There are significant ambiguities surrounding the academic discipline of management, which can be analysed in terms of three major debates. First the professional status of management brings with it questions about restriction or access to management education, the control of curricular and the relative importance of basic, applied and consultancy-driven research. Second, there are debates about the changing nature of management research, which require the accomodation of increasing diversity within management theory. Finally, the ambiguities associated with these debates can be seen to have impacted on the development of management education, its accessibility and diversity. The ambiguities associated with these debates must be carefully managed if the discipline is to prosper. New organisational forms are needed to embed management teaching and research within the complex collaborative relationships of the many stakeholders involved.

In the management literature, authority is generally defined as, or confused with, power (legitimate or otherwise) on the one hand, or (less frequently) attributed to subordinate concession on the other. In short, authority is thought to have two faces. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate the confusions surrounding the use of authority and to suggest that more attention should be directed to the important differences between authority, power and legitimacy. An analysis of managerial authority is discussed that argues for the crucial relationship, recognised by the ancients, between authority and rhetoric. Authority, it is argued, is not legitimate power but a source of power and is established by effective rhetoric.

Business enterprises worldwide have recognised that linking green objectives to profit goals can be a source of competitive advantage. This paper outlines the forces inducing corporations to adopt proactive stances to environmental strategic postures and the arguments for and against such postures. It presents an expanded concept of efficiency management and a related menu of environmental strategies that corporations can adopt. Empirical evidence of the environmental strategies that are being used and their outcomes is drawn from leading international hotel corporations and from smaller enterprises in this industry and the implications are discussed.

The paper reports research within Australian manufacturing companies that investigated the perceived importance and interrelationships of functional and business strategies. Seven functional strategies were postulated (operations, research and development, technology, marketing, human resources, organisational, and financial). Porter's (1980) generic strategies were used to define business strategies because of their ability to simplify complex strategic patterns and because of their popularity in the strategic management literature (Miller and Dess, 1993). The research found that Australian manufacturers operations strategy was the most preferred and effective functional strategy. Australian manufacturers also have a preference for combined generic strategies. However, an analysis of performance suggests that the adoption of a single generic strategy may be preferable.

This paper reviews women in management research, as it moves from being a specialisation, to a source on influence on the mainstream. Specifically, there has been a shift from women to gender as a conceptual framework, which has led to explorations of identity issues in the workplace. There is a growing acceptance of organisations as manifestations of masculinity that is being differentiated into masculinities. The intersection of identities such as genders, race and ethnicity is beginning to be explored. The extensive work on sexual harassment is broadening to include research into the subtle but explicit presence of sexuality in organisations. Women have moved in management and are poised at the brink of senior management. At this point many women leave and studies are beginning to explore the functioning of women run organisations. Finally the potential ability of women in management research to expand the concept of management is noted.

Despite thousands of years of interest, there is no standardised definition of organisational politics. This paper attempts to integrate different accounts of organisational politics through the development of a multi-level definition. A two-stage field study showed that political activities observed in the workplace can be fully captured by defining organisational politics relative to organisational efficiency at the level of the organisation, the group and the individual.

The paper reports on a study into the usefulness of autopoiesis as a metaphor for reflective thinking about organisations contemplating change. Autopoietic systems display qualities of evolutionary invariance, self organisation to perpetuate the system's status quo, self referential activities and attempts to organise aspects of the environment to suit the system's needs. Systemic characteristics include a desire to return to equilibrium and to be resistant to evolutionary change. Autopoiesis can be used as a metaphor for gaining insights and seeing with fresh eyes some of the perhaps hidden, institutionalised concepts that inform contemporary management strategies. The need for a metaphorical image emerges from the difficulty in reflecting on organisational activities while using historically derived language and symbols. The autopoiesis metaphor was integrated into an exploratory research project with human resource managers as respondents. Tentative findings were that this is a useful metaphor for use in organisational diagnosis. Given this, a more comprehensive study would seem to be worthwhile.

Most international students entering RMIT's MBA program have relatively limited work experience and lack self-presentation skills. Some shortcomings in self-confidence in a western culture, job-seeking skills, networking experience and personal presentation skills are also evident. In these qualities the international students are notably different from the older Australian part-time students with whom they study. This visible diversity provided the catalyst for developing several “internationalising components” to better meet the needs of international students to enable international students to present themselves as informed, capable, culturally aware and desirable graduates. This paper describes how program changes were made with the objectives of building team interaction and problem solving skills, as well as cross-cultural awareness, building self-awareness of “me as a manager in the global marketplace” and exploring cultural diversity in business practices. In addition, the “competencies” stream was modified, with emphasis being placed on students' ability to assess the appropriateness and cultural fit of western models and theories in their own countries.