Chapter I An introduction to managing people in changing contexts book is more relativist in the sense that context and individual inter- pretation of ideas are seen as very important in influencing action. Perhaps this is best explained by an organic,gardening metaphor According to John Seely Brown (2000),an eminent American aca- demic,transferring so-called best practices from one context to anoth- er is like uprooting a tree from the fertile soil that gave it life and its particular form or shape and attempting to replant it into a different kind of soil,the properties of which are unknown or at least partially uncertain.It is unlikely that one can know with any certainty in advance the kind of tree,or anything resembling the original tree,that the soil and microclimate will produce.Thus,at best,the status of such best practices can be described as 'promising (Leseure et al.2004) but they are fraught with problems of becoming embedded into his- torically,culturally and institutionally different contexts(Zhang and Martin,2003).This transfer problem applies equally to industrial con- texts,such as the transfer of private sector practices to the highly politi- cized public sectors of healthcare,education and local government To return to the first of our two questions,concerning the possibility of a one-best-way of doing things or set of best practices in manage ment,my answer is a qualified yes and no.A 'yes'relates to the con tention that there is a body of knowledge about management that we can legitimately teach and use in many different contexts,even though that body of knowledge has been developed for the most part in the USA and was founded on a private sector,market-driven model.'No is an answer because there are no 'magic bullets'nor a'one-best-way Our knowledge and practices should enjoy the status of no more than 'promising',and we have to think deeply and sensitively when applying these in different contexts,whether these are national cultural,indus trial or company settings. Stability and change in models of management Key features of models of management If context is an important theme in recent management literature,a second key theme concerns the nature of change and stability in models and theories of management and their acceptance by managers.Like many relatively immature bodies of knowledge,the study and practice of management is no exception to the influence of fashionable orbook is more relativist in the sense that context and individual inter￾pretation of ideas are seen as very important in influencing action. Perhaps this is best explained by an organic, gardening metaphor. According to John Seely Brown (2000), an eminent American aca￾demic, transferring so-called best practices from one context to anoth￾er is like uprooting a tree from the fertile soil that gave it life and its particular form or shape and attempting to replant it into a different kind of soil, the properties of which are unknown or at least partially uncertain. It is unlikely that one can know with any certainty in advance the kind of tree, or anything resembling the original tree, that the soil and microclimate will produce. Thus, at best, the status of such best practices can be described as ‘promising’ (Leseure et al., 2004), but they are fraught with problems of becoming embedded into his￾torically, culturally and institutionally different contexts (Zhang and Martin, 2003). This transfer problem applies equally to industrial con￾texts, such as the transfer of private sector practices to the highly politi￾cized public sectors of healthcare, education and local government. To return to the first of our two questions, concerning the possibility of a one-best-way of doing things or set of best practices in manage￾ment, my answer is a qualified yes and no. A ‘yes’ relates to the con￾tention that there is a body of knowledge about management that we can legitimately teach and use in many different contexts, even though that body of knowledge has been developed for the most part in the USA and was founded on a private sector, market-driven model. ‘No’ is an answer because there are no ‘magic bullets’ nor a ‘one-best-way’. Our knowledge and practices should enjoy the status of no more than ‘promising’, and we have to think deeply and sensitively when applying these in different contexts, whether these are national cultural, indus￾trial or company settings. Stability and change in models of management Key features of models of management If context is an important theme in recent management literature, a second key theme concerns the nature of change and stability in models and theories of management and their acceptance by managers. Like many relatively immature bodies of knowledge, the study and practice of management is no exception to the influence of fashionable or Chapter 1 An introduction to managing people in changing contexts 9