Relations of Complex Organizational Systems: A Key to Global Competitivity. Problems — Strategies — Visions

Inter-Firm Cooperation Networks: A Historical Perspective.- Relationship Games: Creating Competitive Advantage Through Cooperation.- Changing Complex Organizational Systems: The Pull Between Fundamentals and Trivia.- The Passage from Fordism to Toyotism in European Sub-Contracting: Towards a New Model of Relationship?.- The Role of Computer Scientists within Organisations. Technicians or Agents of Change?.- Management of Relationships: The Importance of the Intangible Factors.- EMU: Between Coordination and Conflict.- Emissions Trading: The Creation of a Global Policy Instrument.- The Internationalization of Italian Industrial Firms: Towards New Partnerships.- Public and Commonweal Enterprises in Germany.- The Ownership Structure of Large German Corporations: Towards an Increasing Denationalization?.- The Role of Law and Trust in the Governance of Financial Institutions.

Die Herausgeberin
Sabine Urban ist Professorin an der Université Robert Schuman und Leiterin des Centre d´Etude des Sciences Appliquées à la Gestion/IECS in Straßburg.
Die Autoren
sind renommierte Experten aus der Wissenschaft.

In times of turbulence and uncertainty it is pertinent to question more intensely the sources of performance and competitiveness of organizations as well as on a micro- or macro-economic level. Individual organizations are moving into networks and complex systems of actors and institutions. So it is the relationship among the players that has grown in importance, resulting in the concept of global competitivity, surpassing the vision of individual interests. Thus new problems of managing these relationships are born, particularly in terms of :

· coordination of initiatives,
· difficulties in adapting to change in a complex context,
· learning and the sharing of knowledge, know-how and experience,
· redefinition of the respective role of the institutions (their mission and area of responsability),
· organizational governance, i.e., the system by which organizations are directed and controlled.

Twelve authors examine these questions both from a theoretical angle - highlighting the renewal of critical thinking - and from that of a multi-faceted reality which is increasingly shaken by the globalization of socio-economic life.