Across the UK organisations are experiencing high‐velocity, discontinuous, radical change scenarios. As part of their strategic response, many are introducing more flexible and empowering structures and cultures. One outcome of this strategy has been the dispersal of change agency to a more...

In this article two personnel management strategies are discussed: a control strategy and a commitment strategy. The main argument is that in most circumstances a balanced strategy has clear advantages over one of the two extreme options.

Results of a stress audit conducted among personnel working in the offshore oil and gas industry indicated that sources of stress varied as a function of employment, including the type of installation, the rig size and location, and the actual status of the employee. Suggests that the...

To survive in an increasingly competitive environment, companies today are searching for innovative ways to enhance the creative potential of their workforce. Like total quality management (TQM) and re‐engineering, empowerment has become a 1990s mantra. Yet empowerment in practice is more than...

Alignment is a key aspect of strategic change. Alignment between customers and employees is a critical component. Two functional areas ‐ marketing and human resources ‐ are well positioned to play important roles in the alignment process, and they share similar methods. But in most...

What happens when change agents intervene to change corporate structures? What is the well‐documented “resistance to change” phenomenon? How are bureaucracies created, maintained and changed? Why do people resist change? The paradigm concept is used to answer these questions and to provide...

The corporate coup d'etat is conceptualised as an unexpected leadership change process, initiated, planned and conducted by the target's colleagues, subordinates and/or superiors. Antecedent conditions, such as interpersonal hostilities, poor financial performance and perceived indiscreet...

Existing theory is extended to develop a more comprehensive typology of organisational adaptation, from an interactionist perspective. Social learning theory is drawn on to present a reciprocal model stressing the continuous, multi‐directional interaction between strategic choice, environment...