000			02058pab a2200181 454500
008			180718b2004 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100			_aRobertson, Maxine
245			_aGoing public: the emergence and effects of soft bureaucracy within a knowledge-intensive firm
260			_c2004
300			_ap.123-48.
362			_aJan
520			_aThe aim of this paper is to explore and explain the emergence over time of forms of organization and governance (referred to as `organizing templates') in a knowledge-intensive firm (KIF). A longitudinal case study tracks the ways in which this firm has evolved from its inception in 1986 through to 2001. The analysis emphasizes, in particular, the strategic role of power politics in shaping organizing templates following firm success and expansion. The paper focuses on the shift away from adhocracy as the (ideological) organizing template and towards a new form of governance within the firm, characterized as soft bureaucracy. It shows how this shift coincides with economic, technological and cultural imperatives imposed by the increased sovereignty of the market. A multi-level analytical model of organizational change processes is outlined in which shifting dominant management logics are aligned with firm level innovations through organizing templates. This framework is used to structure our narrative historical account of the various phases of restructuring throughout the period. The paper attempts to inform existing understanding of soft bureaucracy by showing how this particular form of governance emerges in a KIF through the interplay between macro-level sectoral change and micro-political processes. It concludes by considering first the implications of this shift for firm level knowledge work processes, and second, the politics of organizational change more generally in the knowledge-intensive sector at the start of the 21st century. - Reproduced.
650			_aOrganizational change
650			_aBureaucracy
700			_aSwan, Jacky
773			_aOrganization
909			_a59433
999			_c59433 _d59433