Management Learning recent issues

Erratum

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:42:03 PDT

On Building Bridges, Facilitating Dialogue, and Delineating Priorities: A Tribute to Mark Easterby-Smith and his Contribution to Organizational Learning

Vera, D. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:42:05 PDT

We honor Mark Easterby-Smith for three fundamental contributions to the organizational learning (OL) discipline. First, Mark Easterby-Smith’s entrepreneurial spirit and intellectual curiosity have led him to evolve dynamically as the field has evolved. From his roots in management education and development, Mark’s work has connected the four areas of organizational learning, the learning organization, knowledge management, and dynamic capabilities. Second, consistent with his criticism that the OL field has been dominated by quantitative methods and positivist approaches, Mark has pursued qualitative work and generated rich case data and novel theories. Finally, in a discipline in which diverse terms and definitions abound and interconnections among these terms are frequently absent, Mark Easterby-Smith has taken the role of an organizer, an integrator, and a builder. He has facilitated dialogue in a very inclusive fashion. Indeed, the way in which Mark Easterby-Smith has evolved and supported the community may be his greatest contribution.

Learning to be a Qualitative Management Researcher

Cassell, C., Bishop, V., Symon, G., Johnson, P., Buehring, A. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:42:39 PDT

Conducting management research underpins management learning and education—therefore how the management researcher or practitioner learns research skills is an important issue to be addressed. This paper focuses upon the skills, knowledge and practices required to conduct qualitative management research, and the learning processes that go into their development. A total of 45 in-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders in the field. From an analysis of the interview data, the types of skills and knowledge required for the production of good qualitative research were identified, and the learning processes and practices associated with those skills were critiqued. It is argued that the processes by which we learn to do qualitative research, and become effective qualitative researchers, involve both the learning of appropriate skills and knowledge and their use and conceptualization through three types of research practice: reflection, reflexivity and phronesis. The implications of the analysis for management learning are presented.

Practice? It's a Matter of Taste!

Gherardi, S. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:43:28 PDT

This article aims to enhance our understanding of how practice is socially sustained, learnt and constantly refined by arguing that practice is much more than a set of activities—it involves, beside instrumental and ethical judgements, taste and appraisal. Taste is a sense of what is aesthetically fitting within a community of practitioners—a preference for ‘the way we do things together’. Taste is based on subjective attachment to the object of practice and is learnt and taught as part of becoming a practitioner; it is performed as a collective, situated activity within a practice. The elaboration of taste and the refining of practice within a community involves taste-making, which is based on ‘sensible knowledge’ and the continual negotiation of aesthetic categories. The article examines how in a variety of practices, taste-making occurs through three processes: sharing a vocabulary for appraisal; crafting identities within epistemic communities; and refining performances.

Islands of Practice: Conflict and a Lack of 'Community' in Situated Learning

Macpherson, A., Clark, B. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:46:45 PDT

We examine how, in a utility company, existing practices and performance systems limited the scope of situated learning. We contribute to the understanding of situated learning by exploring how conflict, systems and artefacts also shape the trajectory of situated learning rather than just a sense of identity or meaningful participation. Systems and artefacts mediate interactions in organizations and potentially contribute to boundaries between teams, resulting in ‘islands of practice’ and stark variations in performance. This case study broadens our understanding of situated learning in organizations by challenging the relevance of ‘community’ in contemporary organizations where conflict and transience may be prevalent. We argue that practices and objects/artefacts are a fruitful way of researching organizational learning; situated learning in organizations is likely to be continually emerging against a constant battle to stabilize an appropriate set of practices that support the aims of management.

The Silent and the Silenced in Organizational Knowing and Learning

Blackman, D., Sadler-Smith, E. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:35:30 PDT

Research on silence within organizations and learning is sparse. This article is concerned with exploring the concept of silence in organizational settings, delineating its various forms (silent and silenced) and critically examining the relevance of these various manifestations for management and organizational learning. Following a brief review of the concept of the Polanyian notion of tacitness and how it relates to our conceptualization of silence, we offer a taxonomy of silence comprised of several ways of knowing (tacit, intuitive, insightful and pre-conscious) and voice (repressed, withheld and suppressed). The theoretical and practical implications of the taxonomy for management education, training and development are discussed.

Political Leadership, Bureaucracies and Business Schools: A Comfortable Union?

Clarke, M., Butcher, D. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:35:30 PDT

One of the central issues in reconciling pluralistic and bureaucratic forms of organizing lies in the absence of a coherent model of leadership. The intention here is to stimulate debate about the notion of political leadership as a contribution to this analysis. This approach to political leadership prioritizes the explicit acknowledgement of power relations as being central to the reconciliation of diverse interests, and to the building of moral communities in organizational settings. In developing this idea we explore the organizational context for the emergence of political leadership and consider its distinguishing features with reference to both theory and practice. Consideration is given to its utility in building moral organizational communities and how this approach to conceptualizing leadership might be furthered through business school education.

'Good Night and Good Luck'

Elkjaer, B., Vince, R. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:35:30 PDT

Review: The Feminine in Management Consulting: Power, Emotions and Values in Consulting Interactions SHEILA MARSH. New York: Palgrave, 2009. 318 pp. ISBN 9780230207165

Muhr, S. L. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:35:30 PDT

Review: Unmanaging: Opening up the Organization to its Own Unspoken Knowledge THEODORE TAPTIKLIS. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008. 237 pp

Pritchard, J. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:35:30 PDT

Review: Organizing Words: A Critical Thesaurus for Social and Organization Studies YIANNIS GABRIEL. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 368 pp. ISBN 9780199213221 (hbk); ISBN 9780199213214 (pbk)

Bristow, A. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:35:30 PDT

Review: Foucault and Lifelong Learning: Governing the Subject ANDREAS FEJES AND KATHERINE NICOLL (eds). London and New York: Routledge, 2008. 218 pp. {pound} 22.99 (pbk). ISBN 9780415424028 (hbk); ISBN 9780415424035 (pbk); ISBN 9780203933411 (ebk)

Fougere, M. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:35:30 PDT

Review: Gender and Diversity in Management CAROLINE GATRELL AND ELAINE SWAN. London: Sage, 2008. 107 pp. {pound}14.99 (pbk). ISBN 9781412928243

Ford, J. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:35:30 PDT

Review: The Black Box of Journal Editorship Still Needs Opening: Opening the Black Box of Editorship YEHUNDA BARUCH, ALISON KONRAD, HERMAN AGUINIS, AND WILLIAM STARBUCK. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 296 pp. {pound}55.00 (hbk). ISBN 9780230013605

Prichard, C. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:35:30 PDT

Breaking the Boundaries of Existing Knowledge: A Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Management Learning

Vince, R., Elkjaer, B. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

Licence to Think

Grey, C. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

In this reflection on the 40th volume of Management Learning I offer some thoughts about its special character. This, I suggest, consists in part in the provision of a forum for relatively unconventional work, including speculative essays. To create and sustain such a forum requires not only intellectual courage but also a willingness to confront the proliferation of ranking systems for journals, which tend to promote conformity. Given that the pressure of such systems is increasing, the ‘thought leadership’ that can come from less conventional writing is ever more difficult to sustain, and it is to the credit of the journal that it continues to provide a home for such work.

A Celebration: Reflections on Management Learning and the Humanities

McAulay, L., Sims, D. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

This article takes as its starting point the editorial that we wrote in 1995 to lay out the directions in which we thought we might see Management Learning, the journal, and Management Learning, the field, developing during our time as editors. We anchor our comments on two references: one to a novel by Balzac in which he suggests that economic reductionism is inimical to human life, and one to an article by Hendry (2006) in which he comes to very similar conclusions, but for quite different reasons and in a different context. Along the way we refer to several other articles that have appeared in Management Learning since our editorial, and delight in the development of a tapestry of learning where the narrative, the literary, the critical, the managerial, the dramaturgical, the dialogic, the aesthetic and many others all play their part.

Historical Roots and Future Directions: New Challenges for Management Learning

Turnbull James, K., Denyer, D. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

This article explores the development of Management Learning from nascent publication for a trade association focusing on applied research to an esteemed international and learned journal. Since the mid 1970s editors and contributors have dedicated themselves to the publication of scholarly, theoretical and critical approaches. They have achieved considerable success. On the whole a much more scholarly approach has been developed in understanding management learning and has helped to legitimize it as an acceptable and appropriate field of study. Conversely there have been costs associated with this mission. We reveal a relative decline of practical, user led and collaborative research papers and contributions directly addressing the concerns of executive education and development, particularly in terms of design, delivery and evaluation. The article concludes with a plea for rigorous, scholarly contributions that are also contextual and accessible to practitioners.

'This Interpreted World': Two Turns to the Social in Management Learning

Fox, S. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

Management Learning has established itself as a new field in management and organizational studies over the last 40 years. This article outlines two shifts towards ‘social’ theorizing since 1994 when the journal was rebranded. First, the turn to critical management learning, and second, the turn to practice-based studies of management learning. Both of these shifts occurred within the broader turn towards qualitative social research. While critical management learning can lean upon critical theories through which to interpret management learning in practice, it is argued that ethnomethodologically informed practice-based studies complement these approaches by examining ‘member’s methods’ as vernacular critical practices.

Reconciling an Ethic of Care with Critical Management Pedagogy

Gabriel, Y. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

The ethic of criticism has stood at the heart of western pedagogy for centuries. It has been the basis of science, morality and art as well as for the building of social and political institutions. The author argues that this ethic of criticism is sometimes at odds with the ethic of care, one that commits the carer to look after and take responsibility for the well-being of the cared-for. This ethic of care is further undermined by contemporary consumerism and its inroads into the fields of education and learning. The resulting perception of management as a field of study for young people is entirely instrumental— an effective stepping stone to launch a career, but one devoid of either intrinsic interest or social value. The author makes a plea for an enduring reconciliation of an ethic of care with an ethic of criticism as the basis for management education that is both interesting and socially useful.

Wild Frontiers--Reflections on Experiential Learning

Reynolds, M. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

Experiential learning is currently prominent in management—including ‘critical’ management, pedagogy. This article reflects on the contribution of experiential learning to management education and on the resistance it has sometimes evoked, both from academics and managers. On the basis of these observations I suggest that the significance of experiential learning is not only as an alternative way of learning but in the social and political values that it brings to both educational and organizational contexts. In view of recent post-heroic developments in conceptions of leadership, I speculate that there could be currently a better match between experiential learning approaches and organizational practice than had previously been the case.

A Reflection on the Significance of Numbers

Perriton, L. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

This article reflects on what the author considers a curious absence of curiosity about, and research looking at the practices of, management development practitioners. Whilst appreciative of the breadth and depth of qualitative research presented in this journal over the course of the last 40 years the article suggests that we are far from having the measure of management learning as a practice and that it would now be helpful—perhaps even essential if the field is to be meaningful to academics, practitioners and policy makers—to establish the boundaries of the field with the help of quantitative data about the business of management learning.

The Practice Turn-Away: Forty Years of Spoon-Feeding in Management Education

Raelin, J. A. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

This article takes a whimsical look at the state of pedagogical delivery in management education over the last 40 years, and concludes that the long tradition of what the author refers to as ‘spoon-feeding in management education’ is unlikely to end anytime soon. His case is built on neo-institutional theory, which posits that the pressures to conform to standardized classroom teaching are highly resistant based on deep-seated and long-standing consensual beliefs and traditions. The principal alternative of employing practice-based and critical approaches has been diluted in favor of the promotion of reductionist and mythological active learning strategies which, though useful, are unlikely to lead to the acquisition of prudential wisdom.

Accreditation Sickness in the Consumption of Business Education: The Vacuum in AACSB Standard Setting

Lowrie, A., Willmott, H. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

This article examines peer-administered accreditation in business education, taking AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) as its focus. Attention is directed to the educationally unhealthy consequences of an established regional mode of accreditation becoming an international benchmark for business education consumption. At the heart of the AACSB’s mission-linked approach is an evacuation of core content from business education. The change to a mission-linked architecture was motivated, it is argued, primarily by expansionist, rather than pedagogical, considerations. It coincided with a reduction in the number of US research-based schools unaccredited, the inability of many US-business schools to meet AACSB’s previous standards, the emergence of a rival accreditation agency (Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs) formed to target this market, and international competition from other accreditation bodies. We note that the mission-linked approach, underpinned by peer-review, has been good for AACSB growth but has, we suggest, been restrictive and unhealthy for business education that does not fit its ostensibly flexible and accommodating mould.

Impact and Scholarship: Unlearning and Practising to Co-create Actionable Knowledge

Antonacopoulou, E. P. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

This essay explores what is impact, why it matters and how it may be demonstrated through management scholarship that integrates both rigour and relevance. Attention is drawn to the importance of understanding the dynamic nature of practice and practising as critical processes that set important foundations for extending both the questions we ask and the ways in which we ask the questions that shape scholarship. A central message from this analysis is the importance of unlearning asking questions with research users so that the knowledge co-created can be actionable. The author illustrates how these issues can support management scholarship to deliver the impact it can have and highlights the importance of capturing the process of co-creating knowledge and facilitating knowledge integration as two areas for future Management and Organizational Learning scholarship. Possible avenues in which Management Learning can support the demonstration of impactful scholarship are also proposed.

Feminist Challenges and Futures: Women, Diversity and Management Learning

Swan, E., Stead, V., Elliott, C. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

Drawing on the category of the ‘social’ in social learning theory as a ‘mini case study’, we argue in this article that gender, race and class are still neglected in the field and practices of management learning. We suggest that feminist work is a growing part of the journal and field of management learning but on limited terms. Thus we argue that feminism has not been mobilized to interrogate core categories and concepts in management learning, such as the ‘social’ in social learning. In addition, we outline how issues of race and class are even more marginalized and raise a number of questions to indicate how management learning might be researched and theorized if race, gender and class were taken seriously as mainstream issues.

Research Methods for Organizational Learning: The Transatlantic Gap

Li, S., Easterby-Smith, M., Bartunek, J. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

Research design has a notable impact on the nature of management and organizational research, and there have been numerous mentions, largely anecdotal, of differences in research design between journals published in the UK and USA. This article describes a systematic study of these supposed differences through content-analysis of 295 articles about organizational learning published in eight leading British- and US-based journals over the past 20 years. The results demonstrate substantial differences in data sources, data collection, and the scale of investigations. We discuss their impact on gaps in the study o f organizational learning and o f fer our own thoughts on possible solutions (as well as challenges) for bridging these gaps.

Improvisation and Learning in Organizations-- An Opportunity for Future Empirical Research

Vendelo, M. T. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

Since the mid 1990s improvisation in organizations has attracted increasingly more attention from scholars of organizations, but in Management Learning, articles investigating learning and improvisation in organizations are absent, even if reviews of the literature on organizational improvisation suggest close links between the two concepts. Hence, there appears to be room for scholars to pursue empirical studies of connections between improvisation and learning in organizations, and thus, the purpose of this article is to provide inspiration for production and publication of such studies in Management Learning. First, the article presents a commonly accepted definition of improvisation. Thereafter, it looks at connections between improvisation and learning in organizations, and it describes recent empirical research investigating relationships between learning and improvisation in organizations. It then addresses challenges facing scholars of improvisation and learning in organization, and finally, it identifies interesting organizational contexts for empirical studies of improvisation and learning in organizations.

Popular Critiques of Consultancy and a Politics of Management Learning?

Sturdy, A. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

In this short article, I argue that popular business discourse on the role of management consultancy in the promotion and translation of management ideas is often critical, informed by more or less implicit ethical and political concerns with employee security, equity, openness and the transparency and legitimacy of responsibility. These concerns are, in part, ‘sayable’ because their object is seen as a scapegoat for management. Nevertheless, combined with the popular form of their expression, they can support and legitimize critical studies of management learning, a discipline which otherwise has become overly concerned with processual and situational phenomena at the expense of broader political dynamics and of the content and consequences of management and management knowledge.

Reflection and Mindfulness in Organizations: Rationales and Possibilities for Integration

Jordan, S., Messner, M., Becker, A. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

The notion of reflection has featured strongly in Management Learning in recent years. While there is an important body of knowledge on how organizations can foster reflection-on-action, less seems to be known about how they can promote reflection-in-action. We suggest that reflection-in-action is closely linked to the phenomenon of mindfulness and we outline what existing research on mindfulness may teach us about understanding and organizing reflection-in-action. We believe that integrating the perspectives taken in these two streams of literature is important for a clear understanding of why some organizations seem to learn ‘better’ than others and why some initiatives to promote reflection and learning are more successful than others.

Coping with the Concept of Knowledge: Toward a Discursive Understanding of Knowledge

Geiger, D., Schreyogg, G. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

The present paper is a response to a paper published by Ursula Schneider in Management Learning (Vol. 38, No.5) in which we try to clarify our position and illustrate how a discursive understanding of knowledge, as developed in our essay, can enrich the management learning debate. In building on Habermas’ theory of communicative action we suggest an understanding of knowledge which is based on intersubjective reasoning processes.

Quod erat demonstrandum? A Reaction to Geiger and Schreyogg: 'Coping with the Concept of Knowledge: Toward a Discursive Understanding of Knowledge'

Schneider, U. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

This short essay is a reply to Geiger and Schreyögg’s reaction to the author’s article and was inspired by the editors and all authors alike. As we agree on the discursive character of (academic) knowledge, dialogue is the silver bullet to clarify meanings and thereby one’s own thinking. I thank the editors for the opportunity to respond and my colleagues for their reply (Geiger and Schreyögg, this issue). The response will be structured in three steps. First, it will delineate the ideas and concepts on which all authors seem to agree. This will be followed by the attempt to elaborate distinctly, on which concepts and/or interpretations the authors seem to disagree. In a third step some consequences of the consensus on concepts as well as on dissent for theories of knowledge and learning will be deduced.

Something Old, Something New and Something Puzzling: A Commentary on the Schneider-Geiger and Schreyogg Debate

Nicolini, D. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

In this commentary, I suggest that the discussion between Schneider, Geiger, and Schreyögg revives some of the themes of the debate between Habermas and Luhmann, two of the main figures of post-war German social philosophy. Both Habermas and Luhmann put meaning making and knowledge at the centre of their theorization and therefore speak directly to the issue of knowledge and organizing. One of the effects of the discussion between Schneider, Geiger, and Schreyögg is that of enriching the current conversation on these themes and opening new opportunities for future research. In the commentary, however, I also note a tendency to provide a revisionist and edulcorated version of both Habermas’ ideas and some of the principles of post-modernism. I therefore ask whether we should resist readings that expunge all the emancipatory potential from radical authors so that they can become usable for managerial purposes. I conclude by purporting the idea that the mission o f organizational scholars is to generate knowledge about business but not necessarily for business.

Ursula Schneider 1953--2009: A Dedication

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:03:36 PDT

Towards a Critical Pedagogy of International Business: The Application of Phronesis

Sliwa, M., Cairns, G. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:27 PDT

In this article, we contribute to debate on the possibilities and role of critical pedagogy in management education, with particular reference to the field of international business (IB). We engage with what we see as a focus on reproducing extant models of IB practice in the canon of IB textbooks. In these texts, we identify a concentration upon multinational enterprises (MNEs) and MNE managers as the key actors in IB, with a prioritization of their interests and marginalization of those of other involved and affected parties. In seeking to critically engage with these texts in the classroom context, we propose the need for a constructive critical pedagogy and posit the possibilities for this through application of contemporary interpretation of the concept of phronesis.

Other Possibilities? The Contribution to Management Education of Alternative Organizations

Reedy, P., Learmonth, M. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:27 PDT

Business education tends to reinforce the neo-liberal view that the best, perhaps the only desirable model of organization is the managed corporation. Furthermore, in competing to attract students, business schools frequently stress that lucrative careers and personal success can be achieved through management qualifications. All this arguably encourages the competitive and individualistic pursuit of wealth, status and power that reflects the dominant values underpinning much of contemporary western society. Our article suggests an antidote to these developments by proposing the more prominent study of `alternative organizations' within business schools. Alternative organizations pursue very different ends, in different ways from mainstream business corporations, so studying them has the potential to stimulate debate and raise questions about the individualistic and instrumental attitudes implicit in much business education and research. Importantly, the study of alternative organization also suggests a range of possibilities for radically rethinking organization(s)—including business schools—and the place of managers, along with others, within them.

Agency-Based View of Learning within the Multinational Corporation

Saka-Helmhout, A. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:27 PDT

Organizational learning within the international management field is commonly understood as knowledge transfer. Context-based and actor-centred investigations into the aspects of the social system that shape the learning process have received less attention. This study highlights the role of agency as embedded in MNC coordination networks where knowledge is distributed across a social system to account for non-isomorphic patterns of learning. It points to the social dimension of MNC learning by explicating actors' responses to acquired knowledge. The study is based on case studies that systematically compare the ways in which parent company knowledge diffuses to subsidiaries in the European chemical industry. It concludes that learning within multinational corporations is shaped by actors' orientation to drawing on the past, the present, and the future to inform their current practice beyond knowledge transfer.

Complicating the Organization: A New Prescription for the Learning Organization?

Holmqvist, M. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:27 PDT

As a result of their learning techniques, organizations tend to generate dominant behavior of either exploitation or exploration making a balanced attention to them hard to achieve. But how can the process through which this undesirable phenomenon develops be made more complicated? Largely this problem remains a neglected one in organizational learning theory. It is important to better understand how organizations can take measures to reduce the pathological effects that learning breeds. In this article I explore the idea of `complicating the organization' in order to constrain organizations from becoming swiftly locked in learning behavior of excessive exploitation or exploration. I suggest that contemporary organizations should complicate their learning through various interorganizational collaborations. In interorganizational learning activities, organizations have the potential to learn slowly because of being poorly focused in their attention to their experiences. Hence, they may remain open to reflect upon their current operations. They will be learning, but not in a too simpleminded and myopic way by reducing the speed through which competency traps of exploitation and exploration develop.

What if We Shifted the Basis of Consulting from Knowledge to Knowing?

Hicks, J., Nair, P., Wilderom, C. P. M. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:27 PDT

In this article, we argue that a focus on the debunking of consulting knowledge has led to a disconnect between the research and the practice of management consulting. A renewed focus on consulting practice, that is, the doing of consultancy itself, affords an opportunity for bringing clients, practitioners and researchers of consulting closer together. We sketch an outline of an alternative approach to consulting practice, based not on knowledge, but on knowing, the socially situated activity whereby knowledge is applied and created. Borrowing from the practice-based theories of organizational knowledge and knowing, we explore how key aspects of consulting practice—problem solving, participation and knowledge transfer—might be handled differently when we give primacy to practice. We discuss the viability of this alternative approach, and argue that despite established relations of power and politics, the dynamic and indeterminate nature of practice environments does afford some space for this and other alternative forms of consulting practice to take hold.

Conflicting Identities and Power Between Communities of Practice: The Case of IT Outsourcing

Hong, J. F. L., O, F. K. H. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:27 PDT

Previous studies of communities of practice had often emphasized the ease with which members are able to participate in the collective learning process through joint practices within a particular community. However, nothing much has been done to reveal the difficulties and problems of learning between different communities due to different and sometimes conflicting identities and power inequalities. This article reports a failed experience of a tertiary institution to outsource its information technology (IT) department. By highlighting the social conflicts experienced by the in-house IT technicians in coordinating with the outsourcing staff, we argue that the received unitary, managerialist viewpoints of communities of practice somehow neglect the broader social context and micro-political factors of learning. This neglect underestimates the critical challenges of resolving the social tensions caused by multiple identities and embedded power differentials across different communities of practice.

Review Section: Leadership Learning: Knowledge into Action KIM TURNBULL JAMES AND JAMES COLLINS (eds). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 223 pp. {pound}55.00 (hbk). ISBN 9780230516106

Cowell, R. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:27 PDT

Review Section: Leadership as Identity: Constructions and Deconstructions J. FORD, N. HARDING, AND M. LEARMONTH. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 192 pp. {pound}55.00 (hbk). ISBN 0230516327

Gatrell, C. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:27 PDT

Review Section: Management Development: Perspectives from Research and Practice ROSEMARY HILL AND JIM STEWART (eds). London: Routledge, 2007. 337 pp. {pound}80.00 (hbk). ISBN 9780415396028 Human Resource Development in the Public Sector: The Case of Health and Social Care SALLY SAMBROOK AND JIM STEWART (eds). London: Routledge, 2007. 426 pp. {pound}85.00 (hbk). ISBN 978020396831

Perriton, L. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:27 PDT

Review Section: Reflective Review: Management and Leadership Development CHRISTOPHER MABEY AND TIM FINCH-LEES. London: SAGE, 2008. 272 pp. {pound}26.99 (pbk), {pound}70.00 (hbk). ISBN 9781412929028 (pbk), 9781412929011 (hbk)

Taylor, S. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:27 PDT

Review Section: Continuing the Journey of Reflexivity: Response to Scott Taylor's Review

Mabey, C., Finch-Lees, T. — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:02:27 PDT

Introduction: The Critical Power of the `Practice Lens'

Gherardi, S. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:08:04 PDT

Revisiting the Concept of Practice: Toward an Argumentative Understanding of Practicing

Geiger, D. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:08:04 PDT

In recent years, the topic of organizational practices has come to the fore in organization studies. A practice perspective is meant to provide a new method for studying organizations beyond the formal, quantifiable and abstract. But despite, or because of, its prominence the concept of practice has been used in a variety of ways and to evoke different associations. This article is intended to critically review the current approaches of practice-based studies in organizational analysis. The discussion shows that approaches that understand practice simply as `what actors do' are not unfolding much critical power in organization studies, as opposed to epistemic-normative conceptions of practice which open a non-cognitive, non-positivist and non-rationalist avenue in organizational analysis. In order to enrich our understanding of practices in organizations—particularly in circumstances of breakdowns and conflicting ethical values—a Habermasian conception of practice is introduced which distinguishes between life-world practices following a narrative mode of communication and discourses which are argumentative in nature.

Becoming (a) Practice

Bjorkeng, K., Clegg, S., Pitsis, T. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:08:04 PDT

This article presents findings from longitudinal ethnographic research of a mega-project alliance. For five years we followed the leadership team of a large Australian Alliance Program made up of a large public and several private organizations, analyzing `practice' as novel patterns of interaction developed into predictable arrays of activities, changing and transforming while at the same time continuing to be referred to as `the same'. In this article we focus on three such arrays of activities: authoring boundaries, negotiating competencies and adapting materiality. We suggest that these are essential mechanisms in becoming a practice. While most studies of practice deal with already established practices, the significance of our research is that we develop a notion of practice as it unfolds. In this way we can provide a better account of the constant change inherent in practices.

Intentionality, Agency, Change: Practice Theory and Management

Blackler, F., Regan, S. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:08:04 PDT

Practice research that has been influential in management and organizational studies has featured stable teams and established communities of practice. In recent years however, many work settings have become fluid, transitory and uncertain. Theories that explore collective intentionality and distributed agency are particularly relevant to such situations. Commenting on recent contributions this article concentrates on activity theory. The analytic strengths of activity theory are illustrated by a study of the reorganization of social services for vulnerable children and families. Its implications for action are illustrated by a comparison with a `value rational' approach to intervention.

Practising Gender in Organizations: The Critical Gap Between Practical and Discursive Consciousness

Mathieu, C. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:08:04 PDT

Practice oriented approaches to gender in studying organization and management have hitherto stressed practice's performative dimension. This article opens up an underexplored and underexploited critical dimension nascent in practice theory. Via theoretical development and empirical illustration it is argued that a powerful critical opportunity is opened up to practice theory by exploring the various ways in which gaps between practical and discursive consciousness manifest themselves and how these various manifestations impact what is and can be known in social situations. By invoking and refining Giddens' (1979) distinction between practical and discursive consciousness we explore different situations involving the ways gendered practices are enacted and practically and discursively met. We also highlight how the authority of practices and the social institutions they are embedded in can inhibit discursive penetration, that is, knowledge and exploration of the processes and implications of practical conduct and the social institutions upon which they rest. It is concluded that we have much to gain by widening the practice lens and looking at the presence, absence and interplay of both practical and deliberative consciousness in our analyses.

Articulating Practice through the Interview to the Double

Nicolini, D. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:08:04 PDT

The article aims to realize the critical potential of the practice lens by contributing to the development of a coherent set of methodologies for investigating work and organizational activity. It does so by introducing and critically assessing the `interview to the double' as a method to articulate and represent practice. After briefly illustrating its history and usage, the article analyses in depth the setting generated by this unusual interview method. It argues that the nature of the encounter produces narratives that are often morally connoted and idealized in character. As a consequence the method is especially useful to capture the going concerns which orient the conduct of the members and the normative and moral dimension of practice. The article also shows that because it mimics familiar instruction-giving discursive practices, the method constitutes an effective textual device to convey this moral and normative dimension in a way that remains faithful to its situated and contingent nature of practice.

Reviews Section: The Clinton Charisma: A Legacy of Leadership DONALD T. PHILLIPS. New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 247 pp. + illus., ISBN 13 97814039 78166, 101403978166 Hail to the CEO: The Failure of George W. Bush and the Cult of Moral Leadership JAMES HOOPES. Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 2008. xiv + 131 pp. ISBN (hbk) 9780313347849

Kerr, R. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:08:04 PDT

Reviews Section: Mechanisms of Hope: Maintaining the Dream of the Rational Organization NILS BRUNSSON. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press: Liber Universiteitsforlaget, 2006. 239 pp. $36.84, {pound}20.00. ISBN 8763001454

Weir, D. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:08:04 PDT