Understanding Enterprise

Bibliographic Data

ID20501029
AuthorsGraeme Salaman (Open University Business School, Milton Keynes, UK,, corresponding author), Jennifer Storey (0000-0002-7197-9901, The Open University, corresponding author), John Storey (Open University Business School, Milton Keynes, UK,)
Year2008
Volume15
Issue3
Pages315-323
Publication date2008-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOrganization (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1350-5084 • E-ISSN: 1461-7323
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1350508408088530
OpenAlexW4246308704
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited15

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