Clive Gilson

Finding form: elite sports and the business of change

Purpose – To explain how an organization has been able to use seismic changes in its wider external environment to transform its performance without the need for radical internal restructuring or coercive forms of leadership.Design/methodology/approach – This paper utilises a three year case study from elite sport, an under‐represented sector in the management literature but one that offers a fascinating view of change.Findings – Whilst the change management literature typically emphasises dramatic and rapid coercive restructuring accompanying open‐ended environment change, this study found that known routines and historical ways of working existed alongside innovation, risk‐taking and learning; the paradoxical foundation upon which performance flourished.Research limitations/implications – Although the dangers of single cases are noted, difficulties regarding access and comparability with other similar organizations prevented a similar degree of focus on multiple cases. Future research either within elit...

Creating a concession climate: the case of the serial downsizers

This paper uses panel data from New Zealand from the years 1995 and 1999 to examine the impact on those organizations, size fifty and over, that engaged in repeat downsizing during this period. It was found that, during the panel period, approximately 20 per cent of the 322 organizations in the survey had engaged in the permanent reduction of their workforce in both periods. When compared with organizations in the survey that had not engaged in downsizing in both periods, it was found that the repeat downsizers exhibited characteristics that were little different from those that had downsized only in the later period, who reported the greatest decline in performance. However, those who had downsized only in 1995 had, by 1999, largely recovered from the initial negative effects. The repeat downsizers appear to have created a long-term concession climate that is associated with negative workplace performance.

Management Education with Computer-Mediated Communication: Classroom Experiences, Organizational Lessons

This article reviews the literature on computer-mediated communication (CMC) in organizations and as a medium for postsecondary education, and describes a teaching- and-research design that linked Boston MBA students with undergraduate organizational behavior students in Nova Scotia. The results of this CMC project are reviewed. Suggested future research on the topic is proposed.

Transnational Company Industrial Relations: The Role of European Works Councils and the Implications for International Human Resource Management

The general study of institutional arrangements that are designed to impact on managerial prerogatives is typically cast in the genre of forms of industrial democracy. While the last few decades have seen a decline in interest in this area of study, developments in the European Union have enabled an ongoing dialogue specifically on the topic of consultation. Although consultation is generally seen by scholars as a modest form of industrial democracy, formal European Directives have provided the opportunity to assess the representative strength or otherwise of initiatives such as European Works Councils that are explicitly designed to address social policy and inequality in the workplace. Drawing on 41 case studies, we examine the determinants of European Works Councils morphology, activities undertaken and general outcomes. We note that it is important to presumptively inquire as to what is being theorized rather than simply take the implicit position that European Works Councils are the prime institution of influence. This leads us to establish the primacy of management and in particular, the vector of management decision-making as the primary independent variable that predicts much about the operation and robustness of European Works Councils. Accordingly, we find that strong centralized management, rather than the usual suspects of differing national industrial relations systems and cultural differences, typically account for much of what we understand in terms of the role that European Works Councils play.

Disaster in Commerce 353: a Personal Reflection

During my first year of teaching, I was lucky enough to read Richard Daft’s (1978) &dquo;Disaster in Commerce 353.&dquo; Daft examined a classroom &dquo;disaster&dquo; that caused him to question the practicality of decoupling the bonds of intellectual dependence in favor of independent, self-directed learning. Despite Daft’s concerns, I remain committed to these objectives-they are, root and branch, the architecture of my teaching philosophy. At the same time, I am ever mindful of educators with these same ambitions who fail in their