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Developing effective managers requires a reappraisal of the development process — for the educators, as well as the students. It is necessary to make the curricula as exciting and attractive, as well as basically useful, as possible. The method of teaching, as well as the content, must also be stimulating. The use of workshops and seminars is advocated.

Although organizational learning is often defined as the result of many individuals learning generatively in an organizational context, the argument is made that such learning is de facto coercive persuasion. Generative learning by the individual requires free choice of exit if and when cognitive redefinition becomes painful. When organizations demand such redefinition as part of culture change programs they are de facto creating a situation of coercive persuasion. We must then examine our moral position with respect to both the methods of learning and the ultimate goals of the change effort.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature, roles and dynamics of change of management accounting systems (MAS), in processes of continuous organisational learning and transformation. By studying the interaction between the accounting (and finance) function and the implementation of a Six‐sigma initiative, as the engine for organisational change, the authors seek to uncover the potential of measurement‐based systems of management for aligning business processes with corporate strategies. Such systems sustain continuous processes of transformation by infusing organisational culture with financial and non‐financial metrics of accountability.

The research is based on a longitudinal case study in which one of the authors had the opportunity to exercise what Schein called the clinical perspective; i.e. combining the role of researcher with that of helper‐consultant. There is mutual interdependence in the relationship between the authors' theoretical framework and the authors' longitudinal case study. While, on the one hand, the case research contributed to the search for an institutional explanation of the evidence experienced and collected, on the other hand, the empirical data are illuminated by the theoretical insights gained from that framework.

After first discussing cultural change, the authors rely both on the “clinical” position of one of the authors as researcher/helper‐consultant and on the insights provided by Schein's work on organisational culture and Giddens' structuration theory to develop an institutional framework for interpreting the ways in which routinised systems of accountability bind the ongoing processes of cultural transformation across time and space.

Possible limitations are: the conceptualisation of organisational culture as a shared and institutional phenomenon does not take account of wider anthropological aspects (such as the influence of national culture); the role of helper‐consultant as well as researcher may have influenced some of the authors' interpretations; the authors' analysis does not consider macro‐economic variables; and only a small percentage of shop‐floor workers were interviewed.

The paper sheds light on the role of management accounting within organisational processes of transformation far beyond their mere visible enactment. As a result, the authors develop an institutional framework to interpret the linkages between the cognitive dynamics which characterise organisational culture (viewed as shared cognitive schemas) and the behavioural and structural modalities through which they are drawn upon and reproduced by organisational members.

Defines the different categories of client that a consultant must deal with and the levels of intervention that must be considered in relation to client types. Examines the principles of process consultation that must be observed in any client relationship. These principles show how process consultation as a form of helping differs from other kinds of consultation. Argues that every consultant needs to be able to play the process consultation role.

This collection of commentaries on the reprinted 1987 article by Nancy C. Morey and Fred Luthans, “Anthropology: the forgotten behavioral science in management history”, aims to reflect on the treatment of the history of anthropological work in organizational studies presented in the original article.

The essays are invited and peer‐reviewed contributions from scholars in organizational studies and anthropology.

The scholars invited to comment on the original article have seen its value, and their contributions ground its content in contemporary issues and debates.

The original article was deemed “original” for its time (1987), anticipating as it did considerable reclamation of ethnographic methods in organizational studies in the decades that followed it. It was also deemed of value for our times and, in particular, for readers of this journal, as an historical document, but also as one view of the unsung role of anthropology in management and organizational studies.

Explores the evolution of career management systems for industrial researchers. Based on case studies of experimental career development systems for industrial researchers, combined with a survey of 151 researchers and engineers employed at a large public research institution, alternative approaches toward managing professional careers are discussed. The results indicate that the researchers’ personal career orientations, as measured by Schein’s Career Anchors Inventory, may serve as a useful predictor of their career preferences. In addition, the research enables an evaluation of alternative modes of career development for industrial R&D to be developed.

Clarifies a confusion existing in the field of consultation and organization development between formal research and data‐driven inquiry on the one hand and clinical research and client‐driven inquiry on the other. Illustrates the difference between the two approaches by showing the effects of particular approaches to data gathering. Shows how the clinical approach is synonymous with process consultation by being driven by the client′s agenda and argues that the clinical approach is more appropriate for consultation and organization development projects.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding of quality in higher education which reveals the current debates about accreditation or quality process standards as insufficient, and to propose an enhanced model for quality culture in educational organisations.

The conceptual framework is based on relevant research in the field of quality development for education, and integrates it with a series of previously published works related to quality methodologies, quality literacy and quality as a multidimensional concept. Quality is approached from an educational science perspective, and is understood as a relationship among all the participants and resources of an educational scenario.

The paper establishes the foundation for a comprehensive understanding and analysis of quality culture in organisations, focussing on higher education. While this understanding of quality as part of the organisational culture seems to gain more importance there is still a lack of fundamental research and conceptual understanding of the phenomenon in itself. Quality development in higher education is often limited to bureaucratic documentation, and disregards the development of quality as an organisation's holistic culture. However, there is a need to focus on promoting a quality culture which is enabling individual actors to continuously improve their educational practice.

The original value of the paper is to approach quality development in higher education from an organisation's cultural perspective. When the conceptual foundations for empirical research are worked out, the professionals can benefit by understanding the interrelated nature of educational quality and organisational culture in higher education institutions.