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Social work is a relatively recent development in the area of business and industry. Even though known for years under various titles and forms, there is a reawakening of the phenomenon through the establishment of social services in places of work and through the institutionalisation there of social work roles. Being an auxiliary function and much more human service oriented than the other instrumental functions of production or service, it has some unique attributes and characteristics which deserve examination. The focus here will be on some unresolved professional and organisational issues that pertain to the uniqueness of this role in regard to goals, positions, kind of clients served, and professional functioning.

The purpose of this study was to expose the phenomenon of self‐renewal and its dynamic aspects among women headteachers in mid‐career. Based on findings from an exploratory study conducted among Israeli primary school women headteachers in their mid‐career period, the study presents the phenomenon of self‐renewal that was experienced by these headteachers. This phenomenon included elements such as coping with burnout crisis, critical inner reflection, reframing managerial perspectives, elation and energy replenishing and reinforcing innovative behaviors. A conceptual frame is presented in order to understand the process of self‐renewal and its contextual and biographic determinants which enable the existence of the phenomenon in mid‐career

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.

The influence of traditional individually oriented Organization Development (OD), with its focus on psychological dispositions, on self-development and growth, is currently waning. I argue here that individually oriented OD would be well served by a new focus on habitus and social position that expand our understanding of human behavior. Using Bourdieu's concept of social position in the form of “habitus-oriented approach,” as I do here using my consulting experience, allows individually oriented OD to become a scholarly and professional site that understands human behavior in terms of both the social and the personal.

The author argues that we must stop and take a look at what our insistence on human labour as the basis of our society is doing to us, and begin to search for possible alternatives. We need the vision and the courage to aim for the highest level of technology attainable for the widest possible use in both industry and services. We need financial arrangements that will encourage people to invent themselves out of work. Our goal, the article argues, must be the reduction of human labour to the greatest extent possible, to free people for more enjoyable, creative, human activities.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new model for depicting organizational processes: the episodic spiral model (ESM).

On the basis of a strong process view as the orienting paradigm, the authors demonstrate the need for the ESM by discussing the shortcomings of two specific spiral types in the organizational literature – the knowledge creation spiral and the efficacy spiral.

A review of each spiral type through the lens of nonlinear assumptions reveals the treatment to date of organizational spirals as uni-directional and insufficient for understanding organizations. The authors propose that managers must undertake a paradigm shift in order to gain a greater awareness of both the environment in which they operate, as well as their process actions. To facilitate this shift, the ESM depicts choice points, chosen and rejected trajectories, and upward and downward environmental drafts, as well as a multi-dimensional environment, as a way of re-conceptualizing approaches to space, time, and change in organization studies.

The authors propose that the model provides a way for scholars to enhance the study of organizations by understanding that organizations exist in a more dynamic environment than previously studied; recognizing that the organization has a wider range of choices available, and acknowledging the long-lasting ramifications of both choices made and choices discarded; and obtaining a more comprehensive look at the way the organization moves through space and time at any given moment. Taken together, the authors hope that these contributions allow organizational scholars a new approach to theorizing, exploring, and writing about the organizations they study.

The purpose of this paper is to explore post-Bolian reflexive theatre-based learning (TBL) theory and practice, in conjunction with meta-language and learning from experiences to address the gaps and silos between top-level macro strategy planning and operational micro-management on-going challenges in a contemporary new public management (NPM) major organizational change context.

An investigation was carried out over three months at a major French utility in a praxis-related action research context (PRAR). TBL formats, i.e. “improvisational wrestling” and “improvisational cabaret”, were adapted and put into practice.

A reflective process in which participants developed an enhanced sense of ownership and interest in the targeted organizational structure was developed. It allowed for collectively created contextual in-house knowledge, innovative practices and tools that supported the change initiative.

The main limitation of this research is that it is case-based, restricting the generalizability of its findings. Future research could examine the general validity of improvisational TBL forms and the way they can contribute to the creation of participatory innovation oriented corporate cultures. Also, an interesting research question would be to investigate how organizations, once having undertaken NPM initiatives, can continue nurturing a collaborative practice-based organizational culture over the long-haul, showing a clear need for longitudinal studies.

The present initiative and case study was deemed as successful by all stakeholders, and the programme of engaged change management sustainable and self-reinforcing.

This study extends the knowledge of the role of arts in enhancing organizational reflection. To the best of the knowledge, the TBL formats employed have never been used previously in PRAR. The paper builds links between organizational management, knowledge creation and micro-level organizational innovation. It fills a research gap concerning the content and the practices enabling innovation processes. Last but not the least, this study builds an actionable and replicable (yet not generalizable) framework based on reflexive theatre techniques as a novel learning approach in knowledge production in public sector enterprises undergoing a major organizational change.

The purpose of this article is to re‐appraise the significance of Lewin's group dynamics theory empirically in the context of technology related change in local government.

The paper examines qualitatively the change management processes in the five city councils selected for this study that have developed eservices. A total of 23 face‐to‐face, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with key managers of participating city councils.

The present study finds that participating Australian city councils are experiencing some degree of disconfirmation of functions, while some participating Australian city councils still maintain a quasi‐stationary equilibrium state. There are some challenges in terms of inter‐department integration and empowering business units to demonstrate explicit ownership of Eservices adoption. Empirical evidence presented in this study supports Lewin's argument that the main focus of change should be on group behaviour rather than individual behaviour.

This study covers five organizations that are from the same geographical proximity and metropolitan area. The findings are limited to government organisations.

The findings of this study would be useful for facilitating technology oriented change in public sector organisations.

This paper reinforces Lewin's argument that to understand change and the individual in the changing organisation, it is necessary to identify, plot, and establish the dynamics of the group. Some insights are provided regarding the complexity of group dynamics and the impact they have when implementing organisation wide‐change.