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Bringing spiritual and religious perspectives to management and organization research requires clarifying the methodological implications and grappling with the diversity that characterizes the research community. This article aims to address both of these issues. The focal question addressed here is, how might spiritual and religious researchers effectively engage in interfaith dialogue in the ostensibly secular field of management and organization studies?

This article takes exception to privileging secularism over other faiths and argues for admitting spiritual and religious perspectives into the field of management and organization studies. It addresses how theological reflection can be carried out within a spiritually and religiously pluralist research community in management and organization studies.

Section 2 characterizes secularity and raises the possibility of moving beyond secularism to interfaith dialogue in the field of management and organization studies. Section 3 reviews influential perspectives on dialogue to identify attitudes and behaviors conducive to social learning. Section 4 introduces theological reflection as a method for conducting management and organization research and provides guidance and methods for pursuing interfaith dialogue.

This article proposes interfaith dialogue as a way to explore important assumptions, ultimate concerns and innovative practices that currently go largely unraised in management and organization research.

This article adds to the methods available in the field by characterizing effective dialogue and introducing and explaining theological reflection. It contributes general guidance and proposes specific methods for moving to interfaith dialogue among researchers working from diverse faiths.

This chapter highlights the personal side of research methods. We begin with an overview of Hans-Georg Gadamer's insights into the general problem of method in the social sciences and hermeneutics. This is followed by an overview of Michael Polanyi's explanation of the practice of scientific investigation. The second half of the chapter considers implications of the personal side of methods for how we conduct management research. This section discusses critical realism as a philosophy of science consistent with the assumptions of our field, the reasons for methodological pluralism and possible responses, and management research as a social practice.

This paper explores the major factors influencing multinational companies’ (MNCs) propensity to change the level of resource commitments during financial crises in emerging markets. Favorable changes in the host government policies, market demand, firm strategy, and infrastructural conditions are hypothesized to influence the MNCs’ decision to increase resource commitments during a crisis. The hypotheses are tested with data collected in a survey of 82 MNCs during the recent Argentine financial crisis (late 2002). While all the above variables are considered by the respondents as generally important reasons for increasing resource commitments during a crisis, only favorable changes in government policies significantly influence MNCs’ decisions to change the level of resource commitments during the Argentine financial crisis. The research, managerial implications, and policy‐making implications are discussed.

This study analyzes the trade‐off between strategic flexibility and commitment for cases of simultaneous and related strategic investments under high levels of uncertainty. It develops a model that, using a Cournot game and real option theory, demonstrates that (1) a correlated strategic investment adds value to a portfolio of ongoing strategic investments in a decreasing marginal fashion, and (2) the new investment delays the development of the other investments. Managers who fail to recognize these properties may make strategic commitments that destroy value, even in the presence of options with individual positive values. An important feature of the model is that competitive advantages may flow from market power or from the capability of managing the portfolio.

A widely used strategy to cope with the dangers of foreign investment by hedging against potential losses is political risk insurance. All multinational corporations are subject to political risk perils. Political risk is defined as the adverse effect on the value of a business arising out of direct or indirect actions by a foreign government. Broadly speaking, there are six different types of political risk: confiscation, expropriation and nationalization; contract repudiation and frustration; unfair regulatory environment; currency inconvertibility; contingency; and war risk. Similarly, policies available can be defined according to these six categories. In summary, political risk insurance addresses losses which occur because of politically motivated decisions.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.