... the debates around agency, especially on issues of language and discourse, actor network theory (ANT) and history. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual analysis of the literature is performed to discuss issues of agency in IW and CSM in organizations, and examples of empirical studies are used...

...Peter van Baalen; Irma Bogenrieder; Olof Brunninge Purpose This paper aims to explore how organizational actors make reference to history and how they use historical reference purposefully in order to affect strategy‐making. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on in‐depth case studies...

... or in forging a new one. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents a cogent but thorough history and examines the relationship of Romania moving into the future. Findings Europe itself struggles. Identity does not mean “a difference which separates.” The challenge in Europe now is to find...

...‐contradictory attributes”. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2006 Bureaucracy Sociology History Political philosophy “Post‐bureaucracy” is a concept used principally for two purposes. The first is to designate what commentators, “critical” as well as “orthodox”, agree are distinctive recent...

.... Three subsequent eras, important to the history of HR, are also discussed. Throughout, HR's approach to change has emphasized efficiency, stability, and fit. As an alternative to this conservative approach to change, we propose a negotiations perspective that would allow HR to build on its history...

...Can‐Seng Ooi This predominantly theoretical paper concentrates on the strategic presentation of history. The dynamics of re‐presenting the past is framed as the simultaneous processes of decentering and recentering. It shows that a postmodern epistemology is relevant in understanding the strategic...

...Bryan C. Taylor; Brian Freer This paper examines the production of a particular nuclear‐organizational history to illuminate the rhetorical and political practices by which stakeholders engage that history as an opportunity to perform preferred ideological narratives. Analysis utilizes data...

...Martin Parker This paper reports a study of managers in a small English building society. Its intent is to stress the importance of members’ contested understandings of the history of their institution. Management in this organisation were both a unitary and a divided group – collective in some...