Excellent Companies as Social Movements[1]

In this article a theoretical reconstruction is given of parts of the content of In Search of Excellence (Peters and Waterman, 1982). It evolves that the internal dynamics of excellent companies are very similar to those of social movements. Two recent discussion points, with regard to the decline and to the ethical dimension of excellent companies, can be better understood using this analogy. Furthermore, it provides us with avenues for further research.