract research is strongly heterogeneous, that is, many different paradigms, concepts, definitions and measures exist. We discuss the most important aspects of contract research and primarily argue that future research needs to pay ample attention to the interpretation of contracts, as the written contract might be just a standard form written by lawyers who are not directly involved in the high-tech alliance. We also propose a wide view of contracts and emphasize that contracts might have different functions depending on the role that the contract plays in the relationship. In so doing, we review the most common research methods, i.e., surveys, meta-studies and longitudinal case studies, and suggest that the latter offer the most promissory opportunities for future alliance contract studies. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How do European universities organise the knowledge transfer (KT) task? We consider the institutional organisation of knowledge transfer as encompassing 1) the knowledge transfer office structure, i.e. the way universities have embedded and organise their KT activities, 2) the focus towards the KT task, linked to the KT strategy, and 3) the KT activities themselves. Four exploratory cases of European universities show various motives to perform the KT task, different KT strategies and distinct interpretations of KT activities. Hence, the knowledge transfer office does not exist: all have hybrid structures. However, this structure depends on the university’s KT strategy. The KT strategy in combination with the KT activities, and not the knowledge transfer office structure as such, is therefore advocated to be the topic of further research.

This longitudinal study aimed to explain performance differences of knowledge intensive project teams. Team level data gathered at three measurement moments were used. Antecedents of performance studied were: trust in team members, trust in supervisors, monitoring by team members and monitoring by supervisors. Heedful interrelating, a concept developed by Weick and Roberts (1993) was expected to mediate between trust in team members, monitoring by team members and team performance. Correlation analysis and structural equation modelling were employed to analyse the data. The results show that heedful interrelating of team members, built on a combination of trust and monitoring by team members and trust in supervisors is an important factor in promoting team performance.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on how new value creation can be driven by value innovation. It aims to study the process of value innovation within the functional foods industry, one of the fastest‐growing segments of the food industry. The paper seeks to highlight value innovation efforts by ingredient suppliers in the functional foods industry and to describe how suppliers seek to break the dominant logic, highlighting drivers of and obstacles to doing so.Design/methodology/approachThe paper builds on a qualitative methodology. Two focus groups with participants from different levels in the industry's value chain were organized, combined with in‐depth interviews with managers and industry experts. This interpretive approach allows for the identifications of managerial cognitions, considered a necessity, given the fact that these types of innovations are hard‐to‐detect strategic “embryos” and they must be continuously contrasted against the experienced “industry recipe”.FindingsThe study pin‐points contrasting business logics at different levels in the chain, which might block value innovation. Value innovation initiatives in this industry are undertaken along two dimensions: breaking the dominant chain logic through new forms of collaboration and/or by crossing existing industry boundaries; and breaking the dominant product focus through introducing original value concepts. This study also revealed that upstream companies increasingly build competencies for value innovation.Research limitations/implicationsGiven the qualitative methodology, the study remains explorative in nature. Nevertheless, it can form the basis for further research by offering an approach to “operationalize” the identification of value innovation initiatives.Practical implicationsThis research provides tools for managers in the food industry to question their value creation processes. For food companies the paper contains interesting thoughts on the industry recipes, methods for value innovation in this industry and suggestions on how to boost the value innovation propensity.Originality/valueThis is a first application of value innovation in the functional foods industry. The methodological approach used to identify the industry recipe and the dimensions found for categorizing value innovation efforts are also contributing to the “general” value innovation literature.

Leaders' fairness may be just one of several heuristics - cognitive shortcuts - that followers use to decide quickly whether they can rely on a given leader to lead them to ends that are good for the collective, rather than just good for the leader. Other leadership heuristics might include leader prototypicality and leader self-sacrifice. We hypothesized that if these other factors do function as leadership heuristics they would interact with fairness such that the correlation of fairness with leadership evaluations would be lower when either of the other factors was high. In two studies, both using the Lind-Sitkin Multiple Domain Leadership Instrument, we measured followers' impressions of their supervisors' interactional fairness, and prototypicality, and their leadership evaluations and ratings of team community; in Study 2 we also measured impressions of leaders' sacrifice. To test the generality of the phenomena, Study 1 included data from respondents in the US, India, and Germany; Study 2 included data from respondents in New Zealand and the US. The results supported the hypotheses.

Corporate entrepreneurship is a topic of attraction for many managers in corporate enterprises. In the early 1980s, several researchers discovered the importance of entrepreneurship and its role in organisational renewal, innovation, risk taking and creation of new businesses. Corporate entrepreneurship became a subject of interest because of its beneficial effect on revitalisation and performance of the firms. Studies on this topic focused mainly on the organisational factors like freedom, organisational boundaries and management support which influence intrapreneurship. In the late 1990s, the popularity of this subject rose. This article focuses on the relationship between organisational characteristics and present conditions for corporate entrepreneurship in Dutch organisations. A questionnaire administered in Dutch organisations received 711 responses. In this article, the analyses of the questionnaire are presented via an exploratory factor analysis and a subsequent confirmation analysis. Four factors/scales were identified: centralisation (αlpha = 0.75), cooperation between colleagues (αlpha = 0.76), cooperation between departments (αlpha = 0.77) and formalisation (αlpha = 0.75). These factors are connected with the perception of corporate entrepreneurship. The respondents were asked about the level at which they found themselves entrepreneurial. The conditions and the perceptions taken together give a fair overview of the corporate spirit of an organisation.

Institutional and organizational theory supports the argument that current features of performance measurement systems (PMS) in public organizations are generally unsuitable for the actual nature of these professional organizations. Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies in the health care and higher education sectors in the Netherlands have shown that, despite external pressures, the implementation of such systems is slower than intended and seems to occur outside the primary process of the organization. Two rounds of interviews with quality coordinators in 2003 and 2006 showed that the gap between performance measurement systems and the operational process continued to exist, although its nature had changed. In general, quality coordinators responded pragmatically to the changes imposed upon them, as peer review and collegial trust played a vital part. The empirical findings illustrate that institutional and professional theories supplement each other in a fruitful way. Points for practitioners Policy-makers in the public sector involved with quality care and assurance should be aware that a well-structured performance measurement system (PMS) is no guarantee of smooth implementation. On the contrary, the implementation deserves attention in its own right. The more sophisticated and demanding the design of PMS, the more likely it is that employees find ways to work round such a system and only use it in a superficial or compliant manner. If implementation is not taken seriously into account, this will only lead to a greater gap between reality and rhetoric.

Questionnaire data collected from 71 management consultants is used to gain insight into their preferences and assumptions regarding organizational change. The main question is: ‘how do management consultants think about change and which preference do they have regarding the use of intervention methods?’. The research is based on a framework in which five perspectives on change are conceptualized and in which each perspective is divided in thinking and doing and as a whole is associated with a colour. These perspectives are: yellow-print thinking which is based on processes of power, coalition formation and coercion; blue-print thinking is synonym with planned and programmed change; red-print thinking concerns Human Resource Management; green-print thinking lines up with organizational learning; and white-print thinking stands for emergent processes of self steering, chaos and sense making. The results suggest that the method used produces useful insight in consultants' attitudes and preferences.

We extend the knowledge about the causal attribution mechanism by investigating the roles of causal ascription (stability and locus of causality) and causal interpretation (personal control and responsibility) after error occurrence. One hundred twenty-five participants were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions (internal vs. external by unstable vs. stable attribution instructions). Internal unstable ascriptions lead to higher perceived control after error occurrence. Both control and responsibility, in turn, predict task behavior. While causal interpretation predicts outcome measures, causal ascriptions are related to the same measures only indirectly. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © Springer Science+Business, LCC 2007.

In this paper, we present results from a survey on the perceived roles of organisations on the production and transfer of knowledge in Dutch soil policy. The results are interpreted by applying three theoretical perspectives to this relation: technical communities, epistemic communities and Mode 2 knowledge production. The main research results show that, since the perceived roles of organisations in some cases do not match the intended roles, or are inconsistent, communication of roles by organisations in the policy field is not effective. A second conclusion is that the respondents advocated an increase in interaction among policy levels and between knowledge production and policymaking. From the results, it seems that the Dutch soil policy field is on its way to a mode of socially robust knowledge production, where knowledge production, knowledge transfer and policymaking are integrated. In order to further this development, the paper provides recommendations on the further integration of science and policy concerning soil policy in the Netherlands. With respect to the methodology of survey research on the interaction between science and policy, the paper illustrates the importance of the professional identities of the respondents. The professional identities of the respondents are an important explanatory variable for the perceived roles of organisations. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

De theorie en praktijk van veranderen en leren binnen organisaties is in de afgelopen decennia gegroeid (Boonstra, 2004). Maar ook complexer en dynamischer geworden. Het is duidelijk dat theorie en praktijk van veranderen en leren zijn verankerd in diepgewortelde veronderstellingen en waarden. Het is dan ook zinvol om de waarden die ten grondslag liggen aan de verschillende benaderingen van verandering en leren expliciet te benoemen, bespreekbaar te maken en nader te onderzoeken. Niet alleen conceptueel, maar ook empirisch. Maar waar te beginnen? Als de literatuur over Organizational Change and Development en Organisational Learning ergens in uitblinkt is het wel in het aantal verschillende modellen, benaderingen en theorieën. Een reden om te kiezen voor een individuele insteek en te beginnen bij de vraag in hoeverre veranderen en leren samenhangen. Om deze vraag te beantwoorden is er in twee opeenvolgende jaren een experiment uitgevoerd en een survey uitgezet onder derdejaars studenten sociale wetenschappen en bedrijfskunde. Hoewel het hier om een verkennende studie gaat, zijn de resultaten veelbelovend en geven ze aanleiding voor een discussie over mogelijke consequenties voor de aanpak van veranderprocessen.

Recently, the authors presented a bibliometric analysis of research and theory on corporate social responsibility and corporate social performance, which included a list of frequently cited articles in these fields. This list caused some questions, and therefore this research note aims to supplement and discuss the findings presented in the original study to (a) explain the composition of the dataset used, (b) highlight some problems pertaining to bibliometric research, and (c) underline why such studies nevertheless are useful, also in business and society research. © 2006 Sage Publications.

We examine the multinational firm from the lens of coevolutionary theory. Coevolutionary theory encompasses both macrocoevolution with the external (local) environment and microcoevolution within the internal environment, i.e. among the MNC's parts (subsidiaries) and the whole, and the relations between the two. In making our argument, we distinguish the coevolutionary process (what happens) from coevolutionary capabilities (what is manageable and how), and then resort to the specific motors of causal ambiguity and absorptive capacity to link the two together. In this context, we argue more specifically that coevolution at different levels tends to occur at different speeds. The speed differential creates what we term a dis-synchronization effect in the coevolution of the MNC, which potentially impacts firm performance. In making our argument, we also show how a coevolutionary lens sheds novel light on the functioning of the MNC as an internal knowledge sub-economy and the advantage of hierarchies over markets in this regard. Constructively managing the tension between the macro and micro aspects of coevolution due to respective differences in coevolutionary pressures has direct implications for competitive advantage and is a critical challenge faced by managers.