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Existing studies of information systems development (ISD) control commonly examine controller-centric considerations, such as the antecedents and performance impacts of control mode choices. In contrast, little is known about the controllee-centric factors that may influence the effectiveness of control activities. Drawing on institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of control legitimacy to the ISD literature – a concept that past organizational research has linked to outcomes such as employee commitment and performance. Specifically, the authors explore how different dimensions of control activities (mode, degree, style) relate to controllee perceptions of control legitimacy in terms of justice, autonomy, group identification, and competence development.

Interviews were conducted with 20 practitioners across three companies. A structured data coding approach was employed and analysis was conducted within and across each case study.

The authors find that the control degree and control style can help explain control legitimacy perceptions better than control modes alone. For example, the results suggest that formal controls enacted in a bilateral style correspond with higher perceptions of justice and autonomy, when compared to formal controls enacted in a unilateral style.

The study results imply that ISD managers should be increasingly mindful of enacting controls in a way that is perceived to be legitimate by subordinates, thereby potentially enhancing both staff well-being and ISD performance.

Innovation intermediaries have become key actors in open innovation (OI) contexts. Research has improved the understanding of the managerial challenges inherent to intermediation in situations in which problems are rather well defined. Yet, in some OI situations, the relevant actor networks may not be known, there may be no clear common interest, or severe problems may exist with no legitimate common place where they can be discussed. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the research on innovation intermediaries by showing how intermediaries address managerial challenges related to a high degree of unknown.

The authors draw upon the extant literature to highlight the common core functions of different types of intermediaries. The authors then introduce the “degree of unknown” as a new contingency variable for the analysis of the role of intermediaries for each of these core functions. The authors illustrate the importance of this new variable with four empirical case studies in different industries and countries in which intermediaries are experiencing situations of high level of unknown.

The authors highlight the specific managerial principles that the four intermediaries applied in creating an environment for collective innovation.

Thereby, the authors clarify what intermediation in the unknown may entail.

Economics and economic history, general history and sociology have all usefully informed debates about the decline of the British economy relative to those of other nations, and useful contributions have also been made by political scientists, psychologists, students of industrial relations and of management and organisational behaviour. However, the most fundamental contributions have generally come from the three major disciplines of economics (with economic history), general history and sociology. Unfortunately habits and traditions peculiar to these disciplines have sometimes been unhelpful to processes of approaching comprehensive understanding. Further, interdisciplinary discussions and controversies have sometimes produced a certain amount of ‘noise’, even on some occasions where agreement on substantive points has been considerable.

It is a frequent lament among the new technocracy that British culture seems irretrievably locked into a system of values deriving from the pre‐industrial age. Business activity is thus still scorned as in some way grubby; arcadian and gentry values are extolled; and the old professions still enjoy a monopoly of prestige and esteem. The new director of the Institute of Directors hammered out this theme at his inaugural address, singling out for especial criticism the influence of the church and the Oxbridge colleges. It is not my purpose to go through the old arguments all over again. They have, after all, been a commonplace since the 1950s and acquired wide circulation with the publication a few years ago of Martin Wiener's British Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit. What I would like to suggest, however, is that the arguments presented by Dahrendorf, Wiener, et al. do have a certain relevance to the world of the library and of information management which has not yet been entirely appreciated.

To explore the advice given by the British Girl Guides Association, a popular girls' youth organisation, to urban members in the period from 1930 to 1960.

This article is based on an analysis of the Girlguiding publications The Guide and The Guider in 30 years spanning 1930–1960.

The article shows that, although rural spaces maintained symbolic position in the education and training of the British Girl Guides Association throughout the mid-twentieth century, the use of urban spaces were central in ensuring that girls embodied Guiding principles on a day-to-day basis. While rural spaces, and especially the camp, have been conceptualised by scholars as ‘extraordinary’ spaces, this article argues that by encouraging girls to undertake nature study in their urban locality the organisation stressed the ordinariness of Guiding activity. In doing so, they encouraged girls to be an active presence in urban public space throughout the period, despite the fact that, as scholars have identified, the post-war period saw the increased regulation of children's presence in public spaces. Such findings suggest that the organisation allowed girls a modicum of freedom in town Guiding activities, although ultimately these were limited by expectations regarding the behaviour and conduct of members.

The article builds upon existing understandings of the Girl Guide organisation and mid-twentieth century youth movements. A number of scholars have recently argued for a more complex understanding of the relationship between urban and rural, outdoor and indoor spaces, within youth organisations in the 20th century. Yet the place of urban spaces in Girlguiding remains under-explored.

In Poetic Justice, Martha Nussbaum (1996) offers one version of an argument frequently repeated in the history of law-and-literature scholarship; to wit, that the literary imagination performs a salutary function with regard to many domains of modern public life. While law and economics are governed by logics of bureaucratic rationality and utilitarian calculus, literature, in particular the novel, presents a counterdiscourse, inviting us to empathize with others, expanding our moral sense, emphasizing the importance of affect and imagination in the making of a just, humane, and democratic society. Nussbaum's broad goal is a commendable one; concerned that “cruder forms of economic utilitarianism and cost-benefit analysis that are…used in many areas of public policy-making and are frequently recommended as normative for others” are, in effect, dehumanizing, she argues for the importance to public life of “the sort of feeling and imagining called into being” by the experience of reading literary texts (1996, p. 3). This sort of feeling and imagining, Nussbaum explains, fosters sympathetic understanding of others who may be quite different from us and a deepened awareness of human suffering.

To determine any differences between the level of academic qualification of German senior managers and their British equivalents and to offer explanations for any such differences identified.Design/methodology/approach – Two questions were posed: First were German senior managers generally “better” qualified academically than their British counterparts? Examines data published by governmental and non‐governmental sources in both Germany and the UK. Second why? Following a comprehensive review of the literature published in both German and English a variety of potential causal factors were identified and for analysis placed in three main categories. These were then discussed in the course of a series of semi structured interviews and informal interviews with both British and German senior executives.Findings – The overwhelming majority of German senior managers are qualified to a Doctoral level. Nearly 70 percent of the directors of Germany's top 100 companies have doctorates as compared to certainly less than 3 percent and probably less than 1 percent of their British counterparts. The main causal factors are of a cultural nature which are long standing and deep seated.Research limitations/implications – In practice it proved difficult to persuade companies to provide data relating directly to their employees or information regarding their management development, recruitment, or promotion policies.Practical implications – The validity of the Anglo/American mindset as opposed to the German “Knowing what you manage”. It is suggested that a compromise might prove a sensible alternative approach for both societies.Originality/value – Draws upon new data not previously published (in English) to reach plausible conclusions.