Preface

This book arose from a question debated under an ancient tree over a long lunch in the Buda Hills nearly twenty years ago: why did some managing directors work so hard to try to adapt their organizations to the new non-communist market realities while others just sat and waited? Imre Branyiczki and I concluded that it was all about status – its pursuit, its defense, and which particular people’s respect and admiration were sought. That conclusion led to a quest to learn more about how status influenced organizational behavior. I discovered that many others across the range of management and organization fields were also coming to the conclusion that status mattered for the problems they were investigating, but that their work was scattered across such a wide range of subfields that they could not easily find one another. With this volume I had two purposes. First, I hoped to gather together those doing the leading work in the diverse fields that address management and organizations to make it easier for all of us to learn of each other’s work on status. Second, I wanted to make it easier for those unfamiliar with status scholarship who are addressing problems in strategy, organizations, and organizational behavior to learn more about how status can help address their own puzzles.

I owe a debt of gratitude to many who helped make this book possible. First and foremost, the chapter authors graciously shared their best work, and worked to help to make their scholarship more accessible to those outside their own specialization. They are a credit to our profession. Most of us could attend a workshop in Chicago last summer where chapters were presented and discussed. I would like to thank the University of California, Irvine’s Center for Leadership and Team Development for its financial support of the workshop and for the wizardry of Melissa La Puma who made the workshop a success. My Dean, Andy Policano of the Merage School of Business, gave me that most valuable of gifts: time to think and write. Ann Clark provided invaluable assistance putting the manuscript together, and Harry Briggs helped keep me together throughout the process. Finally, our editors, Paula Parish and Cary Cooper, helped make this volume much better than it would have been. Thank you all.