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The purpose of this paper is to review and critique three conventional assumptions about leadership and put forward an alternative framing, with leadership presented as a distinct form of intervention in particular moments to management. The paper also presents a structure for supporting leadership action by individuals and groups as an alternate to management action, which is seen as the dominant form.

Reflects an elaboration and distillation of concepts developed by the author since an earlier paper on essentially the same topic, drawing on his 20-plus years’ experience as a leadership developer.

Although not an empirical account, the paper seeks to demonstrate how, when conventional but infrequently challenged assumptions about leadership are “peeled back”, a new way of understanding leadership, especially in connection with management, is revealed.

Suggestions are offered as to how the concepts and tools presented here could be evaluated, including in comparison with established leadership frameworks.

Outlines three practices for supporting leadership action in public sector organisations. These practices are working from observation, attributing reasonableness (allowing that others are reasonable) and speaking with authenticity. Collectively, these are known as the OBREAU Tripod (with “OBREAU” comprised of the first two letters in each of the pivotal words, observation, reasonableness and authenticity).

Conceiving of leadership as a different form of in-the-moment action to management in a public sector context is a distinctive contribution to the literature.

The vagueness of consultants' ideas as to what OD is, their diverging opinions as to its technical contents and the underground nature of the practice make OD in France rather elusive. OD tends to develop only in organisations where the absence of urgent problems and the vagueness of the feeling of unease make the agents receptive to long and unconventional intervention methods and facilitate the use of these methods. In this way, the practice of French consultants which does not originate from a democratic ideology and which pays more attention to the analysis of the stakes system within each organisation goes beyond the movement of planned change. OD in France appears to become more bureaucratic, or interventions acquire certain bureaucratic features deeply rooted in the French organisational context. The French case might be used as a field of experience and reflection.

The purpose of this paper is to convey how the transition to market-based orientations by state-owned enterprises (SOEs), particularly the military sector, represents a coevolutionary process between business and regulatory institutions that has an impact on both the military and civilian markets.

The authors conducted a longitudinal case study of a military SOE, the Aosheng Group, between 1951 and 2012 to understand the dynamics between institutions and organizations. A comparative analysis between the main stages of evolution was completed, and conclusions about the main patterns of organizational and institutional change were reached.

The study reports evidence on the coevolutionary nature of change in big SOEs in China, demonstrating how institutional changes are bigger drivers in promoting reorientations than are market pressures. Within the framework of punctuated equilibrium theory, the determining role that managers may play in leading and implementing organizational reorientations is emphasized.

A triangulated methodology was employed to analyse a long period; however, its application to just a single case might be questioned in terms of generalizing any of the findings.

The longitudinal perspective applied in this case study contributes to critical questioning as to how Chinese agencies define forms of control and the goals for SOEs under their jurisdiction and the importance of allowing managerial discretion to the assigned managers.

This paper aims to explore the types of learning engendered by internal mobility (IM) by referring to the principles elaborated by Bateson (1972).

A qualitative methodology is followed with interviews among 50 professionals working at four large French firms.

A system of classification for IM is proposed, namely, replication, adaptation, innovation and revolution.

The identification of these categories invites human resource managers to reconsider the traditional career paths.

This paper brings a new perspective on the possible link between learning and IM and questions what employees really learn thanks to their moves.

This study aims to identify the responses required to repair political trust in Tunisia and the differences between two key stakeholder groups, namely, politicians and voters.

A sequential mixed method study was adopted using two data sources: semi-structured interviews conducted with citizens and politicians; and media data from TV political talk shows. Data was collected over a three-year period following several key events that affected trust.

New responses were identified to repair political trust, and these were categorized using a trust repair framework. In addition to short- and long-term responses, a new category, swift response, was identified to resolve immediate political uncertainty. The role of the trustor (i.e. voters) in actively restoring trust was identified for the first time.

This study focussed on trust repair responses suggested by voters and politicians and not necessarily responses that were implemented by government or political parties during the period of study. The effectiveness of the suggested responses in repairing trust was not evaluated.

Identification of the responses required to repair trust with voters, how these differ over time, and according to different trust violations will help Tunisian politicians rebuild trust more effectively during election and non-election periods. Notably, differences highlighted between the responses suggested by voters and politicians suggest that politicians may not understand how to repair voter trust.

Contrary to previous studies that assume a trustor (the voter) is a passive observer, this research identified the proactive role that citizens play in the trust repair process.

Many organizations and companies claim to “have TQM”. Details a collaboration between Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Quality Network and the Centre for Quality and Organization Change at Durham University Business School to assess the extent to which companies in Scotland indeed “have TQM”. The survey took place in 1993, covering 1,500 organizations and producing a 43 per cent response rate. Presents the results of the survey in detail and concludes that a TQM approach is now the rule rather than the exception for most organizations but that TQM has not as yet developed to its full potential. Expresses some doubts about TQM’s external focus and suggests that organizations need to organize TQM more round the needs of external customers.

Presents a critical analysis of the “planned change” and “learning organization” approaches to organizational change, and their underlying classical and quantum paradigms. Drawing on a review of the corresponding paradigms in modern physics, concludes that both approaches are incomplete, as they fail to identify a common unifying basis for the organization. Identifies as a unifying basis the “subjective” aspect of the organization, which is accessible in the consciousness of its individual members; then locates a comprehensive framework for organizational change in the worldview of the ancient Vedic tradition of knowledge. The corresponding strategy for organizational development is based on the utilization of systematic, effective techniques for the development consciousness which have been introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Empirical research has shown these techniques to develop the mental, physiological and social capacities of the individual. It is predicted that this consciousness‐based strategy, applied in the organizational context, will simultaneously strengthen the alignment between the organization’s goals, the development of the individual and the needs of the environment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of new public management and modernization reform policies on control in the probation service.

The paper takes interpretivist, qualitative approach. It is based on ethnographic data, collected over a one‐year period in an English regional probation service. In the course of the fieldwork, 45 employees were interviewed. Data were also collected through participant observation and analysis of formal documents.

The paper suggests that new public management and modernization reform policies are interpreted by organizational actors as control mechanisms per se.

Findings can be relevant for understanding the “control” side of the reform policies in the public sector. To date those policies have been mainly considered as driven by change rather than by control.

Eight European Union organizations are examined to assess cross cultural patterns of internationalization and human resource management practices and issues impacting organizational effectiveness and competitiveness. A framework is developed, and linkages explored among and between the characteristics of the sample set.

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.