bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Organization Theory as a Critical Science? Forms of Analysis and ‘New Organizational Forms’
Authors: Willmott Hugh
Published: September 2009

This article presents and applies insights developed by Critical Theory to offer a heuristic framework for appreciating and accommodating the existence of competing conceptions of scientific knowledge. Specifically, this article commends the contribution of Habermas's theory of cognitive interests for the development of the understanding of management and organization. This theory is illustrated by reference to established areas of organizational analysis as well as to more recent research on ‘new organizational forms’. In this article, a plurality of methodologies within organization studies is identified and reviewed, using the literature on mainstream management theory and employee participation as well as ‘new organizational forms’ to illustrate the analysis. Finally, some affinities between elements of Habermas's thinking and poststructuralist analysis advanced by Foucault and by Laclau and Mouffe are signalled.
The Agency/Structure Dilemma in Organization Theory: Open Doors and Brick Walls
Authors: Reed Michael
Published: September 2009

This article reviews and assesses the various ways in which the agency/structure dilemma has been dealt with in organization theory. It identifies three major ‘moves’ for attempting to clarify this issue that will not quietly fade into obscurity as a philosophical curiosity properly consigned to the dustbin of intellectual history. First, the reductionist move on the agency/structure dilemma that simply reduces structure to agency or vice versa, but usually the former. Second, the determinist approach to the agency/structure problem that starkly dichotomizes the relationship between them in such a way that each, irreparably divided, side of this ontological/methodological dichotomy necessarily results in either behavioural or structural reification, but usually the latter. Third, the conflationist interpretation of the agency/structure paradox that directly collapses the latter into the former, and consequently treats it as a ‘virtualized reality’ only traceable in ongoing ‘strips’ of social interaction.
Micro and Macro Perspectives in Organization Theory: A Tale of Incommensurability
Authors: McKinley William , Mone Mark A.
Published: September 2009

This article categorizes existing schools of thought by level of analysis. It distinguishes specifically between micro and macro levels of analysis. The organization theory schools of thought at the micro level capture the way that single organizations modify their structures to take account of contingencies originating in their individual task environments. Schools of thought at the macro level focus on the evolution of aggregates of organizations and the characteristics of organizational collectivities such as fields. The former group of schools contains such perspectives as Donaldson's neo-contingency theory, as well as resource dependence theory and transaction costs theory. The latter group — the macro group — includes population ecology theory and neo-institutional theory. The classification of these five schools into micro and macro levels of analysis may be viewed as a tentative heuristic that helps make sense of organization theory's current complexity.
Character and Virtue in an Era of Turbulent Capitalism
Authors: Mangham Iain
Published: September 2009

In recent years, there has been an upsurge in anti-capitalist protest in the form of articles, books, and direct action. Three aspects of capitalism appear to give rise to particular concern: its influence on the environment, on inequality, and on cultural hegemony. Modern societies appear to be marked by intractable disagreements over what it is to lead a good life in the company of others. Some commentators hold that the market is destructive of community-based notions of the good life. It cultivates the vice of personal acquisitiveness and in doing so breaks the bands of affection that hold communities together. Others think such views are mistaken. This article examines aspects of this argument. It deals with two concepts: character and virtue. It considers the ways that these terms have been deployed in discussions of the impact of capitalism on the ethical climate both within and beyond organizations.
Transforming Industrial Districts
Authors: Lazerson Mark H. , Lorenzoni Gianni
Published: September 2009

This article articulates an evolving, new view of inter-organizational relationships (IORs), in industrial districts derived from data on twenty-one leading Italian firms engaged principally in the production of goods where fashion and design occupy a central role: shoes, clothing, leather goods, and furniture. It first gives a brief summary of some of the principal organizational characteristics of industrial districts and their relationship to flexible production. It then considers the emergence of leading firms despite the homogeneity of industrial districts and their use of forward integration as a strategic response to new competitive threats. Furthermore, it also discusses the various theoretical explanations for vertical integration. Finally, it presents some empirical data from case studies prior to the concluding remarks about leading firms and their implications for IORs.
Theories of Contract and their use in Studying Inter‐organizational Relations
Authors: Ring Peter Smith
Published: September 2009

This article discusses the ways in which the law of contract has been used and might be useful in understanding inter-organizational relations (IORs). In virtually all instances, when the representatives of two or more organizations conclude that their organizations will collaboratively work together towards some set of common and individual ends, they have to reach an agreement. In much of the social science literature dealing with IORs, scholars appear to be assuming that these agreements are ‘contracts’. In discussing the construct of a contract, this article begins by exploring how this concept has been addressed in the social sciences. The focus here is on sociology, psychology, economics, and management. This article concludes with a discussion of an agenda for future research on the subject of contracts in both the social sciences and in the law as it relates to IORs and inter-organizational entities.
Change, Dynamics, and Temporality in Inter‐organizational Relationships
Authors: Cropper Steve , Palmer Ian
Published: September 2009

Since organizational research started systematically to look beyond the single organization at the character and significance of inter-organizational relationships (IOR), there has been a gradual accumulation of work seeking to understand change and dynamics in IOR. More recently, there has been interest in exploring certain temporalities in IORs, reflecting interest in the wider field of organizational studies, where a number of substantial essays have addressed issues of change and time in organizational analysis. This article aims to outline and build upon this emerging interest in how more explicit attention to change, dynamics, and temporality can assist in the understanding of IORs. It takes each of these concepts and maps their implications for IORs, indicating where IOR research has incorporated them as questions or as parts of explanatory schemes. It also identifies how relevant theoretical traditions might be harnessed to enable further development of these relatively new lines of IOR research.
Sexuality
Authors: Tuana Nancy , Shrage Laurie
Published: September 2009

This article traces public debates about sexual practices that have found their way into recent philosophical and other academic publications. It examines the ideals and standards some ethicists have proposed for guiding our sexual lives, even those lived away from the public spotlight. Many debates about sex concern sexual practices that transgress long-standing sexual mores, practices such as extramarital sex, same-sex sex, and paid sex. Debates about transgressive sexual acts often focus on whether the traditional social barriers against them are rationally defensible. Other debates about sex concern sexual practices that involve harm, coercion, or social subordination, such as rape, pornography, harassment, and ‘unsafe’ sex.
Love
Authors: Badhwar Neera K.
Published: September 2009

Reflection on the look of love serves as a good entry point into various philosophical issues surrounding the love of persons: how to define love, the question whether love is a response to the loved object's value or a bestowal of value, the epistemic significance of love, the metaphysics of love, and the importance of romantic love. This article confines itself to these issues, even though it means neglecting some worthy contributions in the abundant contemporary philosophical literature on love. And, unless otherwise stated, the love that is addressed here is love of particular individuals, rather than love of God or of human beings.
Family
Authors: Almond Brenda
Published: September 2009

The family is a ubiquitous social institution, not only in human life, but also in that of other mammals and species. In strictly biological terms, ‘family’ is a concept that centres on the physical coming-together of male and female and on the cluster of offspring that results from that connection. In many species, a pair, once established, continues its relationship while fostering the young to independence. These are such trite and obvious facts that the necessity to set them out arises only because they are currently considered by many people irrelevant to the lives of humans, and also because there is a socio-legal conception of family that may, in some situations, be in conflict with the biological one.
Environmental Ethics
Authors: Shrader-Frechette Kristin
Published: September 2009

Environmental ethics, as a field of philosophical study, began in the 1970s and 1980s, in part as a result of the environmental movement and largely in Anglo-American work. Its roots trace to the monumental technological discoveries of the twentieth century, such as nuclear power and chemical pesticides; their overuse or misuse; and recognition of the environmental degradation these technologies have caused. Two paradigm examples of how the misuse of technology has caused massive environmental damage and consequently raised new ethical questions are DDT and nuclear power. From the point of view of the relative importance of human interests, the new field of environmental ethics can be divided roughly into anthropocentric, non-anthropocentric, and mixed approaches.
Multiculturalism
Authors: Arthur John
Published: September 2009

Few ideas are as open to different interpretations these days, or as controversial, as multiculturalism. Like many other ‘isms’ — socialism, conservatism, fascism — multiculturalism is a political movement as well as a set of philosophical, social, and political ideas. Before looking at the range of positions associated with multiculturalism, this article first describes its historical origins and the social forces that came together to create it. ‘Multiculturalism’ is a term that has, in Nathan Blum's phrase, both ‘great currency’ and ‘imprecise usage’. It is also a relatively new word, making its first recorded appearances in Canada and Australia during the 1970s, at a time when both countries were struggling to deal with large influxes of non-European immigrants and with a new-found appreciation of the mistreatment of their own indigenous peoples.
International Economic Justice
Authors: Satz Debra
Published: September 2009

The magnitude of economic inequalities between nations raises a number of crucial questions. Some of these questions are empirical. What best explains the origins and persistence of such enormous disparities between countries? What measures, if any, are available to alleviate the material inequalities between nations? To what extent are the sources of these inequalities rooted in conditions beyond any single nation's control? This article explores the philosophical issues posed by international economic inequalities, but it begins by sketching out some of the empirical controversies that bear on these issues.
Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide
Authors: Battin Margaret P.
Published: September 2009

When the debate over euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide emerged into public consciousness in the mid-1970s, the debate got off to a rousing start, as philosophers, doctors, theologians, public-policy theorists, journalists, social advocates, and private citizens became embroiled in the debate. On the one side were liberals, who thought physician-assisted suicide and perhaps voluntary active euthanasia were ethically acceptable and should be legal; on the other side were conservatives, who believed that it was imoral and/or dangerous to legalize assisted dying as a matter of public policy. Over the next few decades in which this debate was accelerating it achieved a lively, florid richness, both as a philosophical dispute and as a broad, international public issue. This article aims to explore the richness of this debate by showing something of the terrain of the debate and the figures who have inhabited it, both the public figures and the academic ones partly behind the scenes.
Experimentation in Political Science
Authors: Morton Rebecca B. , Williams Kenneth C.
Published: September 2009

This article mentions that the number of experiments has increased dramatically in political science in the last thirty-five years because of their power for making causal inferences. It directly confronts the Achilles heel of experiments — their external validity. It also argues that external validity can be achieved if a result can be replicated across a variety of data-sets and situations. The expanding area of experimental political science and some of the concerns involved in experimentation are investigated. It showed the wide variety of ways in which experimentation can be used to answer interesting research questions while speaking to theorists, empiricists, and policy-makers. It is expected that the application of experimentation techniques will continue to rise in political science, just as it has in other social sciences.
Field Experiments and Natural Experiments
Authors: Gerber Alan S. , Green Donald P.
Published: September 2009

This article evaluates the strengths and limitations of field experimentation. It first defines field experimentation and describes the many forms that field experiments take. It also interprets the growth and development of field experimentation. It then discusses why experiments are valuable for causal inference. The assumptions of experimental and nonexperimental inference are distinguished, noting that the value accorded to observational research is often inflated by misleading reporting conventions. The article elaborates on the study of natural experiments and discontinuities as alternatives to both randomized interventions and conventional nonexperimental research. Finally, it outlines a list of methodological issues that arise commonly in connection with experimental design and analysis: the role of covariates, planned vs. unplanned comparisons, and extrapolation. It concludes by dealing with the ways in which field experimentation is reshaping the field of political methodology.
Endogeneity and Structural Equation Estimation in Political Science
Authors: Jackson John E.
Published: September 2009

This article outlines the current situation with respect to ‘endogeneity and structural equation estimation’. It begins by exploring why econometrics, and particularly the treatment of endogeneity, proved so valuable for political scientists. The most prominent methods used to deal with endogeneity are explained. The article also includes a critique of the critical conditions needed to support the use and interpretation of this method and discusses frequently used diagnostics developed to assess the severity of the problems. The estimation method and diagnostics are shown with a running example with data from a previous study of US congressional politics. In many instances, empirical evidence will continue to be the classic observational study, replete with endogeneity problems. Rather than forgoing analyses of these data and questions because of the reservations about a particular method, it is better to use and to improve those methods in the context of these studies and data.
Empirical Models of Spatial Inter‐Dependence
Authors: Franzese Robert J. , Hays Jude C.
Published: September 2009

This article discusses the role of ‘spatial interdependence’ between units of analysis by using a symmetric weighting matrix for the units of observation whose elements reflect the relative connectivity between unit i and unit j. It starts by addressing spatial interdependence in political science. There are two workhorse regression models in empirical spatial analysis: spatial lag and spatial error models. The article then addresses OLS estimation and specification testing under the null hypothesis of no spatial dependence. It turns to the topic of assessing spatial lag models, and a discussion of spatial error models. Moreover, it reports the calculation of spatial multipliers. Furthermore, it presents several newer applications of spatial techniques in empirical political science research: SAR models with multiple lags, SAR models for binary dependent variables, and spatio-temporal autoregressive (STAR) models for panel data.
Multilevel Models
Authors: Jones Bradford S.
Published: September 2009

This article addresses multilevel models in which units are nested within one another. The focus is primarily two-level models. It also describes cross-unit heterogeneity. Moreover, it assesses the fixed and random effects from the multilevel model. It generally tries to convey the scope of multilevel models but in a very compact way. Multilevel models provide great promise for exploiting information in hierarchical data structures. There are a range of alternatives for such data and it bears repeating that sometimes, simpler-to-apply correctives are best.
Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
Authors: Fearon James D. , Laitin David D.
Published: September 2009

This article describes how qualitative and quantitative tools can be used jointly to strengthen causal inference. It first outlines the findings of statistical analysis of civil war onsets. It then addresses the different criteria for choosing which narratives to tell. A method for structuring narratives that is complementary to the statistical work is reported. Next, the article shows in light of narrative findings the incompleteness of the statistical models that are initially ran. One narrative is emphasized as an example of its potential yield. It underlines some surprises and advantages of the random narrative approach. There are general lessons as well to be learned from the random narrative exercise. The random narrative method allows the assessment of measurement error for variables that are hard to code reliably across large numbers of cases.
Forty Years of Publishing in Quantitative Methodology
Authors: Lewis-Beck Michael S.
Published: September 2009

This article describes the forty-year history of publications in quantitative political methodology. It also illustrates that the range and scope of outlets now available stands in dramatic contrast to what existed forty years ago. It begins with material in leading general journals, the American Political Science Review  APSR and the American Journal of Political Science (AJPS). From there, it traces the development of more specialized venues, such as Political Methodology (POM), Political Analysis (POA), the Political Methodologist (TPM), and the Sage Quantitative Analysis in the Social Sciencesseries (QASS). From the vantage point of today, the mid-2000s, a political scientist seeking to publish a paper in quantitative methods has at least five opportunities.
The Fit Between Crisis Types and Management Attributes as a Determinant of Crisis Consequences
Authors: Ursacki‐Bryant Teri Jane , Smart Carolyne , Vertinsky Ilan
Published: September 2009

This article explores some key environmental and organizational characteristics that may influence the type of crisis management system that an emergent crisis type activates. It provides a typology of crises and the decision system attributes that may reduce their negative consequences or amplify their positive consequences. It explores the “fit” of alternative crisis management decision processes with some specific crisis types. It also explores some of the immediate consequences of crisis decision making. The fifth section deals with the longer term consequences of the crisis as a function of the decision processes and the types of crisis the system has faced.
Intuition in Organizational Decision Making
Authors: Sadler‐Smith Eugene , Sparrow Paul
Published: September 2009

The concept of intuitive judgment is traditionally associated with the heuristics and biases research of Kahneman, Tversky, and others. Within this paradigm, subjective probabilities are numerical expressions of beliefs concerning uncertain events that may be assessed using heuristics that reduce complex computational tasks to simpler judgmental ones. Such intuitive judgments can be economical and effective, but they accrue negative outcomes when rules for inference are used which are founded on false assumptions or when errors of logic are used which have attendant biases. Intuitive judgments based upon the heuristics of representativeness, availability, and anchoring and adjustment can be useful, but they may also lead to severe and systematic errors. However, as well as the “heuristics and biases” perspective, intuition has been viewed from a variety of different standpoints, some of which are summarized in this article.
Individual Differences And Decision Making
Authors: Soane Emma , Nicholson Nigel
Published: September 2009

This article aims to provide an overview and discussion of the sources and effects of individual variation in how individuals make choices and decisions. This review encompasses both the micro and the life-span perspective, with the common assumption that individual differences are part of the evolved human design. Individuals reap the benefits of comparative advantage through differentiation, sustaining the survival of the species through complex social organization and their own reproductive fitness by occupying niches within it. Behavioural genetics research contains plentiful evidence for the existence of heritable differences in temperament and dispositions that will bear upon how we make decisions at the micro and life-space levels of choice.
Group Composition and Decision Making
Authors: George Elizabeth , Chattopadhyay Prithviraj
Published: September 2009

How might the composition of a group affect its decision-making processes? The objective of this article is to examine the role of diversity in three key aspects of decision making in groups: access to information; information processing; and building commitment to group decisions. It begins by briefly reviewing the diversity literature. The review does not attempt to be comprehensive (several such reviews have already been published), but rather, it attempts to highlight how diversity can influence group decision making. It then discusses how diversity might shape the group's access to information held by its members, the cognitive biases that come in the way of information processing, and finally commitment to the group's decision.
Making Sense of Real Options Reasoning: An Engine of Choice that Backfires?
Authors: Barnett Michael L. , Dunbar Roger L. M.
Published: September 2009

This article traces the development of real options reasoning (ROR) and details how problems in assessing the value of real options have made ROR difficult to implement. The article then describes how in practice, instead of focusing on explicit valuation, organizations use analogous reasoning to develop, select, and implement options that enable strategic flexibility and so enhance value. An illustrative case demonstrates how financial options can help this process by buffering core operations from changing market environments. The same illustration also shows that ROR fails to simultaneously create future choices while limiting costs. Moreover, where it does generate future choices, it does not prevent decision makers from making poor choices. Thus, the engine of choice that ROR suggests organizations should create may in fact backfire on those decision makers who try to implement it.
The Social Construction of Rationality in Organizational Decision Making
Authors: Cabantous Laure , Gond Jean‐Pascal , Johnson‐Cramer Michael
Published: September 2009

The first part of this article traces the rise and fall of rationality as a category in organizational decision-making research. The essential story here is one in which the ongoing work of rationalist decision analysts and the growing critique of organization theorists have developed largely in isolation from each other. This occurred not only because their basic premises differed so radically but also because of the sharp distinction drawn between normative and descriptive research on organizational decision making. The second part suggests reconstructing the missing bridge between (rationalist) decision analysis and (organizational) decision-making research and describes how managers enact decision making as a social practice informed by a rational approach to decisions. Finally, the conclusion discusses the implications of this alternative account for both future research and practice.
When “Decision Outcomes” are not the Outcomes of Decisions
Authors: Vidaillet Bénédicte
Published: September 2009

The concept of decision making is quite convenient for those who try to understand the origin of organizational outputs. Whether people seek to explain good performances or disasters, they should bear in mind that these outputs are the consequences of certain decisions or of the method of decision making. Quite logically, people consider some organizational outcomes to be decision outcomes, and they suppose that specific decisions produce those decision outcomes. However obvious these relations may seem, this article shows that so-called “decision outcomes” are not necessarily the outcomes of decisions. This demonstration requires: firstly, that the article identify the implicit assumptions that underlie the hypothesis that decisions determine decision outcomes; and, secondly, that the article confront these assumptions with the empirical reality of organizations' functioning.
Teaching Decision Making
Authors: Smith Gerald F.
Published: September 2009

Management educators base their efforts to teach decision making on two arguments: normative and descriptive. The normative argument holds that there are universal principles of rational choice underlying formal methods managers can learn and apply. Its descriptive counterpart contends that empirical research has identified effective and ineffective decision practices managers can learn to emulate or avoid. Though each approach has legitimacy, there are serious limitations. Normative rules are often not useful in practice since they pass the problems by, leave key challenges unaddressed. The descriptive strategy has an overabundance of material that could be taught. While there are many plausible accounts of decision making, researchers have not identified a useful, empirically validated “right way” of making choices. This article provides an account of the teaching of decision making that highlights the educational implications of alternative views of organizational choice.
Marx and Organization Studies Today
Authors: Adler Paul
Published: September 2009

Marx's analysis was not only astute in discerning capitalism's enduring features: it was also deeply critical. He documented and denounced capitalism's dark sides—its enormous human and environmental costs. More controversially, he claimed to have identified some fundamental features of capitalist development that would lead inevitably to capitalism's demise and its replacement by a superior form of society. This article aims to show the fruitfulness of Marx's original insights; it therefore addresses only some particularly important points of debate among Marxists. The article also discusses Marx's basic theory, its main uses in organization studies, and its dialogue with other theories.
Max Weber and the Ethics of Office
Authors: du Gay Paul
Published: September 2009

This article is organized along the following lines. The first section seeks to show how a particular image of Weber as a grand theorist of the instrumental rationalization of modern life, an image that has haunted organizations studies as much as it has sociology, has been challenged by a range of work emanating from the humanities and social sciences. Although diverse and far from constituting a mutually agreed line, these interpretations have all sought to paint a rather different picture of Weber as a sort of historical anthropologist whose polymath interests are linked by a set of ethical-cultural concerns. The article argues that these ethical-cultural concerns locate Weber as a late but prodigious practitioner in a tradition of the ethics of office, particularly as the latter becomes a defensive doctrine. The second section seeks to explore the vocabulary of office in more detail. The final section shows how a Weberian ethics of office remains a key resource for scholars of organization, particularly when it comes to understanding and engaging with contemporary developments in the reformation of organizational life and identity in the public sector, and in the institutions of government.
Bureaucratic Theory and Intellectual Renewal in Contemporary Organization Studies
Authors: Reed Michael
Published: September 2009

This article aims to revisit the classical body of theoretical and empirical work on the dynamics of bureaucratic power and control and to reassess its significance for the intellectual renewal and regeneration of contemporary organization studies. First, it examines the strategic sociological, political, and ethical issues that these works were responding to during a historical period of deep-seated structural changes—that is the period between the Great Depression in the 1920s and 1930s and the rise of the ‘corporate state’ between the 1940s and 1960s. Second, it considers the cycle of imaginative reformulations that these modern classics have experienced as the intellectual dominance of structural functionalism and systems theory between the late 1940s and 1960s gave way to the much more theoretically open and contested trajectory that organization studies followed from the 1970s onwards. Third, it evaluates the major theoretical debates that have emerged out of the modern classics and continue to frame the intellectual agenda constitutive of organization studies in the twenty-first century.
Vernacular Bibles and Prayer Books
Authors: Long Lynne
Published: September 2009

In Europe, from the advent of Christianity until towards the end of the twentieth century, the Bible remained unchallenged as the central text within the cultural polysystem, functioning as an agent for language enrichment and as a source text for literary inspiration, commentary, and reference. In England, theology and literature have always enjoyed a close relationship, first through the medium of the oral tradition and later through the influence of translated English Bibles and prayer books. As the Bible provided subject matter, a source of reference and analogy, and a model for narrative and poetic language, its influence on literature was naturally strong. This article examines how vernacular Bibles and prayer books through the ages influenced English writers and helped to shape the canon of English Literature.
Romanticism
Authors: Masson Scott
Published: September 2009

‘Romanticism’ is notoriously difficult to define. Romantic writing characteristically strives to transcend all bounds, all definition. Romanticism's longing to overcome discord and fragmentation suggests that human redemption and eschatological fulfilment on earth lay within the power of the artist. The Romantic narrative is not simply one of Messianic fulfilment though, for its belief in the ‘natural’ benefit of organic creative processes to society indefinitely forestalls any such conclusion. In fact, in its basic tendency to reject order and harmony as a sign of unenlightened, ‘naïve’ thinking, Romanticism also opposed the authoritative and the orthodox. This article argues that this is the root of Romanticism: that man, the individual, is an infinite reservoir of possibilities; and if one can rearrange society by the destruction of the oppressive order, then these possibilities will have a chance and one gets Progress.
The Influence of German Criticism
Authors: Klemm David E.
Published: September 2009

‘Critique’ (or, alternatively, ‘criticism’, for the German term Kritik) is a universal power of human enquiry, an ingredient in some measure within every historical tradition. Over an extended moment in Western culture, however, one bridging the Enlightenment and Romanticism, critique arose with an extraordinary force that disrupted, transformed, and redirected the preceding traditions, including those of English literature. Critique, in this world-transforming appearance, had its genesis in German Protestantism for contingent historical reasons, but its eschatological consequences were universal. All subsequent thinking, including that of English literature, was gradually taken into the all-pervasive influence of the new critical world-view. This article describes the chief forms of critique before briefly outlining some major points of impact on English literature.
Modernism
Authors: Kearns Cleo McNelly
Published: September 2009

While a literary and critical modernism seems on the surface independent of and at times oblivious to theological modernism, the modernist stances taken by major twentieth-century artists and writers raise theological issues and concerns with which they are very much engaged. These issues are incarnated in their stylistic and formal innovations as well as in their range of interests, often sensitive as well as challenging to conservative and orthodox understandings of Christianity and prescient with respect to problems to come. These include problems of comparative religion, esotericism, spiritualism, and pagan and natural theology, as well as questions of politics, ethics, and revolutionary change. Engagement with these matters did not prevent many moderns from finding their way towards religion, Christian and otherwise, on terms both new and old.
The Pentateuch
Authors: Linafelt Tod
Published: September 2009

To consider the Pentateuch in a ‘literary’ way, one might ask about its own literary features, or ask how those features have been absorbed by subsequent writers within the Western tradition that owes so much to the Pentateuch or Torah – the first five books of the Bible. This article largely focuses on the first question, with the hope that, by doing so, the second, addressed briefly at the end, might be given a greater literary context in which to be understood. The discussion also addresses a more embracing question: In what ways does the Pentateuch contain subtle and artful material that might prove compelling, not only to later generations of English poets, novelists, dramatists, and Christian thinkers, but also to a modern reader whose interest may well go beyond the strictly historical or theological?
Psalms
Authors: Hunter Alastair
Published: September 2009

Compared with the narrative sections of Scripture, the psalms pose a more daunting challenge to literary readings in current times. The poetic themes and tropes of the psalter and the linguistic devices they deploy do not make them particularly accessible to a modern ear, even for those still familiar with them through their presence in Christian worship and the liturgy of the synagogue. The question of translation intrudes much more forcefully than for literature with a more directly semantic intention. Though the prophetic and wisdom books are also composed, broadly speaking, using the conventions of poetry, the translator/interpreter has more to pin his or her hopes on than the poem itself. The choice of which biblical translation to read from remains, and can make a significant difference. This article describes this particular aspect of the literariness of the psalms, which has been handled in recent decades.
Apocalyptic Literature
Authors: Rowland Christopher
Published: September 2009

The term ‘apocalypse’ denotes a particular literary type found in the literature of ancient Judaism, characterized by claims to offer visions or other disclosures of divine mysteries concerning a variety of subjects, especially those to do with the future. Cataclysmic events described in these texts are often labelled ‘apocalyptic’ because they resemble the world-shattering events described in John's visions in the book of Revelation. There is only one apocalypse in the Hebrew Bible, the book of Daniel, though the discovery of fragments of an Enoch apocalypse among the Dead Sea Scrolls suggests that apocalyptic was a widespread phenomenon in Second Temple Judaism. The concern with human history and the vindication of Israel's hopes echo prophetic themes, several of which have contributed to the language of the book of Revelation, particularly Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah.
John Milton
Authors: Lieb Michael
Published: September 2009

The scholarship on Milton's theology is immense, in part because Milton is essentially a theological poet. Despite the plethora of books and articles devoted to various aspects of Milton's doctrinal beliefs, the question of how to read his works theologically has not received the attention it deserves. Knowing Milton's views and reading his works are two different enterprises. In order to address the second issue, one must determine precisely what a ‘theological reading’ of Milton's works entails. In the case of the Miltonic œuvre, the answers to such questions have long involved recourse to the De Doctrina Christiana. Although readers were either delighted with or horrified by the various heterodoxies evinced by the treatise, at least they felt that they had a ‘handle’ on Milton's putative theological beliefs as manifested in the poetry.
The Eighteenth-Century Novel
Authors: Robertson Scott
Published: September 2009

The eighteenth century provided the socio-economic, cultural, and philosophical conditions wherein the novel, a ‘new species of writing’, could flourish. The restive theological climate of the time, with its threatening extremes of enthusiasm and deism, also coloured the outlook of the pioneer novelists of the time. Reliance upon the providence of God in a world increasingly perceived as unstable served as a major thematic backcloth. This article traces a slow but steady movement in the presentation of the place of the divine from the somewhat artless representation of providence in the work of Daniel Defoe, through Samuel Richardson's world as a proving ground of suffering and redemption. It also examines Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy and Henry Fielding's attempts to reassure people with his Shaftesburian morality that all is well.
Keble and the Christian Year
Authors: Blair Kirstie
Published: September 2009

‘Either poetry is growing more religious, or religion more poetical’. The movements which ensued within the Church of England, in part at least inspired by John Keble's book, demonstrated that both these assertions were true. The Christian Year, one of the most influential works of poetry of the nineteenth century, is now seldom read or taught, and critical interest in it has generally centred upon its acknowledged effect on other writers of the Victorian period. Keble's aesthetic theories, of which The Christian Year is the fullest embodiment, have, however, maintained an implicit or explicit presence in critical readings of Victorian poetry and poetics, from M. H. Abrams's account of these theories in terms of Freudian repression and sublimation in the 1950s, to twenty-first century re-examinations of Keble in the light of renewed interest in literary affect and the significance of emotion.
Evil and The God of Love
Authors: Ziolkowski Eric
Published: September 2009

Posed by the character Philo in David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, questions about God that find their source in Epicurus crystallize the traditional philosophical understanding of the problem of evil. This problem – whether evoked by a case of natural evil; epitomized by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 or the South Asian tsunami of 2004; or of moral evil, epitomized by the Shoah – poses a grave challenge to conventional theism and is deemed ‘the guiding force of modern thought’. This article examines the thematic relation between evil and the God of love in English literature, the theme's roots in the Bible, conceived as a unified ‘literary’ document. It is in this sense that the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh furnished for Jack Miles his best-selling God: A Biography.
Start-ups and Entry Barriers: Small and Medium-Sized Firms Population Dynamics
Authors: Acs Zoltan J.
Published: September 2009

Entrepreneurship is about people in their roles as identifiers of opportunities and the exploiters of opportunities. Moreover, recent theories of opportunity have shed light on the role of knowledge, knowledge spillovers, human capital, agglomeration of knowledge, and similar spatial structures as being the key to entrepreneurship. This article focuses on the age of the establishment as measured by new-firm entry as the operational variable in entrepreneurship and discusses what variables are important in determining entry. The focus in this article is on the role of human capital as a barrier to entry and suggests that the lack of education is the greatest barrier to entry.
Definitions, Diversity and Development: Key Debates in Family Business Research
Authors: Howorth Carole , Rose Mary , Hamilton Eleanor
Published: September 2009

This article begins with an examination of definitions of family firms. The debate about what constitutes a family firm is every bit as complex as the definition of an entrepreneur. This article explores the range of definitions but shows that any definition needs to be interpreted in its economic, social, institutional, and cultural context. An explanation for the multiplicity of definitions is provided in in this article, which explores the diversity in scale, scope, organization, and longevity of family firms, and shows differences through time in different societies and between families. The article also demonstrates the strong path dependency of family firm development, with change (or lack of it) underpinned by the foundations of the past. The article further explores research which compares the performance of family firms with non-family firms and this highlights the potential policy implications of family business research.
The Goals of HRM
Authors: Boxall Peter
Published: September 2009

This article examines a range of frameworks, theories, and research contributions that throw some light on the goals of HRM. As a business school discipline, much of the literature in HRM is normative, designed to support management education and thus setting out an argument about what managers should do or, more modestly, offering an analytical framework to assist practitioners to shape their own policy prescriptions. Fortunately, it also contains studies that test the predictions of theoretical models and thus provide a descriptive picture of what employers actually do. The article reviews both normative and empirical contributions within the HRM canon but its prime objective is to outline the goals of HRM in practice and what needs further research.
HRM and Societal Embeddedness
Authors: Paauwe Jaap , Boselie Paul
Published: September 2009

One of the more fundamental aspects of the ongoing debate about the added value of HRM relates to ‘best practice’ versus ‘best fit’. ‘Best practice’ argues for the universal success of certain HR practices while ‘best fit’ acknowledges the relevance of contextual factors. This article argues that differences in institutional settings affect the nature of HRM. To understand this phenomenon, HRM needs additional theory. This article uses ‘new institutionalism’ and the theoretical notions of organizational justice and organizational legitimacy as a better way to understand the shaping of HR policies and practices in different settings. This article offers an explicit account of the importance of societal embeddedness in HRM. As an independent variable, societal embeddedness can have an important influence on the shaping of HR policies and practices and their subsequent effect on performance. It takes a closer look at the field of HRM itself, especially focusing on strategic contingency approaches in HRM.
EEO and the Management of Diversity
Authors: Ernst Kossek Ellen , Pichler Shaun
Published: September 2009

Human resource management of equal employment opportunity (EEO) and workforce diversity involves the development and implementation of employer policies and practices that not only create a diverse workplace, but foster a supportive culture to enable individuals from different backgrounds to be able to work together productively to achieve organizational goals. Ensuring EEO, and the creation of a work environment that capitalizes on the benefits of a diverse workforce, are of growing importance for organizational effectiveness. Most employees around the globe work in organizations with a diversity and multicultural dimension to their business. This article aims to discuss the HRM perspective regarding EEO and diversity. Towards this end, it defines core concepts, and then examines labor force shifts and other rationales for managing EEO/diversity. It concludes by discussing ‘how’ firms are managing these issues. Future research implications are integrated at the end of relevant sections.
Remuneration: Pay Effects at Work
Authors: Guthrie James P.
Published: September 2009

This article reviews effects associated with two dimensions of pay structure. The first dimension, the extent to which a firm's pay structure is relatively hierarchical or flat (also referred to as ‘pay dispersion’), is specifically mentioned by Jim Sinegal, CEO of Costco. He states that a pay structure in which top executives make ‘100 or 200 or 300 times more than the average person working on the floor is wrong’ and intimates that Costco's egalitarian pay structure promotes organizational effectiveness. Another aspect of pay structure is the basis of pay. Along with research on pay dispersion effects, the article also reviews a limited number of studies examining the use of person-based, as opposed to job-based, pay systems. It begins with pay form, then review pay structure, followed by a discussion of pay level effects.
Performance Management
Authors: Latham Gary P. , Sulsky Lorne M. , MacDonald Heather
Published: September 2009

A distinguishing feature of performance management relative to performance appraisal is that the former is an ongoing process whereas the latter is done at discrete time intervals (e.g. annually). Ongoing coaching is an integral aspect of performance management. Performance appraisal is the time period in which to summarize the overall progress that an individual or team has made as a result of being coached, and to agree on the new goals that should be set. Common to the performance management/appraisal process are the four following steps. First, desired job performance must be defined. Second, an individual's performance on the job must be observed. Is the person or team's performance excellent, superior, satisfactory, or unacceptable? Third, feedback is provided and specific challenging goals are set as to what the person or team should start doing, stop doing, or be doing differently. Fourth, a decision is made regarding retaining, rewarding, training, transferring, promoting, demoting, or terminating the employmemt of an individual.