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In this article we chart the rise of the female expatriate manager over the past generation, as a prelude to positing the question as to why the number of women on international assignments is even lower, proportionally, than their numbers in management overall. We argue that exploring the metaphor of the alien in the context of international assignments and the issue of gender will advance our understanding of this and related questions, since the concept of alien is inherent to the expatriate situation as well as to the position of women in organisations. We then forward seven propositions on two themes: the experience of being an alien and the consequences of being seen as an alien. We conclude that women expatriates are possibly better positioned to handle an expatriate assignment than men and we speculate that we will see them making inroads into international management for a variety of reasons.

Proposes a typology of work relations in the context of Europe, in an attempt to delineate key characteristics, which will help to “collapse” the diversity of cultures and traditions existent in Europe, into four major types of work orientations (Weltanschauungs) which cross geopolitical borders. The typology proposes that the most prevalent types are a family model of the world, a universal‐individual model of the world, a corporatist (group) model of the world and a network model of the world. These are abstractions on two dimensions of relationships: the level of perceived intimacy and the degree to which relations are regulated. Presents evidence for the above categorization and discusses, in particular, training and organizational implications.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the drawbacks of viewing an organization's employees as simply “resources”, rather than as individual human beings with their own rights, needs and aspirations.

The paper presents the author's personal viewpoint.

The paper urges organizations to acknowledge and celebrate each employee's individuality. It argues that the economic upheaval offers an opportunity to rethink the current stress is on specified, targeted outcomes.

The paper advances the view that such reforms will promote the competitive advantage of organizations.

The paper indicates why organizations should give real meaning to the slogan “our people are our most important asset”.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the role of informal economic relations (IER) in the day-to-day working of organizations, thereby opening a way to theorizing and informed practice. The authors will present and discuss about the manifestation of informality in “everyday” reality of Soviet and transformation economies. Informed by Cultural theory and in particular the work of Gerald Mars, the authors are taking account ontologically and methodologically of Labour process theory.

Through presentation of ethnographic data of detailed accounts and case vignettes in production and retail in the Soviet period of the late 1970s and 1980s and from the construction sector in contemporary Russia, with a focus on the labour process, the authors inform and discuss key processes in the informal working of organizations.

In the Soviet system the informal economy co-existed in symbiosis with the formal command economy, implicitly adopting a “live and let live” attitude. In addition, informal relations were essential to the working of work organizations, sustaining workers’ “negative control” and bargaining power. contemporary Russian capitalism, while embracing informal economic activities, a legacy of the Soviet period, advocates an “each to his own” approach which retains the flexibility but not the bargaining space for employees. That facilitates exploitation, particularly of the most vulnerable workers, with dire consequences for the work process.

The paper provides a platform for theorizing about the role and place of IER in organizations. Of importance to managerial practice, the paper informs on those aspects of the work routine that remain hidden from view and are often excluded from academic discourse. The social implications are profound, shedding light on central issues such as recruitment, income distribution, health and safety and deregulated forms of employment.

The paper examines economic behaviour under different economic-political regimes demonstrating continuities and changes during a fundamental social-economic reorientation of an important regional economy, through close observation at the micro and meso-level of, respectively, the workplace, organizations and industry, outlining theoretical, practical and social implications.

Critical issues facing management in a rapidly expanding, yet under‐researched, phenomenon, are outlined, namely the management of company relocation. After surveying the strong evidence for the growing tendency to relocate, some of the central processes involved are analysed, in particular: the decision‐making process (to relocate), the HR policies and the communication problem, the major issues in the relocation period itself, and the aftermath.

The last decade saw a major shift in the management of the mentally handicapped and their place in society. The dual influences of the movements for human rights, emphasising the rights of minority groups; matched by an increasing tendency to replace institutionalisation with community based care (often under the banner of economy), have had an impact on the liminal positioning of the mentally handicapped in Western society.