This paper describes ten factors that affect organizational change in software process improvement initiatives based on the Capability Maturity Model or the ISO 9000 quality standards. It also assesses the relative importance of these factors and compares the findings with the results of previous research into organizational change in software process improvement. The paper is based on an analysis of published experience reports and case studies of 56 software organizations that have implemented an ISO 9000 quality system or that have conducted a CMMbased process improvement initiative.

Profile analysis is proposed as a means for advancing empirical change process research. In the context of organizational studies, a profile can be viewed as a set of sequentially arranged factors that expresses the relative strength of individual factors and holistic patterns inside or between organizational entities. To demonstrate the utility of the approach in change process research, profile analysis was employed in a cross-sectional study. Hypotheses related to Lewin’s three-step model of change were tested using data obtained from managers involved in change implementation. Results confirmed a progression through Lewin’s unfreezing-movement-refreezing sequence during implementation. Profiles that reflected higher systematic use of change process factors were also found related to implementation success. Many future research opportunities are apparent, such as investigating interorganizational change profile types and using profile analysis to enhance longitudinal research designs.

Scholars and practitioners have long argued that females exhibit a distinctive and particularly effective managerial style. Yet, less than a third of the largest U.S. corporations have a single female senior executive, raising the question of whether women are in fact effective as senior managers, and, if so, under what circumstances. We address this issue by studying the relationship between female participation in senior management and firm performance as measured by Tobin’s Q. We find a positive association between firm performance and female participation below the CEO level, even when controlling for unobservable firm heterogeneity, but no positive effects from having a female CEO. We then show that the positive results for female participation are entirely driven by firms pursuing an “innovation intensive ” strategy, where creativity and collaboration may be especially important. Our findings thus provide evidence for a “female management style ” that enhances firm performance by facilitating teamwork and innovation but is rendered less effective by the leadership attributes of the CEO position. Given these results, the fact that not all firms have women in senior positions also suggests that an ability to identify, attract, and develop female managerial talent may be a source of competitive advantage.

The first part of the paper presents a draft proposal for research intended to find out what is needed at the levels of systems and organisation to facilitate the implementation of Lean Construction (LC). The ethnographic study of `specification'---to refer to the way organisational concerns and features are represented---is taken to be the key theme of the research. The second part raises the question of what any findings may look like. It is argued that they will not look like what conventional organisation theory in the rationalist tradition has sought to provide. They will look more like those from the political tradition, insofar as a major concern there has been with how action is controlled in the way it is symbolically represented. Accepting a practical implication from this latter body of work, the need to recognise the constraining effects of the `old' epistemology and the need to gain acceptance of a new one is highlighted. In recognition of having to work within the existing situation, thorough understanding is needed of how it is constituted through the methods used to describe it---documentation, charts, maps and other kinds of representation. It is argued that care must be taken not to confuse descriptive and prescriptive purposes. It is suggested that attention to specification provides a promising conceptual link between tasks, systems and organisation.

This paper presents the findings from an ethnographic study of organisational culture in four SMEs, the outcome of which was the identification of the cultural values shared between owner managers (OMs) and employees in each firm. The research employed Schein’s conceptualisation of culture as a three layer phenomenon, consisting of surface artefacts, shared values and beliefs, and basic assumptions (Schein, 1992). The analytical technique of grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) was employed to process the large volume of data gathered during the extended research period. The data reveals a complex array of values in each firm, with only one firm exhibiting an homogenous culture where values are shared throughout the organisation. In the remaining three firms, several values appear to be common to all employees, however this is overlaid by a pattern of subcultures which are differentiated by distinctive shared values. Inter-firm analysis across the four organisations concludes that shared values of survival, independence, control, pragmatism and financial prudence emerged as common between two or more SMEs. The paper defines these shared values and discusses their meaning from the perspective, and in the language, of the participants in the research. In conclusion, it is submitted that the shared values found to be common between participating firms offer a novel insight into the cultural paradigm of the SME. The results provide a fresh perspective for understanding the distinctiveness of the SME sector and this has potential relevance for other firms and research themes.