State of the Art in Business Research – serie

Building upon decades of research, this shortform book distils the rise of management’s gurus. The author analyses the economic and political changes which facilitated the rise of this new group and offers reflections on the controversies around the development of ‘guru theory’ (a reasonably stable and enduring set of assumptions and associated practices). The rise of management gurus is placed in the context of critiques that the field is empty, insubstantial and faddish. With reflections on the contours of ‘the guru industry’ and insights into the world of "management speak", the text highlights conceptual, methodological and empirical failings and suggests a radical reconceptualisation of the guru-as-performer.This concise book from a global expert on the topic is essential reading for researchers of business and management as well as an insightful addition to the wider social science library.

Corporate governance developed to maintain the accountability, stability, and performance of corporations. It has evolved to concern not just the financial health of the company, but its social and environmental impact. There is considerable international institutional diversity in corporate governance. The role and significance of market institutions varies among different governance systems.This work provides a concise insight into the defining impulses of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century corporate governance evolving through a series of competing epoch-making paradigmatic contests. The present paradigm highlights a shift towards corporate sustainability involving the corporate delivery of long-term value in financial, social, environmental, and ethical terms. In analysing the purpose of the company and the definition of value creation, the hegemony of agency theory and shareholder primacy is challenged. More expansive theoretical explanations are considered which recognise the deeper values companies are built upon, the wider purposes they serve, and the broader set of relationships they depend upon for their success.This book will be of value to researchers, scholars, and students in corporate governance, sustainability, business, and accounting. Managers, professionals, and other general business readers will also find this text of interest.

Stress is a leading cause of ill health in the workplace. This shortform book analyses, summarizes and contextualises research around stress at work.The book begins by exploring the impact and challenges of technology and the challenging and changing contours and boundaries of the nature of work. Using a behaviour lens, the authors draw on cyberpsychology to illuminate the choices we make to balance life, work and wellbeing. The changing nature of work is analysed, shifting structures and boundaries explored and the stress consequences of such themes as the gig economy and precarious work are also included in the book. A compelling framework for researchers of work, organization and psychology, this concise book is also valuable reading for reflective practitioners, seeking to understand the importance of well-being in the workplace.

Public Management: A Research Overview provides a structured survey of the state of the art of public management research. Looking at the enduring themes of bureaucracy, autonomy, markets and collaboration, each chapter introduces key foundational studies before reviewing contemporary research. Although originally intended to maximise efficiency, work on bureaucracy points to the problems of red tape, contested accountabilities, performance management, merit and public service motivation. Autonomy research asks whether reforms intended to free subservient agencies from red tape and political interference have delivered the goods. Are autonomous service managers more focused on the needs of citizen-consumers and more entrepreneurial in their appetite for innovation? Marketisation reforms take a further step away from bureaucratic forms of control by exposing public services to market forces of one form or another. Competitive contracting and privatisation put public services into real markets while quasi-markets and yardstick competition try to recreate these pressures without private ownership. Perhaps reacting to the fragmentation unleashed by unbundling and marketisation, collaboration promises to deliver improvement through voluntary processes of negotiation and exchange. Vertical forms of collaboration between different levels of government, or between governments and citizens, promise a better match between policies and problems. Lateral collaboration between agencies working at the same level are intended to tackle the so-called wicked issues that fall between jurisdictions or else to share services and unlock economies of scale. The book concludes by considering the new challenges facing public management from global warming to the rise of populism and affective polarisation.Drawing on evidence from across the world, the book will speak to all those studying and practising public management.

Talent management is a central element of managerial discourse and organisational practice. This short-form book provides a succinct overview on the state of research on talent management. The authors set out the key themes, arguments, trends and future research trajectories of talent management, highlighting major works in the field. As a research topic with a fragmented body of knowledge, pluralistic perspectives are summarised, while workforce differentiation emerges as a central element. A critical introduction for students, scholars and reflective practitioners, this book guides readers through a relatively new and rapidly developing area of management research.

The book provides insights, description and analysis over the knowledge production process within business, organization, and management research. Importantly, it does so from a language and translation perspective. It critically engages with the role of English in this process and provides theoretical argument for the need to include multilingualism in research. Translation is investigated as a concept for future inquiry.The book is expressive and formative of language-based research that is gaining momentum in business, management, and organization research. It offers conceptual innovation through a thorough treatment of multilingualism and translation, having the potentiality to guide future empirical and theoretical research, and to dispel hidden hegemonic knowledge production practices. The readers will gain insights into the current status quo of language-based inquiry, discussions of multilingualism for research design and be informed about the philosophical underpinnings of language-based research. Specifically, the benefits include the review and summary of key publications in this field, discussion and analysis of hidden assumptions of knowledge production, a critical take on knowledge production, an outline and discussion of implications of multilingual research for research design and methods, discussion of philosophical underpinnings and a vision for future research.The book is an invaluable source for all research students whose projects contain elements of multilingual research, whether empirical or theoretical. Likewise, the growing body of researchers who take a language-sensitive approach to their research may find it as a source that ‘pulls together’ the current knowledge status quo while offering discussions of future trajectories. The book is extremely useful for the teaching of research methods in undergraduate, postgraduate and also Master’s or doctoral programmes as many students are not native English speakers and are directly confronted with the subject matter of the book.

Throughout the last decade, the ‘gig economy’ has emerged as one of the most significant developments in the world of work. As a novel, hyper-flexible form of labour, gig work features a uniquely fragmented working arrangement wherein independent workers partner with digital platform organisations to provide a range of on-demand services to customers. Work in the Gig Economy: A Research Overview provides a concise overview to the key themes and debate that encompass the gig economy literature. It covers five core themes: an introduction to gig work; classification issues; the role of technology; the experiences of gig workers; and the future of gig work. As an emerging and diverse research field, contributions stem from an array of perspectives including psychology, sociology, human resource management, legal studies, and technology management. The chapters synthesise the most prominent insights into this emerging field, key thinking on the complex relationships and conditions found in gig work, and the most significant issues to be addressed as the gig economy continues to develop. A critical introduction for students, scholars and reflective professionals and policymakers, this book provides much needed direction through the rapidly growing and expansive body of research on work in the gig economy.

This shortform book tells the research story of cultural management, helping scholars to analyse and combine theoretical models into an approach of their own.Cultural management emerged and developed out of the field of arts management in the 1980s, which imported managerial techniques and assumptions from mainstream commercial business into the arts. In the late 1990s, the field integrated entrepreneurial approaches to management in the creative industries before adapting to a new model, based on user experiences and co-creation. These historical phases are theorised respectively as cultural management 1.0, cultural management 2.0 and cultural management 3.0. Yet they also overlap. Bringing together theories of management and creativity, this book enables scholars to get a grip on the underlying assumptions and conditions which lie behind an eclectic and evolving field. The author, an established expert in this field, empowers scholars and reflective practitioners to develop their own approach to cultural management, drawing on the available approaches, and to recognise that successful cultural management is contingent on understanding the context (organisational and personal) within which these models will be applied.

Building upon decades of research, this shortform book distils the rise of management’s gurus. The author analyses the economic and political changes which facilitated the rise of this new group and offers reflections on the controversies around the development of ‘guru theory’ (a reasonably stable and enduring set of assumptions and associated practices). The rise of management gurus is placed in the context of critiques that the field is empty, insubstantial and faddish. With reflections on the contours of ‘the guru industry’ and insights into the world of "management speak", the text highlights conceptual, methodological and empirical failings and suggests a radical reconceptualisation of the guru-as-performer.This concise book from a global expert on the topic is essential reading for researchers of business and management as well as an insightful addition to the wider social science library.

Stress is a leading cause of ill health in the workplace. This shortform book analyses, summarises and contextualises research around stress at work.The book begins by exploring the impact and challenges of technology and the challenging and changing contours and boundaries of the nature of work. Using a behaviour lens, the authors draw on cyberpsychology to illuminate the choices we make to balance life, work and wellbeing. The changing nature of work is analysed, shifting structures and boundaries explored and the stress consequences of such themes as the gig economy and precarious work are also included in the book. A compelling framework for researchers of work, organisation and psychology, this concise book is also valuable reading for reflective practitioners, seeking to understand the importance of wellbeing in the workplace

The premise of this book is that research into gossip, organization, and work is an important idea whose time has come. A key feature of the book is the inclusion of ‘practice points’ showing how – and where – theory and/or research intersect with practice and vice versa. They are intended as signposts to future thinking and theorizing, tempting readers to venture outside of their ‘home’ disciplines and territories, conceptual comfort zones, and methodological mindsets. The overall aim of the book is to: (i) provide enough information for readers to decide where they might want to go next; (ii) offer some theoretical directions and ethical principles; and (iii) make suggestions regarding what academic-practitioner tools and techniques will help them along the way, including arts-based and mixed-methods research that focuses on real-world lived experience(s) of gossip.It will be relevant to researchers at all stages of their career: from students at the start of their academic journey, to ‘seasoned’ scholars with more extensive experience. The book is also intended to be readable and relevant to practitioners with academic interests, who seek to reflect critically upon, and develop, their practice in times of turbulence and change and in the COVID-19 era.

The premise of this book is that research into gossip, organization, and work is an important idea whose time has come. A key feature of the book is the inclusion of ‘practice points’ showing how – and where – theory and/or research intersect with practice and vice versa. They are intended as signposts to future thinking and theorizing, tempting readers to venture outside of their ‘home’ disciplines and territories, conceptual comfort zones, and methodological mindsets. The overall aim of the book is to: (i) provide enough information for readers to decide where they might want to go next; (ii) offer some theoretical directions and ethical principles; and (iii) make suggestions regarding what academic-practitioner tools and techniques will help them along the way, including arts-based and mixed-methods research that focuses on real-world lived experience(s) of gossip.It will be relevant to researchers at all stages of their career: from students at the start of their academic journey, to ‘seasoned’ scholars with more extensive experience. The book is also intended to be readable and relevant to practitioners with academic interests, who seek to reflect critically upon, and develop, their practice in times of turbulence and change and in the COVID-19 era.

The growing body of research on business models draws upon a range of sub-disciplines, including strategic management, entrepreneurship, organization studies and management accounting.Business Models: A Research Overview provides a research map for business scholars, incorporating theoretical and applied perspectives. It develops the field of business model research by offering a critique of the field as it has developed to date and provides a guide for future research and theorization. The research performed as a basis for this book improves and extends prior subjective and less-documented work by using a scientific approach to identifying impactful research. The book argues that business model research is a mature field and that future research should focus on performative and ecosystem-based contributions, with the timely identification of four distinct stages of business model research. The study here provokes a new set of research questions, which are addressed in the concluding passages of Chapters 5–8, as a point of departure for those researching business models.This book is essential primary reading for scholars and practitioners of business models who are looking to seek out new knowledge and build new perspectives.

Talent management is a central element of managerial discourse and organisational practice. This short-form book provides a succinct overview on the state of research on talent management. The authors set out the key themes, arguments, trends and future research trajectories of talent management, highlighting major works in the field. As a research topic with a fragmented body of knowledge, pluralistic perspectives are summarised, while workforce differentiation emerges as a central element. A critical introduction for students, scholars and reflective practitioners, this book guides readers through a relatively new and rapidly developing area of management research.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges to those responsible for the management of healthcare activities. These challenges require decision makers at all levels to possess a broad and comprehensive understanding of healthcare management tools, and especially of the interaction between formal control systems and the informal power dynamics which operate within healthcare organisations. Managing in healthcare is not only difficult because of the sector’s high-stakes ethical contexts but also because the health care workforce is inherently complex and heterogeneous. It is the purpose of this book to survey the expanding literature on management control in healthcare with the aim of giving readers a better understanding of the options available to managers, decision-makers and also educated observers of this important sector. This book summarises key debates and findings in this rapidly developing and increasingly important field. It explores state-of-the-art models and approaches, highlights unexplored questions and gives an outlook on novel and developing trends. In so doing it provides a hands-on-guide for aspiring healthcare managers and practitioner and offers critical insights into the more advanced academic literature for those seeking a thorough grounding in the accounting and finance aspects of healthcare management.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges to those responsible for the management of healthcare activities. These challenges require decision makers at all levels to possess a broad and comprehensive understanding of healthcare management tools, and especially of the interaction between formal control systems and the informal power dynamics which operate within healthcare organisations. Managing in healthcare is not only difficult because of the sector’s high-stakes ethical contexts but also because the health care workforce is inherently complex and heterogeneous. It is the purpose of this book to survey the expanding literature on management control in healthcare with the aim of giving readers a better understanding of the options available to managers, decision-makers and also educated observers of this important sector. This book summarises key debates and findings in this rapidly developing and increasingly important field. It explores state-of-the-art models and approaches, highlights unexplored questions and gives an outlook on novel and developing trends. In so doing it provides a hands-on-guide for aspiring healthcare managers and practitioner and offers critical insights into the more advanced academic literature for those seeking a thorough grounding in the accounting and finance aspects of healthcare management.

This shortform book presents an overview of theoretical and empirical work in the field of organization theory. In doing so, it both provides a critical analysis of the state of knowledge in the field and offers recommendations for future directions. It is about both thinking differently, and considering what is already known within Organization Theory. With coverage of the foundations of organisation studies, the importance of bureaucracy, and insights into institutional approaches, the book also makes space to consider the key role of alternatives in the development of the field. A panoply of modes of organizing the modern economy and civil society have arisen wherein it is often said that the platform has replaced the pyramid. Yet, in 2022, the pandemic underscores the state’s responsibility to maintain public health through centralized and coherent organization rather than outsourcing, subcontracting and the gig economy. The book offers a new direction for research focusing upon ‘organizational camouflage’, where the unmasking of the large hierarchical corporation’s enduring role in governing our everyday lives would become Organization Theory’s revelatory task.Organization Theory: A Research Overview will be of value to researchers, scholars and students in the fields of business and management, especially those interested in the intersection of politics and organizations.

This shortform book presents an overview of theoretical and empirical work in the field of organization theory. In doing so, it both provides a critical analysis of the state of knowledge in the field and offers recommendations for future directions. It is about both thinking differently, and considering what is already known within Organization Theory. With coverage of the foundations of organisation studies, the importance of bureaucracy, and insights into institutional approaches, the book also makes space to consider the key role of alternatives in the development of the field. A panoply of modes of organizing the modern economy and civil society have arisen wherein it is often said that the platform has replaced the pyramid. Yet, in 2022, the pandemic underscores the state’s responsibility to maintain public health through centralized and coherent organization rather than outsourcing, subcontracting and the gig economy. The book offers a new direction for research focusing upon ‘organizational camouflage’, where the unmasking of the large hierarchical corporation’s enduring role in governing our everyday lives would become Organization Theory’s revelatory task.Organization Theory: A Research Overview will be of value to researchers, scholars and students in the fields of business and management, especially those interested in the intersection of politics and organizations.

Written with pace and clarity, this book is a comprehensive and compact overview and introduction to the research landscape of complexity in organizations. In addition to conveying a gripping history of how complexity has influenced organizational ideas, theories, and practices throughout the 20th century and into our present age, the book sheds light on how ground-breaking ideas in chaos and complexity research have emerged and challenged the very foundations of science into a changed vision of nature, society, and human organizations. As well as being an exciting investigation into complexity research in organizations, the book shows how, in the past, researchers who were immersed in the power politics of their day grappled with the theme of complexity in their quest to understand the dynamics of organization in nature and society. By welding fundamental theoretical themes and practical implications into the political and social contexts in which they emerged, this overview provides both depth and breadth to the history, as well as the future, of studies of complexity in organized activity. The book is a lucid and essential study of a topic that will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and students in the fields of business and management, especially those with an interest in the ways that complexity affects and transforms organizations.

This book explores the meaning and practice of corporeal ethics in organized life. Corporeal ethics originates from an emergent, embodied, and affective experience with others that precedes and exceeds those rational schemes that seek to regulate it. Pullen and Rhodes show how corporeal ethics is fundamentally based in embodied affect, yet practically materialized in ethico-political acts of positive resistance and networked solidarity. Considering ethics in this way turns our attention to how people’s conduct and interactions might be ethically informed in the context of, and in resistance to, the masculine rationality of dominating organizational power relations in which they find themselves. Pullen and Rhodes outline the ways in which ethically grounded resistance and critique can and do challenge self-interested organizational power and privilege. They account for how corporeal ethics serves to destabilize the ways that organizations reproduce practices that negate difference and result in oppression, discrimination, and inequality. The book is suitable for students, scholars, and citizens who want to learn more about the radical possibilities of how political actions arising from corporeal ethics can strive for equality and justice.

A growing body of literature in the area of business administration has focused on the phenomenon of decline. These studies span multiple levels of analysis and draws on a range of disciplines, including strategic management, economics, and economic geography. Managing Decline: A Research Overview provides a summary of this research by focusing on three key levels of analysis: industries, clusters, and organizations. The targeted reviews in this book map each individual level of analysis separately and the discussion section outlines overarching themes regarding decline and its management. The three levels are analyzed by identifying different forms, causes, processes, and management options regarding decline. This is accompanied by the identification of key academic discourses that have been used to analyze decline. The discussion section highlights broader themes regarding the nature and management of decline that span across the different levels of analysis. This book provides an easy-to-access summary on the nature and management of decline for academic scholars and business practitioners, and is essential reading for getting an overview of this broad field of research.

There is growing interest in flexible working, not only as a means to manage labour more efficiently and for greater agility, but also as a response to increasing concerns over well-being, work-life balance, and participation in the labour force of those with significant non-work commitments (e.g. parents, carers, older workers). As a result, a comprehensive stream of literature on the benefits and challenges of flexible working has developed and led to a body of evidence on the implementation and outcomes of different forms of flexible working arrangements. Of interest to students, academics and policy-makers, this book provides an expert overview of the empirical evidence and offers critical commentary on the state of knowledge in the field of flexible working and new forms of work.

Innovation is the means by which organizations survive and thrive in uncertain and turbulent conditions. Innovation management has become a well-established field of research, teaching and practice, with a substantial literature. As a broad-based research field, contributions stem from an array of perspectives including science, economics, engineering and psychology. Innovation is crucial for economic and social progress, and it needs to be managed in order to be beneficial.Innovation Management: A Research Overview provides a concise introduction to the best research on innovation management. It covers four main themes: foundational studies, key concepts and frameworks, important empirical studies, and current and emerging themes. The research discussed includes classic studies, with core insights in the field, key thinking on strategies and processes for innovation, well-established and novel research methods, and issues of greatest contemporary importance.This shortform book provides direction through the maze of research on the nature, processes and outcomes of innovation management, and provides an invaluable introduction to the literature on innovation management for students and professionals.

The fields of corporate environmentalism, green business and corporate sustainability have grown significantly over the past twenty-five years, such that the academic research domains of business decision-making, accounting, organizational behaviour, and the protection of the natural environment have developed into maturing areas of study within the management sciences.Business and the Natural Environment: A Research Overview is a summary of the research thus far on this topic, offering a structure for understanding its emergence and growth, the multiple facets that make up its present state and a glimpse into the future of where it may be going. Along the way, the authors provide a compendium of its important works to help situate the interested reader in the landscape of the field. One important element of this work is its topical relevance; issues of environmental protection (and more recently sustainability) are critically important in today’s worlds of business, policy, and public understanding. Scholars who choose to enter this domain have much to offer of societal value while at the same time, entering a non-fully legitimate research stream that can lead to academic success (such as tenure).This shortform book provides a research map for both new scholars who wish to enter the field and more seasoned researchers who wish to understand one view of the landscape and how they might fit within it. This expert survey of the existing literature brings the research story into the age of the Anthropocene and is essential primary reading.

The growing body of research on business models draws upon a range of sub-disciplines, including strategic management, entrepreneurship, organization studies and management accounting.Business Models: A Research Overview provides a research map for business scholars, incorporating theoretical and applied perspectives. It develops the field of business model research by offering a critique of the field as it has developed to date and provides a guide for future research and theorization. The research performed as a basis for this book improves and extends prior subjective and less-documented work by using a scientific approach to identifying impactful research. The book argues that business model research is a mature field and that future research should focus on performative and ecosystem-based contributions, with the timely identification of four distinct stages of business model research. The study here provokes a new set of research questions, which are addressed in the concluding passages of Chapters 5–8, as a point of departure for those researching business models.This book is essential primary reading for scholars and practitioners of business models who are looking to seek out new knowledge and build new perspectives.

Sales are the lifeblood of the business world and therefore an area of fundamental importance for scholarly research. This concise book analyses current thoughts and emerging practices in sales management research.Organisations who are looking to increase revenues and add new customers to their portfolio will find it increasingly difficult to successfully do this without being aware of and adopting the appropriate, adaptive sales processes. Emergent themes such as agile sales management, digital selling, artificial intelligence and trust will be discussed in the book that also embraces the importance of customer relationship management, and how salespeople are aligning their interactions with the marketing function. The text will review recent research to identify how to grow and organise the sales pipeline, manage hybrid sales teams, and the effects of new technologies on selling processes. These discussions will be helpful in highlighting issues and providing some solutions to practitioners who are operating in new environments.This book will be invaluable to sales researchers as it summarises current knowledge about key sales and sales management topics and indicates possible future research directions.

An expert guide to contemporary research in the field of emergency services management, this short-form book will help academics, scholars, and practitioners to appreciate the important role and contribution of these services.Contemporary emergency services have been rapidly changing in response to increasing demand, reducing resources, the impact of COVID-19 and the increasingly complex threats to public safety. Academics, practitioners, the emergency services and their key stakeholders all need to have a clear understanding of the changing role and contribution of these services as well as finding ways to improve their management and performance so that policy solutions to new and emerging threats may be efficiently developed and effectively implemented. The book looks at the application of public management theories to emergency services and the development of professionalism within the police, fire and rescue, and ambulance services. It examines the increasing need for better collaboration and identifies the nature and extent of the academic and practitioner divide and the research gap between the academic and professional communities in each of the services.This book will be invaluable to researchers, scholars, practitioners, and students in the fields of governance, leadership, and management, especially those focusing on emergency services and management during crises.

An expert guide to contemporary research in the field of emergency services management, this short-form book will help academics, scholars, and practitioners to appreciate the important role and contribution of these services.Contemporary emergency services have been rapidly changing in response to increasing demand, reducing resources, the impact of COVID-19 and the increasingly complex threats to public safety. Academics, practitioners, the emergency services and their key stakeholders all need to have a clear understanding of the changing role and contribution of these services as well as finding ways to improve their management and performance so that policy solutions to new and emerging threats may be efficiently developed and effectively implemented. The book looks at the application of public management theories to emergency services and the development of professionalism within the police, fire and rescue, and ambulance services. It examines the increasing need for better collaboration and identifies the nature and extent of the academic and practitioner divide and the research gap between the academic and professional communities in each of the services.This book will be invaluable to researchers, scholars, practitioners, and students in the fields of governance, leadership, and management, especially those focusing on emergency services and management during crises.

The book provides insights, description and analysis over the knowledge production process within business, organization, and management research. Importantly, it does so from a language and translation perspective. It critically engages with the role of English in this process and provides theoretical argument for the need to include multilingualism in research. Translation is investigated as a concept for future inquiry.The book is expressive and formative of language-based research that is gaining momentum in business, management, and organization research. It offers conceptual innovation through a thorough treatment of multilingualism and translation, having the potentiality to guide future empirical and theoretical research, and to dispel hidden hegemonic knowledge production practices. The readers will gain insights into the current status quo of language-based inquiry, discussions of multilingualism for research design and be informed about the philosophical underpinnings of language-based research. Specifically, the benefits include the review and summary of key publications in this field, discussion and analysis of hidden assumptions of knowledge production, a critical take on knowledge production, an outline and discussion of implications of multilingual research for research design and methods, discussion of philosophical underpinnings and a vision for future research.The book is an invaluable source for all research students whose projects contain elements of multilingual research, whether empirical or theoretical. Likewise, the growing body of researchers who take a language-sensitive approach to their research may find it as a source that ‘pulls together’ the current knowledge status quo while offering discussions of future trajectories. The book is extremely useful for the teaching of research methods in undergraduate, postgraduate and also Master’s or doctoral programmes as many students are not native English speakers and are directly confronted with the subject matter of the book.