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In the knowledge‐based environment business firms face today, “high performance” organization is in popular demand. This paper aims to identify dimensions of organizational culture that are relevant in creating and maintaining a high performance organization within and across cultures.

The hypotheses are tested using the 62‐society Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness data on organizational and societal cultures. The impact of uncertainty avoidance, future orientation, power distance, gender egalitarianism, and humane orientation values and practices, at the organizational and societal level, is evaluated using hierarchical linear model methodology.

Several strategic facets may help develop high performing organizations. First, invest in the societies where such organizations are common. Second, invest in the societies that have uncertainty absorbing technological infrastructure and that are culturally sensitive (humane oriented). Third, invest in one or more of the five techniques that support the practice of high performing organizations. Fourth, invest in the societal contexts that value gender diversity, as they are more likely to value a shift towards high performing organizations. Fifth, invest in forming alliances with the organizations that value gender diversity, future‐oriented workforce strategies, and uncertainty absorbing technological infrastructure, as they are more likely to positively reinforce partner efforts to become high performing.

A multi‐faceted (five strategic facets), multi‐dimensional (five cultural techniques), and multi‐level (organizational and societal) approach to the development of high performing systems will help organizations foster and sustain an open culture, where cultural sensitivities are addressable through a climate of exchange and mutual give and take.

The paper uses a cross‐cultural database to identify the cultural dimensions of high performance organizational design.

The purpose of this paper is to show that organizational change depends on societal narratives – narratives about the character, history, or envisioned future of societies.

A case study of a Swedish municipal waste management company serves as an illustration.

Swedish waste governance is powered by two main narratives: “less landfilling” and “wasting less”. Less landfilling has been the dominant narrative for several decades, but wasting less is gaining momentum, and a new narrative order is establishing itself. This new narrative order significantly redefines the socio‐material status of waste and imposes major changes on waste management organizations.

Based on the case of waste governance in Sweden, the authors conclude that organizations should be aware that societal narrative affects the legitimacy and nature of their operations; therefore, they must integrate a watch for narrative change in their strategic reflections.

This paper establishes the relevance of the notion of societal narrative to understand organizational change.

This paper aims to offer a New Zealand perspective on how business and community organisations engage to develop mutually beneficial partnerships to tackle pressing social issues. Specifically, the paper seeks to examine the collaboration motivations for business and community partners involved in seven business‐community partnerships in New Zealand.

The paper utilises data from in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with key business and community managers involved in seven partnerships in New Zealand. The transcripts of the interviews were analysed using elements of content and narrative analysis. Findings to be presented in this paper include: explaining what “partnership” is; understanding a business case; and community organisations' motivations for engaging in partnerships with business.

This research finds that, while partnerships involving business and community organisations may ideally be associated with shared societal concerns, in this study there was a very strong focus on individual community organisation goals and a dominance of business priorities. This was not balanced by an interest in the broader meta‐goals of the partnership.

This paper draws attention to diverse and often competing motivations that characterise business‐community partnerships. The research demonstrates that, while partnerships are often discussed in the context of societal benefits, individual organisations frequently form partnerships primarily for their own instrumental self‐interests. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate understanding of the practical challenges to developing business‐community partnerships, given differences among the partners in goal orientations and expectations.

Development and expansion of the communication management function in organizations has recently been discussed in relation to the concept of institutionalization. Empirical evidence has illustrated that the role of communication executives and communication managers varies between organizations, and could also be subjected to change within an organization. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize institutionalization of communication management as a process. It aims to develop a theoretical framework that integrates important factors that influence and regulate this process.

A literature review resulted in a number of factors potentially influencing the institutionalization process. These factors were attributed to three main theoretical areas and four different levels of analysis, using institutional theory as a guiding framework. The theoretical areas and analysis levels, were proposed to be mutually interdependent, and were compiled in a theoretical framework, illustrated in a model.

The theoretical framework includes three main areas: organizational structure, social capital, and perceptions of the profession; and four levels of analysis: the societal, the organizational field, the organizational and the individual levels.

This paper contributes to the study of institutionalization of communication management in organizations by providing a theoretical framework, which can be used to further investigate the development of the communication function and the role of communication executives and communication managers in organizations. By conceptualizing institutionalization of communication management as a process, and exploring and defining the important elements that influence and regulate this process, an important theoretical contribution to the field is made.

This paper aims to explore internationalisation strategies of service firms in sectors where markets become increasingly globalised while resource environments still remain distinctively shaped by national institutions.

A theoretical framework is proposed that suggests that the more firms expand their business activities across borders by building up offices abroad or merging with firms from other countries, the more likely they are to embrace recombinant strategies to blend elements of different societal legacies. Subsequently, a comparative case study of internationalisation strategies, governance modes and organisational forms of European and US law firms is presented to illustrate the value of the framework, followed by the analysis of a novel data set on multi‐jurisdictional qualifications of partners in these international law firms.

By virtue of their integrative organisational model and mobilisation of versatile legal competences, large pan‐European law firms are challenging the dominance of US law firms in international legal markets, while the latter in response are revising their own previous export‐oriented internationalisation strategy.

The present study provides a starting point for further research on internationalisation in service industries.

The framework is useful to expand effect societal analysis to dynamic international environments.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the management control systems developed by universities and groups within them, to manage research within UK University Business and Management Schools. Specifically, the paper analyses how universities develop their internal management control systems in response to an externally imposed regulatory system. It also provides an agenda for future research.

The paper uses a middle range approach to consider the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) and the previous Research Assessment Exercises. It uses the language provided by a number of conceptual frames to analyse insights from the lived experience, and builds on previous literature that has recognised the perverse outcomes of such performance measurement systems.

The study finds that the internal management control systems developed by academics themselves amplify the controls imposed by the REF. These internal control systems are accepted by some academics although they encourage a movement away from previously held academic values.

This study contributes to debates about the dysfunctional impacts of the use of performance measures to manage research. Its originality lies in explaining that the management control systems developed to resist the imposition of external performance measurement systems may lead to symbolic violence where participants become involved with their own subjugation.

The family is one of the foundations of society; its significance for societal redistribution in modern societies, though, remains particularly unclear. A major reason for this is that theoretical approaches to societal redistribution have not adequately included family either in social philosophy or in welfare state theory. As a consequence, also empirical analyses of differences and developments in societal redistribution have not included family or only in as far as family is affected by other redistributive principles. This paper contributes to filling this theoretical gap.

This paper theorises family as a redistributive principle. With reference to the major theoretical concepts of redistribution, it identifies the relevant dimensions of family in societal redistribution and develops a typology of its inclusion in societal redistribution.

Approaches to redistribution are shaped by distinct concepts of equal or unequal exchange, the relevant actors they identify and by different understandings of the economy. These distinctions are central to understanding the position of family in societal redistribution. With reference to the major theoretical concepts of redistribution, this paper identifies the relevant dimensions of family in societal redistribution and develops a typology of its inclusion in societal redistribution. Further investigations might draw on this typology and detect the theoretical foundations of its conceptualisations and its similarities to and deviations from the developed types.

This paper provides a theoretical groundwork for theoretical and empirical investigations of societal redistribution and for better comprehending its international variation. It aims to initiate a fundamental rethinking of the usual understanding of societal redistribution that widely ignores family as a redistributive principle of its own.

Sustainability is, in itself, the idea of a harmonic answer to the dual nature of the most pressing problem for global society. Most of the problems dealing with sustainability concern its dual and contradictory nature. That paradoxical reality is in no way a unique feature of sustainability; its universal pervasiveness is demonstrated by the attention that Western and Eastern philosophies have given to it. This paper seeks to describe paradoxes that arise in managerial and organizational learning processes and proposes a taxonomy. It pays special attention to the central paradox of “complexifying” and to reductionism‐holism in science.

The work is based on the theories of organizational learning and managerial cybernetics, under the paradox view of management.

The study shows the relevance of the paradox view to management understanding of the complexity of sustainability, its controversial nature; and how the latter relates to epistemology and to the complementarity of analytical and synthetics methods in research and science. It also demonstrates that, at organizational levels, harnessing tensions that emerge from natural paradoxical situations enhances sustainable oriented decision‐making.

The paper builds a bridge toward scientific communities that, working on sustainability and/or complexity, are unaware of the important contribution of cybernetics, especially Ashby's work and the VSM's relevance to the examination of complex societal issues.

The paper provides a platform to enquire on the implications of societal learning on sustainability, and on de facto global digital networks emerging from over ideologized constituents that, in the name of the greenness of the environment and of a just society, fail to see how rapidly global society is positively changing after the dark years of the Cold War.

The paper reviews current developments on the paradox view of management, and proposes a taxonomy of paradoxes based on managerial cybernetics and organizational learning.

The purpose of this paper is to deepen the understanding of adaptive governance, which is advocated for as a manner to deal with dramatic changes in society and/or environment. To re-think the possible contributions of organizations and organization theory, to adaptive governance.

Based on social systems theory this study makes a distinction between “governance organizations” and “governance communities.” Organizations are conceptualized as the decision machines which organize and (co-)steer governance. Communities are seen as the social environments against which the governance system orients its operations. This study considers the adaptive mechanisms of organizations and reflect on the roles of organizations to enhance adaptive governance in communities and societies.

Diverse types of organizations can link or couple in different ways to communities in their social environment. Such links can enhance the coordinative capacity of the governance system and can also spur innovation to enable adaptation. Yet, linking with communities can also slow down responses to change and complexify the processes of deliberation in governance. Not all adaptive mechanisms available to organizations can be used in communicating with communities or can be institutionalized, but the continuous innovation in the field of organizations can inspire continuous testing of small-scale adaptive mechanisms at higher levels. Society can thus enhance its adaptive capacity by managing the role of organizations.

The harnessing of insights in organization theory and systems theory for improving understanding of adaptive governance. The finding that both experiment and coordination at societal level are needed, toward adaptive governance, and that organizations can contribute to both.

The paper aims to explore the attributes and systemic characteristics of absorptive capacity in sustainability oriented firms in India. Such understanding shall pave a way to integrate knowledge about societal stakeholders with technological and market knowledge. The study may help other firms to benchmark their business process considering sustainability aspects to integrate a broader set of stakeholders in decision making.

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to gather responses from 689 managers of 60 firms belonging to various industry sectors. Absorptive capacity of firms based on result of factorial analysis, variances explained by factors and rank of attributes is presented.

The study provides a glimpse of variability in steps taken by firms to remain competitive in current and future markets. This study highlights the importance of benefits sharing among alliance partners, knowledge-management processes, social integration for tacit knowledge and exploration of new knowledge sources. Surveyed firms require improvements in employee's skill set up-gradation, exploitation of knowledge spread across different departments and suitable training systems to promote knowledge sharing behaviour.

The sample of study covers respondents mainly from Health, Safety and Environment/Sustainability/Clean Development Mechanism departments so leading to certain biasness in their perception.

The study may lead organizations to transform business processes to integrate stakeholder's concerns and expectations.

The study may help organisations to develop important attributes of absorptive capacity for effective integration of stakeholders considering sustainability challenges.

This research article enhances understanding on common aspects of absorptive capacity, dynamic capability and sustainability strategies.