This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/03090599810217402. When citing the…
Abstract
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/03090599810217402. When citing the article, please cite: Peter van Baalen, Jacob Hoogendoorn, (1998), “Training and development in the Dutch context: an overture to the knowledge society?”, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 22 Iss: 4/5, pp. 171 - 179.
Lars T. Moratis and Peter J. van Baalen
Transformations in the context of higher education urge educational institutions to (re)position and (re)organize themselves to counter the challenges these transformations bring…
Abstract
Transformations in the context of higher education urge educational institutions to (re)position and (re)organize themselves to counter the challenges these transformations bring. Especially regarding universities and business schools, organizations that encompass a broad range of communities, operations, and activities, these transformations result in the radicalization of what Kerr has called the multiversity. The rationale of this radicalization is to be found in the trends and developments in the contemporary context of higher education. This article presents the networked business school as a response to this radicalization within the field of management education and management learning, since network organization seems to offer a lot of possibilities and benefits to the organization of business schools.
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Peter van Baalen and Luchien Karsten
This paper aims to provide insights into the evolution of the concept of interdisciplinarity in management science and management education.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide insights into the evolution of the concept of interdisciplinarity in management science and management education.
Design/methodology/approach
A range of recently published (1993‐2002) works, which aim to provide practical advice rather than theoretical books on pedagogy or educational administration, are critiqued to aid the individual make the transition into academia. The sources are sorted into sections: finding an academic job, general advice, teaching, research and publishing, tenure and organizations.
Findings
The paper finds that in the evolution of management education and management science interdisciplinarity took different forms: synoptic and instrumental. Both forms resulted from different knowledge strategies of competing and cooperating disciplines. It concludes that in The Netherlands instrumental versions of interdisciplinarity in management research and education prevailed.
Research limitations/implications
The paper studies the evolution of interdisciplinarity in management education and management science in the Dutch higher education context. It assumes that the pattern of evolution differs from country to country.
Practical implications
Interdisciplinarity is a complex concept. This study provides practical insights into the dynamics of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Originality/value
Much has been written about interdisciplinarity in science and education. However there is hardly any empirical and historical research on this topic.
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Peter van Baalen and Luchien Karsten
This paper aims to provide an alternative explanation for the rise of modern management schools at the turn of the twentieth century. It is to be argued that these schools were…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an alternative explanation for the rise of modern management schools at the turn of the twentieth century. It is to be argued that these schools were not just responses of the higher education system to the demand of industrializing companies for a new class of professional managers, like Chandler suggests.
Design/methodology/approach
The historical‐actor approach is applied to explain the rise of academic management schools, prior to the Second World War. Data were collected from the archives of different management schools and professional organizations of the engineers and accountants.
Findings
To legitimize their position in the higher education system, abstraction appeared to be the dominant strategy of the professions. By abstraction they could distinguish themselves from the lay public and other professional groups in the domain of management. At the moment the new professions had a foot in the higher education system the engineers and the accountants contested for the new management domain. Abstraction appeared also the successful strategy of the accountants to distinguish themselves from the engineers and to establish a sound base for the development of the Dutch variant of business economics.
Research limitations/implications
The paper presents a full account of the Dutch situation but the findings cannot be generalized to other countries. More comparative research is needed. The rise of management schools is mostly explained as an educational response to an economic demand.
Practical implications
The history of the Dutch business schools may provide researchers and administrators of universities insight into the dynamics of disciplines and into setting up professional schools.
Originality/value
This research is based on original documents from the archives of schools and professional organizations. The main contribution of the paper is that it shows how emancipatory and social status motives mediated between the demand and supply side.
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Irma Bogenrieder and Peter van Baalen
Most people participate in various groups and communities simultaneously. Many authors have pointed to the importance of multi‐membership for knowledge sharing across communities…
Abstract
Purpose
Most people participate in various groups and communities simultaneously. Many authors have pointed to the importance of multi‐membership for knowledge sharing across communities and teams. The most important expected benefit is that knowledge that has been acquired in one community of practice (CoP) can be applied into another CoP or group. This paper seeks to discuss the consequences of multi‐membership for knowledge sharing in a CoP.
Design/methodology/approach
The concept of multiple inclusion is used to explain why and how multi‐membership can hold up knowledge sharing between groups.
Findings
This case study shows that knowledge transfer between CoPs and teams can be problematic when norm sets between these two groups conflict.
Originality/value
This paper concludes that CoPs can sustain when the “practice” remains at a safe distance from the “real” project work in teams that are guided by managerial objectives.
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Agnès Delahaye, Charles Booth, Peter Clark, Stephen Procter and Michael Rowlinson
This paper seeks to identify and define the genre of corporate history within the pervasive historical discourse produced by and about organizations which tells the past of an…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to identify and define the genre of corporate history within the pervasive historical discourse produced by and about organizations which tells the past of an organization across a multiplicity of texts: published works – commissioned and critical accounts, academic tomes and glossy coffee‐table books – as well as web pages, annual reports and promotional pamphlets.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach takes the form of systematic reading of historical narratives for 85 mainly British and US companies from the Fortune Global 500. For these companies, a search was carried out for US printed sources in the British Library and a survey was conducted of historical content in web pages.
Findings
From extensive reading of the historical discourse, recurrent formal features (medium, authorship, publication, paratext and imagery) and elements of thematic content (narrative, characters, cultural paradigms and business success), which together define the genre of corporate history, have been identified. Such a definition provides competence in the reading of historical narratives of organizations and raises questions regarding the role of history in organizational identity, memory and communication. In conclusion it is argued that the interpretation of corporate history cannot be reduced to its promotional function for organizations.
Research limitations/implications
The list of the formal features and thematic content of corporate history detailed here is by no means exhaustive. They are not variables, but signs, which, in various combinations, compose the narrative and signify the genre.
Practical implications
It seems likely that coffee‐table books will increasingly replace academic commissioned histories, with consultants professionalizing the discourse and formalizing the genre of corporate history.
Originality/value
The genre of corporate history has hitherto been neglected in organization theory, where the linguistic turn has led to a preoccupation with talk as text. The use of genre to analyse corporate history represents a textual turn to literary organizational texts as text.
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Hugo van Driel and Wilfred Dolfsma
The purpose of this paper is to disentangle and elaborate on the constitutive elements of the concept of path dependence (initial conditions and lock‐in) for a concerted and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to disentangle and elaborate on the constitutive elements of the concept of path dependence (initial conditions and lock‐in) for a concerted and in‐depth application to the study of organizational change.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach takes the form of a combination of a longitudinal and a comparative case‐study, based on secondary literature.
Findings
External initial conditions acted less as “imprinting” forces than is suggested in the literature on the genesis of the Toyota production system (TPS); a firm‐specific philosophy in combination with a critical sequence of events mainly shaped and locked‐in TPS.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical sources are limited to publications in English, so relevant factors explaining the path taken may not all have been included. The importance of a salient meta‐routine might be firm‐specific.
Practical implications
The study contributes to understanding the factors underlying corporate performance by a critical re‐examination of a much heralded production system (TPS).
Originality/value
The paper highlights the use of the concept of meta‐routines to connect the core elements of path dependence, that is, sensitivity to initial conditions and lock‐in mechanisms.
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Peter van Baalen and Jacob Hoogendoorn
Recent debate in The Netherlands has raised the question of whether the Dutch economy can meet the requirements of the emerging knowledge society. One of the main requirements…
Abstract
Recent debate in The Netherlands has raised the question of whether the Dutch economy can meet the requirements of the emerging knowledge society. One of the main requirements will be the establishment of a symbiotic relationship between business systems and the education system. By analysing trends and developments in formal vocational education and corporate training and development over the last two decades we observe some major changes in the formal education system and in corporate training and development. In the formal education system a major transformation has taken place towards an alignment with the business system. In the corporate system we see a rapid growth and expansion in training and development. However, when we look to these developments in greater detail we observe striking differences in growth between sectors, sex, age, prior education and ethnicity. For this reason we conclude that the main challenge for the emerging Dutch knowledge society is to prevent people from being excluded from the expansion in training and development.
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This paper aims to explore how organizational actors make reference to history and how they use historical reference purposefully in order to affect strategy‐making.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how organizational actors make reference to history and how they use historical reference purposefully in order to affect strategy‐making.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on in‐depth case studies on two Swedish MNCs. Data have been collected through 79 interviews as well as participant observation and archival studies.
Findings
Organizational actors purposefully construct and use history in order to establish continuity in strategy processes. The use of historical references legitimizes or delegitimizes specific strategic options.
Research limitations/implications
Two old firms with a clear interest in organizational history have been studied. Future research on additional companies, including young firms and firms with less interest in history, is needed.
Practical implications
The purposeful use of history can be a powerful tool for managers to influence organizational change processes.
Originality/value
Very little research on the use of history in business organizations has so far been done. In an interdisciplinary manner the paper introduces concepts from research in history to management research. Based on two rich case studies the paper contributes by outlining what role different uses of history play in strategic and organizational change.