Management and Organization Theory

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

" Those machines whose output was so great that all men might be clothed; those new methods of agriculture and new agricultural implements, which promised crops so big that all men might be fed—the very instruments that were to give the whole community the physical basis of a good life turned out, for the vast majority of people who possessed neither capital nor land, to be nothing short of instruments of torture. " (Mumford 1922, pp. 115-116, emphasis added) We grew corn at the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm gardens this year, and while the corn stalks grew to be over eight feet high they were barren. The corn grew tall, but it was unable to bear fruit because of the northerly environment it grew in. Similarly, we grew a strain of tobacco that was gifted to the gardens by a company from the US, and while the tobacco grew tall, had big, beautiful leaves, and even began to flower, it did not mature to the point of bearing its seed pods. The tobacco grew tall, but it was unable to bear fruit because of the northerly environment it grew in. Post-Industrial society can be likened to such a plant, which grew tall from the seed—from the utopian myth—of industrial society but failed to bear the fruits portended by these myths because of the environment (the Paternalist Worldview [Barnesmoore 2017a; Barnesmoore 2017b; Barnesmoore 2017c]) it grew in.

 Performance appraisal has been the focus of considerable research for almost a century. Yet, this research has resulted in very few specific recommendations about designing and implementing appraisal and performance management systems whose goal is performance improvement. We believe that a reason for this is that appraisal research became too interested in measurement issues and not interested enough in ways to improve performance, although some recent trends in the area have begun moving the field in the right direction. We review these trends and their genesis, and propose a motivational framework as a means of integrating what we have learned and generating proposals for future research that focus on employee's performance improvement.

Looking at the brief history of management, various schools and theories of management have emerged, some broad and some narrow in scope while some are specialized. Dejon (1979, p.7) cites that each thought or theory has its own perspectives yet none is easily comprehended. These thoughts offer several standpoints.

This study examined the processes linking abusive supervision to employee contextual performance by focusing on the mediating influence of emotional exhaustion and the moderating influence of work unit structure. Data were obtained from 285 subordinate-supervisor dyads from three manufacturing companies in north-eastern China. The results revealed that: (i) emotional exhaustion mediated the relationships between abusive supervision and the contextual performance dimensions of interpersonal facilitation and job dedication; and (ii) work unit structure moderated these relationships such that the relationships were stronger in mechanistic than in organic work unit structures.

The paper reports on both methodological and substantive findings. It presents a method for generating simplified representations for regional urban populations, their geographical sub-populations and communities. the method generates greatly simplified high-resolution socio-economic profiles of populated geographical areas from complex large census data sets.

As the largest and fastest growing transition economy in the world, China's entrance onto the global stage has been swift and dramatic. As such, almost every facet of entrepreneurship, from the identification of nascent opportunities to the challenges of managing triple-digit growth to the transformation of firms from dying to emerging industries, can be studied as natural experiments. The four papers in this issue are dedicated to exploring entrepreneurial innovation in the Chinese private economy. They include two clinical studies, one on the impact of the Beijing Olympics on entrepreneurship, and the other on the co-evolution of guanxi networks and entrepreneurial growth. Two studies test theories explaining the organizational drivers of innovation and entrepreneurship. In the best traditions, these four studies offer theoretical insights on the broader implications of entrepreneurship research in the Chinese context. We locate the findings offered by these four papers in the systems, organizational and social contexts of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship research. Finally, we offer some suggestions for future research and ways in which advances in the theoretical conversation should proceed.

If you fail to act now, history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people." (King 1959) "Future planners assume that today's human behavior is normative, explaining it as adaptive to current conditions and part of a line of progress from prior Western or Euro-centric existence. There is a lack of awareness of how "worldview" has influenced the state of affairs in the world today." (Four Arrows and Narvaez 2016, p. 2) have on one's descendants. Interconnectedness fosters harmony by promoting responsibility and reciprocity, and harmony is considered the most powerful energy in the universe." (Methot 2012) "In Indigenous sciences, the world is often understood in terms of flows of energies (and sometimes entities) across a permeable boundary between manifest and unmanifest realities. Working relationships with forces deemed "superstitious" or "irrational" in modern science are significant aspects of social processes and healing practices. Maintaining these worldviews and practices is an uphill battle against the hegemony of modern scientific thought and the legacy of missionaries and educators who tried so hard to dismantle Indigenous knowledge systems. Even among scientists today, those who try to work outside the mechanistic paradigm in ways that approach Indigenous science are denounced as crackpots." (Herman 2008, p. 75) Returning to our discussion of , accepting that being 'realistic' means accepting the status quo is just fine if accepting the status quo is tenable for you in your seat of privilege, but it is not tenable if accepting the status quo means accepting the suffering and death of your homeland, nonhuman kin, family, friends, communities, etc. By not telling students how things fit together in the political, social, economic, etc. systems of Colonial Modernity or how we should think and feel about the oppressive ways that things fit together in colonial modernity teachers simply allow the exploitative, dominant culture of Colonial Modernity and its many and varied mythological rationalizations for oppression (which have been inscribed upon all those people who are socialized within Colonial Modernity) to go unproblematized (which is to say to retain their 'commonsensical', banal invisibility). By approaching education in a non-didactic manner authors like Cook implicitly support the hegemonic status quo and the many and varied forms of oppression therein. Obviously students will retain their ability to accept or reject didactic narrations, but the key is that didactic narrations which counter the dominant culture serve to problematize the banal invisibility of the dominant culture and its associated myths, ideas, logics, ontological assumptions, etc. (i.e. Worldview) that produce and legitimate the oppressive, hierarchical relations between things that typify Colonial Modernity.

I had two experiences today that have shed some light on the nature of the contemporary academy. The first came in responses to my use of the term 'Abrahamic' when describing the general conceptions of order (via hierarchical domination and submission [Barnesmoore 2017a; Barnesmoore 2017b], which is to say deliverance into an improved order through conquest and colonization [Warrior 1989]) that form the foundation for Judaism, Roman Christianity and Islam. The second came in a response to my use of the term 'Indigenous Worldview' when describing the differences between conceptions of natural order in the Indigenous Worldview (as an inherent good to be emulated) and conceptions of natural order in the Paternalist and Paternalist-Modernist Worldviews (as evil, fallen, chaotic or the like and thus in need of improvement through domination) from which Colonialism and Imperialism were born. Both responses came from the same professor, and both responses highlight the dangers inherent to the fetishization of difference that has come to typify contemporary Geography in Canada (and indeed much of the 'postmodern', Mostmodern academy).

When we examine psychoanalytic theory the burning question that should occupy our time should concern where the complex of ideas that constitute Western civilization originated, how they originated, and whether they have any realistic correspondence to what we can observe and expreince in nature. I think they do not correspond, and I wonder quite often and quite profoundly if the Western psyche has been interfered with at some remote time in planetary history." (Deloria Jr. 1999b, p. 30) 'Primal Feminine Dominion' "Let me emphasize neolithic man's concentration on organic life and growth: not merely a sampling and testing of what nature had provided, but a discriminating selection and propagation, to such good purpose that historic man had not added a plant or animal of major importance to those domesticated or cultivated by neolithic communities. Domestication in all its aspects implies two large changes: permanence and continuity in residence, and the exercise of control and foresight over processes once subject to the caprices of nature. With this go habits of gentling and nurturing and breeding. Here woman's needs, woman's solicitudes, woman's intimacy with the process of growth, woman's capacity for tenderness and love, must have played a dominating part." (Mumford 1961, p. 12) "Under woman's dominance, the neolithic period is pre-eminently one of containers… It was in permanent containers that neolithic invention outshone all earlier cultures…" (Mumford 1961, p. 16) Whether we accept the notion of a feminine principle associated with love, care, regeneration, resiliency-with the qualities of darkness and the night-or not, and while we should surely reject the patriarchal undertones in Mumford's work, it is clear that Mumford's summation of woman's 'dominating part' clearly illustrates his subjugation to the Artificial Worldview and its assumptions concerning the relationship between order and domination. Femininity, like masculinity, need not play a dominating part… The feminine principle, which, like the masculine principle, exists in all people regardless of their biological identity, can just as easily be seen as playing a reciprocal, harmonious role of power with (power with the order of nature, power with the masculine principle, power with our plant and animal kin, etc.) rather than a domineering role of power over. What is more, the notion of 'permanent containers' is as problematic as the notion of 'permanent dwellings'-better that we say long term rather than permanent, for nothing with a beginning lacks an end… This is the same distinction we have attempted to draw between the quest for life extension and the quest to 'conquer death' (to 'eat death') and thus attain 'permanent life'.

The theoretical field of leadership is enormous-there is a need for an overview. This article maps out a selection of the more fundamental perspectives on leadership found in the management literature. It presents six perspectives: personal, functional, institutional, situational, relational and positional perspectives. By mapping out these perspectives and thus creating a theoretical cartography, the article sheds light on the complex contours of the leadership terrain. That is essential, not least because one of the most important leadership skills today is not merely to master a particular management theory or method but to be able to step in and out of various perspectives and competently juggle the many possible interpretations through which leadership is formed and transformed.

s (2012) inquiry into Freire's spirituality provides some low hanging fruit that is just too juicy to pass up (even if we end up a bit sidetracked on the way-that is the point of nomadic wandering-who knows what we might find around the next bend, and what a shame if we were to pass by something important because we already had preconceived notions about what we are looking for 1 -don't let the pace of neoliberal life stop you from taking a moment to pick berries as you walk). For example, following Brookfield (2005), Boyd argues "…critical theory envisions a world that is characterized by equity, justice and participatory democracy." (Boyd 2012, p. 764) Barnesmoore's (2018b) critical theory, on the other hand, argues that participation in structurally unjust systems like hierarchical, legalistic, western Liberal Democracy (which is structurally unjust because its structures presume that the order of human nature is evil and good order must be manufactured through hierarchical domination, which deprives humans of intimacy with our goodly, loving natural order) is slavish and inherently oppressive. Critical theorists aren't very critical if, like Brookfield and Boyd , they simply accept A.D./C.M. Worldview(s) and thus the obfuscating rhetoric about liberty that serves to veil the inherent oppressiveness of systems of hierarchical oppression like liberal democracy. The Red Hat, White Supremacist Republicans and the Neoliberal Imperialist Democrats are participating in democracy, as are the moderates that span the space between these two 'wings', and given their subjugation to A.D./C.M. Worldview(s) there is no shred of a connection between participation and emancipation/liberty (this is of course the flaw of all 'participatory' models in our sickly world). The solution is not anti-participatory models. The solution comes in helping people towards the freedom over worldview assumptions and access to healthy worldview assumptions that are necessary for emergence of subjectivities that can participate in participatory democratic systems in a manner that will lead towards emancipation/liberty rather than continued enslavement to the Archons/MegaMachine and A.D./C.M. Worldview(s) as obfuscated by the illusions of freedom and agency by which liberal democracy manufactures consent for hierarchical domination of the beings of this earth by the Archons/MegaMachine. "While critical theory provides scholars with a cognitive framework with which to analyze and challenge existing practices and structures, spirituality is generally considered an overall orientation toward life that includes not only the intellect, but also the emotions and even physical practices. As such the concept of critical spirituality bridges two distinct and apparently irreconcilable domains of the intellect and the emotions or, in more metaphorical terms, the 'head' and the 'heart'." (Boyd 2012, p. 765)

Management theories in organizations and corporations are central to coordinating people and resources in order to accomplish their desired objectives. This essay is going to examine some of the most influential classical or scientific, human relations and systems management theories. Subsequently the three will be correlated and contrasted in order to reveal their differences and better understand the logic and driving forces behind them. To conclude, the theories relevance to modern management and the utilization of it will be reviewed whilst extracting examples from modern day businesses to support it.

Manuscript Type: EmpiricalResearch Question/Issue: This paper investigates the relationship between internal governance structures and financial performance of Indian companies. The effectiveness of boards of directors, including board composition, board size, and aspects of board leadership including duality and board busyness are addressed in the Indian context using two theories of corporate governance: agency theory and resource dependency theory.Research Findings/Insights: The study used a sample of top Indian companies taking into account the endogeneity of the relationships among corporate governance, corporate performance, and corporate capital structure. The study provides some support for aspects of agency theory as a greater proportion of outside directors on boards were associated with improved firm performance. The notion of separating leadership roles in a manner consistent with agency theory was not supported. For instance, the notion that powerful CEOs (duality role, CEO being the promoter, and CEO being the only board manager) have a detrimental effect on performance was not supported. There was some support for resource dependency theory. The findings suggest that larger board size has a positive impact on performance thus supporting the view that greater exposure to the external environment improves access to various resources and thus positively impacts on performance. The study however failed to support the resource dependency theory in terms of the association between frequency of board meetings and performance. Similarly the results showed that outside directors with multiple appointments appeared to have a negative effect on performance, suggesting that “busyness” did not add value in terms of networks and enhancement of resource accessibility.Theoretical/Academic Implications: The two theories of corporate governance, namely agency and resource dependence theory, were each only partially supported, by the findings of this study. The findings add further to the view that no single theory explains the nexus between corporate governance and performance.Practitioner/Policy Implications: This study demonstrates that corporate governance measures utilized in developed economies related to boards of directors have some synergies and relevance to emerging economies, such as India. However, the nature of business structures in India, for example the large number of family businesses, may limit the generalizability of the findings and signals the need for further investigation of these businesses. The evidence related to multiple appointments of directors suggests that there may be support for restricting the number of directorships held by any one individual in emerging economies, given that the “busyness” of directors was negatively associated with firm performance.

This paper introduces several theoretical tools for the analysis of the geographies of institutional transformation and inter-institutional competition under neoliberalism, through the case study of a peripheral trade union from Western Romania to which the author has had a privileged epistemic access. The first part of the paper discusses the truth-effects arising of this access, the second summarises the theoretical background of the research by means of the metaphor of 'polymorphous chorologies', the third excavates the history of the trade union through a five-fold grid of concern (including money and material resources, emotions, political networking, scale performance, and know-how), and the final, concluding part, theorises the failure of this trade union, and pleads for a form of active reflexivity in the practice of research.

Abstract: Obstinate actions-oriented behaviour is the study of learning and practicing behaviour theoractively, which is acquired from the content based, process based learning and spawning critical reflexivity to the learnt theoretical phenomena into practical actions. Obstinate actions-oriented behaviour is a multi-faceted behaviour that is generally
applied to gain success and to become effective through the ontology of theoractive learning. Obstinacy actions-orientation, in this study, is viewed in a positive light; and denotes a self-willed, natural and nurturing action towards the tenacious pursuit of a self-desired goal. This action is achieved by applying learning theories to practice, thus displaying theoractiveness, with self-willed obstinacy towards the individual goal or the organizational goal. Theoractive learning is grounded in content and process learning in order to generate critical reflexivity with which to judge and evaluate the learnt behaviour of an individual. This paper is conceptually designed and accumulates various relevant theoretical literature within organizations and leadership with a purpose to support the conceptual commentary. Terminologies used in this paper are precisely described and illustrated. The meanings were elucidated and supported by integrating the leadership theories. Theoretical consciousness can play a pivotal role in shaping an individual’s
competences, and in generating a theoractiveness; however, theories are often limited to content learning. Nonetheless, process-based orientation subconsciously implements these theories at a higher educational level. Obstinate actions orientation consists of both an
art-obstinacy and a science-obstinacy. Teaching by the “what method” is a science obstinate action, whereas, teaching by the “why and how” method is an art-obstinate action. Actions-oriented behaviour enables followership movement towards the leader’s desired conducive climate, creating a dominant leadership style within the context, and maintaining a leadership style fix.

Keywords: Content learning, process learning, critical reflexivity, leadership theories, action-oriented behaviour, theory and practice.

"The wound is the place where the light enters you." 1 -Rumi "…The movement to make fear the problem is also dangerous. What is needed is courage to resist the oppressive causes for unnecessary suffering 2 , and fearlessness in actions [on] behalf of children at risk [,] and we can only do this by teaching courage and fearlessness to act according to our courageous choices without hesitation." (Four Arrows 2018)

Can one be a true revolutionary without being as a vulgar revolutionary? Can one pursue revolutionary thought, behavior and conception of being-an idealism of 'what should be', which is to say 'what IS'-within the academy without being drawn into a binary struggle with 'what is'? Can we recognize that 'what is' is wrong and pursue 'what should be' without being drawn into a state of thought, behavior and conception of being that is articulated in opposition to 'what is'? Can one do their part to bring about revolution without being as a revolutionary?

The principal management theoretical lenses for examining leveraged buyouts have been the agency theory and information asymmetries. Occasionally a wider number of theories and concepts have been invoked, such as the parenting advantage, the resource-based view, and the market for corporate control. This paper reviews the fundamental literature connected with the theories and examines the applicability to the leveraged buyouts carried out by private equity firms.

"ABSTRACT: This study provides an empirically based analysis of corrupt governmental networks. We conducted 45 interviews in Hungary with different organizational actors who were actually participating in corrupt transactions or at least had first-hand
experiences of corruption. Given the secret nature of the topic, this article provides a unique insight into the phenomenon. Our findings show that corrupt elite cliques consciously design and coordinate multilevel structures of corrupt networks within and among organizations that involve a large amount of people. We identified the major network elements and their functions in corrupt transactions. The article also provides a typology of corrupt networks. The networks have different structural characteristics based on location of the ‘‘cash cows,’’ points from where the system is fed, and the actors’ positions of power. Our findings are compared with the already existing literature on dark networks, terrorist, and organized crime formations."

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a multi-perspective approach to understanding organizations? In answering the question you will need to engage with the nature of the various perspectives and how they enable and limit our understanding of organizations.

Coworking spaces not only ease the loneliness of contingent life and minimise the upfront resources of precarious careers. In this chapter, we suggest they provide an accommodating environment for work lives that exceed clear spatial boundaries. Focusing on the community manager, our fieldwork suggests that a particular mix of manual, technical and affective labor makes these jobs emblematic of a new kind of emotion work that has evolved from the early writing of Arlie Russell Hochschild, to produce a "safe and convivial" environment for professional productivity.

This is a conceptual paper in which we seek to renew interest in Māori management as a distinctive form of management within Aotearoa New Zealand. We attempt to define Māori management and discuss its relevance for today's organsiations. We examine some differences and similarities between Western and Māori management in terms of the four functions of management adapted from principles first proposed by . We propose a theoretical model of Māori management and discuss the implications of Māori management for future management research, policy and practice. We hope to evaluate our theory of Māori management through primary research in a subsequent paper.

The present article aims to answer the question of whether creativity is universal or culture-specific. We develop a conceptual framework that expands the existing knowledge in two ways. First, it distinguishes between the two dimensions of creativity -novelty and usefulness, and their relationship to culture. Second, it clarifies how the social context moderates the relationship between culture and creativity. We focus on the social context where cultural differences are likely to be more salient because of the presence of others, relative to the private work context where no one observes whether a person performs in a normative or a unique way. In addition, we propose that task structure, whether a task is tightly or loosely structured, is an important contextual characteristic that moderates the relationship between culture and creativity. Lastly, we offer several propositions to guide future research.

What is the relationship between individual members' organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB) and team-level performance? Using a social cognitive perspective, the current study proposes that the relationship is mediated by a team's cohesion and collective efficacy. We collected data at two points in time from three sources with a sample of 462 salespersons representing 62 teams (62 branches) of a financial institute in Taiwan. The results support the theoretical argument that OCB positively influences organizational performance. Furthermore, group cohesion and collective efficacy fully mediated the direct effects of OCB towards individuals and the organization on team performance. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

 Performance appraisal has been the focus of considerable research for almost a century. Yet, this research has resulted in very few specific recommendations about designing and implementing appraisal and performance management systems whose goal is performance improvement. We believe that a reason for this is that appraisal research became too interested in measurement issues and not interested enough in ways to improve performance, although some recent trends in the area have begun moving the field in the right direction. We review these trends and their genesis, and propose a motivational framework as a means of integrating what we have learned and generating proposals for future research that focus on employee's performance improvement.

Although perceptions of physically, socially, and morally stigmatized occupations -'dirty work'are socially constructed, very little attention has been paid to how the context shapes those constructions. We explore the impact of historical trends (when), macro and micro cultures (where), and demographic characteristics (who) on the social construction of dirty work. Historically, the rise of hygiene, along with economic and technological development, resulted in greater societal distancing from dirty work, while the rise of liberalism has resulted in greater social acceptance of some morally stigmatized occupations. Culturally, masculinity tends to be preferred over femininity as an ideological discourse for dirty work, unless the occupation is female-dominated; members of collectivist cultures are generally better able than members of individualist cultures to combat the collective-level threat that stigma inherently represents; and members of high power-distance cultures tend to view dirty work more negatively than members of low power-distance cultures. Demographically, marginalized work tends to devolve to marginalized socioeconomic, gender, and racioethnic categories, creating a pernicious and entrapping recursive loop between 'dirty work' and being labeled as 'dirty people.'

abstractTwo approaches to the evolution of Chinese scholarship are possible. The first – developing a theory of Chinese management – focuses on applying and refining theories developed elsewhere in a Chinese context. In this sense, the emergence of the Chinese economy represents an important natural experiment for the test and refinement of general management theories. The second – developing a

Considerable research attention has been devoted to understanding the importance of knowledge creation in organisations over the last decade. Research suggests that leadership plays an important role in knowledge creation processes. Nonetheless, there is an important omission in knowledge creation research; namely, what are the underlying processes that underpin the implications of leadership for knowledge creation? This article aims to develop a theoretical model of leadership and knowledge creation by drawing on two contrasting leadership perspectives; that is transformational leadership and leader-member exchange (LMX), and the research on open-mindedness norms. Specifically, we argue why transformational leadership is related to knowledge creation, and also theorise how openmindedness norms and LMX quality serve as underlying mechanisms to underpin the effect of transformational leadership on knowledge creation. We conclude with a discussion of implications of the model for theory and practice, and also suggest potential avenues for future research.

 We investigated the relationship between the national cultural value of power distance and collective silence as well as the role of voice-inducing mechanisms in breaking the organizational silence. Using data from 421 organizational units of a multinational company in 24 countries, we found that both formalized employee involvement and a participative climate encouraged employees to voice their opinions in countries with a small power distance culture. In large power distance cultures, formalized employee involvement is related to employee voices only under a strong perceived participative climate.

The transition of many sport organisations from being predominantly volunteer-administered and anchored in an amateur ethos to professionally managed entities has created unique challenges for the governance of sport. This paper provides a contribution to the governance literature through the presentation of a situational case where a four-stage model, drawn from an action research approach, has been used for developing a board's strategic capability and subsequent improvement in organisational performance. Action research is founded on the premise that change and research are not mutually exclusive and that dual foci on improving practice and developing theory are possible . Utilising a national sport organisation (NSO) in New Zealand the study developed and tested a structured model for improving board functioning and, specifi cally, strategic contribution. While the case to which the model has been applied is an NSO, the model and the subsequent refl ections have value for non-profi t as well as commercial entities particularly with regard to a greater understanding of the mechanisms associated with balancing the performance and conformance roles of the board.

Background: Management theories are products of their environment. Thus, the social, political , economic and technological forces present in a given time and locale create demand for a given theory and shape it. Research aims: In this perspective paper the authors present how learning has evolved in management theories over the years and how challenges imposed by Industry 4.0 may impact the concepts of learning. Methodology: The paper is based on an overview of literature and experts' work. First, the authors refer to learning in management theories from the birth of the field until the present day. Second, they portray Industry 4.0 and the current stage of implementation of its ideas. Then, they indicate the macro-environmental and workforce challenges produced by Industry 4.0. Finally, they attempt to look at the role of learning in Industry 4.0 and whether there is a need for a new theory concerning learning for the fourth industrial revolution. Key findings: The discourse of the paper suggests that new challenges require at least a modification of the existing theories concerned with learning of individuals and organisations as well as their further improvements.

We develop a three-dimensional concept of supervisor-subordinate guanxi. This concept includes affective attachment, personal-life inclusion, and deference to supervisor. Based on this concept, we conducted three studies to develop and validate a three-dimensional supervisor-subordinate guanxi measure and to examine its relationship with related constructs, such as leader-member exchange. Results from Study 1 and Study 2 provide evidence of convergent and discriminant validity of the scale, while Study 3 demonstrates the scale's incremental validity and replicates results from Study 2. Furthermore, in Study 3, we found that the three dimensions of supervisor-subordinate guanxi had different significant effects on commitment, turnover intention, and procedural justice, providing further evidence of criterion-related validity. Overall, these empirical results provide support for our three-dimensional model of supervisor-subordinate guanxi.

This study contributes to strategic human resource management (HRM) research by offering a contextualized model of HRM effectiveness. Building on HR attribution theory, we propose that the high commitment work system will be more effective in a context when: (i) employees are conditioned to trust employers and (ii) regulatory institutions are less restrictive, giving management more autonomy in human resource decisions. In such contexts, we argue that employees are more inclined to view the high commitment work system as an expression of the employer's genuine concern for employees. Hence, employees are more likely to reciprocate with high commitment. We find our contextualized HRM effectiveness model particularly useful in understanding HRM -firm performance relations in China where business environments are currently under transformation on both trust and regulations.

Authentic leadership appears as the solution to plenty of painful contemporary problems. Bad economy, bad organizational performance, bad culture would all become subject to change for the better if leaders behave more authentically, according to the line of discussion. However, the debate seems to stand on poor feet, since some core assumptions don’t stand a closer viability check. This paper highlights two core problems in the foundations of the authenticity debate such as the belief in a stable core self and the trust in a homogenous organization. The paper demonstrates not only the fragmented and narrative constitution of self and organization, we show furthermore to which hidden problem the authenticity debate refers; to which the sheer existence of the debate is already a solution. It is complexity avoidance, that the authenticity debate provides. It helps to re-install the myth of the influential leader in a situation, in which the opposite has become apparent.

A written assignment about the different theories of management and the different personalities who authored them. Also, a summary of the evolution of management.
Included:
Henri Fayol, Frederick Winslow Taylor, George Elton Mayo, Douglas McGregor

sources: wikipedia and other online sources