Process,Conflict and Commitment in Organizational Decision Making

Brunsson Nils , ‘Ideas and Actions: Justification and Hypocrisy as Alternatives to Control’, Accounting Organization and Society, (forthcoming).

The reference to business enterprise does not exclude the possibility of applying the analysis to non-market organizations, e.g. universities. It is the case that much of the literature on strategy has dealt with business.

See, for example, Gear A. E. and Read M.J. , ‘On-Line Group Process Support’, Omega: International Journal of Management Science, Vol. 21, No. 3, 1993, pp. 261–274.

Ross N. S. Constructive Conflict: An Essay on Employer-Employee Relations in Contemporary Britain, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd Ltd., 1969, Ch. 4,p. 34. Ross is dealing with specific areas of industrial relations but his comment, and the main title of his book, are of wider interest.

Thomas Kenneth , Conflict and Conflict Management,p. 889 and p. 891. Thomas is concerned with conflict between groups whereas this paper is concerned with conflict within groups.

Minkes A. L. and Nuttall C. S. Business Behaviour and Management Structure, Croom Helm, 1985, Ch. 9, pp. 192–193.

See, especially, Schelling Thomas C. , The Strategy of Conflict, Harvard University, 1980.

Loasby B. J. Choice, Complexity and Ignorance, Cambridge University Press, 1976, ‘Organizational performance depends on joint purposes’, Ch. 8,p. 137.

Thomas Howard , ‘Strategic Decision Analysis: Applied Decision Analysis and its Role in the Strategic Management Process’, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 5, 139–156, 1984,p.141.

Quinn J. B. Strategies for Change: Logical Incrementalism, Illinois: Irwin, 1980,p.65.

Peter M . Senge, ‘Transforming the Practice of Management’, presented at the systems Thinking in Action Conference, November 14th, 1991, MIT Centre for Organizational Learning,p. 15. The second quotation is taken from Heisenberg, Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations, 1972.

Minkes A. L. and Nuttall C. S. Op. cit.p.140.

See A. L . Minkes, The Entrepreneurial Manager, Penguin, 1987, Ch. 3, passim.

See, Developments in Management Thought, by Polland Harold H . Heinemann Press, 1974, Ch. 12, for a review of the work of Mary Parker Follett.

Thomas Howard , Op. cit.p. 148.

Quinn J. B. Op. cit.p. 102.

Rosegger Gerhard , ‘The Capital Expenditure Decision in Iron and Steel Industry’, Reprint No. 19, Case Western Reserve University 1971. Paper presented at the Steel Industry Economics Seminar, University of Pittsburgh and published in Pittsburgh Business Review, May-June 1971.

Minkes A. L. and Nuttall C. S. Op. cit. pp. 172–177.

Druckman Daniel , ‘The Situational Levers of Negotiating Flexibility’, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 1993, pp. 235–276.

Druckman , Op. cit.p. 236.

Turner John C , Social Influence, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991, pp. 12–13.

Held at Birmingham University.