Research on organizational culture has provided much needed subtlety in understanding organizational events. However, it has a cognitive bias which leaves implicit the treatment of emotional phenomena. Organizational stories can provide a window on affect in organizations if we view stories as...

Organizational change inevitably involves uncertainty and hence some risk taking. Tests the relationship between organizational slack and risk taking in organization decision making, and thus provides some evidence on the role or organizational variables in risk‐taking behaviour. Product...

Presents data from a study of planned organizational redesign to challenge several assumptions underlying theories of planned change. Describes and analyses the experience at Worldwide Action for Development, an international organization with the characteristics of an organized anarchy, to...

Argues that a shift of market power from business to consumers in recent years has resulted in a parallel shift to a post‐modern organizational paradigm that will ultimately replace traditional hierarchical organizations. The post‐modern paradigm, with diffused power, broad communications...

Presents an analytic case study of a reorganization project in the Swiss federal patent and copyright bureau (BAGE) on an action and a reflection level. The consultants in the BAGE case were acting as systemic catalysts to the self‐organizing processes in the BAGE. Based on a brief...

Managing the process of growth in a successful small business is a critically important task for the entrepreneur. Both the academic and practitioner press are full of advice to the entrepreneur about how to handle this process. This advice, if accepted, tends to create organisations that are...

Reviews the Baldrige Award as a modern document and views CompuAdd as a post‐modern organization. Traces the steps of CompuAdd′s application for the Baldrige Award and shows CompuAdd′s culture to be excellent local practices, that are different from the Baldrige Award criteria, and that,...

The concept of polyphony, taken from music and extended by literary critic Bakhtin to describe the world of Dostoevsky′s novels, provides a metaphor for understanding patterns of organizing among those who hold beliefs and values from a variety of backgrounds. Addresses organization as...

Introduces the articles selected for the special issue and their purpose. Over the next decade, consulting is likely to become an increasingly attractive career option for many women. Reviews research related to the topic of women in consulting and highlights some of the critical opportunities...