Search results

This paper considers the utilisation of theatre as a means of exploring management and organising. It focuses upon Shakespeare’s Henry V and explores the alternative readings, performances and interpretations of this central character. In particular, it considers issues of power, leadership, identity, dissemblance and dissimulation.

Seeks to provide an overview of the development of the concept of management competence in the context of management learning. Briefly describes the competence approaches to management development of Boyatzis and the Management Charter Initiative (MCI). Identifies and discusses a number of critical standpoints. Evaluates the utility of the competence approach against some empirical observations of a practical application and presents some reservations and reflections regarding the process and outcomes. Finally, considers the role of action learning, arguing that it can provide a link between competence approaches and organizational development.

Covers such techniques as action learning, open learning, computer‐based training, mentoring and group facilitation.

The word “competency” stalked up on the unwary working in the human resources field. The catalyst for its use was Boyatzis's (1982) book The Competent Manager. He triggered the popularity of the term which became de rigueur for the serious consultant in the late 1980s. Unfortunately, while street credibility demanded use of the word, few were certain in their own minds what it meant. This state of confusion has not really abated with the passage of time.

The greatest challenge for management of human resources in the 1990s is to place their local actions in a framework of global thought and strategy. Focusing on Britain, France, the US, Japan and Germany, outlines the cultural differences in management practices around the world. Suggests a framework for organizing thinking about personnel practice with an international dimension; i.e. the seven “Cs” of international HRM work – change, cosmopolitans, culture, communication, consultants, competence and co‐ordination.

FOR SOME YEARS there has been a tendency for the number of industrial workers to decline and that of clerical staffs to increase.

This series of articles has developed a number of views on organisation behaviour and how current knowledge on the subject can be used to improve training and development in industrial organisations. The series has been an attempt to focus the reader's attention towards the critical need for us as trainers to understand why organisations are as they are and what causes them to behave as they do. Organisation behaviour as a subject is therefore about understanding, or attempting to understand, the complexity of the relationships that exist in the collectivity of people and things that we call ‘organisation’. To achieve full understanding is, I am afraid, as hopeless as expecting to understand why our fellow men (or women) behave as they do, for organisations like all living things change as we examine them. What the theories and hypotheses on organisation behaviour can do for us is give us some idea of organisational change and the links between these causes and their manifestations in terms of behaviour. This knowledge gives us a map, however fragmented, on which we can plot bearings to indicate the course our actions should follow if they are to influence and change the reality of the organisational situation.

Based on empirical work from two major UK organizations. British Airways and BT (formerly British Telecom), both of whom have, after privatization, engaged in large‐scale culture change programmes. Both organizations have made substantial job cuts and (at the time of writing in May 1991) both organizations have announced the need for further redundancies. Considers the objectives of culture change programmes and evaluates the extent to which they have been achieved in the organizations concerned, i.e. what values are cultivated and to what extent are they shared by organizational members? Considers the conflicting messages offered by the redundancy programmes and attempts to assess the implications for individuals and for self‐perception of job losses in the context of culture change.