A field research, commissioned by the Dutch Foundation for Management Studies, on the state of the application of the concept of business unit-organization (M-form) in the Netherlands, has produced some noteworthy results. Through interviews with 36 organizations, most for-profit companies...

In this inaugural address the consequences of the new economy (the information economy) for research and education with respect to management and organization are explored. The information economy implies a shift from sociology based organization theory to economic organization theory, with...

Purpose The reason of this chapter is to clarify at a conceptual level the phenomenon of shared service centers. The aim of the chapter is to enable managers make better decisions when applying the concept of shared service centers. Design/method/approach This is a conceptual chapter, in which...

Increasingly executives and non-executives start to grumble about a governance system that forces them to spend all their time on compliance, risk management and proper reporting. In fact, the real task of a governance system is to foster growth. Good corporate governance contributes to growth...

The M-form, in which a corporate parent manages relatively freestanding business units, was the most successful organizational design of the twentieth century. However, contemporary economic conditions call for designs that allow firms to exploit synergies across their business units and on this...

The traditional policy of most multinational corporations (MNC) with respect to their subsidiary boards was or even still is to reduce these boards through composition, information and superseding these through an integrated management system to the bare local legal requirements and not having...