Remaking Management: Between Global and Local

by Chris Smith, Brendan McSweeney, Robert Fitzgerald

Overview

Debates about the consequences for work practices posed by the rapidly growing transnationalisation of business have become increasingly central to management studies, sociology, political science, geography and other disciplines. Remaking Management brings together a range of international contributors from different sub-disciplines in management to examine current theories of change or continuity of work practices in the context of fashionable claims about unstoppable globalisation or unmoveable national business systems. It provides theoretical and empirical challenges to both of these explanations. Rejecting an overemphasis on inevitable convergence or enduring divergence, the book reveals a mix of international, national and organisational-level influences on workplace practice. This is a rich and wide-ranging resource for graduate students and academics concerned with how organisations are responding to an increasingly complex commercial environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521861519
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/08/2008
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.61(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Chris Smith is Professor of Organisational Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Brendan McSweeney is Professor of Management at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Robert Fitzgerald is Reader in Business History and International Management at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Table of Contents

List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; 1. Introduction - Remaking management: neither global nor national Brendan McSweeney, Chris Smith and Robert Fitzgerald; Part I. International and Comparative Management Theory: Preface - Dominance, diversity and the historical process in management practice Chris Smith, Brendan McSweeney and Robert Fitzgerald; 2. Work organisation within a dynamic globalising context: a critique of national institutional analysis of the international firm and an alternative perspective Chris Smith; 3. Cultural diversity within nations Brendan McSweeney; 4. Business systems, institutions and economic development: the value of comparison and history Robert Fitzgerald; Part II. Systems in Transition: Preface - System as Same and Different Brendan McSweeney; 5. The post-Socialist transformation and global process: knowledge and institution building in organisational settings Ed Clark; 6. The diffusion of HRM practices from the United Kingdom to China Jos Gamble; 7. Surviving through transplantation and cloning: the Swiss Migros hybrid, Migros-Türk Gul Berna Ozcan; Part III. Society as Open and Closed: Preface - Society and Comparative Differences Robert Fitzgerald; 8. Capitalism and Islam: Arab business groups and capital flows in South East Asia Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown; 9. Challenges to the German theatrical employment system: how long established institutions respond to globalisation forces Axel Haunschild; 10. Between the global and the national: the industrial district concept in historical and comparative context Andy Popp; 11. Transnational learning and knowledge transfer: a comparative analysis of Japanese and US MNCs' overseas R&D laboratories Alice Lam; Part IV. The Search for Global Standards: Preface - dominance, best practice and globalisation Chris Smith; 12. The unravelling of manufacturing best-practice strategies Alan Pilkington; 13. Policy transfer and institutional constraints: the diffusion of active labour market policies across Europe Michael Gold; 14. Comparative management practices in international advertising agencies in the United Kingdom, Thailand and the United States of America Chris Hackley and Amy Rungpaka Tiwsakul; 15. Corporate social responsibility in Europe: what role for organised labour? Axel Haunschild, Dirk Matten and Lutz Preuss; 16. Can 'German' become 'international'? Reactions to globalisation in two German multinational corporations Fiona Moore; Index.

Editorial Reviews

Review of the hardback: 'There are two very good reasons why, for all those interested in organisational change and the varieties of capitalism, this is a must buy. Firstly, it demonstrates the usefulness of a multi-level framework in which globalisation, varieties of capitalism and agency at the level of the organisation all matter. Secondly, by focusing on change at the company and workplace level, it provides much needed and up-to-date case studies to inform our teaching and research.' Jill Rubery, FBA, Professor of Comparative Employment Systems and Co-director of the European Work and Employment Research Centre, Manchester

Review of the hardback: 'What went wrong in the management sciences? For the contributors to Remaking Management - a lot. Too much blind faith in globalization as the universal agent for making the earth flat for capitalist markets. Too much exceptionalism - complexity cannot be reduced to national business recipes and local flavors. What's to be done? Complexity respected, multiple causalities traced, triggers and tipping points reconstructed, emergent agencies and astonishing blind spots laid bare. Identities matter, ideologies are flexible, social actors rehearse roles they have yet to imagine. This book reveals key aspects of change, complexity, and diversity in contemporary management ideologies and practices.' Slawomir Magala, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam

'… the editors and the contributors present a theoretically informed, institutionally driven framework within which system and societal pressures may inhibit or reinforce dominance factors in the remaking of management best practice for work organisation and employment relations.' Ian Clark, Industrial Relations Journal

From the Publisher