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The purpose of this paper is to add to current discussions on the use of Lacanian psychoanalysis in organizational change. Specifically, It argues that critiques of Lacan's work must be acknowledged and incorporated into these discussions. To date, there remains a silence surrounding these critiques within organization studies.

The paper presents the existing studies that draw upon Lacan's work in the context of organizational change initiatives. It highlights the value of this theory. Next, it outlines critiques of Lacan's concepts of phallus and incest taboo, and show how these concepts can be exclusionary.

The paper finds that there remains little debate within organization studies around such critiques. Lacan tends to be employed in ways that risk reproducing particular, exclusionary aspects of his theory. A homophobic and patriarchal legacy persists in appropriations of his writing. It outlines alternative ways of reading Lacan, which aim to avoid such exclusions. It shows how introducing such alternatives is a difficult project, first, given the silence surrounding critiques of Lacan in the organizational change literature. Second, following Foucault, It argues that language has power: a patriarchal schema is self‐reinforcing in its persistence within a particular discipline, and thus difficult to dislodge.

Given these findings, the paper concludes that organization theorists and practitioners ought to engage with critiques of Lacan's work, when employing it in their own. The silence surrounding such legacies is dangerous. It argues that the first step in engaging with Lacan's work should be to give voice to such critiques, if his writing is to be employed in the practice and study of organizational change.

This paper provides a unique engagement with Lacan's work in the context of the study and practice of organizational change interventions. It presents an evaluation of well‐known critiques and useful recommendations for theorists and practitioners considering a Lacanian approach to this area of management studies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an introductory overview of this special issue highlighting some of the distinctive features of Žižek's Lacan‐inspired thought relevant to the role of ideologies in organizational change management.

The approach used aims to show how ideological and ethical ramifications of Žižek's recent analysis of a “Jacobin” change paradigm can affect thought on everyday change practices in business and management.

Some parallels are drawn between current change practices and narrative tactics employed by Robespierre during the Jacobin reign of terror to “extort” the commitment of participants in the change process.

This paper/special issue invites reconsideration of our late capitalist intellectual/practical “reflexes” in change management, i.e. to reassess their ideological mechanism.

Žižekian/Lacanian approaches to organizations and change are especially suitable for this purpose but have only recently begun to emerge.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of performative struggle through the use of an interpretative case story focussed on a strategic decision-making process concerning infrastructural development. Performativity is about “world-making” (Carter et al., 2010), based on the assumption that conceptual schemes are not only prescriptions of the world, for the practices flowing from these abstract ideas bring into being the world they are describing. The focus on agency and multiplicity in the academic debate on performativity in organizational settings are combined, resulting in the conceptualization of a multitude of performative agents struggling to make the world.

The methodological approach of this paper is based on an interpretative analysis of contrasting narratives that are told by political-executives in a strategic decision-making process. These narratives are based on in-depth interviews and participant observation. The interpretative case story, exhibiting the strategic decision-making practices of Aldermen, Delegates and Ministers – focusses on the moments of performative struggle based on strategic narrative practices.

The interpretative case story will exhibit the way in which a multiplicity of agents reflects on the performative dimension of the decision-making process, anticipates on its performative effects and attempts to manipulate the strategic vision that is actualized into reality. Moreover, the agents are not primarily concerned with the actualization of a specific infrastructural project; they are more concerned with the consequences of decision making for their more comprehensive strategic visions on reality.

The notion of performative struggle has not yet been explicitly studied by scholars focussing on performativity. However, the concept can be used as an appropriate lens for studying meaning making within ethnographic studies on organizational processes such as for instance culture change intervention and strategy formation. The concept of performative struggle is especially useful for understanding the political dimension of meaning making when studying an organizational life-world through the use of ethnographic research.

The originality of this paper lies in the innovative conceptualization of struggle between a multiplicity of reflexive agents in the debate on performative world-making. Moreover, the incorporation of the perspective of performative struggle within organizational ethnographic research is valuable for the development of organizational ethnographic methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how firms can enhance feedback systems by studying the effects of offering junior auditors an opportunity to provide upward feedback and acknowledging their voice has been heard and will be considered for evaluation purposes.

This study uses a 2 × 1 + 1 (voice confirmation × opportunity + no opportunity) between-subjects experimental design that manipulated upward feedback opportunity (i.e., opportunity or no opportunity) and voice confirmation for those that do receive upward feedback opportunity (i.e., receive indication upward feedback was heard and will be considered or receive no indication upward feedback was heard). Within the no upward feedback opportunity condition participants did not have a chance to receive voice confirmation.

Through analysis of 117 upper-division undergraduate accounting students, the authors find the receipt of upward feedback opportunity and voice confirmation positively influence justice perceptions. Furthermore, the authors find interactional justice is positively associated with organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), negatively associated with counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) and mediates the association between upward feedback voice confirmation and both OCB and CWB through indirect-only mediation. The authors also find distributive justice facilitates competitive and indirect-only mediation between upward feedback opportunity and OCB and CWB.

This is the first study to examine the influence of giving staff auditors the opportunity to provide upward feedback and informing upward feedback providers (e.g., staff) their voice has been heard and will be considered for evaluation purposes.

This paper aims to examine whether the strength of positive brand relationship can either mediate between trust, satisfaction, attitude towards the brand and loyalty or moderate the link between these variables. Existing research has established that trust, satisfaction and the attitude towards the brand contribute to the development of brand loyalty. However, recently, there is a growing stream of research indicating that the brands are not only facilitating transaction but companies can also use them to develop and maintain links with their customers. The exploration of the role of brands in the development of bonds with the customers is still very limited.

Data were collected from 189 women who are using lipstick in Glasgow, Scotland. Respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire keeping in mind their preferred brand.

The findings revealed that the strength of the consumer brand relationship is a very strong predictor of brand loyalty. They also suggested that brand relationship does not moderate the relationship between brand trust, satisfaction and brand loyalty, but it mediates the link amongst these constructs.

One product category was examined. The data were collected from females in a big city with non-probabilistic sampling. Most of the respondents were younger consumers, who may have different behavior compared to older consumers.

Managers are constantly looking for ways to increase brand loyalty. They need to appreciate the importance of consumer engagement with their brand through positive brand relationships. Therefore, they need to try to develop brand identities and project brand images that will make the brands look as appealing to the consumers as relationship partners.

This paper supports the view that brands are not only facilitating transactions but can also develop and maintain links with their customers, especially engaged customers, and the exploration of these bonds is still limited. This paper is adding to the literature on brand engagement and brand relationships from a quantitative perspective and is contributing to theory building, as there is no clear theoretical view on whether the brand relationship has a direct effect, i.e. either mediates or moderates the link between these variables.

This study aims to deal with the role of vocational training in developing social inclusion by analyzing the school‐to‐work transitional outcomes of early school leavers whose successful experience in vocational training was documented in previous works.

The sample comprises 126 males who enrolled in and successfully completed biennial vocational training courses soon after dropping out of school. The transitional outcomes one year after the qualification as well as the variability of these outcomes in relation to age, degree of success in vocational training, and achievement in the previous schools were analyzed. A phone interview was used to collect data, and a binary logistic regression analysis was applied. In addition, narrative materials were collected through biographical interviews and qualitatively analyzed.

Although most subjects obtained a stable job, some critical aspects emerged: at times employment seemed to be the result of a “negative compromise”; several constraints emerged in managing further personal investment in school and learning.

Results support the usefulness of studying social inclusion by adopting a transitional perspective. The main limitations concern the focus on just a few variables that only partially explain the different outcomes.

Findings suggested the need for greater flexibility among school, vocational training, and the world of work in order to promote effective social and professional inclusion through the VET system.

The paper's results indicate that developing social inclusion of early school leavers inevitably demands a transformation in the widespread beliefs about the dichotomy between learning and work.

Relationship marketing stresses that relationships, and not just transactions, should be the focus of marketing strategy. Part of the rationale for this lies in retention economics which are thought to be particularly powerful. Recent literature suggests that reduction of the defection rate can increase profits far more than growth in market share, better margins and other factors usually associated with competitive advantage. This paper reports the findings of a detailed analysis into the defection rate of university student accounts from financial service organizations throughout Ireland. University students’ accounts are a particularly illustrative case study since, a priori, their lifetime value, in terms of future revenue streams, have the potential of being greater than that of many other customer types. This paper then discusses defection issues and then presents evidence from the survey. Finally, the policy and strategic implications are examined.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 and its amendment – the Trade and Competitive Act of 1988 – are unique not only in the history of the accounting and auditing profession, but also in international law. The Acts raised awareness of the need for efficient and adequate internal control systems to prevent illegal acts such as the bribery of foreign officials, political parties and governments to secure or maintain contracts overseas. Its uniqueness is also due to the fact that the USA is the first country to pioneer such a legislation that impacted foreign trade, international law and codes of ethics. The research traces the history of the FCPA before and after its enactment, the role played by the various branches of the United States Government – Congress, Department of Justice, Securities Exchange commission (SEC), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); the contributions made by professional associations such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICFA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the American Bar Association (ABA); and, finally, the role played by various international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). A cultural, ethical and legalistic background will give a better understanding of the FCPA as wll as the rationale for its controversy.

It is a matter of common knowledge that beer, in its several varieties, is by no means the same thing to‐day as it was a generation or less ago; the progress of chemical and biological knowledge on the one hand, and the keenness of competition on the other, have led to great alterations both in the materials used in its production and the methods by which it is produced. Exact or reliable knowledge about this, however, is far from being common; vehement assertions are made that all or almost all the changes are for the better, and also that beer is now a manufactured chemical product of deleterious nature, in which little or nothing of genuine material is used. Such statements are rendered unacceptable by the existence of self‐interest on one side and prejudice on the other. A short account of some of the facts concerned may, therefore, be of service.

This intervention study outlines the continuing journey of a university towards its sustainability potentiality. We introduce the importance of sustainable development and link it to our intervention study of potentiality for sustainability from a Heideggerian phenomenological perspective. Through a case study of sustainability at New Mexico State University, we provide an insight into the development of a new dimension of university sustainability interface. This interface exists in terms of a dialogic of sustainability, as it relates to the balancing of competing needs, such as efficiency, heart, and brand identity. An important aspect of this interface is intervention, highlighting new possibilities for the top administrators regarding the university's goals and environmentalities. A qualitative and interpretive approach using ontological storytelling inquiry is employed. Data for the study were collected through in-depth interviews with university members from all hierarchical levels. This article raises interesting ontological issues for sustainability researchers, and has implications for strategy as practice.