Chris Huxham’s research while affiliated with University of Strathclyde and other places

This article explores the dynamic processes of collective identity formation among the participating organizational members in interorganizational collaborations that cross national boundaries. A longitudinal, qualitative multi-case study research approach was adopted in the empirical investigation of collective identity in three international business collaborations that involve a Sino-British strategic partnership, a Sino-Australian, and a Sino-Polish joint venture. Based on the analyses of the data collected from in-depth interviews, participant observation, and archival materials, a theoretical framework of collective identity (re)formation is developed. It suggests that two inseparable elements (states and processes) constitute a cyclic and enduring process of collective identity formation through partners’ orchestrating discursive resources involving a common sense of ‘we-ness’. The shifts between various states are driven by partners’ processes of negotiation, integration, solidification, and reformation of collective identity. A deconstruction process may also emerge, giving rise to the termination of the collaborative relationship. The research presented in this article advances the understanding of collective identity formation in the field of organizational identity by extending the discursive perspective of collective identity into the context of interorganizational collaborations that cross national borders. This research also provides further empirical evidence on the active role played by organizational members in the use of cultural narratives as strategic resources to express their identity beliefs, which differs from the deterministic view of culture in shaping organizational members’ behaviors.

This paper explores the complex processes of collective identity construction among the participating organizational members in inter-organizational collaborations that cross national boundaries. Drawing from the constructionist approach to collective identity, especially the perspectives of identity work, we describe findings from a qualitative study of three business collaborations. Our analysis suggests that two inseparable elements (states and processes) constitute a cyclic and enduring process of collective identity work through partners’ orchestrating discursive resources involving a common sense of ‘we-ness’. The shifts between various states are driven by partners’ processes of negotiation, integration, solidification and reformation of collective identity. A deconstruction process may also emerge, giving rise to the termination of the collaborative relationship. Cultural issues are discursively used by organizational members to justify the states and processes of collective identity development. We discuss how these findings extend our understanding of ‘collective identity work’ among collaborating partners, and may improve effective management of the relationship dynamics in international collaborative settings.

This article addresses a "goals paradox" that suggests that both congruence and diversity in organizations' goals influence success in collaboration. Using extensive empirical data, we develop a framework that portrays goals as an entangled, dynamic, and ambiguously hierarchical web of variously perceived, higher- and lower-level goals that can be characterized across six dimensions: level, origin, authenticity, relevance, content, and overtness. We then explore the paradox in terms of the framework and so propose a much elaborated theoretical understanding of it. This provides theoretical and practical understanding relevant to management and governance in and of collaboration.

This article presents the Interpretive Clustering Approach to theory building from Research Oriented Action Research data as a means of creating theory to support the reflective practice of public managers. Tenets about the nature of theory suitable for supporting reflective practice are developed and discussed; these relate to recognizability, generalizability, creativity and integrity. The characteristics required of the approach to allow it to satisfy the tenets are explored. In the process of this exploration several methodological concepts are introduced including notions of faithfulness, possibilities, tentative relevance, cautious certainty, forcing the rhetoric, inclusion of examples and attractive conceptual tags.

In this article we address a key tension in the literature. That is, whether the knowledge status of a tradition is largely preserved passively, under tradition’s own authority, or alternatively preserved through deliberate, individual interpretive acts.Through empirical research in three network contexts, we show that both authority and interpretation have a role in the preservation of traditionalized knowledge and that three distinct modes of carriage (or preservation) can be observed. These modes involve different intent orientations (purposive or passive intentions about the use of traditionalized knowledge) and enactment styles, which may be either assertive (deliberately persuasive) or assumptive (‘rightness’ is assumed, not argued). From these theoretical extensions, implications for tradition theory, as well as knowledge, learning and understanding for managers involved in networks, are developed.

Since Evan's (1965) call for a theory of inter-organisational relations (IOR), research into IOR has proliferated as inter-organisational practice has become more commonplace. We argue that knowledge about IOR has developed in fragmented and highly differentiated ways, despite periodic attempts to review knowledge and set an agenda for future research. Building on Culpan's (2009) prospectus for research into strategic business alliances in this journal, we argue for a more systematic, concerted programme of consolidation and abstraction of knowledge as a specific accumulation dynamic. We suggest two ways of cutting IOR's fragmentary web of knowledge. The first orders knowledge by researchers' primary substantive interests; the second derives conceptual foci from our definition of IOR. We outline three levels of work to link existing IOR knowledge. We see these as cumulative and increasingly strong, and, together, as forming the basis for consolidation of knowledge in an IOR vademecum.