We examine the importance of country-of-origin effects and of universal contingencies such as industrial recipes in organizational practices at the international level of multinational enterprises. This is based on a study comparing European (Finnish, French, German, Dutch, Swiss, Swedish, British), American and Japanese multinational enterprises. Although multinationals are highly internationalized by definition, our study shows their organizational control practices at the international level to be more than anything else explained by their country of origin. Universal contingencies such as size and industry, on the other hand, are more related to internationalization strategy. Internationalization strategy and organizational control are associated with different sets of variables; to this extent they appear more decoupled with regard to each other than the literature suggests. Multinationals appear to follow tracks of coordination and control in which they have become embedded in their country of origin. Nationally specific institutions and culture have to be interpreted as particularistic but universally practicable facilitators of internationally competing organizational practices.

The neo-contingency framework, responding to criticism against previous contingency thinking, appears to be potentially capable of serving as a basis for interpreting research in the tradition of the societal effect approach. This hypothesis is further developed using existing literature. The hypothesis is then examined by looking at the results of various cross-national comparisons of the organizational, human resources and strategic contexts of technical change in manufacturing. This leads to a reflection on the underlying factors influencing competitive advantage in national sectors or industries, and to a proposal on how distinct and different theoretical approaches can be conceived to be related to one another.

The literature has largely tended to consider organizations as distinct from societal processes and institutions, and to emphasize convergent and 'culture-free' elements of organization. By cross-national comparisons of closely matched factories in France, West Germany, and Great Britain, this paper shows that more pervasive differences exist than are usually recognized. Organizational processes of differentiation and integration can be seen to consistently interact with processes of educating, training, recruiting, and promoting manpower, so that both develop within an institutional logic that is particular to a society, and bring about nationally different shapes of organization. Organizational differences can thus be considered as linked to different extents and dimensions of professionalty. Comparisons show that a multidimensional concept of professionality is called for, in contrast to the one-sided emphasis on the social status and formal knowledge dimension usually found in the literature.

The global business world is infected by a virus that induces a permanent need for organizational change, which is fed by the management consultancy industry. The nature of the organizational change hype changes colour frequently, through the emergence of new universal management fashions. An urge to change is understandable from the perspectives of the consultant and the manager, but often organizational changes are ineffective or counter-productive when implemented. In this context, this article’s purpose is threefold. First, on the basis of an interpretation of different literatures, we .esh out an argument about the nonsense of organizational change that is driven by sick consultancy metaphors. Second, we argue that the application of healthy organization theories offers ample guidelines for organizational change initiatives that make more sense than prominent management consultancy rhetoric. Third, pulling both strings together, we plead for the development of an evidence-based (change) consultancy practice.

We examine empirically how an organization that deliberately enhances interpersonal trust to become a significant organizational phenomenon, is different from a similar organization without explicit trust enhancement policies. The point of departure is relational signalling theory, which says that trust is a function of consistently giving off signals that indicate credible concern, to potential trustors. A matched pair of two consulting organizations, with different trust policies but otherwise similar characteristics, were studied intensively, using survey research, participant observation and half-open interviewing, focused on the generation of trust and the handling of trouble when trust was threatened or destroyed. A higher stage of trust can be reached by an inter-related set of policies: promoting a relationship-oriented culture, facilitation of unambiguous signalling, consistent induction training, creating opportunities for meeting informally, and the day-to-day management of competencies. Such policies are in principle independent of recognized contextual contingencies. Copyright (c) Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2008.