It is generally recognised and accepted that the fundamental role of a manager is “to get things done”. At times the manager has to make quick decisions about what has to be done and how. What is more, the decisions often have to be taken before all the relevant information is to hand. This...

This paper aims to set out the current theoretical landscape of social enterprise governance. It considers the two theories of governance currently advocated in the social enterprise literature - stakeholder and stewardship theories. Furthermore, it asserts the utility of neoinstitutional theory...

Purpose – The paper aims to explore themes in Drucker's work which provide messages for current turbulent times. Based on a literature review of both Drucker's work and contemporary studies in the field of complexity theory the paper's aim is to explore turbulence as a feature of levels of...

Many organisations, particularly SMEs, are reluctant to invest time and money in models to support decision making. Such reluctance could be overcome if a model could be used for several purposes rather than using a traditional “single perspective” model. This requires the development of a...

Effective team development, facilitation and creative problem solving are three components that can help improve group problem solving and decision making. Group meetings can be notoriously ineffective and inefficient. They can be significantly improved if the facilitator and problem champion...

Purpose – To share the views and experiences of a chief executive with a reputation for troubleshooting expertise. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is an interview with Pierre Yves Gerbeau, who was, until January 2001, CEO and board director of the much criticized New Millennium...

Purpose – The proper identification of a decision problem is paramount to finding a course of action or solution. This paper attempts to capture the general laws or principles that define decision problems. These principles are then used to establish a decision classification system called the...

Purpose – Problem‐solving techniques for poorly structured problems have been the subject of recent academic research and popular press texts. The purpose of this paper is to explain the use of one of the Theory of Constraints thinking process (TP) tools — the Current Reality Tree (CRT)....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to map the variety in organizational design approaches, to clarify their differences, and to find out what constitutes good designing in practice. Design/methodology/approach – A series of in‐depth interviews with experienced, high‐reputation...