Clearing a Path Through the Management Fashion Jungle: Some Preliminary Trailblazing.

Carson, Paula Phillips; Lanier, Patricia A.; Carson, Kerry D.; Guidry, Brandi N.

doi:10.2307/1556342

Cited by 172 publications

(142 citation statements)

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“…The wave of media attention shown in Figure 1 mirrors the pattern observed for other fashions (Abrahamson & Fairchild, 1999;Carson et al, 2000) and helps us chart TQM's fashion cycle. Although media attention and collective beliefs are not the same, media discourse both reflects and is causally implicated in the production of collective beliefs (Kieser, 2002).…”

Section: The Life Cycle Of Total Quality Managementmentioning

confidence: 52%

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When Fashion is Fleeting: Transitory Collective Beliefs and the Dynamics of TQM Consulting

David

Strang

2006

AMJ

185

166

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We analyze changes over time in the types of consulting firms offering total quality management services. When TQM was a booming management fashion, consultants tended to be generalists with weak links to the technical foundations of the practice; after the fashion went bust, TQM consulting was increasingly populated by specialists with quality control expertise. These results suggest that fashionable practices can return to their technical roots after the hype is over, reversing the usual institutional trajectory. They also help explain why fashion booms are so fragile and how management practices can be sustained once a boom is over.Management fashions are a striking feature of contemporary organizational life. Attention rapidly coalesces around a management practice as a powerful and robust means of achieving competitive success. But as Abrahamson (1996: 257) argued, the collective belief that a practice "leads rational management progress" is relatively transitory. Enthusiasm soon wanes, skepticism mounts, and yesterday's panacea becomes today's run-of-the-mill application. In the language we will use in this article, a "fashion boom" turns into a "fashion bust."These cycles in collective beliefs have important consequences. Fashionable practices consume scarce resources-not just time and money, but leadership opportunities and organizational commitment as well. And when the winds of fashion shift, managers and workers alike may be left jaded, if not embittered, by the experience. Given the significance of fashion swings, it is not surprising that scholarly attention has increasingly turned to investigate their sources and internal dynamics.Two research strategies dominate empirical analysis of management fashions. The first focuses on discourse as a means of understanding fashion origins and trajectories. Barley and Kunda (1992) argued that management discourse oscillates between rational and normative logics. Abrahamson (1996;Abrahamson & Fairchild, 1999) elaborated a model of management fashion that comprises a supply side and a demand side and examined how "fashion setters" and external triggers interact to produce fashion cycles. Kieser (1997) identified the rhetorical characteristics of fashions that promote their diffusion (see also Jackson, 2001). Zbaracki (1998) analyzed how total quality management (TQM) rhetoric is both consumed and produced by managers. Carson, Lanier, Carson, and Guidry (2000) showed that cycles of media attention have increased in amplitude and frequency over the last half century. A second body of research examines the causes and consequences of fashion adoption. For example, Osterman (1994) linked early adoption of TQM and related innovations to corporate strategy, CEO philosophy, and the pressure of international competition. Westphal, Gulati, and Shortell (1997) found evidence for network contagion among hospitals and demonstrated a shift from "customized" to "conforming" applications as TQM became increasingly popular. Staw and Epstein (2000) showed that "bandwagon" adopt...

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Section: The Life Cycle Of Total Quality Managementmentioning

confidence: 52%

“…Zbaracki (1998) analyzed how total quality management (TQM) rhetoric is both consumed and produced by managers. Carson, Lanier, Carson, and Guidry (2000) showed that cycles of media attention have increased in amplitude and frequency over the last half century. A second body of research examines the causes and consequences of fashion adoption.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

When Fashion is Fleeting: Transitory Collective Beliefs and the Dynamics of TQM Consulting

David

Strang

2006

AMJ

185

166

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“…While bivariate correlations are a simple tool, notably not allowing us to control for the effects of other variables, they are appropriate with this number of observations (see for instance Carson et al (2000) with 16 observations).…”

Section: Empirical Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of External Involvement in the Creation of Management Innovations

Mol

Birkinshaw

2014

Organization Studies

113

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Abstract:There has recently been renewed scholarly interest in management innovating, the creation of new organizational practices, structures, processes and techniques. We suggest that external involvement in the process of management innovating can transpire in three different ways: direct input from external change agents; prior external experience of internal change agents; and the use of external knowledge sources by internal change agents. We ask whether the type of innovation created (radical or not; systemic or not) depends on the use of these three forms of involvement and whether the forms are substitutes or complements. We empirically investigate this through an archival study of 23 major historical innovations, using in-depth data from a large number of sources in the academic literature. We use three complementary methods of analysis: Unstructured qualitative observations, correlational analysis and crisp set qualitative comparative analysis. We find that the presence of external change agents is associated with systemic and incremental innovations; that the absence of external experience is associated with systemic and radical innovations; and that the presence of external sources of knowledge has no clear effect. Furthermore the three forms of involvement act to a large degree as substitutes. We contribute new theoretical arguments for the 1 facilitators of management innovation, demonstrate the usefulness of an open innovation lens to the study of management innovation, show that management innovating is a relatively complex form of strategic process and highlight how the creation of management innovations is similar to and different from the genesis of other types of innovation. 2 An important domain in organization studies concerns innovation in the nature of the practices used to manage organizations. This has often been framed as management innovation and is a topic that has long attracted scholarly and practical attention (Abrahamson, 1991;Damanpour and Evan, 1984;Kaplan, 1998;Stata, 1989;Volberda, Van Den Bosch and Heij, 2013). In a broad sense the study of management innovation allows scholars to map progress (or its absence) in how organizations are managed, and to track efforts by organizations to improve their effectiveness over time. Recently, there has been a resurgence in work in this area (Damanpour, Walker and Avellaneda, 2009; Foss, Pedersen, Pyndt, and Schulz, 2012;Vaccaro, Jansen, Van Den Bosch and Volberda, 2012), probably best exemplified through the work of Birkinshaw, Hamel, and Mol (2008) who developed new insights into the process of management innovation, arguing that it is driven by the work of internal and external change agents who grapple with specific organizational and environmental contexts. For the purposes of this paper, we follow the definition of management innovation suggested by Birkinshaw et al (2008: 825): "the invention and implementation of a management practice, process, structure or technique that is new to the state of the art and is intended to furthe...

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“…Furthermore, I propose that changes in justifications and diffusion provide a basis for explaining institutionalization as both a process and a state. I then develop several propositions from this model.The management field has witnessed the rise and fall of many managerial practices, including sensitivity training, quality circles, and reengineering (Carson, Lanier, Carson, & Guidry, 2000;Eccles, Nohria, & Berkley, 1992). Most management innovations arrive and dissipate quickly (Abrahamson & Fairchild, 1999), while a few thrive and diffuse broadly throughout the business community.…”

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confidence: 99%

A Rhetorical Theory of Diffusion

Green¹

2004

The Academy of Management Review

221

192

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I use rhetorical theory to reconceptualize the diffusion of managerial practices. Specifically, I argue that the diffusion of a practice depends on the discursive justifications used to rationalize it. When such justifications are accepted and taken for granted, a practice reaches a state of institutionalization. Furthermore, I propose that changes in justifications and diffusion provide a basis for explaining institutionalization as both a process and a state. I then develop several propositions from this model.The management field has witnessed the rise and fall of many managerial practices, including sensitivity training, quality circles, and reengineering (Carson, Lanier, Carson, & Guidry, 2000;Eccles, Nohria, & Berkley, 1992). Most management innovations arrive and dissipate quickly (Abrahamson & Fairchild, 1999), while a few thrive and diffuse broadly throughout the business community. Although several theories explain variation in the diffusion of managerial practices (Abrahamson, 1991;O'Neill, Pouder, & Buchholtz, 1998;Rogers, 1995), critics argue that these explanations often emphasize realist concerns at the expense of linguistic considerations (Hirsch, 1986;Strang & Meyer, 1994). Therefore, in this article I use neoinstitutional theory, because it emphasizes the role of language or discourse in the diffusion process (Strang & Meyer, 1994).Proponents of the neoinstitutional perspective view the spread of managerial practices as a salient organizational act that must make sense to decision makers and must satisfy the institutional environment (Scott, 1995;Tolbert & Zucker, 1996). Managerial practices are accompanied by legitimating managerial discourse, which explains how practices help managers rationally pursue valued goals (Friedland & Alford, 1991;Strang & Meyer, 1994). For example, the management fashion variant of neoinstitutionalism (Abrahamson, 1996;Abrahamson & Fairchild, 1999;Kieser, 1997) describes how managers use discourse to communicate to organizational stakeholders that the adoption of a given practice complies with norms of rationality and norms of progress (Abrahamson, 1996;Abrahamson & Fairchild, 1999). Thus, discourse shapes decisions about the adoption and wider diffusion of managerial practices (Abrahamson & Fairchild, 1999;Strang & Meyer, 1994).Although neoinstitutional theory includes a role for discourse, two key problems remain. First, it suggests a model of diffusion that is inherently adaptivist (Hasselbladh & Kallinikos, 2000). It shifts rational adaptation from the need to acquire resources in the technoeconomic environment to the need to conform normatively to the social environment (Hasselbladh & Kallinikos, 2000;Hasselbladh & Theodoridis, 1997), and it fails to explain why those needs exist or become influential or why a particular structure fulfills the need in question (Perrow, 1993). Second, neoinstitutional theory focuses on how institutions constrain actors at the expense of explaining how actors create institutions (Barley & Tolbert, 1997;Zucker, 1987). Culture and...

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Clearing a Path Through the Management Fashion Jungle: Some Preliminary Trailblazing.

Cited by 172 publications

References 64 publications

When Fashion is Fleeting: Transitory Collective Beliefs and the Dynamics of TQM Consulting

When Fashion is Fleeting: Transitory Collective Beliefs and the Dynamics of TQM Consulting

The Role of External Involvement in the Creation of Management Innovations

A Rhetorical Theory of Diffusion

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