Moral struggles in and around markets abound in contemporary societies where markets have become the dominant form of economic coordination. The present volume advances our current understanding of markets by highlighting the sources, processes and outcomes of moral struggles in and around markets. It traces the creation, reproduction and change of underlying moral orders and reveals the role of status and power differentials, alliances and political strategies as well as the general cultural, social and political contexts in which the struggles unfold. The contributions to this volume reflect the 'moral turn' that can currently be observed in organization studies and economic sociology, and connect to recent developments in the sociology of morality.

Writing this book would have been impossible without the help of certain institutions and persons. For a gas-producing and oil-processing country like the Netherlands, there was surprisingly very little, publicly available, research material. Public libraries' collections contained, with a certain degree of inconsistency, little of the more specialised sources. I would therefore like to express my gratitude towards Royal Dutch Shell, and especially the library staff in The Hague, for allowing me to use the company's library, thanking them for their assistance in finding and supplying the required data. I am also grateful for the financial assistance of the 'Nederlandse organisatie voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek' (NWO) and the Faculty of Law of the University of Leiden. They provided the financial means to work a (crucial) month in the very well equipped library of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. I am indebted to the staff of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, and particularly to Robert Mabro and Jeremy Turk, for their comments, support, and friendship. After I spent a month in the Institute in July 1989, I was able to return for two five-month periods in 1990 and 1991. For both periods, the Oxford Institute and the Leiden Law Faculty provided me with the necessary means. I would also like to express special gratitude to some people who have been a great support and supplied me with valuable comments at various stages of the study.

As with previous volumes in "Research in Organizational Change and Development," volume 11 contains papers that range from explorations of individual action in organizational change to studies of multiple organizations. The change and development field continues to explore new theoretical frames, research methods, and change practice. The chapters in this volume further demonstrate the expanding boundaries of the field.

The area of Virtual Organizations as a main component of the new discipline of Collaborative Networks has been the focus of research globally. The fast evolution of the information and communication technologies and in particular the so-called Internet technologies, also represents an important motivator for the emergence of new forms of collaboration. However, the research in many of these cases is highly fragmented, considering that each project is focused on solving specific problems. As such, there is no effective consolidation/harmonization among them in order to have an effective impact and facilitate the interaction among the involved experts. This book represents a contribution to the consolidation of the already vast amount of empirical knowledge and practical experience. A synthesis of results collected from the analysis of numerous projects and industry case studies is presented, with focus on: Principles and models, ICT infrastructures and tools, Implementation issues, and Case studies.

The actual organization and use of information systems in American, European and Japanese firms are investigated and compared with theoretical conclusions. Finally, following the experimental evolution of the information products over the past twenty years, the results presented indicate that information and communication firms are now starting to offer the kind of business information systems predicted by the analysis. The transformation of business information systems technology can be followed in the Chronicle, which is provided on diskette and which covers the development of modern IT and telecommunications industries. The data are arranged to allow researchers to reconfigure the data according to their own needs.

My interest in X-Efficiency (XE) dates back to 1978. At the time, I was writing the dissertation for my Ph. D. at Washington State University. My dissertation was concerned with the role of attitudes in the school-to-work transition among young men. I was advised by Professor Millard Hastay (a member of my committee) to look at Leibenstein's "new" book, Beyond Economic Man. One of the things that caught my attention was his behavioral description of (selective) rationality. It seemed that Leibenstein' s behavioral description of a (selectively) rational individ ual was very similar to what psychologists such as Abraham Maslow were reporting as being the product of a particular motivational system. In other words, I was impressed with the idea that what Leibenstein was referring to as X-inefficiency was being discussed by psychologists as "the way it (often) is. " So from the beginning I always considered the concept ofX-(in)efficiency to be a valuable one for understanding human behavior. I have since come to believe that this is particularly true when considering behavior in non-market environments, i. e., within the firm. Work on this book, however, can most realistically said to have started with work which I began in 1982 while I was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. Professor Leibenstein suggested that I consider how some empirical evidence which was being cited as evidence for the role of property rights might also be consistent with XE theory. (The consistency, in both directions, is considerable."

The implementation of new ideas in organizations is often hampered by the political dynamics of lateral relationships. The authors of this book offer a balance of theory and cases designed to give managers and executives strategies for dealing with power relationships in an effective way. This book highlights common mistakes people make in managing lateral relationships. Most problems concern misunderstandings about the political realities that arise from underlying power distribution inherent in any organization. The authors offer a roadmap based on real-life dilemmas faced by both new and seasoned managers in order to help solve seemingly unsolvable problems. Using ideas from the resource-dependence paradigm, they model and diagram lateral relationships in a way that create effective plans of action. Managers, executives, and MBA students will find this synthesis of theory and practice an important tool for building a model for success.

Part I gives the reader an understanding of the workings of lateral relationships within organizations. It goes on to provide specific models and strategies for working within these relationships. Part II details specific scenarios that will be faced by managers and executives and offers ways to cope with them. The increasingly diverse workforce and growing reliance on team management only intensifies the need for more effective lateral relationship management. This book provides the application of theories and skills vital to coping in such an organizational environment.

A highly practical and insightful book; it will help you to perform more effectively in a workplace which requires you to function effectively in predominantly adversarial relationships. Whether you work for a small, medium or large organization this book will enable you to get things done effectively in prevailingly oppositional relationships.

Effective education and training is essential to the positive development of a manager in corporate or organizational settings. In order to stay abreast of current management trends, it is necessary to implement new perspectives and technologies being utilized in the field. Innovation and Shifting Perspectives in Management Education features a comprehensive assessment of the complexities present in management training programs in educational settings. Highlighting best practices and real-life experiences within the field, this book is an essential reference source for practitioners, policy makers, undergraduate and graduate students, academics, managers, and professionals.

Do the antitrust laws have a place in the digital economy or are they obsolete? That is the question raised by the government's legal action against Microsoft, and it is the question this volume is designed to answer. America's antitrust laws were born out of the Industrial Revolution. Opponents of the antitrust laws argue that whatever merit the antitrust laws may have had in the past they have no place in a digital economy. Rapid innovation makes the accumulation of market power practically impossible. Markets change too quickly for antitrust actions to keep up. And antitrust remedies are inevitably regulatory and hence threaten to `regulate business'. A different view - and, generally, the view presented in this volume - is that antitrust law can and does have an important and constructive role to play in the digital economy. The software business is new, it is complex, and it is rapidly moving. Analysis of market definition, contestibility and potential competition, the role of innovation, network externalities, cost structures and marketing channels present challenges for academics, policymakers and judges alike. Evaluating consumer harm is problematic. Distinguishing between illegal conduct and brutal - but legitimate - competition is often difficult. Is antitrust analysis up to the challenge? This volume suggests that antitrust analysis `still works'. In stark contrast to the political rhetoric that has surrounded much of the debate over the Microsoft case, the articles presented here suggest neither that Microsoft is inherently bad, nor that it deserves a de facto exemption from the antitrust laws. Instead, they offer insights - for policymakers, courts, practitioners, professors and students of antitrust policy everywhere - on how antitrust analysis can be applied to the business of making and marketing computer software.

This third volume in the series presents research on technology as either a tool or context for groups and teams. The volume is more broad than some other treatments of technology and groups. Thirteen chapters by leaders from both organizational behavior and information technology present management issues from two critical perspectives: groups and teams in evolving high-tech contexts (e.g., high precision manufacturing, computer virus assessment, space shuttle mission control, minimally invasive cardiac surgery); and leading edge research on technology for communication and knowledge management within groups and teams. The latter including research on virtual teams, adaptive structuration theory, conflict management, and the management of status and deception in electronic mail.

Each chapter presents a unique view of groups and teams in modern organizational environments. Readers in the fields of management, organizational behavior, management information systems, information technology, social psychology, technology management and engineering will find useful results and interpretations for both research and practice. The summary chapter by Professor Linda Argote provides an integration and starting point for future assessments of technology, groups, and teams.

This book gives the findings and solutions on the poor organizational performance the author experienced in so many of the companies he had worked with, in particular the human side and how the human and technical should be integrated in the major functions for best results. The work incorporates in each case the human relations and ethics found to have been grossly neglected.

Hardbound. This volume brings together 12 outstanding articles from Long Range Planning - The International Journal of Strategic Management dealing with different aspects of the complex process of managing strategic change.Among the issues covered are the development of strategic vision and the creation of a sense of mission, the importance of corporate culture, the role of leadership and the factors affecting successful implementation of new strategies.Case histories are given describing the experiences of companies such as Volvo, Ciba-Geigy, and BP in their effort to become 'higher performance organisations' by the strategic management of change. This is a very timely work, focussing on the major challenges facing management today.

Wendt provides a collection of critical stories examining the power and politics of organizational life. He looks at workers in frustrating situations and explores a new type of power that is simultaneously beneficial and detrimental. The talk, language, and discourse that constitute the micro-paradoxes of work life are investigated.

Starting with the concept of corporate hegemony, Wendt looks at its language, provides stories illustrating hegemony, and helps the reader envision how hegemony carries over to other social realms like higher education. After exploring the possibility of counter-hegemonic resistance, including tactical storytelling, Wendt sets forth a new theory of suspended power. While he shows there is no clear answer or response to the politics of corporate hegemony because it is a persistent dilemma, he points the reader to the uses of critical theory to understand and adjust to contemporary power dynamics. Of particular interest to scholars and students involved with communication, management, and cultural studies.

"How do people make decisions in organizations?" is the question at the core of this book. Do people act rationally? Under what conditions can information and knowledge be shared to improve decision making? Davide Secchi applies concepts and theories from cognitive science, organizational behavior, and social psychology to explore the dynamics of decision making. In particular, he integrates "bounded rationality" (people are only partly rational; they have (a) limited computational capabilities and (b) limited access to information) and "distributed cognition" (knowledge is not confined to an individual, but is distributed across the members of a group) to build upon the pioneering work of Herbert Simon (1916-2001) on rational decision making and contribute fresh insights. This book is divided into two parts. The first part (Chapters 2 to 5) explores how recent studies on biases, prospect theory, heuristics, and emotions provide the so-called "map" of bounded rationality. The second part (Chapter 6 to 8) presents the idea of extendable rationality. In this section, Secchi identifies the limitations of bounded rationality and focuses more heavily on socially-based decision processes and the role of "docility" in teaching, managing, and executing decisions in organizations. The practical implications extend broadly to issues relating to change and innovation, as organizations adapt to evolving market conditions, implementing new systems, and effectively managing limited resources. The final chapter outlines an agenda for future research to help understand the decision making characteristics and capabilities of an organization.

Postal service has received considerably less attention in the economics literature than traditional public utilities. Postal service is facing some very important challenges arising out of the increasingly high-tech nature of postal service, the entry of competition into the business, and new attitudes on the part of government to postal service. In the United Kingdom and Germany the increased interest in privatization and recognition of the benefits of competition are likely to have an impact on postal service. These challenges mean that postal managers must learn new ways of doing business, not just in successfully introducing new hardware and in new internal operating procedures, but also in the development of new pricing and costing methodologies and in the introduction of new management information systems. In order to deal with these new developments managers need a solid foundation in applied microeconomic theory as it relates to postal service. This book encompasses the theoretical foundation for postal policy, particularly with regard to pricing, service quality, and competitive issues.

Under a framework in which technology and organizational innovation are markedly separated, this book advances knowledge on the topic by exploring the antecedents of a firm's adoption of organizational innovation and its performance consequences.

The concept of organizational innovation encompasses the introduction of new administrative organizational and managerial activities, although currently it is accepted that these terms overlap. There are two different kinds of organizational innovation, usually inter-related: structural innovations(organizational arrangement and the division of labour within it)and managerial innovations(the way a firm organizes its activities or its personnel).

Based on papers from the Organizational Innovation and its Background, Consequences and Technological Complementarities Performance Conference, this volume contributes to the organizational and innovation literature by providing insights on the antecedents of the adoption of management innovation; exploring the complementary roles of management and technological innovation; addressing the performance consequences of management innovation adoption with and without technological innovation; and discusses management innovation using the resource-based view, thus enriching that theoretical approach.

While most companies recognize the key significance and importance of innovation, this is frequently overwhelmed by short term objectives and constraints. This is the innovation paradox. The aim of this book is to describe management practices that resolve this paradox by decisively choosing the route of sound business and wealth creation, focussing in particular on the role of the CEO, redefining the firm's innovation perimeter, providing opportunities where entrepreneurial energy can be unleashed to generate innovation-led growth and motivating the main actors in the innovation process. All of these approaches demand that boards and shareholders develop a much more activist perspective in supporting longer-term ventures. Examples are taken from a number of technology and other companies, including Philips, Sony, Hitachi, British Telecom, Aventis, 3M, and Vivendi.

Given the fundamental and growing importance of health to the economy and society, this book addresses some of the key questions being asked in relation to health in the future. What will the health system look like, how much will it cost, what ethical framework will underlie future health policy and can we really have a system that is designed to improve health as well as provide health care? Based on the "Policy Futures for UK Health" project, this collection explores the shape of the health system and its key components, taking a multidisciplinary approach to health policy questions that is designed to appeal to the specialist and those who want to know more about our health system and what it might look like in the future.

Decisions twenty years ago during the fIrst generation of modern traffIc safety policymaking were easier than today. Afterall, the mandate for specifIc mandatory motor vehicle safety standards was dermed rather clearly during legislative hearings. Since the initial standards, decisions have been based on the more general guidelines of "practicality" and avoiding "unreasonable risks. " Now, with more diffIcult decisions pending, the demand for analysis is greater. My purpose in writing this book is to promote second generation policymaking in traffic safety. The dominant theme is that an "individual net benefIt approach" is useful in the design, evaluation and improvement of traffic safety policy. Hopefully, this book provides some guidance for today's tougher decisions. Evaluative review of modern traffic safety policy, especially automobile safety standards, yields several results. The technological approach, the basis for the 1966 legislation, is shown to produce mistakes. Benefits are overestimated and endangerment of nonoccupants is ignored. The risk homeostatic approach, the devil's idea to some in the safety community, is shown to be a limiting case of the more general individual net benefIt approach. Rationality and competency in travelers' safety decisions are reviewed in a broad context. Evidence beyond the realm of behavioral ix x The Regulation of Motor Vehicle and Traffic Safety psychology indicates considerable, albeit imperfect, competency in traffic safety decisions. Conventional benefit-cost analysis is critiqued. Existing studies of passive restraints are shown to overestimate net benefits because travelers' responses and costs are ignored.

Nowadays, managing and promoting diversity is of paramount importance to the future of sustainability and the political and business agenda. Despite a tremendous growth in diversity management scholarship in recent years, a strong tendency has emerged whereby existing theories focus on a single level of analysis, using a limited range of mostly Western research settings, and on a narrow range of diversity types. Diversity research has insofar focused on prioritizing visible forms of diversity, such as gender or disability, with less emphasis placed on diversity in culture and values internationally. This edited book provides new practical and strategic insights for practitioners, managers, students and policy makers; it delves into the strategic nature of policy intervention with thought-provoking contributions written by experts from around the world. Contributors aim to provide critical reflection of current debate areas on workplace equality and diversity in under-researched countries to inform and support evidence-based decision making for a wide variety of academic and practice-oriented stakeholders.

This eighth volume in the series on research in organizational change and development deals with such topics as practitioner attitudes to the field of organizational development and the effects of union status on employee involvement.

The last several years has witnessed a growing interaction between economists and sociologists engaged in the study of organizations' strategies. Economists and sociologists can gain real insight from these interactions. To date, however, these interactions have been to ad hoc and unfocused to bear any real fruit. This volume moves the discussion to the next level by focusing the discussion, and taking a step toward systematizing some of the relationships between economic and sociological approaches to strategic management. To accomplish this, the volume reprints four 'matched pairs' of influential articles on firms' strategies in economic sociology and strategic management and use these articles to frame a conversation between the articles' pioneering authors and other prominent researchers in strategic management and sociology working on closely-related research problems. Each pair of articles followed by provocative essays - inspired by the pairing - written by the articles' original authors. Two contextualizing commentaries penned by influential strategy and organizations researchers - one grounded in strategic management and one in economic sociology - extend each conversation. A reflective reply from the articles' authors concludes the conversation - for now. A framing introduction and concluding epilogue, written by volume editors Joel Baum and Frank Dobbin, set the stage both for the volume and for future conversations between the disciplines in strategic management.

This is the 15th volume in a series of monographs whose main topic of concern is that of organizational behaviour and industrial relations. This volume deals with the theory and management of work commitment.

The class is theory of price regulation assumed that the regulator knows the fIrm's costs, the key piece of information that enables regulators to pressure fmns to choose appropriate behaviors. The "regulatory problem" was reduced to a mere pricing problem: the regulator's goal was to align price with marginal cost, subject to the constraint that revenues must cover costs. Elegant and important insights ensued. The most important was that regulation was inevitably a struggle to achieve second-best outcomes. (Ramsey pricing was a splendid example. ) Reality proved harsh to regulatory theory. The fmn's costs are by no means known to the regulator. At best, the regulator may know how much is currently spent to provide services, but hardly what costs would be if the fmn vigorously pursued effIciency. Even if the current cost curve were known to the regulator, technologies change so swiftly that today's costs are a very poor indicator of tomorrow's, and those are the costs that will determine the fIrm's future decisions. With the burgeoning attention to information considerations and game theory in economics, the regulator's problem of eliciting host information about cost has received considerable attention. In most cases, however, it has been in context that are both static and stylized; such analyses rarely capture many of the essential elements of real world regulatory issues. This volume represents a fresh approach. It reflects Glenn Blackmon's twin strengths, a keen analytic mind and important experience in the regulatory arena.