While surprisingly little has been written about context at a meaningful level, context is central to most theoretical approaches to information seeking. In this essay I explore in more detail three senses of context. First, I look at context as equivalent to the situation in which a process is immersed. Second, I discuss contingency approaches that detail active ingredients of the situation that have specific, predictable effects. Third, I examine major frameworks for meaning systems. Then, I discuss how a deeper appreciation of context can enhance our understanding of the process of information seeking by examining two vastly different contexts in which it occurs: organizational and cancer-related, an exemplar of everyday life information seeking. This essay concludes with a discussion of the value that can be added to information seeking research and theory as a result of a deeper appreciation of context, particularly in terms of our current multi-contextual environment and individuals taking an active role in contextualizing.

Pennsylvania is gratefully acknowledged.

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.

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What skills do project managers (PMs) need, and how do these skills impact project success in IT outsourcing? In this study, we seek to identify what factors impact IT project outcomes, such as costs and client satisfaction, given the project characteristics and PM’s hard and soft skills. We examine data collected from a field study conducted at a major IT service provider in India. Our results suggest that while hard skills such as technical or domain expertise may be essential in a PM, soft skills such as tacit knowledge of organizational culture and clients are the most important contribution that PMs bring to a project. Soft skills not only improve project outcomes directly, but they also help when projects have more complexity, more uncertainty, or less familiarity. The results are robust to different specifications.

helpful comments on the ideas expressed here. TOWARDS A SET-THEORETIC APPROACH FOR STUDYING

Transnational management of values-based practices Abstract: Transnational management of values, knowledge or other intangibles is of significant research interest. This paper reveals the complexity of processes of transnational management of values-based contextually determined (VBCD) practices in TNCs. It draws from an in-depth empirical analysis of 160 VBCD routine practices and their transnational management processes across six functional dimensions, using an embedded research design of 24 case-studies in four TNCs from diverse sectors that identified and characterized seven archetypes of processes for transnational management of VBCD practice, and six processual features. While the existing research on co-ordination mechanisms takes the view that subtle, informal, social-cultural mechanisms are used for the management of softer behaviours, and shared values, this research reveals extensive use of formalization and standardization in the management of values-based practices across international operations. This research also shows a systematic use of external agents in transnational values management, whereas the existing research does not report any external mechanisms in transnational co-ordination. This fine-grained microprocess level research inquiry notes the absence of neatly dichotomized centralized or decentralized processes and reveals that transnational management processes are multilevel, multi-actor and intricately interdependent. This multilevel inquiry into internal processes and external contextual influences also notes nested embeddedness across the multiple levels of TNC, and it elaborates the processes of internal corporate embeddedness. It also notes partial achievement of homogenization of VBCD behaviours within TNCs, results from the absence or inefficacy of design, active managerial agency of the units, and competing demands of multiple environments. Plural theoretical perspectives are adopted to analyse the empirical findings, in a data driven manner. The existing transnational management theories are advanced by these empirically validated theoretical explanations drawing together organization design, contingency theories and the legitimacy perspectives. 1 Transnational management of values-based practices