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In recent research the strength and nature of the relationship between coaches and executives appears as a critical success factor in successful coaching outcomes. However, little theory has as yet been devoted to an analysis of how relationships are used in executive coaching. Such an analysis requires going from the monadic, individual level of analysis to the dyadic, relational level. The purpose of this paper is to develop a theory of relating in executive coaching at this dyadic level of analysis.

A conceptual analysis of relating in executive coaching is presented, drawing on a combination of the behavioural approach (Skinner and others) and the systems approach (Bateson and others). A verbatim of a coaching conversation serves as an illustration.

It is found that the behavioural and systems approaches may be fruitfully combined in one behavioural systems approach. Following this, relating in executive coaching is characterised as systemic, behavioural, communicational, and patterned.

The paper is among the first to study executive coaching at the dyadic level of analysis, and to develop a combined behavioural systems approach towards that purpose. This approach and its outcomes add to and can be clearly distinguished from the more common humanistic, psychodynamic, and cognitive approaches to executive coaching.

In the past decades, Dutch public sector organizations (PSOs) have been encouraged to become more “business-like” in their internal control and accountability processes, following a more general trend toward New Public Management (NPM) in Western societies. However, in the Netherlands, this trend has met with increasing resistance and discontent among public sector professionals. In this chapter, a framework is developed that enables these public sector professionals themselves to discuss and reflect on their internal control and accountability processes, and possibly to effect changes in it.

The chapter contains a critical analysis of existing research on management control, accountability, and learning in PSOs and describes a reflection and discussion session with a group of senior staff employees at a Dutch university, employing the framework developed in this chapter.

It is argued that, generally speaking, the “business-like” approach of NPM does not appear appropriate for most public sector activities and may even negatively affect accountability and learning in PSOs.

The chapter critically assesses the impact of NPM on PSOs and provides an alternative to NPM in the form of experimentalist governance, with possible positive implications for the effectiveness of public sector activities.

This chapter is among the first to adapt a framework, developed for scientific and descriptive use, for more practical and prescriptive purposes, that is, as an instrument for public sector professionals to discuss and reflect on their internal control and accountability processes.

Health care organizations often experience difficulty in aligning competing and changing demands, tasks and other organizational conditions in a consistent way, so that they uniformly influence employee outcomes in desired directions. The purpose of this paper is to theorize about the ways in which inconsistent organizational conditions affect employee outcomes, the authors introduce the concept of double bind situation, and assess its impact on negative employee outcomes among nurses in Dutch health care organizations.

A survey was held among 4,018 Dutch nurses as a part of the European NEXT study. Various psychometric scales served as “proxy” operationalizations of the characteristics of the double bind situation and employee outcomes.

Three of the seven distinguished characteristics of the double bind situation showed the expected direction and strength of impact. Together, they accounted for 20 percent explained variance in employee outcomes. The results suggest that a double bind situation does exist for the nurses surveyed and that three of its seven characteristics have an impact on negative employee outcomes.

This study is among the first to empirically assess the impact of the double bind situation in health care organizations. In this way, it contributes valuable knowledge to the development and retention of staff in a relevant public sector, characterized by high personnel turnover and profound organizational change.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a rapprochement between the field of critical management studies (CMS) and what is constructed here as the “mainstream” of organization theory and research.

The paper contains a comparative analysis of relevant literature from the fields of organization theory, political science and political psychology.

It is found, first, that at least four instances of “mainstream” theory and research more or less share CMS assumptions; second, that CMS and “mainstream” may benefit from mutual contact (using the example of the “power elite” discussion in the 1950s and 1960s); third, that CMS and “mainstream” may benefit from “mainstream” operationalization of CMS‐concepts (using the example of the development of the F‐scale in the 1930s and 1940s).

The paper ranks among the first to search for convergences between two fields that seem firmly divided in both theoretical and institutional terms.

Research on antecedents of organizational learning generally ignores the fact that organizational learning is at least a two‐dimensional construct and that its dimensions may be conflicting. This research often fails to investigate the simultaneous effects of antecedents on these dimensions. To address this gap in the literature, this paper aims to discuss the effects of empowerment and knowledge conversion, two factors often considered to be important antecedents of organizational learning.

The approach adopted involves a review of and reflection on the pertinent literature on learning organizations, organizational learning, empowerment and knowledge conversion.

It is found that both antecedents have contradictory effects on two dimensions of organizational learning. Empowerment affects second‐order learning in a positive sense, but first‐order learning in a negative sense. Knowledge conversion is positively related to first‐order learning, but negatively to second‐order learning. Thus, it appears that efforts to improve organizational learning on one dimension may have (unintended) effects on the other, unmeasured dimension.

The paper connects disjointed streams of theory and research in a novel way that is of interest and importance to both the academic literature and to organizational practitioners.

While intended as a bridge between the concepts of learning organization and organizational learning, current conceptualizations of organizational learning capability still predominantly lean toward the learning organization side, specifically directed at profit firms. The purpose of this paper is to propose a four-dimensional model of organization learning capability that leans more toward the organizational learning side, specifically directed at non-profit and government organizations in general, and army organizations in particular. This model is applied to the British Army in the Second World War.

The paper entails a secondary analysis of historical and military sources and data.

This paper proposes a four-dimensional model of organization learning capability that leans more toward the organizational learning side, specifically directed at non-profit and government organizations in general, and army organizations in particular. The study found that the British Army possessed only a moderate learning capability, which can be plausibly, but not exclusively, related to differences in battlefield performance between the British and the German Army in the Second World War.

The paper ranks among the first organizational papers to analyze army operations and functioning from the perspective of organizational learning capability.