Management of Knowledge-Intensive Companies

Mats Alvesson

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9783110900569
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Table of contents

• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 1.1 Theoretical Objectives
• 1.2 Theoretical Frames of Reference
• 1.3 Knowledge-intensive Companies
• 1.4 Constraints
• 1.5 The Structure of the Book
• 2 Description of Enator AB
• 2.1 Enator’s History: 1977–87
• 2.2 Enator at the Time of the Case Study (1987)
• 2.3 Something about Enator’s Functioning and Management
• 2.4 The Pronator Group
• 2.5 Market and Competitive Conditions
• 3 Culture Theory
• 3.1 The Culture Concept and Theories about Culture
• 3.2 Organizational Culture Research
• 3.3 Symbolism and Organizational Symbolism
• 3.4 Summary
• 4 Qualitative Research and Philosophy of Science
• 4.1 Interpretative Research
• 4.2 The Importance of Metaphors in Research
• 4.3 Avoiding the Objectivism and Relativism Traps
• 4.4 Research Texts which Stimulate Dialogue
• 4.5 Culture Research
• 4.6 The Method in the Present Study
• 5 A Socialization Sequence: Course in Project Management Philosophy
• 5.1 On Socialization in Organizations
• 5.2 The Project Management Philosophy Course from a Socialization Perspective
• 5.3 Course Objectives
• 5.4 The Course as a Social-Integrative Management Instrument
• 5.5 On the Processing of Social Information
• 5.6 Comments on the Socialization Process from the Social Information Processing Perspective
• 5.7 Summary and Comments
• 6 A Flat Pyramid. A Symbolic Processing of Organizational Structure
• 6.1 Organizational Structure
• 6.2 Enator’s Organizational Structure
• 6.3 The Organization of the Consultancy Projects
• 6.4 Enator in Terms of Mintzberg’s Configurations
• 6.5 Adhocracy
• 6.6 Adhocracy: Conclusions
• 6.7 Organizational Structure in a Dynamic Perspective
• 6.8 Organizational Structure from the Cultural Perspective
• 6.9 Conclusion
• 7 Corporate Culture and the Organizational Climate
• 7.1 Corporate Culture in General
• 7.2 Corporate Culture at Enator: Content
• 7.3 Cultural Forms of Expression and Transmission
• 7.4 Organizational Rites at Enator
• 7.5 The Enator Building
• 7.6 A Brief Flashback to the Development of Ritual Forms
• 7.7 Comments on Rites and Other Symbolic Forms at Enator
• 7.8 The Depth of Symbolism
• 7.9 Does Enator Form a Distinct Corporate Culture?
• 7.10 Organizational Climate at Enator
• 7.11 What Determines the Corporate Culture and the Organizational Climate?
• 7.12 Summary
• 8 Leadership as Social Integrative Action
• 8.1 A Note on Leadership Research and a Thesis
• 8.2 Leadership during the Expansion of Enator
• 8.3 The Founders
• 8.4 Charisma as an Attributed Characteristic
• 8.5 Management Principles and Corporate Culture
• 8.6 Integration, Differentiation and Fragmentation
• 8.7 The Company as an Institution
• 8.8 Leadership as Social Integrative Action
• 8.9 Discussion and Conclusions
• 9 Personnel and the Work Situation
• 9.1 Work Conditions, Strains at Work
• 9.2 The Importance of the Organization for the Work Situation
• 9.3 Cultural Influence and Awareness of Problems
• 9.4 Enator and Trade Unionism
• 9.5 Summary of Chapter 9
• 9.6 Summary of Some of the Themes in Chapters 7-9: Management and the Job Situation for Personnel
• 10 The Business Concept as a Symbol
• 10.1 The Notion of the Business Concept
• 10.2 Enator’s Business Concept
• 10.3 A Mystery
• 10.4 Possible Functions of a Business Concept
• 10.5 Proposals for Extending the Notion of the Business Concept
• 10.6 The Symbolic Value of the Business Concept
• 11 Strategy
• 11.1 The Strategy Concept in General Terms
• 11.2 Critical Comments on the Strategy Concept
• 11.3 Enator’s Development from a Business and Strategy Perspective
• 11.4 The Internationalization Strategy
• 11.5 An Emergent Strategy
• 11.6 The Formation of Strategy in Adhocracies
• 11.7 Strategy Development at Enator
• 11.8 Cultural Aspects of Strategy
• 12 Marketing – External and Internal
• 12.1 Marketing of Services
• 12.2 The Service Marketing Concept
• 12.3 Industrial Marketing
• 12.4 The Marketing of Professional Services
• 12.5 Standardized and Situationally-adapted Production of Services
• 12.6 A Classification of Marketing Situations
• 12.7 Marketing at Enator
• 12.8 Internal Marketing
• 12.9 Internal Marketing at Enator
• 12.10 Summary
• 13 Integration and Contradictions
• 13.1 Forms for Organizing Exchanges
• 13.2 A Model for Forms for Arranging Exchanges in Companies
• 13.3 Enator in Terms of Formal Organization, Market, Circle and Clan
• 13.4 Integration of Various Organizational Forms
• 13.5 An Integrative Model Describing how Enator Functions
• 13.6 Contradictions and Divergence
• 14 Corporate Control via Symbols
• 14.1 Structural Sources of Disintegration
• 14.2 Some Crucial Dimensions of Corporate Operations
• 14.3 Key Symbols at Enator
• 14.4 Cataloguing Symbols
• 14.5 A Symbolic Typology for the Study of Companies
• 14.6 Corporate Dimensions and Types of Symbols
• 14.7 Final Comments on the Significance and Symbolism in Management
• 14.8 Comparison with Other Studies of Knowledge-intensive Companies
• 14.9 Conclusions
• References