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The purpose of this case study is to examine a new entrepreneurial business in Kiev, Ukraine. The focus is the difference between employees' espoused values and their deep beliefs, which leads to conflict among and within employees.

A theory is proposed about the interaction of espoused values, theory‐in‐use and cultural beliefs. Observation and interviews with staff demonstrated that there was great effort to live out the new espoused values, and also that cultural beliefs hindered this effort.

The proposed theory was supported. The role of the leader in modeling the espoused values was seen to be important for the employees' ability to live up to the new espoused values, and deserves further research.

Limitations include: replication of the study is needed before findings can safely be generalized. The capital city effect means the findings may apply to organizations in Kiev and not other Ukrainian cities.

The implication of the study is that employees' theories‐in‐use may undermine change, even when employees affirm the change, and the modeling of the leader might be essential in order for employees to change their theories‐in‐use. This may apply in organizations beyond Ukraine.

Understanding the impact of theory‐in‐use shaped by Ukrainian culture might be valuable for non‐Ukrainians doing business in Ukraine.

We outline a developmental view of OD, showing on empirical grounds that Argyris’ “theory in use” notion points to different levels of mental growth as underpinnings of “the program in brain/mind” that determines personal theories of organizational action. Employing the developmental structure/process tool (DSPT^TM), we explain the differences between two executives’ theory of action. We also analyze the dynamic of a six‐member team on developmental grounds. By way of close analysis, we show that theories of action are developmentally grounded, and are thus open both to maturation over the life span and to interventions like developmental coaching. We come to the conclusion that developmental assessment of executives and teams should become a vital part of in‐house development and of OD intervention.

For service research to develop as an applied social science there is the need to refresh the process of theorizing so it focuses not only on increasing new academic knowledge but also on knowledge that is managerially relevant. This paper aims to provide guidelines to achieve this.

A theorizing process that integrates general theoretic perspectives and contextual research to develop midrange theory is developed. The process is based on the philosophical foundations of pragmatism and abductive reasoning, which has the origins in the 1950s when the management sciences were being established.

A recent research stream that develops midrange theory about customer and actor engagement is used to illustrate the theorizing process.

Practicing managers, customers and other stakeholders in a service system use theory, so there is a need to focus on how theory is used in specific service contexts and how this research leads to academic knowledge that is managerially relevant. Thus, as applied social science, service research needs to explicitly focus on bridging the theory–praxis gap with midrange theory by incorporating a general theoretic perspective and contextual research.

The contribution comes from providing a broader framework to guide the theorizing process that integrates general theoretic perspectives and applied research to develop midrange theory. While general theories operate at the most abstract level of conceptualization, midrange theories are context-specific and applied theory (theories-in-use) is embedded in empirical research.

Jinnah was, to some extent, a successful leader in obtaining his goals of becoming the only spokesperson for Muslims in India and gaining a piece of land for Pakistan but the main question is whether these achievements can be attributed to transactional or transformational strategies. Has he managed transactional or transformational change in terms of political culture? This point will be discussed in the paper. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A documentary analysis of behaviors, statements and incidents of Jinnah and other relevant personages.

The research shows that Jinnah was neither a transformational nor a charismatic leader. Therefore, his success cannot be attributed to his transformational ideology or charismatic personality. The political maneuvers that he adopted by frequently changing his espoused values and theories-in-use are the sources of his transactional success. Moreover, it is the international events and the vested political interests of the British are among the significant reasons that brought him success.

In this work, a detailed comparison has not been made between voluminous theories of leadership because it is beyond the scope of this research. Moreover, it is not the intention of the paper to compare his leadership with that of other leaders; however, the future research in this direction might be useful. Indeed, the relevant leadership examples have been selected from the All India Congress with the major point of reference being the All India Muslim League – the party that brought him real recognition and fame.

It is stressed in the research that overt success is not a sufficient criterion to categorize a leader in a specific category without analyzing espoused theory and theories-in-use. The study will help those researchers who are interested in understanding the current political culture of Pakistan. The research will be helpful in enhancing the debate within the theme of leadership, especially transformational, transactional and charismatic. Moreover, the paper will encourage other researchers to compare Jinnah's leadership with that of other political leaders of the world.

The research is original as Jinnah's leadership from the perspectives of transformational and transactional leadership styles and the espoused theory and theories-in-use has, so far, not been discussed. It presents significant new arguments and information, which will be in the interest of researchers.

Describes how individuals hold theories which govern their actions and how these theories unintentionally create organizational defensive routines and inhibit learning. Presents an action science approach whereby consultant researchers can help individuals see their taken‐for‐granted theories, test them and then redesign their action in the light of their learning.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of context and its implications for theory and research in service.

This is a conceptual paper based on exploring existing research and theory related to context in service research.

The characteristics of service make context both important and challenging, there is great contextual diversity in service research as reflected, for example in ecosystems made up of multiple contextual variables. There is a need to identify the context-specific nature of middle range theory and the contextual logic of general theory. The authors explore the challenges of context for service theory and how we might learn from theory in a particular context and test or adapt it in other contexts.

The findings of this paper are of value to researchers seeking to develop and justify theory in service research (general, middle range or theory in use).

This article aims to introduce the personal knowledge network (PKN) model as an alternative model to knowledge management (KM) and to discuss whether personal knowledge management (PKM) is better adapted to the demands of the new knowledge environments. The PKN model views knowledge as a personal network and represents a knowledge ecological approach to KM.

KM and PKM have attracted attention over the past two decades and are considered as important means to increase organizational and individual performance. In this article, the author reviews previous models of KM and PKM and explores their failure to address the problem of knowledge worker performance and to cope with the constant change and critical challenges of the new knowledge era. The author further highlights the crucial need for new KM models that have the potential to overcome the shortcomings of previous models. In light of these shortcomings, the article introduces and discusses the PKN model as an alternative model to KM and PKM that is better adapted to the demands of the new knowledge environments.

Unlike traditional KM/PKM models which view knowledge as a thing or process, the PKN model views knowledge as a personal network and represents a knowledge ecological approach to KM.

The article focuses on personal knowledge and the links to networks and knowledge ecologies in an innovative way for consideration within KM.

The purpose of this paper is to show, from a theoretical point of view, the promising relationship between the processes generated by Lesson Studies (LS) and the development of practical thinking in in-service teacher training, derived from two pieces of research.

The authors propose broadening the focus of LS in order to not only improve the “lesson” or “teaching” – in short, practice – but also to reconstruct and improve the practical knowledge of teachers. The core issue of the paper is the discussion about the relationship between the practical knowledge, the knowledge that every teacher uses in his or her daily practice, theories-in-use, mostly unconscious, and the conscious and explicit knowledge, practical thinking, explicit theory, they use to describe and justify their practice.

Knowing our practical knowledge intuitive Gestalt, and building a new conscious and informed way of thinking is not enough, we need to build through systematic new practice a new way of doing, a new way of perceiving, interpreting, taking decisions and acting, coherent with our new theories. LS reinforces these two complementary movements: the practical theorizing movement, the reflexion on action to discover the implicit believes, habits, attitudes and emotions underlying the practice, and the experimentation of the new theory to form the new habits, beliefs, attitudes and emotions that support the development of a new form of teaching. This second movement needs more time and adequate teaching context, confirming the long spiral cycle of LS.

With emphasis on the dialectical relationship between practical theorizing and the experimentation of theory, this paper could set out a new approach for LSs as a method of teacher training which can improve practice through the reconstruction of the practical thinking of those involved.

This paper presents a research study that demonstrates the inadequacy of the traditional biomedical approach to caring for older people and shows the benefits of using a more holistic, bio‐psychosocial approach. An ethnographic inductive approach was taken. Non‐participant observation was performed on complete episodes of nursing practice, followed by semi‐structured interviews to explore and ratify theories in use. Phase one of the data analysis used qualitative inductive analysis to generate main categories and themes. Phase two was a process of factor isolation, which identified factors of practice theories in use. The themes identified were: nursing therapeutics; preventative nursing; communication; nurse‐patient relationships; collaborative nursing; nursing assessment; decision making; and management of patient care. Further analysis identified that important theoretical factors included: encouraging; responding; comforting; explaining; maintaining ability; judgement in action; and collaborating. This knowledge is embedded in the practice theories of practitioners but it is only by exploring and critiquing these that we can hope to understand the complex nature of nursing practice as it relates to the care of older people.

A research team consisting of doctoral students and their faculty advisor investigated the differences in perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes between school principals and teachers in a United States suburban Midwest school district using a qualitative embedded case study research design. Researchers interviewed all building principals; they invited 80 teachers who received summative evaluations within the previous 18 months to participate in the left‐ and right‐hand column case method, 40 teachers participated; the team also examined district documents related to summative evaluations. Findings indicated that principals and teachers operate in Model I theory‐in‐use.