Cet article présente la technique d'analyse de données des modèles linéaires hiérarchiques, qui permet de travailler sur des données multiniveaux de plus en plus fréquentes dans les recherches en management. Dans un premier temps, ses principes statistiques sont exposés ainsi que les principales décisions à prendre par l'utilisateur. Dans un second temps, un exemple d'application est commenté.

Cet article pédagogique présente l'utilisation des modèles linéaires hiérarchiques comme technique d'analyse de données collectées par policy capturing. Les principes généraux de la policy capturing sont présentés avant de s'intéresser plus en détail à l'analyse avec les modèles linéaires hiérarchiques des données ainsi collectées. L'article présente ainsi un exemple d'utilisation des modèles linéaires hiérarchiques présentés dans ce même numéro (voir Arrègle, J.-L. [2003], Les modèles linéaires hiérarchiques : 1.- principes et illustration, M@n@gement, 6[1]: 1-28).

Il est indéniable que les entreprises familiales possèdent des caractéristiques de gestion qui leurs sont propres, nées de l’imbrication de la famille et de l’entreprise. Il est aussi indéniable que les sources propres de compétitivité de ces entreprises manquent encore d’assises théoriques fortes. Dans ce papier, nous cherchons à renforcer ces assises, en recourant à la théorie du capital social, elle-même fondée sur l’approche par les ressources. Appliquée aux firmes familiales, cette théorie contribue à expliquer l’existence de sources particulières de compétitivité. Plus précisément, l’existence d’un capital social familial, qui a été démontrée dans les recherches passées sur la famille, influence la création et le d&! eacute;veloppement d’un capital social propre à l’entreprise familiale, qui est lui-même source potentielle d’avantages pour la firme.

The papers that comprise this Special Issue represent a variety of attempts at exploring the potential contributions to careers scholarship that might emerge from applying concepts and models from the so-called "new sciences," a term widely used to denote a large area of enquiry in the physical and complexity sciences. This article introduces the special issue. It explains its origins, and defines the territory that it covers, specifically, the kinds of career on which the articles focus, the meaning of the term "new science," and the kind of connections that we believe can be made between the two. Finally, we briefly introduce each of the papers in the Special Issue.

We respond to the points raised by Baruch in his critique of our introduction. We believe the critique is helpful because it directs our attention to some important questions that need addressing when applying ideas from one branch of science to another. We argue that there is value in looking elsewhere for ideas, provided that it is done carefully and with rigour.

This paper reflects on the first author's attempts to adapt traditional social science methods to her own purpose. The research involved developing a methodology to explore the subjective career, concerned with people's internal, self-referential views of their unfolding career experiences. The paper describes a series of problems encountered along the way, stemming directly or indirectly from the rigidity of traditional science assumptions. In contrast, the authors find encouragement in contemporary ideas about "new science," and its imagery of a self-organizing, non-linear and interdependent world. The journey leads to philosopher Paul Cilliers' principles of complex social systems, which provide an alternative, and more affirming, platform for the kind of research undertaken.

While admiring the plausible attempt of developing career theory further, via New Science ideas and framework, I argue that career theory should first start with establishing a career theory based on the behavioral and management sciences. I suggest caution when transforming ideas that may fit minerals and plants into the realm of human thinking, feeling, and behaving.In particular, career theory should reflect the changing nature of socio-economic systems and work environments, and these may not be best reflected in New Science concepts.

In recent years companies have begun to implement a series of human resource management (HRM) practices that are referred to in the literature as high-performance or high-commitment. Among others these practices include employee involvement, training and organisational incentive plans. In this study we attempt to determine how and to what extent the adoption of this type of practices affects the firm's performance record. We focus specifically on the impact HRM has on operational performance. Moreover, we test if the impact of high-commitment practices on firm performance is contingent on the strategy followed by the firm. We try to detect possible differences in the relationship between HRM and the different kinds of operational results (efficiency, quality, and time). For this aim we use a database covering an initial sample of 965 factories each with a workforce of over 50 employees. We begin with a review of the literature before going on to p! resent the descriptive statistics for the variables to be used and, finally, testing the relationship between HRM and operational performance through the estimation of several ordered probit models. Our results reveal the presence of a positive, statistically significant correlation between the adoption of high-commitment practices and improvements in quality and time-based performance. We also find that this effect is universal and not dependent on the strategy used by the firm.

L'objectif principal de l'action stratégique consiste en la création et en la préservation dans le temps de l'avantage concurrentiel. Cet article estime que cet objectif peut être atteint par l'engagement des seules actions n'entraînant pas de réactions. Quatre caractéristiques liées aux actions (irréversibilité, spécificité, innovation et intensité) et trois caractéristiques associées aux réactions (occurrence, imitation et délai) sont testées dans le secteur de la presse magazine en France (presse "news" et presse économique). Les résultats montrent que les actions irréversibles, innovantes et intenses provoquent beaucoup de réactions, alors que les actions spécifiques n'entraînent que peu de réponses. Ce qui émerge, cependant, est l'importance du délai de r&eacu! te;action, permettant aux firmes de se soustraire, pour un temps, à la concurrence.

The papers that comprise this Special Issue represent a variety of attempts at exploring the potential contributions to careers scholarship that might emerge from applying concepts and models from the so-called "new sciences," a term widely used to denote a large area of enquiry in the physical and complexity sciences. This article introduces the special issue. It explains its origins, and defines the territory that it covers, specifically, the kinds of career on which the articles focus, the meaning of the term "new science," and the kind of connections that we believe can be made between the two. Finally, we briefly introduce each of the papers in the Special Issue.

We respond to the points raised by Baruch in his critique of our introduction. We believe the critique is helpful because it directs our attention to some important questions that need addressing when applying ideas from one branch of science to another. We argue that there is value in looking elsewhere for ideas, provided that it is done carefully and with rigour.

In the 80's, globalisation was much vaunted as offering the Western world a dazzling new array of business opportunities. In the 90's, however, the negative impact on the labour market has become all too evident. A look at Germany's labour statistics shows a frightening picture of massive job destruction in the wake of globalisation. As firms contend with heightened international competition and incomparably low wages in the former Eastern bloc and Asia, they have turned almost ubiquitously to cost-cutting through shedding labour inside Germany itself. Jobs either disappear altogether or are relocated. Through computerisation, strategic alliances, lean production and so on, the process of rationalisation and wage reduction proceeds at an alarming pace. In addition to the problems caused by globalisation, there are also serious issues with respect to German management, which are unquestionably major contributory factors to the country's current dif! ficulties, especially mass unemployment. The second part of the paper considers a variety of issues in this context including the rampant and socially destructive preoccupation with cost cutting and rationalisation, negative managerial behaviour and lack of innovation. If Germany is to prevent serious economic decline, the problems need to be tackled on several fronts simultaneously. Attitudinal changes on the part of both management and workers, a modified taxation regime, better public relations about Germany as an industrial location and various other strategies offer some hope to a country that is clearly undergoing a globalisation crisis. There are certainly some viable alternatives to downsizing and a look at the strategies used by other industrial countries gives further insight into positive solutions.

We went to Las Vegas and deconstructed everything. The purpose of our deconstruction was more than critique, we see deconstruction as something that happens to Las Vegas, and we also think it is always reconstructing. As an introduction to our special issue, I seek to provide some background into deconstruction as a artful analysis, and as a process that happens all around us.

I contrast Barthes' and Debord's theories of striptease and spectacle by tracing the alternative "striptease" narrative in several competing texts in cyberspace and in novels. I look at how the striptease becomes narrated as part of the Las Vegas spectacle, legitimating commerce and consumption, but also a rags-to-riches storyline. I begin by analyzing the possession of the body by commerce and consumption, and end by suggesting that stripers cross the boundary between life on the "Strip" and in community.

Data from a cross-industry sample confirm the effects of different organizational structures on dynamic capabilities in alliance settings. Our work integrates the literatures pertinent to organizational structure and the learning and creativity processes that characterize dynamic capabilities in alliances. Our results suggest that centralized structures in alliances hinder creativity and learning, and that formalization impedes learning in alliances. Supporting the arguments put forward by authors such as Burns and Stalker (1961), our results suggest that mechanistic structures in alliance teams hinder the development of dynamic capabilities, whereas organic structures are more conducive in these interorganizational settings.

During the last years, a consensus is emerging that to survive in the competitive turbulence that is engulfing a growing number of industries, firms will need to pinpoint innovative practices rapidly, to communicate them to their suppliers and to stimulate further innovation. In order to be competitive, companies are forced to adopt less hierarchical and more flexible structures, and to define strategies able to combine reduced costs, high quality, flexibility and a quick answer to customer requirements. Nowadays, there are very few companies with enough resources to form its value chain on their own. Therefore, some changes are taking place within individual companies and in their relations with other organizations, creating new structures in which relationships between customers and suppliers are suffering considerable changes. One of these changes is concerned with the formation of networks in which there is a division of labour that allows eac! h company to exploit their distinctive advantages, and be more competitive globally. In a network model, a set of juridically independent companies establish cooperative long term links in order to achieve a higher level of competitiveness. The enterprises that belong to a network have not all the elements needed for manufacturing a product or providing a service under their absolute control. Therefore, the success of this kind of structures is conditioned by the coordination degree obtained along the realization of inter-organizational activities, which requires an efficient communication system among the partners. The Information Technology (IT) represents a supportive element that facilitates the transfer of information across organizational boundaries. In this paper we analyze the inclusion of the Interorganizational Information Systems (IOS) concept within the network model and discuss the role IT plays in enabling organizational transformation towards emergent forms o! f organization.

A reading of Las Vegas is provided in this paper using an optic of critical theory and the heuristic power of Homer's tale of Odysseus and his crew's encounter with the sea creatures called the Sirens. This analysis reveals Las Vegas to be a city remade for visual consumption where the streetscape becomes a fantascape and the arts that are on display are amusement goods,patterned and predigested products for consumption. This paper also argues that the present glitz, glitter and newness of Las Vegas appears all the more meaningful in the light of the archaic. The juxtaposition affords us an opportunity to see ourselves in spite of ourselves, or to be decentered from our historical position of privilege.

In 1978, Lefty Rosenthal,a former Chicago bookmaker,became Director of Entertainment at the Stardust Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Roemer (1994: 111), in his book about Vegas, says, +Lefty had traveled a road paved with controversy and dispute. I guess you could say Lefty was representative of Las Vegas;. What makes the Rosenthal story interesting and relevant to organizational theory? We intend to analyze whether Lefty is "representative" of Las Vegas, and in doing so, we examine the issue of representation. Specifically, we analyze the story, as told by Roemer (1994) and Pileggi (1995), from a historical point of view and, then, from a Jungian archetypal point of view. However, we would like to be somewhat post-Jungian, and following the Anti-Oedipus of Deleuze and Guattari (1977), we will put forward a revised Jungian account for the material genealogy of Las Vegas. We conclude the paper by commenting upon the "demise of representation" (Knigh! ts, 1997) and its implications for organizational theory.

The current article considers the importance of the links existing between social relations and relations of trust, on the one hand, and economic and business relations on the other, in networks of firms, particularly networks of small firms that have formed involuntarily. Among these links, it is important to discover the way tacit and explicit information flows are established within the network and the conditions for them to occur. We examine these questions in a network of firms from the shoe industry using the methods and concepts of social network analysis. With this in mind, we have analysed the complex network of small firms by breaking it down into subnetworks in order to better understand its general structure. Our findings show that economic relations (cooperation, commercial exchanges) and social relations (trust, friendship, kinship, information interchanges) between the firms in the network are embedded within each other. The firms o! f the network exchange tacit information only with those firms with which they maintain stronger social and business links. Information and knowledge are treated as a strategic resource that is only shared with those companies that are not direct competitors.

This paper questions the persistent prescription, which has now also received a fillip from "new science", for corporations to be more like organisms, especially in response to turbulence in the business environment such as exists in present times. We contend that another outcome of the prevailing turbulence, the trend towards the organizational career being outmoded, is particularly ironic because the organizational career, we argue, has been the organizing device that helps corporations become organism-like and more. It has done so in three significant ways: in developing the capacity to outlive their constituent individuals, just as multi-cellular organisms outlive their cells; in developing purposefulness-- the capacity to choose and set goals of one's own accord; and in developing even higher flexibility than organisms. Finally, alluding to misgivings about prospective organism-like physical artifacts, the paper suggests deeper studies on the! social artifact, the corporation, as being already too organism-like.

This paper questions the persistent prescription, which has now also received a fillip from "new science", for corporations to be more like organisms, especially in response to turbulence in the business environment such as exists in present times. We contend that another outcome of the prevailing turbulence, the trend towards the organizational career being outmoded, is particularly ironic because the organizational career, we argue, has been the organizing device that helps corporations become organism-like and more. It has done so in three significant ways: in developing the capacity to outlive their constituent individuals, just as multi-cellular organisms outlive their cells; in developing purposefulness-- the capacity to choose and set goals of one's own accord; and in developing even higher flexibility than organisms. Finally, alluding to misgivings about prospective organism-like physical artifacts, the paper suggests deeper studies on the! social artifact, the corporation, as being already too organism-like.

This paper documents the downsizing experience in China since 1954 to 1998. Over years, China's reform initiatives on the central government have been changed. They were attempts in adjusting the extent of functional integration or differentiation of the state organs of the central government in relation to the remainder of the body politic. Post-Mao administrative reforms were taken to deal mainly with the problem of political erosion of administrative authority, thus facilitating the state to recover its administrative functions. Although western countries look for ways to shrink the state in order to integrate the state with politics, China seeks to institutionalize the state so as to suppress politics. Charting the course of administrative reforms in China requires an understanding that China's transformational experience is institutionally associated with the character of the regime.

Cet article présente la théorie des communautés de pratique et de l'apprentissage développée par Etienne Wenger dans son ouvrage Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. L'ouvrage défend une perspective sociale de l'apprentissage, inséré dans les pratiques collectives au sein des communautés de pratique. Il offre une grille de lecture originale des phénomènes d'apprentissage collectif, de création de significations et d'identité. L'article propose dans un premier temps une synthèse des apports théoriques de l'ouvrage de Wenger centrés sur le concept de communauté de pratique et ses liens théoriques avec l'apprentissage collectif. Il présente ensuite les parties de l'ouvrage traitant de la conception d'architectures d'apprentissage dans des organisations considérées comme des constellatio! ns de communautés de pratique interconnectées. Pour terminer, nous cherchons à appliquer le dispositif conceptuel de Wenger au management par projet afin d'en discuter à la fois les apports et les limites dans ce contexte précis. Il apparaît que la théorie des communautés de pratique fournit des concepts utiles pour interpréter certaines tensions inhérentes au management par projet. En revanche, l'assimilation de la notion de projet à celle de pratique pose des difficultés d'ordre théorique. La confrontation de ces deux concepts ouvre une réflexion sur un enrichissement mutuel entre la théorie des communautés de pratique et les travaux sur le management par projet.

Comment et dans quelles circonstances un individu acquiert-il le sentiment de faire partie d'une équipe ? Ce sentiment se traduit-il par une volonté de coopérer avec les autres membres ? Pour répondre à ce questionnement, cet article s'appuie sur la théorie de l'identité sociale et son prolongement, la théorie de la catégorisation sociale, ainsi que sur des travaux plus récents issus de ces courants qui approfondissent la question de l'influence des processus d'identification sur les pratiques de coopération. Ces grilles de lecture conceptuelles sont mobilisées pour analyser et discuter les résultats d'une recherche longitudinale, multi-sites et multi-méthodes qui s'est déroulée de novembre 1997 à mars 1999 au sein d'une entreprise du secteur électronique. Les résultats, fondés sur la comparaison de ! différentes équipes opérationnelles, permettent de mieux comprendre comment se déroule le processus d'identification, l'évolution au fil du temps du potentiel de coopération qui en découle, ainsi que l'influence du design de l'équipe sur les pratiques de coopération. Ces résultats sont discutés et des pistes de recherche sont proposées en conclusion.

This article introduces the special issue on collaboration. It addresses the various perspectives on intra- and interorganizational collaboration, highlighting tensions, both in practice and research. It then presents the articles composing this special issue.

In this paper, we present and discuss the notion of interorganizational synthesis. Interorganizational synthesis refers to synthesis in the relationships between all organizations involved in a collaborative project. Synthesis is critical if organizations are fully to leverage the benefits of interorganizational collaboration in complex environments. Reviewing other research in management, in areas such as culture, rationality, and language, we show that collaboration is a far more complex task than economic or contractual theories suggest. We then present ten critical building blocks that must be accounted for in the design of interorganizational relations if synthesis is to be realised. Each of these blocks is discussed and the potential risks, and management implications, are also presented.

We examine the influence exiles have on the cultures left behind. As people break from the familiar routines of country or organization, they look forward to their intended destinations, but also backward to the homes they are leaving. It is that backward glance that we suggest may have powerful reverberations.

Reinventing government (REGO) reforms, once dismissed by some as a passing fad, have made inroads in the public sector. However many barriers to REGO reforms, both inside and outside of government, still exist. The authors discuss some of these barriers and also offer suggestions to overcome the resistance to change. They conclude that REGO reforms must be embraced if the public sector is to take advantage of the possibilities offered by the Information Age and advancing Information Technology (IT).

L'objectif de cet article est de montrer que les logiques de calcul et de construction identitaire sont intimement liées dans les rapports coopératifs au sein d'équipes projet. Pour cela, nous avons construit deux formes de coopération en se fondant sur une dichotomie classique en sciences sociales. La coopération complémentaire se développe dans une rationalité calculatoire du fait du besoin de ressources complémentaires, où des engagements interindividuels assurent la congruence des intérêts individuels. L'école des relations humaines et les théories de l'identification sociale dénoncent la sous-socialisation de la coopération complémentaire. Une forme de coopération, que nous avons qualifiée de communautaire, peut apparaître. Cette coopération est fondée sur l'existence d'un processus d'identifi! cation sociale, où les individus s'identifient aux attributs qu'ils perçoivent comme communs aux membres du groupe. Si ces deux formes de coopération s'opposent quant à leur fondement et leur organisation, le processus coopératif s'avère ambivalent. Nous proposons alors une reconceptualisation de la coopération en définissant trois dimensions transversales. A travers l'étude approfondie de deux équipes projet, nous explorons le contenu de chaque dimension transversale aux deux formes de coopération. Cette analyse permet de définir des modalités de génération d'une forme de coopération par une autre dans le cas d'équipes projets ; ces modalités de passage d'une coopération à une autre relèvent pour chaque dimension du même mécanisme. L'ambiguïté quant à la finalité de l'action coopérat! ive permet la variance des schémas interprétatifs, facil ite la construction de compromis, et ainsi le passage d'une forme de coopération à une autre. La définition progressive, dans l'action, par les acteurs de leur fonction et statut dans le groupe, dans une dynamique d'enrôlement, constitue un deuxième mécanisme récursif de génération d'une forme de coopération par une autre. Enfin, les normes du périmètre du collectif et leur variation impactent les modes d'engagements interindividuels en définissant ce qui est hors du groupe et ce qui est dans le groupe ; le directeur de projet a un rôle central dans sa définition et sa variation et ainsi dans le passage entre les deux coopérations.

The article considers the discourse surrounding culture change programmes in two British manufacturing organisations. The analysis of organisational discourse is pursued as a means of revealing the indeterminacy of organisational experiences and the problems inherent to the introduction of generic change approaches such as TQM (Total Quality Management) and BPR (Business Process Reengineering). An examination of the discourse used in the case companies will show an intricate set of structural, cultural, economic, and personal pressures passing through the TQM/BPR concepts. Organisational actors from all hierarchical levels are shown to be "disciplined" by the change discourse to various degrees. Three discursive movements are examined: the imposition/ introduction of a hegemonic discourse, the resistance to this discourse, and the appropriation of the discourse by line managers to reconstitute their actions and those of senior management. The outc! ome of these movements is a contested set of stories, full of contradiction and ambiguity. If the change discourse is to be embodied in local practices it cannot remain purely monologic, but has to engage in a dialogic relationship with existing and emerging concepts and meanings.

Most musings on the strategic management of new organizational forms -- e.g., loosely coupled systems, information-technology-enabled networks, and virtual organizations -- exhibit two fundamental research weaknesses. First, the "new organizational formists" are insufficiently grounded in research on old organizational forms and old organizational strategies. Second, most studies of new organizational forms are insufficiently grounded in data from the new organizational forms they purport to explain. This leads to a situation in which chroniclers of an important change in organizations are too-often ignored because they are atheoretical and aempirical. This study of John Brown Engineering & Construction's adoption of an explicit information technology strategy provides a specific research context in which to consider three related phenomena. The first phenomenon is the continual movement in organizational forms, from firms, to bureaucracies, to in! stitutions, and -- most recently -- to loosely coupled systems, information-technology- enabled networks, and virtual organizations. The second phenomenon is the continued accumulation of strategic options: cost leadership, differentiation, strategic alliances, vertical integration, diversification, globalization, and merger and acquisition strategies. The third phenomenon is the notion of "schizoid incoherence," a condition common to sensemakers, decision-makers, and strategy makers in which there are numerous possible directions to take.

In 1978, Lefty Rosenthal,a former Chicago bookmaker,became Director of Entertainment at the Stardust Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Roemer (1994: 111), in his book about Vegas, says, +Lefty had traveled a road paved with controversy and dispute. I guess you could say Lefty was representative of Las Vegas;. What makes the Rosenthal story interesting and relevant to organizational theory? We intend to analyze whether Lefty is "representative" of Las Vegas, and in doing so, we examine the issue of representation. Specifically, we analyze the story, as told by Roemer (1994) and Pileggi (1995), from a historical point of view and, then, from a Jungian archetypal point of view. However, we would like to be somewhat post-Jungian, and following the Anti-Oedipus of Deleuze and Guattari (1977), we will put forward a revised Jungian account for the material genealogy of Las Vegas. We conclude the paper by commenting upon the "demise of representation" (Knigh! ts, 1997) and its implications for organizational theory.

The complexity science metaphor provides an opportunity for imaginative innovations in the field of career counseling. Chaos, complexity, and self-organization are particularly important in light of the demands placed on individuals confronting the "new career" culture. This article describes the key conceptual structures of the complexity science metaphor for counseling, in general, and elaborates on the connections between those conceptual structures for the field of career counseling practice and theory at the dawn of the new career era.

Il est indéniable que les entreprises familiales possèdent des caractéristiques de gestion qui leurs sont propres, nées de l’imbrication de la famille et de l’entreprise. Il est aussi indéniable que les sources propres de compétitivité de ces entreprises manquent encore d’assises théoriques fortes. Dans ce papier, nous cherchons à renforcer ces assises, en recourant à la théorie du capital social, elle-même fondée sur l’approche par les ressources. Appliquée aux firmes familiales, cette théorie contribue à expliquer l’existence de sources particulières de compétitivité. Plus précisément, l’existence d’un capital social familial, qui a été démontrée dans les recherches passées sur la famille, influence la création et le d&! eacute;veloppement d’un capital social propre à l’entreprise familiale, qui est lui-même source potentielle d’avantages pour la firme.

El objetivo de este trabajo es tratar de clarificar el impacto que tiene sobre el desempeño empresarial la implantación de una estrategia de Supply Chain Management (SCM) teniendo en cuenta los efectos de su localización regional. Para ello, se va a emplear una muestra de 358 empresas manufactureras españolas en el periodo comprendido entre 1994 y 2001 bajo un modelo de industria básico. Los resultados muestran como el impacto de la SCM sobre la performance empresarial depende de la localización empresarial elegida. En concreto, se muestran las ventajas competitivas relacionadas con la SCM de las distintas comunidades autónomas españolas.

Over the past decade a number of analysts have argued that we have seen the end of the traditional managerial career. In this paper we examine how various types of downsizing affect the organizational career systems. We take the career system perspective of Sonnenfeld and Peiperl (1988) and examine how delayering, earlier retirement and other common forms of downsizing disrupt or reinforce these career systems. This analysis together with that of Evans, Gunz and Jalland (1997) provides us with a framework to help managers understand the impact of downsizing on careers and select modes of downsizing that will sustain or reorient the career systems of their organizations.

Organizational downsizing has been a major organizational strategy emphasized by managers to improve performance since the late 1980s. Despite the popularity of downsizing in organizations, the implementation of downsizing has resulted in various negative effects on employee morale. This paper examines the relationship between downsizing and trust. The paper first provides a review of the philosophy and strategies for downsizing. It then examines the impact of various downsizing strategies on employee trust and organizational trust. Lastly, the paper offers a discussion about the implications of these strategies for individuals, organizations, and society.

Las Vegas is studied as an arguably prototype postmodern space to develop some understanding of (post)modern consumption. Analyses indicate that while Las Vegas has several characteristics that may help a deeper understanding of the modern and of conditions that signal transformations toward the postmodern, it is far from being a postmodern space. The hegemony of the market and the insistence of the commercial hinder the development of the postmodern. However, insights into the nature of Las Vegas as excess, the change in the status of motion and speed (which are now ends in themselves rather than means to arrive at a destination), and the consumer inclinations for immersion into themes observed in Las Vegas provide explanations that will help a better understanding of contemporary cultural trends.

The current article considers the importance of the links existing between social relations and relations of trust, on the one hand, and economic and business relations on the other, in networks of firms, particularly networks of small firms that have formed involuntarily. Among these links, it is important to discover the way tacit and explicit information flows are established within the network and the conditions for them to occur. We examine these questions in a network of firms from the shoe industry using the methods and concepts of social network analysis. With this in mind, we have analysed the complex network of small firms by breaking it down into subnetworks in order to better understand its general structure. Our findings show that economic relations (cooperation, commercial exchanges) and social relations (trust, friendship, kinship, information interchanges) between the firms in the network are embedded within each other. The firms o! f the network exchange tacit information only with those firms with which they maintain stronger social and business links. Information and knowledge are treated as a strategic resource that is only shared with those companies that are not direct competitors.

El objetivo de este trabajo es contribuir a un mayor entendimiento sobre las implicaciones de la organización del trabajo, en particular "equipos de trabajo", en el performance de la empresa. El estudio que se presenta es eminentemente empírico, donde aplicándose una metodología integradora, tanto cualitativa como cuantitativa (con el objeto de minimizar las carencias que ambos métodos presentan de forma aislada), se busca analizar la relación existente entre trabajo en equipo y performance, a través del estudio concreto de las dos plantas productivas de una compañía industrial española filial de una de las más importantes multinacionales alemanas pertenecientes al sector metal, tomando como indicadores de dicho performance la productividad laboral, la calidad y el absentismo productivo, con el objeto de recoger aspectos de actitud y comportamiento además de los pu! ramente económicos. Los resultados revelan que la eficacia del grupo depende, previsiblemente, del clima tecnológico y del clima que crea la dirección a través de su influencia en el diseño de las tareas, en la composición del grupo, y en el contexto organizacional, siendo muy importantes también el diseño organizativo y la cultura de la empresa.

In an ever-changing environment, firms must also constantly change the way they do things in order to compete successfully. The Spanish textile leaders of 1992 (in comparison to 1978) have altered their organizational boundaries, favoring more complex and flexible structures, outsourcing production and procurement activities -in order to decrease production costs- and integrating their sales force and distribution channels -in order to gain knowledge from their customers. Based on a study we conducted using data from semi-structured interviews with twenty CEOs and secondary sources within leading Spanish textile companies, we found that larger firms adapted through learning whereas medium-size enterprises were subjected to ecological selection.

This paper presents the results of a survey of 74 owner-managed small companies in Alicante (Spain), exploring the existence and performance implications of new venture competitive strategies. A factor analytic procedure and cluster analysis confirmed the existence of multiple strategies which new venture firms follow. Four strategic clusters of firms were uncovered: 1/ Differentiation, 2/ Innovation, 3/ Product Offering, and 4/ Aggressive Growth with Narrow Special Products. A Scheffé posteriori contrast test revealed different "performance patterns" between these clusters.

Few institutions have as much experience with organizational downsizing as the United States military. The historic pattern has been one of a small professional military in peacetime, rapidly supplemented by a mobilization of civilians during war, followed by a rapid demobilization with the war's end. Decisions about military force sizing are critical political and strategic decisions. This article discusses the downsizing of the United State's Cold War military force. Each of the three major reviews of the military structure --Base Force, Bottom-Up-Review, Quadrennial Review-- are briefly discussed. Some of the claimed consequences of downsizing of the military are considered in the concluding section.

This paper proposes the concept of "safe risk" as a tool for understanding social transformations in contemporary spectacular society. The paper reviews theories of risk that have emerged in scholarly research. "Safe risk" is proposed as a concept which extends our understanding of the institutional production and consumption of risk. I argue that safe risk production is fundamental to tourism and leisure industries as illustrated by the casino-resort industry on the Las Vegas Strip. The concept of safe risk also provides insights into the nature and emergence of communities and civility in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Three safe risk themes are addressed: financial safe risk or "safe money"; the consumption of sexual imagery through "safe sex"; and the production of casino-environments and residential areas as "safe places". Safe risk production is interpreted using critical theory and postmodern theory. The paper establishes the importance o! f safe risk as an organizationally produced and consumed image. It provides insights into why safe risk and other simulations may be more attractive than reality even though the consumption of safe risk entails real hazards and dangers. And the paper concludes by suggesting that safe risk analysis should become an important focus in postmodern studies and management and organization theory.

Downsizing is sometimes necessary, but it always can be done better or worse. This essay reviews evidence about some of what to avoid, as well as about what to approach, in such dour (if not tragic) exercises. Whatever that case, downsizing also always involves normative or value issues, both in the choice between alternative vehicles for adverse personnel actions as well as in the global question: Why downsize? As a sampler, three points illustrate what is best avoided in downsizing experiences. Thus, they should strive hard to "let in the sunshine," but commonly trend toward secretive cabals at the highest levels. Moreover, cutback commonly is used as an all-purpose tool, with major costs. Relatedly, downsizing often penalizes the relatively blameless, which implies both value and ethical shortfalls. What downsizing should emphasize gets illustrated by five exemplars. Thus, buy-in should be sought, early and late, and especially at operating levels; the range of adverse personnel actions should be enlarged; appropriate problems should be targeted, but downsizing often sets in motion counterproductive dynamics; useful infrastructures should be built, but seldom are; and downsizing hosts should be oriented toward learning from the past, in principle and especially in practice.

Corporate downsizing has been implemented by a large number of American firms in an effort to become more flexible and responsive to increased competition. The results associated with these downsizings have not been as stellar as researchers and practitioners had hoped. In fact, fewer than half of downsized firms reported achieving any reduction in costs (Hitt, Keats, Harback and Nixon, 1994). In addition to these dismal financial indicators, the effects of downsizing on the remaining employees have been substantial, including increased stress, reduced career opportunities and decreased company loyalty. This article looks at the possibility that person-based compensation systems such as skill/competency based pay or broad banding may alleviate some of the problems associated with both the poor financial performance and the negative impact on survivors of downsizing. By encouraging employees to acquire new skills and knowledge, person-based pay pro! grams may foster the development of a highly flexible workforce. Employees with wider skills may prove valuable to downsized firms coping with large losses in organizational knowledge and memory.

Data from a cross-industry sample confirm the effects of different organizational structures on dynamic capabilities in alliance settings. Our work integrates the literatures pertinent to organizational structure and the learning and creativity processes that characterize dynamic capabilities in alliances. Our results suggest that centralized structures in alliances hinder creativity and learning, and that formalization impedes learning in alliances. Supporting the arguments put forward by authors such as Burns and Stalker (1961), our results suggest that mechanistic structures in alliance teams hinder the development of dynamic capabilities, whereas organic structures are more conducive in these interorganizational settings.

Over the past decade a number of analysts have argued that we have seen the end of the traditional managerial career. In this paper we examine how various types of downsizing affect the organizational career systems. We take the career system perspective of Sonnenfeld and Peiperl (1988) and examine how delayering, earlier retirement and other common forms of downsizing disrupt or reinforce these career systems. This analysis together with that of Evans, Gunz and Jalland (1997) provides us with a framework to help managers understand the impact of downsizing on careers and select modes of downsizing that will sustain or reorient the career systems of their organizations.

The papers that comprise this Special Issue represent a variety of attempts at exploring the potential contributions to careers scholarship that might emerge from applying concepts and models from the so-called "new sciences," a term widely used to denote a large area of enquiry in the physical and complexity sciences. This article introduces the special issue. It explains its origins, and defines the territory that it covers, specifically, the kinds of career on which the articles focus, the meaning of the term "new science," and the kind of connections that we believe can be made between the two. Finally, we briefly introduce each of the papers in the Special Issue.

We respond to the points raised by Baruch in his critique of our introduction. We believe the critique is helpful because it directs our attention to some important questions that need addressing when applying ideas from one branch of science to another. We argue that there is value in looking elsewhere for ideas, provided that it is done carefully and with rigour.

This paper seeks to understand the dynamics of career systems by exploring how the study of other complex systems can shed light on the complex careers that are becoming increasingly the norm. We begin by defining career systems as a set of work roles and the influx of people occupying those roles, within an organization or in "boundaryless" industries. Then, we explain numerous patterns in career systems --described as "self-organization"-- through rigorous metaphors drawn from studies of "self-organized criticality" (Bak, 1995) and adaptation in interconnected networks (Kauffman, 1993). Implications for strategic human resource management and careers research are identified.

Over the past decade a number of analysts have argued that we have seen the end of the traditional managerial career. In this paper we examine how various types of downsizing affect the organizational career systems. We take the career system perspective of Sonnenfeld and Peiperl (1988) and examine how delayering, earlier retirement and other common forms of downsizing disrupt or reinforce these career systems. This analysis together with that of Evans, Gunz and Jalland (1997) provides us with a framework to help managers understand the impact of downsizing on careers and select modes of downsizing that will sustain or reorient the career systems of their organizations.

This paper explores collaboration in one innovative project in a production company. The focus is on one particular relationship - that between change agents and project participants with the emphasis on the relations of power between the life forms of ordinary project participants and the change discourse applied. Drawing on Wittgenstein's concept of "language games" and Foucault's concept of "power", this case demonstrates how the change discourse constructs its own image of who the participants are, and how these constructions shape the main content of the change project. Rather than becoming employee-driven and guided with reference to employee identities and life forms, project participants and project activities are constructed by concepts, methods and techniques that are opposed to the extant identities and life forms within the company.

This article introduces the special issue on collaboration. It addresses the various perspectives on intra- and interorganizational collaboration, highlighting tensions, both in practice and research. It then presents the articles composing this special issue.

Communities of practice have been presented as the panacea of organizational learning. Building up on three case studies in different organizations characterized by different internal contexts, this article pushes the logic one step further by arguing that communities of practice can also be unique collaboration spaces within bureaucracies. Their main property is the ambiguity of their relationship with organizational control mechanisms and structures. Communities play with the rules, they can be adaptable and resilient and as such can build resilience within the organization. But this ambiguity, being the foundation of their capacity to introduce cooperation within organizations, is also difficult to maintain. Cultivating communities of practice thus becomes a delicate task for managers who must be able to adopt complex and contradictory behaviours. Five roles that can be fulfilled by management are analysed: stimulation, facilitation, support, c! ontrol and recognition. Far from the generic recommendations that can be found in the literature to date, the findings indicate that the degree of intervention from management is highly dependent on the internal organizational context. This article thus provides a contingent framework to the cultivation of communities of practice.

This paper examines the role of structural embeddedness as an organising phenomenon within interdependent networks. While conceptual and philosophical in nature, data from a longitudinal ethnographic case study of an icon tourism destination is used to illustrate new framings of this concept. This method of research enables deeper insights to be attained that add both explanation and understanding to our current appreciation of the interdependent organizing phenomena. The case data illustrate how the network has structural attributes of heterogeneity, interconnection and reciprocity that contribute to its anti-hierarchical state. This enables an infinite number of structural possibilities to occur, some of which can be developed to form strategic capabilities that belong to the network. Assisting this process, is a symbiotic and mutual participation from the interdependent actors which critiques the notion of structural redundancy. The paper illus! trates how the aggregated patterns have formed in the network and how reciprocal obligation has built long term exchange patterns that contribute to forming the embedded macroculture.

As a macro-spectacle, Las Vegas represents a singular display of the problems which arise in attempting to distinguish meaningfully between "reality" and "fiction". In this article we provide an example of a discursive method to explore the interplay between "social relations" and "images" as critical facets of the realities and fictions which constitute the "Las Vegas Spectacle". Social relations are examined using the systematic application of critical discourse analysis and the specific images analyzed are Las Vegas films. An intrinsic feature of the various representations of Vegas is the notion of "compulsive consumption". The implications of the "Vegas phenomena" (i.e., the centrality of spectacle, consumption, and the collapse of fiction and reality) for the study of organizations and processes of organizing are also discussed.

We examine the influence exiles have on the cultures left behind. As people break from the familiar routines of country or organization, they look forward to their intended destinations, but also backward to the homes they are leaving. It is that backward glance that we suggest may have powerful reverberations.

This article briefly outlines the problems facing public organizations, particularly hospitals, as they attempt to survive in a turbulent environment. One solution to coping with organizational crises is downsizing. However, there are often negative effects on personnel when an organization reduces the work force or experiences major change. A model describing stages of organizational and individual crisis and coping is presented, along with suggestions for organizational development (OD) interventions to deal with these stages. One organization's experience illustrates the negative consequences of organizational downsizing on members.

En dépit de l'engouement suscité, les résultats des manœuvres d'acquisition restent décevants. Cette déception est à rapprocher du manque d'attention portée à la dimension managériale des acquisitions au profit d'analyses stratégiques d'inspiration essentiellement économique. Si un certain accord existe aujourd'hui sur l'importance du management post-acquisition, des divergences subsistent quant aux principes qui doivent guider celui-ci. En utilisant la méthode des cas, la présente recherche permet de tester la pertinence des propositions en concurrence, lorsque l'acquéreur adopte une politique d'insertion de type symbiotique. La proposition selon laquelle une démarche d'inspiration rationaliste ne permet pas de gérer de façon adéquate les acquisitions de symbiose est corroborée. L'explication de ce résu! ltat tient à la nature même des politiques de symbiose, lesquelles visent à développer des pratiques et/ou des offres innovantes dans un cadre coopératif. L'innovation conjointe revêt dans les cas observés un caractère émergent qui s'accorde mal avec une démarche d'inspiration rationaliste.
Editors' note. This article has been translated in English
Symbiotic Acquisitions: The Drawbacks of a Rational Approach
Despite their popularity, acquisitions have proved disappointing. The reason for this is that economic analyses have prevailed over the managerial dimension of the acquisitions. Although there is currently some agreement about the importance of post-acquisition management, divergences remain as to what the guiding principles should be. Our work, based on the case study method, tests the relevance of competing propositions when the acquiring firm adopts a symbiotic type of insertion policy. The proposition that a rational approach is unsuitable for managing symbiotic acquisitions is corroborated. This result can be explained by the nature of symbiosis policies, which are aimed at developing innovative practices and/or product lines in a cooperative framework. In the cases observed, such joint innovation has an emerging character which is inconsistent with a rational approach.

This article introduces the special issue on collaboration. It addresses the various perspectives on intra- and interorganizational collaboration, highlighting tensions, both in practice and research. It then presents the articles composing this special issue.

In this paper, we present and discuss the notion of interorganizational synthesis. Interorganizational synthesis refers to synthesis in the relationships between all organizations involved in a collaborative project. Synthesis is critical if organizations are fully to leverage the benefits of interorganizational collaboration in complex environments. Reviewing other research in management, in areas such as culture, rationality, and language, we show that collaboration is a far more complex task than economic or contractual theories suggest. We then present ten critical building blocks that must be accounted for in the design of interorganizational relations if synthesis is to be realised. Each of these blocks is discussed and the potential risks, and management implications, are also presented.

In the past few years, a new wave of downsizing has been observed. This wave began during the economic recession of the early 1990s and has continued during the subsequent years of economic growth. While the espoused purpose of this wave of downsizing is to reduce costs and increase "competitiveness," empirical research raises doubts about whether these goals have actually been achieved. Downsizing may also have serious negative consequences for the employees who lose their jobs, for their families, and for the employees who survive the restructuring process. Despite these outcomes, downsizing appears to have become institutionalized among executives as a taken-for-granted way of managing organizations. The cognitive rigidity that this suggests makes it important to discuss alternatives to corporate downsizing. The Volkswagen (VW) Company is an important example of such an alternative, because of its innovative policy of preserving employment in G! ermany. This paper describes the genesis and implementation of that personnel policy, showing that discontinuities in the corporate environment do not always have to be dealt with by means of mass layoffs. Profits and social responsibility do not necessarily have to be competing goals, but can sometimes be jointly accomodated by using appropriate human resource management programs.

This paper presents the results of a survey of 74 owner-managed small companies in Alicante (Spain), exploring the existence and performance implications of new venture competitive strategies. A factor analytic procedure and cluster analysis confirmed the existence of multiple strategies which new venture firms follow. Four strategic clusters of firms were uncovered: 1/ Differentiation, 2/ Innovation, 3/ Product Offering, and 4/ Aggressive Growth with Narrow Special Products. A Scheffé posteriori contrast test revealed different "performance patterns" between these clusters.

During the last years, a consensus is emerging that to survive in the competitive turbulence that is engulfing a growing number of industries, firms will need to pinpoint innovative practices rapidly, to communicate them to their suppliers and to stimulate further innovation. In order to be competitive, companies are forced to adopt less hierarchical and more flexible structures, and to define strategies able to combine reduced costs, high quality, flexibility and a quick answer to customer requirements. Nowadays, there are very few companies with enough resources to form its value chain on their own. Therefore, some changes are taking place within individual companies and in their relations with other organizations, creating new structures in which relationships between customers and suppliers are suffering considerable changes. One of these changes is concerned with the formation of networks in which there is a division of labour that allows eac! h company to exploit their distinctive advantages, and be more competitive globally. In a network model, a set of juridically independent companies establish cooperative long term links in order to achieve a higher level of competitiveness. The enterprises that belong to a network have not all the elements needed for manufacturing a product or providing a service under their absolute control. Therefore, the success of this kind of structures is conditioned by the coordination degree obtained along the realization of inter-organizational activities, which requires an efficient communication system among the partners. The Information Technology (IT) represents a supportive element that facilitates the transfer of information across organizational boundaries. In this paper we analyze the inclusion of the Interorganizational Information Systems (IOS) concept within the network model and discuss the role IT plays in enabling organizational transformation towards emergent forms o! f organization.

Les réseaux interorganisationnels (RIO) sont désormais devenus des éléments incontournables de la vie économique. Depuis une vingtaine d'années, ils sont largement étudiés par les chercheurs en gestion, en économie ou encore en sociologie. Si les nombreuses recherches sur cette forme d'organisation ont permis d'aborder certains mécanismes de fonctionnement du RIO, nombre d'auteurs ont souligné le faible effet cumulatif des contributions. Ce constat est particulièrement vrai pour l'étude de l'opportunisme dans les RIO. Dans cet article, nous proposons de considérer la dimension socio-cognitive de l'opportunisme et considérons la question suivante : quels comportements de leurs partenaires les acteurs impliqués dans un réseau interorganisationnel considèrent-ils comme opportunistes ? Pour ce faire, nous étudions un RIO! international du secteur du transport en combinant étude de cas et analyse de réseaux. Les résultats remettent en cause les approches traditionnelles de l'opportunisme et poussent plus loin le raisonnement des approches hétérodoxes. Les conséquences d'une approche socio-cognitive de l'opportunisme pour l'action stratégique des firmes sont également envisagées.

Dramatic changes in 21st century careers have generated the need for a new set of theoretical lenses that view careers in a more dynamic, fluid way. Several characteristics of this new complexity lens that directly apply to dynamic career systems include discontinuities in career progression, non-proportionality of effects of effort, sensitive dependence on initial conditions, viewing a system in terms of constraints and triggers for change, and the impact of mutual causality of structural emergence. Two extensive case studies are presented and explained using these concepts, providing an expanded understanding of careers in management and in entrepreneurship.

This paper seeks to understand the dynamics of career systems by exploring how the study of other complex systems can shed light on the complex careers that are becoming increasingly the norm. We begin by defining career systems as a set of work roles and the influx of people occupying those roles, within an organization or in "boundaryless" industries. Then, we explain numerous patterns in career systems --described as "self-organization"-- through rigorous metaphors drawn from studies of "self-organized criticality" (Bak, 1995) and adaptation in interconnected networks (Kauffman, 1993). Implications for strategic human resource management and careers research are identified.

This paper considers the connections between pleasure and death, and the erotic force of desire which bridges them, using the work of Jean Baudrillard and Georges Bataille among others. It begins with a consideration of why people risk or desire their own annihilation, raising the issue of why Las Vegas is a place, symbolically, to which people go to die, functioning this way in particular in feature films, two of which are analysed here. The paper argues that in the valorization of the fake which becomes more real than the real, cities like Las Vegas kill the real, and are thus not sites of real pleasure or fulfilment but are mausoleums where the real is sold short. Participants in the Vegas experience participate in a spurious sense of self. The paper discusses the processes of seduction through which this is achieved, and argues that death is always present in Las Vegas because of the kitsch nature of the place, a quality of death-in-life, or l! iving death. In the end, the only way to break through to the real is through sacrifice, a tragic endeavour involving the loss of the spurious sense of self but which may involve the loss of self altogether by risking death. Two films are analysed -- one from the US and one from the UK, to illustrate how this redemptive sacrifical process may function.

Organizational downsizing has been a major organizational strategy emphasized by managers to improve performance since the late 1980s. Despite the popularity of downsizing in organizations, the implementation of downsizing has resulted in various negative effects on employee morale. This paper examines the relationship between downsizing and trust. The paper first provides a review of the philosophy and strategies for downsizing. It then examines the impact of various downsizing strategies on employee trust and organizational trust. Lastly, the paper offers a discussion about the implications of these strategies for individuals, organizations, and society.

Cette recherche porte sur la collaboration au sein des réseaux d'innovation distants. Ces équipes-projets sont constituées d'individus dispersés géographiquement, réunis temporairement, et utilisant les technologies de l'information et de la communication comme support de communication et de mise en place du projet. La littérature consacrée aux relations entre les acteurs d'un réseau fait de la confiance le principal mode de coordination. Or, il semble admis que cette confiance s'appuie essentiellement sur la connaissance de l'autre et le face-à-face. Notre objectif est d'étudier les conditions dans lesquelles la confiance peut être un mode de coordination quand il n'y a pas d'interaction directe sur le même lieu entre les acteurs du projet d'innovation. Pour répondre à cette question, nous analysons le fonctionnement d'équipes de dé! ;veloppement de logiciels libres associées au projet Linux. Il apparaît que l'absence d'interactions directes et simultanées limite considérablement la confiance interpersonnelle. Cette absence est compensée par une confiance institutionnelle élevée mais aussi par un dispositif formalisé de contrôle, dont la combinaison permet d'assurer un niveau de performance élevé. Aussi, nous nous éloignons des approches privilégiant la confiance comme une alternative au contrôle pour préférer un point de vue intégrateur. En particulier, le contrôle sanction peut être utilisé sans démotiver les membres de la communauté Linux parce qu'il vient compléter un système global de contrôle qui s'apparente à un contrôle social.

This paper seeks to understand the dynamics of career systems by exploring how the study of other complex systems can shed light on the complex careers that are becoming increasingly the norm. We begin by defining career systems as a set of work roles and the influx of people occupying those roles, within an organization or in "boundaryless" industries. Then, we explain numerous patterns in career systems --described as "self-organization"-- through rigorous metaphors drawn from studies of "self-organized criticality" (Bak, 1995) and adaptation in interconnected networks (Kauffman, 1993). Implications for strategic human resource management and careers research are identified.

As daily U.S. newspapers have faced increasing competition, they have experienced falling circulation and declining household penetration. In an effort to cope with the adverse changes, some newspapers have sought the advice of consultants who have advised such administered changes as total quality management and similar managed workplace transformations. While such changes have succeeded in other workplace environments, such as manufacturing, they have faced resistance in professional settings, such as newsrooms at daily newspapers. One newsroom that faced a similar administrative change was the Winston-Salem Journal, where the North Carolina daily in 1995 adopted an efficiency "grid" for newsroom professionals that was rejected in early 1996. A preliminary survey of the professional news staff at the Journal two years after the efficiency initiative was announced found that news professionals there remained strongly resistant to business-administered changes in newsroom routines and professional norms, and they strongly adhered to traditional views about the separation of business and news departments. The study also found worthy of further study suggestions that some newsroom professionals view staff cuts that coincide with administrative changes as falling within the purview of business administrators and as unrelated to professional norms and values and work routines.

El objetivo de este trabajo es tratar de clarificar el impacto que tiene sobre el desempeño empresarial la implantación de una estrategia de Supply Chain Management (SCM) teniendo en cuenta los efectos de su localización regional. Para ello, se va a emplear una muestra de 358 empresas manufactureras españolas en el periodo comprendido entre 1994 y 2001 bajo un modelo de industria básico. Los resultados muestran como el impacto de la SCM sobre la performance empresarial depende de la localización empresarial elegida. En concreto, se muestran las ventajas competitivas relacionadas con la SCM de las distintas comunidades autónomas españolas.

In an ever-changing environment, firms must also constantly change the way they do things in order to compete successfully. The Spanish textile leaders of 1992 (in comparison to 1978) have altered their organizational boundaries, favoring more complex and flexible structures, outsourcing production and procurement activities -in order to decrease production costs- and integrating their sales force and distribution channels -in order to gain knowledge from their customers. Based on a study we conducted using data from semi-structured interviews with twenty CEOs and secondary sources within leading Spanish textile companies, we found that larger firms adapted through learning whereas medium-size enterprises were subjected to ecological selection.

Reinventing government (REGO) reforms, once dismissed by some as a passing fad, have made inroads in the public sector. However many barriers to REGO reforms, both inside and outside of government, still exist. The authors discuss some of these barriers and also offer suggestions to overcome the resistance to change. They conclude that REGO reforms must be embraced if the public sector is to take advantage of the possibilities offered by the Information Age and advancing Information Technology (IT).

Works of art and educational products are being marketed. In order to reach the upper segments of consumers they have to be packaged and advertised. Gentrifying cultural consumption of art can easily be compared to the upgraded and commercialized forms of the individualized mass education. Once upon a time the European social democrats opened up the "gardens of artistic treasures" and "gardens of educational advancement" to the masses. Malraux dreamed of an imaginary museum belonging to everybody. Popular access, however, changed the museum and the university more than expected. +The map of the museum had to be remade, its calendar adjusted to the latest beginning; (Lyotard, 1999: 305). Masses came, but failed to become passive consumers of artistic values prescribed by cultural elites. Today's musea are catering to the broader public and entering the emergent networks of virtual exhibition spaces, but artistic values are as prone to crises as sha! res on a stock exchange. Likewise, in the last quarter of the century, Trojan horses of the expanding forms of university-level education and of the MBA programs entered the turreted walls of the universities. Macdonaldization and lasvegasification of higher education followed. Pragmatic checklists and multiple choice tests replaced methodological apprenticeship and individual research assignments. Open and flying universities, virtual universities and faculties multiply and inhabit the educational earth. The roulette tables have also been turned in the academic casinos of universities, associations, conferences, networks, publications and the like: paradigms started winning and losing without metaphysical guarantees and without methodological credit cards. The metaphor of knowledge gambles appears to offer much better insights into the daily processes within complex, knowledge-intensive casinos (where governments and companies bet on future outcomes) than the metaphor of o! rganizational learning, which coloured the vocabulary of organizationa l sciences at the turn of the century.

En dépit de l'engouement suscité, les résultats des manœuvres d'acquisition restent décevants. Cette déception est à rapprocher du manque d'attention portée à la dimension managériale des acquisitions au profit d'analyses stratégiques d'inspiration essentiellement économique. Si un certain accord existe aujourd'hui sur l'importance du management post-acquisition, des divergences subsistent quant aux principes qui doivent guider celui-ci. En utilisant la méthode des cas, la présente recherche permet de tester la pertinence des propositions en concurrence, lorsque l'acquéreur adopte une politique d'insertion de type symbiotique. La proposition selon laquelle une démarche d'inspiration rationaliste ne permet pas de gérer de façon adéquate les acquisitions de symbiose est corroborée. L'explication de ce résu! ltat tient à la nature même des politiques de symbiose, lesquelles visent à développer des pratiques et/ou des offres innovantes dans un cadre coopératif. L'innovation conjointe revêt dans les cas observés un caractère émergent qui s'accorde mal avec une démarche d'inspiration rationaliste.
Editors' note. This article has been translated in English
Symbiotic Acquisitions: The Drawbacks of a Rational Approach
Despite their popularity, acquisitions have proved disappointing. The reason for this is that economic analyses have prevailed over the managerial dimension of the acquisitions. Although there is currently some agreement about the importance of post-acquisition management, divergences remain as to what the guiding principles should be. Our work, based on the case study method, tests the relevance of competing propositions when the acquiring firm adopts a symbiotic type of insertion policy. The proposition that a rational approach is unsuitable for managing symbiotic acquisitions is corroborated. This result can be explained by the nature of symbiosis policies, which are aimed at developing innovative practices and/or product lines in a cooperative framework. In the cases observed, such joint innovation has an emerging character which is inconsistent with a rational approach.

Dramatic changes in 21st century careers have generated the need for a new set of theoretical lenses that view careers in a more dynamic, fluid way. Several characteristics of this new complexity lens that directly apply to dynamic career systems include discontinuities in career progression, non-proportionality of effects of effort, sensitive dependence on initial conditions, viewing a system in terms of constraints and triggers for change, and the impact of mutual causality of structural emergence. Two extensive case studies are presented and explained using these concepts, providing an expanded understanding of careers in management and in entrepreneurship.

In recent years companies have begun to implement a series of human resource management (HRM) practices that are referred to in the literature as high-performance or high-commitment. Among others these practices include employee involvement, training and organisational incentive plans. In this study we attempt to determine how and to what extent the adoption of this type of practices affects the firm's performance record. We focus specifically on the impact HRM has on operational performance. Moreover, we test if the impact of high-commitment practices on firm performance is contingent on the strategy followed by the firm. We try to detect possible differences in the relationship between HRM and the different kinds of operational results (efficiency, quality, and time). For this aim we use a database covering an initial sample of 965 factories each with a workforce of over 50 employees. We begin with a review of the literature before going on to p! resent the descriptive statistics for the variables to be used and, finally, testing the relationship between HRM and operational performance through the estimation of several ordered probit models. Our results reveal the presence of a positive, statistically significant correlation between the adoption of high-commitment practices and improvements in quality and time-based performance. We also find that this effect is universal and not dependent on the strategy used by the firm.

Dans un contexte où la faculté d'adaptation des salariés constitue un atout stratégique majeur pour l'organisation, la thématique de la mobilité intra-organisationnelle compte certainement parmi celles qui suscitent actuellement le plus d'intérêt de la part des professionnels des ressources humaines. Pour autant, si les avantages d'une telle forme de mobilité sont nombreux pour l'entreprise, ces derniers apparaissent beaucoup moins évidents pour le salarié lui-même qui, s'il est en position de force sur le marché du travail et si le mouvement professionnel proposé ne lui convient pas, a la possibilité de quitter son organisation pour mettre en œuvre ses compétences ailleurs. C'est la raison pour laquelle cette recherche s'intéresse à la disposition d'une certaine partie de la population salariée - les ing&ea! cute;nieurs - envers différents types de mobilité proposés au sein de l'entreprise. Au terme de l'étude d'une population totale de 96 ingénieurs, nos résultats mettent en évidence différents déterminants (et donc des leviers d'action potentiels) en fonction de l'ampleur et de la nature du mouvement professionnel proposé au salarié. En outre, ils nous invitent à s'interroger sur la pertinence d'un système de mobilité intra-organisationnelle collectif, ignorant les aspirations individuelles et les besoins réels de l'entreprise.

We present research examining the role of organizational justice in the perceptions of patients visiting the urgent care department of a hospital. Patients' perceptions of uncertainty were found to mediate the relationship between waiting time and satisfaction and between waiting time and anger. Further, waiting time was significantly negatively related to procedural justice perceptions. Procedural justice perceptions were significantly positively related to distributive justice perceptions, which in turn, were significantly positively associated with satisfaction. We discuss the implications concerning managing the attitudes of waiting customers.

We present research examining the role of organizational justice in the perceptions of patients visiting the urgent care department of a hospital. Patients' perceptions of uncertainty were found to mediate the relationship between waiting time and satisfaction and between waiting time and anger. Further, waiting time was significantly negatively related to procedural justice perceptions. Procedural justice perceptions were significantly positively related to distributive justice perceptions, which in turn, were significantly positively associated with satisfaction. We discuss the implications concerning managing the attitudes of waiting customers.

Although trust has been given much attention in the management literature as an explanatory factor, less research has been devoted to defining and operationalizing the role of trust, particularly in relation to interorganizational collaboration. The role of trust in collaboration is usually attributed ex post; successful alliances seem to involve trust; unsuccessful alliances do not. As such, much of the extant literature has treated trust as a residual term for the complex social-psychological processes necessary for social action to occur. Yet the relationship between trust and performance remains somewhat elusive in collaborative relationships, perhaps due to the frequent application of interpersonal types of trust to interorganizational types of collaborations. Based on a synthesis of research on trust with research on other aspects of collaboration, this paper identifies the multi-dimensional role played by trust in collaborative relationship! s. By distinguishing between different roles of trust pertaining to different phases of alliance evolution, and recognizing the recursive nature of collaborative trust, this paper attempts to respond to calls for research examining the evolution of trust and its impact on interorganizational collaborative relationships. The simultaneous focus on trust as an antecedent of relationship development, a moderator of these on outcome, and direct effects on relationship outcome has important implications for both research and practice alike.

Dramatic changes in 21st century careers have generated the need for a new set of theoretical lenses that view careers in a more dynamic, fluid way. Several characteristics of this new complexity lens that directly apply to dynamic career systems include discontinuities in career progression, non-proportionality of effects of effort, sensitive dependence on initial conditions, viewing a system in terms of constraints and triggers for change, and the impact of mutual causality of structural emergence. Two extensive case studies are presented and explained using these concepts, providing an expanded understanding of careers in management and in entrepreneurship.

In this paper we analyze the process of technical and organizational innovation through which Aranzadi (the leading firm in the Spanish legal information sector) adapted to the changes in its environment in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After a theoretical introduction, we introduce the firm analyzed (Aranzadi) and study some of the factors that provoked the beginning of the innovation process in the late 1980s. Then, we analyze the main phases of the process of introduction of IT and organizational change in Aranzadi. Afterwards attention is focused on product and process innovation. Then, we consider the organizational change and the downsizing effect in the organizational structure. Finally, we draw the main conclusions of this case study.

El objetivo de este trabajo es contribuir a un mayor entendimiento sobre las implicaciones de la organización del trabajo, en particular "equipos de trabajo", en el performance de la empresa. El estudio que se presenta es eminentemente empírico, donde aplicándose una metodología integradora, tanto cualitativa como cuantitativa (con el objeto de minimizar las carencias que ambos métodos presentan de forma aislada), se busca analizar la relación existente entre trabajo en equipo y performance, a través del estudio concreto de las dos plantas productivas de una compañía industrial española filial de una de las más importantes multinacionales alemanas pertenecientes al sector metal, tomando como indicadores de dicho performance la productividad laboral, la calidad y el absentismo productivo, con el objeto de recoger aspectos de actitud y comportamiento además de los pu! ramente económicos. Los resultados revelan que la eficacia del grupo depende, previsiblemente, del clima tecnológico y del clima que crea la dirección a través de su influencia en el diseño de las tareas, en la composición del grupo, y en el contexto organizacional, siendo muy importantes también el diseño organizativo y la cultura de la empresa.

Most musings on the strategic management of new organizational forms -- e.g., loosely coupled systems, information-technology-enabled networks, and virtual organizations -- exhibit two fundamental research weaknesses. First, the "new organizational formists" are insufficiently grounded in research on old organizational forms and old organizational strategies. Second, most studies of new organizational forms are insufficiently grounded in data from the new organizational forms they purport to explain. This leads to a situation in which chroniclers of an important change in organizations are too-often ignored because they are atheoretical and aempirical. This study of John Brown Engineering & Construction's adoption of an explicit information technology strategy provides a specific research context in which to consider three related phenomena. The first phenomenon is the continual movement in organizational forms, from firms, to bureaucracies, to in! stitutions, and -- most recently -- to loosely coupled systems, information-technology- enabled networks, and virtual organizations. The second phenomenon is the continued accumulation of strategic options: cost leadership, differentiation, strategic alliances, vertical integration, diversification, globalization, and merger and acquisition strategies. The third phenomenon is the notion of "schizoid incoherence," a condition common to sensemakers, decision-makers, and strategy makers in which there are numerous possible directions to take.

As a macro-spectacle, Las Vegas represents a singular display of the problems which arise in attempting to distinguish meaningfully between "reality" and "fiction". In this article we provide an example of a discursive method to explore the interplay between "social relations" and "images" as critical facets of the realities and fictions which constitute the "Las Vegas Spectacle". Social relations are examined using the systematic application of critical discourse analysis and the specific images analyzed are Las Vegas films. An intrinsic feature of the various representations of Vegas is the notion of "compulsive consumption". The implications of the "Vegas phenomena" (i.e., the centrality of spectacle, consumption, and the collapse of fiction and reality) for the study of organizations and processes of organizing are also discussed.

Despite the frequent incidence of corporate turnaround and over two decades of research effort, our understanding of the phenomenon is very incomplete. A review of forty-seven studies of turnaround reveals two main reasons for this state of affairs. Firstly, problems with research design: the phenomenon has been poorly defined resulting in unrepresentative cases being selected for analysis; many important research questions have either been ignored or asked too infrequently resulting in explanations that are simplistic; and, the validity of the findings of qualitative studies is limited due, on the whole, to poor methodological execution. Secondly, investigations have largely been ad hoc in that they have either proceeded without a priori theoretical guidance or have failed to relate findings to extant theory ex post. Recommendations for future research based on stronger research designs and stronger theory are advanced in the hope that rapid adva! ncement will ensue.

This paper reflects on the first author's attempts to adapt traditional social science methods to her own purpose. The research involved developing a methodology to explore the subjective career, concerned with people's internal, self-referential views of their unfolding career experiences. The paper describes a series of problems encountered along the way, stemming directly or indirectly from the rigidity of traditional science assumptions. In contrast, the authors find encouragement in contemporary ideas about "new science," and its imagery of a self-organizing, non-linear and interdependent world. The journey leads to philosopher Paul Cilliers' principles of complex social systems, which provide an alternative, and more affirming, platform for the kind of research undertaken.

This paper examines the role of structural embeddedness as an organising phenomenon within interdependent networks. While conceptual and philosophical in nature, data from a longitudinal ethnographic case study of an icon tourism destination is used to illustrate new framings of this concept. This method of research enables deeper insights to be attained that add both explanation and understanding to our current appreciation of the interdependent organizing phenomena. The case data illustrate how the network has structural attributes of heterogeneity, interconnection and reciprocity that contribute to its anti-hierarchical state. This enables an infinite number of structural possibilities to occur, some of which can be developed to form strategic capabilities that belong to the network. Assisting this process, is a symbiotic and mutual participation from the interdependent actors which critiques the notion of structural redundancy. The paper illus! trates how the aggregated patterns have formed in the network and how reciprocal obligation has built long term exchange patterns that contribute to forming the embedded macroculture.

This article introduces the special issue on collaboration. It addresses the various perspectives on intra- and interorganizational collaboration, highlighting tensions, both in practice and research. It then presents the articles composing this special issue.