Marja Flory

Culture and Career Advancement in Europe: Promoting Team Players vs. Fast Trackers

This paper reports the results of a study of the cultural influences on career systems and job promotion. The authors report the conclusions reached during the first phase of a large European study on managerial decision-making. Nearly 300 managers participated in this phase, which surveyed 25 firms from the financial sectors of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Models built upon Sonnenfeld and Peiperls11 career typology and on Derr 12 and Evans et al. 13 cultural career maps are examined. The results of this study indicate that nationality is a good determinant of the choice of internal or external promotion systems. It also finds that individual self-interest remains an important factor in managerial decision-making. The authors conclude that human resource programs designed to standardise career management policy across Europe may fail because of intentional and unintentional barriers.

International team effectiveness

Reports on the author’s experiences as facilitator of an international, academic research team which consisted of members with different cultural backgrounds. Reviews the communication processes and group‐dynamics that occurred within this team, in particular those which seemed to hinder progress. Advises how other teams might approach these same issues and achieve effective team working.

Management fads: the case of the self‐managed team

Purpose – To critically analyze why the implementation of self‐managed teams often leads to disappointment.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology used is qualitative. It is based on the theory of microstoria (Boje) and entails in‐depth interviews and dialogue to collect data.Findings – The introduction of the new concept (self‐managed teams) did not start an intensive management discourse. Management largely discussed the concept and decided to implement it, without consulting the employees who had to work with the concept. This led to misunderstandings and resistance to the concept of self‐managing.Research limitations/implications – The research was conducted in only two organisations.Practical implications – The primary reason why the concept was poorly implemented was that management did not understand the process of shared meaning. Creating a proper “dialogue” is important for implementing new management concepts.Originality/value – This paper offers a social constructionist point of view to c...

The rhetoric and narratives in management research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special issue on the subject of the rhetoric and narratives in management research.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews selected contributions to the 4th Conference on Rhetoric and Narratives in Management Research held on March 24‐26, 2011 at the ESADE campus in Barcelona.Findings – The paper reveals various views of rhetoric and narratives in management research including plagiarism, individual (personal) narratives , material and spiritual narratives and deception in storytelling.Originality/value – The paper provides a useful introduction to the various papers on rhetoric and narratives in management research.

Heather Höpfl's storytelling

ABSTRACT This paper brings to light stories of Heather Höpfl. Its purpose is to show how Heather was and is present for us. We also illustrate Professor Dr Heather Höpfl’s contribution to organization theory, specifically her discourse of the maternal organization.

The Dance Within: A New Perspective to Tackle Sustainability Challenges

Humanity lives in a unique moment, a time of sustainability challenge so complex that it can influence all life on the planet. This sustainability challenge is manifested in many interdependent crises such as global warming, biodiversity loss, hunger and poverty, drinking water scarcity, land conflicts, decreasing social trust and institutional failure. In this study, we have presented the difficulties in achieving good results in sustainability challenges, through analyzing the flaws of two main sustainability concepts. We have interviewed people with an aim to understand their definition of sustainability and whether they consider it important. We found that there is no clear-cut definition for sustainability available; all interviewees in our study used different definitions of sustainability. Also, the motives given by the interviewees in terms of the importance of sustainability varied through their answers. However, these differences in responses were inherently related to the levels of consciousnes...