Prof. Dr. Gilbert Probst

Organizational decline and corporate turnarounds are historically at the height of interest, both theoretically as well as with regard to current practice. Characterized as the opposite of successful adaptation, organizational decline is the failure to anticipate, avoid, neutralize, and adapt to external or internal pressures, thus triggering a process of decreasing organizational resources over a specific period of time that might, but not necessarily needs to, end in corporate failure. Turnaround management is intuitively related to efficiency seeking, co- cutting, streamlining processes, simplifying structures, etc. , etc. The questioning of a simple, one-sided view of cost management and short-term survival is already a challenging task. To associate exploitation and exploration with a successful long-term-oriented turnaround and to empirically search for it in the turnaround world is a truly exceptional endeavor, an interesting topic as such, and a creative and exciting perspective. Achim Schmitt does not only have personal experience with restructuring, but he has for many years done very interesting research into the field of corporate restructuring and behavior in respect of organizational decline. His dissertation project analyzed organizations’ reactions to situations of organizational decline. The results of his work revealed how organizations manage to avoid bankruptcy, while simultaneously achieving sustainable growth for corporate survival. Besides providing insights into how restructurings are carried out in practice, the strength of this book lies in the integration of multiple research streams and the results of a larger empirical study.

Communities of Practice (CoPs) are being increasingly employed in organizations and are probably the knowledge management tool today. They are a truly useful knowledge-sharing, transferring and retaining tool, surpassing other int- organizational networks such as project teams, operational teams, and purely informal networks. They also enjoy far greater success than pure IT tools employed to similar ends. The advantage is that they are based on like-minded people’s fa- to-face meetings, exchange of experience, discussion and development of best practices etc. on an intra-organizational level, although these activities are often informal and not supported or recognized. As ever, practice has shown that many intra-organizational CoPs simply do not work while others are truly successful. The thesis provides the readers with some surprising insights into the nature of CoPs and the specific contributing factors. Stefano Borzillo’s meticulous research started off by examining a large variety of CoPs by means of six identified success factors. The results of Stefano’s investigation revealed three types of CoPs, which he calls “innovating strategic”, “operational excellence”, and “social and productive space” CoPs and which may all three be present within a single organization. Another insight in this regard was that each of them is suited to fulfill different objectives and that there is no one type of CoP that is best for managing the development and transfer of practices. The latter is determined by the CoPs’ objectives, which are again determined by the organizational context. Stefano Borzillo also describes each of these CoP configurations’ success factors.

Die Analyse von sozialen Netzwerken in Organisationen wird in letzter Zeit in der Organisa tionsforschung als neues und viel versprechendes Forschungsgebiet gehandelt. In die Sozio logie, Sozialpsychologie, Ethnologie, Politikwissenschaften und Organisationswissenschaften hat diese Forschungsperspektive in den letzten Jahren vennehrt Einzug gehalten. Der Grund fUr die Attraktivitat des Netzwerkansatzes liegt in der neuartigen Betrachtungswei se von sozialen Phanomenen und dem Versprechen, aus den Beziehungen zwischen sozialen Entitaten Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen. Dass soziale Beziehungen in einer Organisation Einfluss auf das Verhalten ihrer Akteure und somit auf das Gesamtverhalten und den Erfolg haben, ist offensichtlich. Die Vertreter dieses Ansatzes konstatieren, dass durch soziale Beziehungen bestimmte Ressourcen wie Infonnationen oder Wissen ausgetauscht werden bzw. ein Zugang zu diesen Ressourcen Uberhaupt erst gewahrleistet wird. Der Zugang zu diesen Ressourcen ist eine entscheidende Voraussetzung flir eine effiziente Erledigung der unternehmerischen Auf gaben, flir Innovationserfolge oder wertschopfende Resultate. Damit reiht sich die For schungsarbeit von Heidi Annbruster einerseits in die moderne Forschungsrichtung der Netz werkanalyse und gleichzeitig in die neueren Arbeiten zum Wissensmanagement bzw. der Be deutung von Beziehungswissen ein. Heidi Annbruster hat es verstanden, Uber Jahre sowohl das Genfer Forum fUr Wissensma ngement (Geneva Knowledge Forum) als auch eine aufwandige Forschungsarbeit in der Phar mabranche zu leiten. Mit der Organisation und Koordination des Forums hat sie sich einen tiefen Einblick in die Forschung und Praxis des Wissensmanagements verschafft und mit zahlreichen groBen Unternehmen zusammengearbeitet."