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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09534819410061379. When citing the article, please cite: Bruno Dyck, (1994), “Build in Sustainable Development and They Will Come: A Vegetable Field of Dreams”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 7 Iss: 4, pp. 47 - 63.

Generally, this study contributes to our understanding of the situations when conflict facilitates performance versus when it hampers performance. More specifically, the study distinguishes between conflict potential, conflict stimulus, and actual conflict. We present two hypotheses that compare two competing views to further disentangle whether and when conflict is functional. Our empirical tests, using a sample of Mennonite congregations, lead us to speculate that conflict may be functional for individual‐centered performance measures, but dysfunctional for group‐based performance measures.

This paper responds to ongoing calls to develop alternative management theory to guide management practice. In particular, the purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the merit of developing sustainable management theory and organizational practices that parallel conventional management theory and practices. Sustainable theory is based on a variation of virtue theory that seeks to achieve multiple forms of well-being for multiple stakeholders in the immediate as well as distant future. To illustrate the approach, the authors develop a sustainable variation of goal setting theory.

The paper includes three parts. First, the authors establish the need for developing sustainable management theory (based on virtue theory) that parallels conventional management theory. Second, the authors identify and briefly review the main tenets of goal setting theory and then describe a Sustainable variation of this theory. Finally, the authors discuss the implications of the paper for management and organization theory and practice.

The conceptual arguments for a sustainable version of goal setting theory based in virtue are supported by research and practitioner examples.

Although there is growing concern regarding the shortcomings of management theory and practice based on a materialist-individualist moral-point-of-view, few alternatives have been discussed in detail. This paper presents an alternative based in virtue theory and illustrates how it relates to goal setting theory and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the role of management in first century Palestine, and point to implications this has for subsequent management scholarship, especially Weber's widely accepted argument that contemporary management theory and practice is grounded in a Judeo‐Christian ethic.

The literature on the role and activities of managers in first century Palestine is reviewed and used to evaluate management scholarship that draws on biblical writings from this era.

Managers played an increasingly important role in all aspects of social life in first century Palestine, and functioned as go‐betweens amongst households that were embedded in a web of patron‐client relationships. Based on analysis the paper contends that it seems unlikely that the core features of the Protestant Ethic would have been a prominent part of the Judeo‐Christian ethic in first century Palestine. The paper's contention is consistent with the observation that in first century Palestine, the hallmarks of the Protestant Ethic – such as “calling,” “rationalization” and “spiritual (vs political) salvation” – would have been welcomed by the social elite but would have been perceived as a threat by the poor, whereas the historical record indicates that first century exemplars of the Judeo‐Christian ethic were instead welcomed by the poor and perceived as a threat by the elite.

The paper questions whether the hallmarks of the Protestant Ethic as described by Weber represent a plausible interpretation of the biblical record. The paper also provides a basis for challenging common assumptions in the literature that contemporary management theory is based on a biblical Judeo‐Christian ethic.

This paper may facilitate a more accurate interpretation of historical texts as they relate to management, and inform the study and development of alternative ways of managing.

The research described here provides a foundation for examining aspects of Weber's widely accepted thesis, as well as the writings of modern scholars.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the process of transformational organizational change that occurred over time in a small manufacturing firm using the conceptual framework of organizational change and archetypes.

This longitudinal study – which is based on six cycles of interviews with all members of the firm over a two‐year period – examined how the change attempt was perceived by the strategic leadership, middle‐level managers, and lower‐level employees.

The findings suggest that the pace of archetypal change is influenced by organization members' experience with, and capacity to, assimilate the change; that, sequentially, new structures and systems are implemented prior to new interpretive schemes; and that unresolved excursions are non‐linear. These findings question the conventional wisdom about the importance of leadership in sustaining organizational transformation. Most notably, it was found that most of the archetypal change occurred after the initiating change agent (a new CEO) had left the firm and been replaced by the previous CEO who did not support the proposed changes.

The paper offers the first longitudinal study to examine the issue of substitutes for strategic leadership. In addition to two new substitutes that should be considered at this level of analysis – information systems and interpretive schemes – the data also point to the impact of collective action by mid‐level supervisors and employees.

Although knowledge transfer is generally conceived as a two‐way process in which knowledge is transferred to and from the knowledge source, research has tended to focus on the first part of the process and neglect the second part. This study aims to examine the feedback loop and how knowledge is transferred from the knowledge receiver to the knowledge source.

The paper relies on interviews and archival records to conduct an in‐depth case study of cross‐border knowledge transfer work carried out by a Canadian non‐profit organization.

The paper finds that by learning about receivers' knowledge, background and learning styles, as well as their social context or learning environment, such as language, culture, tradition and history, “source” persons are in fact able to acquire for themselves valuable new knowledge. This in turn assists both the source and receiver to establish shared understandings, thereby facilitating a more effective knowledge transfer thus enhancing learning for both the source and receiver.

Given that this is a case study of one organization, the findings of this study may not be readily generalizable to other organizations, or settings. Despite this limitation, the study raises some important questions for further investigation and contributes to existing research on intercultural knowledge transfer.

Individuals involved in knowledge transfer who pay attention to the feedback loop can better perform their roles and also improve their knowledge.

It has been acknowledged in the literature that expatriates engage in extensive learning while transferring knowledge in their overseas assignments. However, little research has examined what they have learned, how they learn, and the benefits of such learning. This research suggests that knowledge sources can enhance their own knowledge as well as improve knowledge transfer to recipients by nurturing feedback loops.

Describes three approaches to incorporating sustainable development into the agri‐food system. Presents the argument that long‐term sustainable development demands trans‐formational change, whereas stop‐gap sustainable development measures can be introduced on an add‐on piecemeal basis. Rooted in strategic choice theory and the punctuated equilibrium paradigm, focuses on how ideology influences organizational design, and compares the current agri‐food system with Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) and the Seikatsu Club. The current agri‐food system protects the environment by regulating the use of environmentally‐unfriendly agricultural practices and chemicals. The Seikatsu Club provides economic incentives for farmers to emphasize sound ecology. CSA values ecological and economic concerns equally, with an additional emphasis on social justice. Discusses implications for future study of changes that incorporate sustainable development.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the extent to which changes in communication media are associated with changes in the nature of manager-expatriate employee communications. Using an affordance lens, the authors explore how hierarchical level and communication medium interact to influence status dynamics manifested in communication attributes.

The hypothesis was tested with a 2 (hierarchical level)×3 (communication media) multivariate analysis of covariance (experience level) in a sample of 1,193 messages that were transmitted between managers and field employees in a global organization over a ten year period.

The authors found significant interaction effects between communication media and hierarchical level on communication attributes such that changes in communication media intensified status differences between managers and their employees.

Communications media may be appropriated differently depending on one’s hierarchical level.

Managers should adopt new communication media more consciously given their potential influence of how people communicate.

Unlike many computer-mediated communications (CMC) effects studies that compare face-to-face communications with CMC or employ self-report questionnaires or laboratory designs with student samples, this study examines a complete set of manager-employee communications over an extended period of time.