Abstract
Once upon a time there were a number of distinguished gentlemen who had been in the habit of playing a quiet game of bridge together at their club ever since their early youth. All of a sudden they learned from the club management that bridge was no longer to be played on the premises. The game was considered old-fashioned and it was giving the club a bad name. All other respectable clubs had changed over to poker, and the management had decided to follow suit. None of the bridge players were particularly familiar with poker, but they all found it extremely exciting to play. They started enthusiastically and soon found that lots of nice people came to join in. Thoroughly enjoying opportunities of the game, they began to bet aggressively. After a while they found that their new friends, and even some of their old ones, were betting even more aggressively. Since the point of the game seemed to be to get richer than any of the others, the players provoked each other to continually raise the stakes. Who could sit quietly by, when markers were piling up in front of the others? However, quite suddenly several of the new players said good-bye to the former bridge players, who were feeling very happy about their huge heaps of markers. But their happiness was suddenly destroyed by management’s announcement that the markers were worthless, and that the former bridge players owed the club a fortune for the money it had provided for the poker game. Some of the players even had to give up their club membership.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aldrich, H. E. (1979) Organizations and Environments, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Andrews, K. R. (1980) The Concept of Corporate Strategy, (Second edition, first edition 1971 ), Irwin, Homewood, IL.
Ballarin, E. (1986) Commercial Banks Amid the Financial Revolution, Ballinger, Cambridge, Mass.
Berger, P. L. and T. Luckmann (1966) The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of KnowledgeDoubleday, Garden City, NY.
Bergström, R., L. Engwall, and E. Wallerstedt (1994) ‘Organisational foundations and closures in a regulated environment: Swedish commercial banks 1831–1990’, Scandinavian Journal of Management 10 (1), 29–48.
Brunsson, N. (1985) The Irrational Organization: Irrationality as a Basis for Organizational Action and ChangeWiley, Chichester.
Brunsson, N. (1989) The Organization of Hypocrisy. Talk Decisions and Actions in OrganizationsWiley, Chichester.
Chandler, A. D. Jr. (1962) Strategy and Structure. Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Child, J. and A. Kieser (1981) ‘Development of Organizations over Time’, in P. C. Nystrom and W. H. Starbuck (eds.), Handbook of Organizational Design. Vol. I: Adapting Organizations to their Environments,Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 28–64.
Cyert, R. M. and J. G. March (1963) A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Dahlheim, B., G. Lind, and A.-K. Nedersjö (1993) ‘Utvecklingen i banksektorn 1992’ (The Development in the Banking Sector 1992), Penning- & valutapolitik 2, 24–37.
DiMaggio, P. J. and W. W. Powell (1983) ‘The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields’, American Sociology Review 48 (2), 147–160.
Eisenbeis, R. (1985) ‘Inflation and Regulation: The Effects on Financial Institutions and Structure’, in R. C. Aspinwall and R. A. Eisenbeis (eds.), Handbook for Banking Strategy, Wiley, New York, pp. 65–123.
Engwall, L. (1978) Newspapers as Organizations, Saxon House, Farnborough.
Engwall, L. and M. Wallenstâl (1988) ‘Tit for tat in small steps. The internationalization of Swedish banks’, Scandinavian Journal of Management 4 (3/4), 147–155.
Engwall, L. (1985) Frdn vag vision till komplex organisation (From a Vague Vision to a Complex Organization), Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Oeconomiae Negotiorum 22, Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm.
Fayol, H. (1916) ‘Administration industrielle et générale’, Bulletin de la Societé de l’Industrie Minérale, 3 ( Reprint Dunod, Paris, 1917 ).
Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self Identity, Polity Press, Cambridge.
Herzberg, F. et al. (1957) Job Attitudes: Review of Research and Opinion, Psychological Service of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
Hickson, D. J., D. S. Pugh, and D. C. Pheysey (1969) ‘Operations technology and organization structure: An empirical reappraisal’, Administrative Science Quarterly 14 (September), 378–397.
Hildebrand, K.-G. (1971) I omvandlingens tjänst (In the Service of Change), Seelig, Stockholm. Industrial Democracy in Europe ( 1980 ), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Johnson, H. T. and R. S. Kaplan (1987) Relevance Lost. The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
Jones, G. (1992) Multinational and International Banking, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
Kimberly, J. R. et al. (1980) The Organizational Life Cycle, Jossey-Bass, San Fransisco, CA.
Kimberly, J. (1983) ‘Organizations: A Biographical Perspective’, in J. W. Lorsch (ed.), Handbook of Organizational Behaviour, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Kinch, N. (1987) ‘Emerging strategies in a network context —The Volvo case’, Scandinavian Journal of Management Studies 3, 167–184.
Lawrence, P. R. and J. W. Lorsch (1967) Organization and Environment, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University, Boston, MA.
Levitt, T. and S. Cunningham (1979) Marketing Myopia in the Trust Business: A Report for Bank CEO’s, Head of Trust Departments, and Other Line Officers Impacting the Direction of the Bank’s Trust Business, American Bankers Association, Washington, D.C.
Lybeck, J. and G. Hagerud (1988) Penningmarknadens instrument (The Instruments of the Money Market), Rabén & Sjögren, Stockholm.
March, J. G. and J. P. Olsen (1976) Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations, Universitetsforlaget, Bergen.
March, J. G. and H. A. Simon (1958) Organizations, Wiley, New York.
March, J. G. (1988) Decisions and Organizations, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Marquardt, R. (1994) Banketableringar i främmande Länder (Bank Establishments in Foreign Countries), Doctoral thesis no. 55, Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University.
Maslow, A. H. (1954) Motivation and Personality, Harper, New York.
Mayer, M. (1984) The Money Bazars. Understanding the Banking Revolution Around Us, Dutton. New York.
McMurry, R. N. (1958) ‘Recruitment, dependency, and morale in the banking industry’, Administrative Science Quarterly 3 (1), 87–117.
Meyer, J. W. and B. Rowan (1977) ‘Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony’, American Journal of Sociology 83 (September), 440–463.
Meyer, J. W. and W. R. Scott (1992) Organizational Environments. Ritual and Rationality, Sage, Newbury Park, CA.
North, D. C. (1990) Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Peters, T. J. and R. H. Waterman Jr (1982) In Search of Excellence: Lessons from American Best-Run Companies,Harper & Row, New York.
Pettigrew, A. (1973) The Politics of Organizational Decision-Making, Tavistock, London. Porter, M. E. (1980) Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, The Free Press, New York.
Remitz, U. (1960) Professional Satisfaction among Swedish Bank Employees, Munkgaard (dins. ), Copenhagen.
Roethlisberger, F. J. and W. J. Dickson (1939) Management and the Worker, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Sampson, A. (1982) The Money Lenders. Bankers in a Dangerous World, Coronet Books ( 1. ed. 1981, Hodder and Stoughton ), London.
Simon, H. A. (1947) Administrative Behavior. A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization, Macmillan, New York.
Starbuck, W. H. (1976) ‘Organizations and their Environments’, in M. D. Dunnette (ed.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Rand McNally, Chicago, IL, pp. 1069–1123.
Söderlund, E. (1964) Skandinaviska Banken i det svenska bankväsendets historia 1864–1914 (Skandinaviska Banken in the History of Swedish Banking 1864–1914 ), Skandinaviska Banken, Göteborg.
Söderlund, E. (1978) Skandinaviska Banken i det svenska bankväsendets historia 1914–1939 (Skandinaviska Banken in the History of Swedish Banking 1914–1939 ), Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala.
Taylor, E W. (1911) The Principles of Scientific Management, Harper, New York.
Thorsrud, E. and F. E. Emery (1969) Mot en ny bedriftsorganisasjon ( Towards a New Company Organization ), Universitetsforlaget, Oslo.
Veckans affärer,17 October 1985.
Vernon, R. (1971) Sovereignty at Bay: the Multinational Spread of US Enterprises, Basic Books, New York.
Vernon, R. (1977) Storm over the Multinationals: the Real Issues, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Walter, I. (1985) Barriers to Trade in Banking and Financial Services, Trade Policy Research Centre, London.
Waring, S. P. (1991) Taylorism Transformed. Scientific Management Theory since 1945, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC.
Weber, M. (1922) Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Mohr, Tübingen.
Woodward, J. (1965) Industrial Organization: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, London.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Engwall, L. (1994). Bridge, Poker and Banking. In: Fair, D.E., Raymond, R. (eds) The Competitiveness of Financial Institutions and Centres in Europe. Financial and Monetary Policy Studies, vol 28. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8350-3_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8350-3_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4469-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-8350-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive