Understanding Interim Management David Goss; Joanna Bridson Human Resource Management Journal; 1998; 8, 4; ABI/INFORM Global Pg
Understanding interim management David Goss; Joanna Bridson Human Resource Management Journal; 1998; 8, 4; ABI/INFORM Global pg. 37 Understanding interim management David Goss, University of Portsmoutiz Business School Joanna Bridson, Independent Cmsuitallt espite the attention given to flexible and atypical working over the past two decades, academic researchers have largely ignored the extension of alternative D staffing methods to managerial labour. In the practitioner community, however, one form of managerial flexibility - interim management - has been attracting increasing attention. According to Overell (1996), for example, 'interim management is the business phenomenon of the 1990s'. An interim manager is 'simply a manager who is hired, usually L'ia an intermediary company, on a temporary and short-term basis' (Redman and Snape, 1993). However, as we will argue below, the use of the term 'simply' risks overlooking the heterogeneous nature of interim management and the implications that tlow from this. The literature on interim management is predominantly found in the practitioner press (for an exception, see Redman and Snape, 1993) and often consists of little more than recycled extracts from consultancy reports and interviews with leading proponents - usually partners of consultancies specialising in placing interim managers. Many of these contributions are more marketing exercise than serious analysis and offer interim management as a product to be sold rather than a complex HR process (Altman, 1996; Coles, 1996; Donkin, 1994; Forbes, 1993; Hogg, 1989; Johnson, J996; McKinney, 1992; Oates, 1990; Oliver, 1994; Russam, 199]; Trapp, 1993). Such articles try to convince the reader that a) interim management must not be confused with mere and its pejorative associations; b) those who act as interim managers are high calibre managers; and c) using interim management confers competitive advantage, henCE its continuing growth (by implication those not using it will suffer competitively).
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