Search results

The aim of this paper is to introduce this special issue of Management Decision by exploring the themes of the issue and the contribution of each of the articles in the collection.

The paper reviews notions of ethics, justice and responsibility. It then uses the framework developed through this review as the basis for an appreciation of the articles that constitute the issue.

Finds that it is an important reminder to managers and employees who constitute the entities to which “responsibility” is generally attached, that responsibility, ultimately, is irreducible beyond the individual, who cannot simply “follow orders”.

This article provides an introduction to, and suggests an overarching framework for, this special issue on questions we ask about ethics in a global marketplace.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the value of management history as a contributor to the development of the theory and practice of management and, to the extent that it is necessary to absorb the past in order to understand the present and inform the future, consider what happens to the knowledge base when the surviving “contributions” to the knowledge base are partial and, indeed, erroneous.

The articles that constitute this special issue form the launching‐pad for this discussion, with the ideas presented here combined with previous research and commentaries on the issues raised.

In The Life of Reason, Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Managers looking for the “next big thing”, without being able to incorporate it effectively into their experience, and the experience of those who are long gone, are condemned to repeat not just the past, but also the mistakes of the past. Accordingly, it is also critical for management scholars to both recognise and take advantage of earlier thinking and empirical work to inform their contemporary musings and research if they are to provide meaningful frameworks for practitioners.

Drawing on the themes presented in the articles of this special issue, the paper demonstrates the value of knowing accurately the history of management thought to scholars and practitioners alike.

This paper aims to reflect on some aspects of pedagogy in management history, using Boyer's model of scholarship as a framework for consideration.

Drawing on Boyer's model of scholarship, this paper considers how one might apply the notion of the “scholarship of representation” to one's teaching efforts in management history.

Satisfied that one's conceptions of the past are developed in ways that, as far as possible, make them useful in creating one's future, one then needs to represent those conceptions in a meaningful way. This paper considers some of the issues of which those seeking to represent those conceptions must be cognisant.

Learning from the lessons of management history depends, at least in part, on the quality of the scholarship of representation, which should be a combination of transmission and transformation.

This paper reflects on some aspects of method in management history and the importance of the self‐reflection on their world‐view that must accompany authors' endeavours, in order to be articulated in the matters they proffer for the reader's judgement.

Drawing on the insights proffered by Evans about how to study, research, write about and read history, this paper offers some thoughts on the importance of giving due consideration to method in management history.

Thomas Hobbes observed that “Out of our conception of the past, we make a future.” It behoves us then, as managers and management scholars, to be satisfied that our conceptions of the past are developed in ways that, as far as possible, avoid the problems that would make them less than useful in creating that future. This paper identifies some of the issues of which those seeking to create the future must be cognisant.

If knowing accurately the history of management thought is of importance to scholars and practitioners, then this paper alerts practitioners and commentators to the need for a sound method in producing, and learning from, the lessons of management history.

The primary purpose of this paper is to fill the research gap regarding the evolution of managerial processes within (largely family) diamond industry firms, especially over the past seven decades.

Qualitative data were gathered from interviews with 100 managers in the diamond industry in Israel, together with data from Israeli Government, industry and academic sources.

Over the recent life cycle of the diamond industry, with its changing structures and dynamics, participant firms have evolved through seven stages of engagement, from one based on trust and personal connections to more impersonal, standardized connections that exist today.

In seeking to tell the story of industry participants as a group, the differences in behaviours between the family firms and the non-family firms have not explored. This should be the work of future research, which, if aimed at teasing out the results of this study, may help shed additional light on the strategic processes that occur within family firms.

Although the firms examined in this study were from one industry (and an arguably narrow cultural base), their development over time was not dissimilar to the experience reported in other industries and cultures. This suggests that the components of the evolution of the strategic process that ensues within family firms may be generalizable throughout cultures. In the absence of kin relationships, the importance of trust in their dealings cannot be overstated.

The findings demonstrate how one group of participants in the global diamond industry has responded to the changing economic, social and political contexts of their operations, where trust and personal connections have been replaced by more impersonal, standardized dealings.

The paper aims to explore themes in Drucker's work which provide messages for current turbulent times. Based on a literature review of both Drucker's work and contemporary studies in the field of complexity theory the paper's aim is to explore turbulence as a feature of levels of agreement for objectives and predictability of outcome. Drucker's concept of management as a social enterprise is seen as central together with his warning that the tools and techniques of management should not obscure its purpose.

The paper provides a literature review and a brief case study. The review identifies that contemporary complexity theory can be used to explore Drucker's work on turbulence. The case study shows how approaches based on dialogue can enable conflicting objectives to be explored and agreed outcomes achieved.

The paper concludes that in turbulent times Drucker's concept of management as a social enterprise forms a core framework that can be used within complex situations to agree objectives through dialogue.

This paper uniquely links Drucker's work with contemporary complexity theory.