Understanding Enterprise

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20501029
AutoresGraeme Salaman (Open University Business School, Milton Keynes, UK,, autor correspondente), Jennifer Storey (0000-0002-7197-9901, The Open University, autor correspondente), John Storey (Open University Business School, Milton Keynes, UK,)
Ano2008
Volume15
Fascículo3
Páginas315-323
Data de publicação2008-05-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoOrganization (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1350-5084 • E-ISSN: 1461-7323
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1350508408088530
OpenAlexW4246308704
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9
Referências citadas15

The idea of `Enterprise' has been extensively used in recent years as a way to understand the principles underlying the reinvention of organizations and employees. It tends to be used as a counterfactual to `bureaucracy'. However, we argue that while this approach has produced some rich insights, an over-emphasis on the notion of enterprise may exaggerate the reality of change. In this paper we focus on the ways in which top managers mediate the construct. We try to show that enterprises—even those `liberated' from bureaucratic regulation and constraint—need not necessarily be enterprising. This linkage has in the past been asserted but too frequently left unexplored. We suggest that an analysis of enterprising forms of organization requires a more nuanced and a more empirically-based understanding of the ways in which enterprise is interpreted and deployed within organizations which are apparently—on the surface at least—seemingly committed to `achieving enterprise'

Bureaucracy · Business · Counterfactual thinking · Epistemology · Knowledge management · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Accounting and Organizational Management · Computer Science · Engineering · Management and Organizational Studies · Public Policy and Administration Research