For a long time it has been recognized that traditional bureaucratic modes of control are not very efficient in many highly uncertain, rapidly changing or otherwise troublesome situations.Inspired by transaction cost thinking different authors have suggested that clan form control or certain types of corporate cultures should do better in these circumstances. Among these, Ouchi (1980) and Wilkins

This article discusses the concepts of knowledge-intensive workers and firms. the functional view is questioned and a perspective on knowledge as institutionalized myth and rationality-surrogate is proposed. the ambiguity of knowledge work is emphasized and it is argued that a crucial dimension of a knowledge-intensive organization concerns the struggle with this ambiguity, which leads to efforts

This paper treats discourses in organizations in relationship to the management of identities and impressions. It is based on an ethnographic study of an advert ising agency and explores how advertising professionals describe themselves, their work and organizations, the profession and their clients. Various functions of such descriptions are proposed, from identity work to marketing. The relation

This paper draws upon Critical Theory, especially the Frankfurt School, and advocates a critically oriented marketing theory which breaks away from the technicist preoccupations dominating much of traditional marketing science. The conventional assumption of marketing as being in the business of need satisfaction is rejected, and a case is made for research which draws attention to the way marketi

This paper discusses the popularity of postmodernism in social and organizational studies. It is argued that the word conflates quite different social phenomena and lines of development, and theoretical and philosophical positions. Framing issues in terms of modernism/postmodernism easily leads to insensitive conceptualizations of the varied positions within what is dumped together as 'modernism'.

This article reviews and develops the recent critique of empiricist quantitative and qualitative methods in social science in general, and leadership studies, in particular. It argues for an interpretive-reflective approach that fully acknowledges the theory-laden, interpretative nature of empirical studies and the ambiguity of ‘data’. In addition the political and historical character of social s

The paper explores gender relations and gender identity, based upon an ethnography of a Swedish advertising agency. The organization is of special interest as it has a strong gender division of labor, where men hold all senior posts, at the same time as creative advertising work seems to have much more similarity with what gender studies describe as "femininity" rather than with forms of "masculin

Traditionally, leadership has been equated with masculinity. Managerial jobs, at least in business and on senior levels, have been defined as a matter of instrumentality, autonomy, result-orientation, etc. something which is not particularly much in line with what is broadly assumed to be typical for females. Today, however, there seems to be a broad interest in leadership being more participatory

The relay autotuner provides a simple way of finding PID controller parameters. Even though relay autotuning is much investigated in the literature, the practical aspects are not that well-documented. In this paper an asymmetric relay autotuner with features such as a startup procedure and adaptive relay amplitudes is proposed. Parameter choices and handling of noise, disturbances, start in non-st

The quality of spatial analysis is highly dependent on the geo-referencing quality and the definition of the geographic context variables used. However, such information is seldom considered in historical demographic and epidemiological research that includes the geographic context. We investigate a suitable geographic level for geocoding of the population and definition of geographic context vari

Measuring adherence to clinical guidelines using mobile health (mHealth) technologies when form field validation is enforced or turned on could potentially be viewed as skewing the dataset, leading to 100% adherence to the clinical rule base. In theory, healthcare providers should fully abide by clinical guidelines, whether in paper or digital format, to ensure that the patient receives appropriat

The impact of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and other emerging economies on the field of international development has seen traditional donor nations wrestle with fundamental shifts in the geometry and makeup of the donor community. This has resulted in asymmetrical power relations in organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) f

When the GREAT campaign was announced in 2011, we were still in theera of New Public Diplomacy, and were wrapped up in the potentialof digital media to change the diplomatic landscape. Interconnectedglobal publics were supposed to solve wicked global problems likeclimate change through inclusion and dialogue; by sharing knowledgeand working together to shape social change. The role of governmentsw