Thomas Steger

The odyssey of management knowledge to transforming societies: A critical review of a theoretical alternative

While discussions about management knowledge transfer to the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) seem to be popular, they often suffer from serious shortcomings with respect to their basic assumptions. Starting with a critical evaluation of prevailing frameworks, the authors introduce institutional theory as an alternative approach to this topic. Based on these theoretical foundations, they develop some propositions that support a deeper understanding of how the transfer of management knowledge into this highly complex region works.

Heroes, villains and ‘honourable merchants’: Narrative change in the German media discourse on corporate governance

Drawing on data from recent media discourse about corporate governance in Germany, this article primarily seeks to explore the changing nature of narratives in the mass media about both organizations and their managers. Based on Greimas’ narrative approach and his adaptation of Propp’s morphology of the folktale, the article reconstructs two different narratives of corporate governance and the transformation process between them. To improve our understanding of narrative change, we extend the Greimasian approach in two respects. First, we highlight the two-way relationship between narrative change and the wider economic context. Second, we point to structural conditions of the narrative(s) in relation to narrative change and identify typical semantic figures as indicators of change.

'A brave new (digital) world'? Effects of In-house Social Media on HRM

Social media offer many opportunities for organizations but present, at the same time, many challenges, too. Particular attention must be paid to the new patterns of behavior emerging in organizations. We argue that these patterns derive both from the technical characteristics of the virtual environment and also from specific social structural conditions currently emerging. By referring to two case studies, we want to highlight and discuss the implications of these current developments and their opportunities, threats and consequences for Human Resource Management. Our analysis will be supported by theories and research on the reproduction of rules and norms, on the one hand, and on social structural studies about digital natives and Generation Y, on the other. In order to sharpen our argument and to highlight the challenges of social media for human resource management, we propose the concept and notion of a ‘parallel world.’

Career paths of the elite of former GDR combinates during the postsocialist transformation process

The economic elite have always been of special interest both to researchers and practitioners. Particularly with regard to periods of great societal transformation, economic elites are regarded as the most important social group and the main driving forces of the change process. However, this group has itself been part of a fundamental transformation, with winners as well as losers. Examining nearly 300 cases of leading executives of large conglomerates in the former GDR, this paper reveals that this group was surprisingly successful in coping with the ongoing changes, despite their involvement in the former political system. The unique database and methodology with a process-based approach show particularly that as factors contributing to their survival the group was able to rely on social capital, knowledge and experience, high commitment, and specific professional skills. Furthermore, mentally drawing a definite line under the past was found to be crucial. The findings may be relevant to decision makers in similar transformation processes worldwide.

The impact of the global financial crisis on employee participation – two German case studies

Purpose - The article aims to explore the link between corporate crises and decisions about employee participation in the context of the global financial crisis (GFC). Design/methodology/approach - The authors complement Weicks sensemaking perspective with some distinctions taken from social systems theory. The paper examines the influence of a communicated corporate crisis on decisions regarding employee participation in two German companies over a two-year period immediately following the outbreak of the GFC. Findings - The meaning of a communicated and enacted corporate crisis sets a company in a state of alert and provokes some distinctive reactions. These include an accentuation of a traditional hierarchical style of decision making and an authoritarian leadership style, some distinctive key personnel changes, and a strong orientation towards senior management. Any reforms of immaterial employee participation are rejected and the institutions that represent employees engage in a passive co-management. Practical implications - The authors’ findings highlight the importance for companies of introducing a formal crisis management system before a crisis occurs, which provides the chance to safeguard a balance of centralization and decentralization in the decision-making process during crises. Originality/value - The study offers some novel insights about the meaning of crisis and of employee participation as well as about how these meanings affect decision-making processes.

Expatriates and the institutionalisation of HRM practices

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an in‐depth description of the process of institutionalisation and development of human resource management (HRM) practices in subsidiaries of German multinational companies in Russia.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on nine case studies of Russian subsidiaries including 26 interviews (13 German expatriates and 13 local employees), participative observations and document analyses. The data analysis follows a qualitative methodology.Findings – The study provides four patterns of institutionalisation processes of HRM practices. They stress the importance of personal, institutional and contextual factors for the institutionalisation of HRM practices. Moreover, the key role of expatriates with their specific value orientations and behaviour in this process is highlighted.Research limitations/implications – One suggestion for further research would be to replicate the study quantitatively (in order to get more cases) as well as qualitatively (to...

The power of participation? Power relations and processes in employee-owned companies

Introducing employee participation in a company can be expected to change the power relations and the power processes within the organization. This is particularly true when the majority ownership of a company moves into the hand of its employees. Drawing on three case studies of East German companies this paper describes how the introduction of employee ownership interrelates with power relations and processes in the company. Moreover, some overarching patterns were derived from the analysis finally resulting in seven propositions about how employee ownership and power are linked to each other.

What You See is What You Get? Images of Central and Eastern Europe in Managerial Discourses Since 1990

This article analyzes the images of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) circulating in the business community at the turn of the twenty-first century. It suggests that a mere stocktaking of Western perceptions of “the East” is not enough, arguing that CEE images in post–Cold War managerial discourses should be analyzed in respect to both their cultural embeddedness and their epistemological function. The article’s methodological approach combines poststructuralist discourse analysis with imagological theories to reconstruct the images of CEE. As such, the article aims at an analysis of managerial meta-discourses and the premises and assumptions that generated them.

The Employee as the Unknown Actor? A Discourse Analysis of the Employee Share Ownership Debate with Special Emphasis on Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract Background and purpose: Although employee share ownership (ESO) deserves of a long tradition, we still know little about employees’ perspectives about ESO. The lack of knowledge about the employees’ attitudes towards ESO is discursively filled in the ESO debate. This paper challenges that deficit by carrying out a semantic analysis of the literature with the aim to identify the various actor constructions used implicitly in the ESO discourse. Design/Methodology/Approach: We conduct a semantic analysis of the ESO discourse. To unfold the order of this discourse we draw on the distinction between surface and underlying structure of communication in the sense of Michel Foucault. We interpret some semantic lead differences, a term coined by Niklas Luhmann, to constitute the underlying structure of communication. Results: We can identify six different streams on the ESO discourse’s surface level each defined by the ends pursued. The discourse’s underlying structure is made up of the distinctions production-consumption, capital-labour, and ownership-control that also determine the actor models implicitly in use. Conclusion: We can identify five different actor models implicit in the ESO discourse. While the CEE discourse differs on the surface level in as far as it is more concerned with questions of political legitimation of the privatisation process than with questions of economic efficiency, thus introducing political distinctions in the discourse rather missing in the west, it shares the underlying semantic lead differences with the Western discourse as well as the actor models anchored in those differences.

Crisis and change in industrial relations in Central and Eastern Europe

This article introduces the Special Issue on industrial relations in Central and Eastern Europe since the financial and economic crisis. Already dependent economically on funding from the west and lacking the robust industrial relations institutions traditional in much of Western Europe, countries in the region were particularly vulnerable. However, there are important cross-national differences, and the strategies of key actors have significantly affected the outcomes.