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The article asserts that systems thinking and its concurrent organizational processes are central organizing structures in schools, yet “hide in plain sight” and are therefore underexplored and underutilized in leadership theorizing.

By exploring the theoretical literature concerning school organization and leadership, tensions and contradictions within the literature are surfaced. The article examines and critiques distributed leadership theory and provides new directions for thinking about leadership practice based on school organization literature.

Recent work (Kruse and Johnson, 2017; Murphy, 2015, 2016) suggests that schools are far too complex to be led and managed by a single dedicated leader, yet the practice of leadership remains largely reified within the literature (Bryk et al., 2015), Insofar as leadership theory relies on narratives derived from and about work of “the” leader, it ignores the larger system. A contrasting literature is that of distributed leadership (Gronn, 2000; Spillane, 2006). Yet, even within that literature, the focus remains on interpersonal interactions and conjoint actions concerning school operation. While not dismissing the importance of leadership as a theoretical and practical construct, thinking about leadership as less a property of individuals and more a variable within effective organizational practice holds promise for the study of educational leadership.

This article extends the existing literature by suggesting how systems processes and structures serve school leaders in addressing the leadership demands of fostering continuous (rather than episodic) change, processing information and creating contextual local knowledge with the potential to enhance school outcomes.

Describes a model based on empirical research which provides the details of an integrated management system and takes into account existing and accepted definitions of quality management, environmental management, and occupational health and safety management systems. Claims that the model addresses the issues of scope and culture which none of the existing integrated management system models address. The model has been tested with a sample of members of the British Standards Society. Among the main findings of this testing is that the model addresses the problems of implementing a second standard (e.g. environmental) other than a quality management system or an integrated management system; compatibly and alignment are not crucial issues in implementing standards; and an integrated standard is favored.

The purpose of this paper is to select a theoretical framework for effective school leadership that is connected with research, standards and current practices in the USA, and examine its validity and generalizability cross-culturally.

The paper uses both qualitative and quantitative methods through expert panel evaluation, cognitive interviews, and field testing of the instrument. The author asks: How well does the Learning-Centered Leadership (LCL) framework align with the professional standards and current practices of principals in urban Chinese schools in the opinion of the experts? Is there evidence that its leadership assessment instrument has construct validity in Chinese urban schools based on the re-examination of its content and measurement criteria? And is there evidence that the instrument is yielding consistent results when taken by the intended participants? How effective are the analytic strategies employed by this study in detecting the equivalences and discrepancies in how educational leadership is defined and evaluated, between two vastly different educational systems?

The paper finds evidences that give support to the claim that there is strong cross-cultural alignment on the overarching goal of improving student learning. However, the US framework and assessment will need to be modified to reflect the Chinese reform priorities that emphasize the balance between academic and social learning.

The belief that there are common elements in contemporary international educational policy has brought growing interest in sharing leadership theories and successful models cross-culturally. This paper addresses the challenges in understanding the complexity of cross-cultural translation of theories and applications, and explores viable solutions to meaningful adaptation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of shared cognitive frames, in particular, that of institutional logics, on the deployment and use of performance measurement systems (PMSs) in the public sector.

Using novel priming techniques derived from behavioral and social psychology, three institutional logics – the public, market-managerial and professional logics – are differentially surfaced in three independent experimental groups. The influence of these primed institutional logics on performance measurement use preferences are then empirically assessed using appropriate analysis of variance techniques.

Contrary to theoretical predictions, the paper reveals logic congruence regarding some uses of PMSs in the public sector, and divergence regarding others. Individuals applying a public logic were more likely to propose performance measurement use for strategic planning or strategic alignment; while those applying a professional logic were more likely to propose performance measurement use for learning, compared to otherwise primed individuals.

Considering the sample size and the novelty of the priming tools, it is feasible that other potentially significant effects may have been missed.

The paper addresses a gap in literature regarding the influence of shared cognitive frames on performance measurement use in public sector organizations. The paper further presents priming techniques embedded within an experimental design as an appropriate method for the micro-level study of attitudes, preferences and judgments in the public sector.

Digital transformation projects are complex, lengthy and difficult to implement, often failing to meet their objectives. Previous research has attributed this failure to competing institutional logics influencing actors’ coping responses, and differences in actors’ interpretations of the project’s goals, technology and processes - their “organising vision”. The purpose of this paper is to analyse a complex technology implementation project from an institutional perspective, to further elucidate the role of multiple logics and organising vision.

A qualitative single study approach was used to investigate a public-sector technology project aimed at delivering a unified Human resource information system (HRIS) across regional health organisations in one country.

Four logics characterised the project (public sector, professional, corporate and market), but their relative dominance shifted as the project transitioned through stages, from comprehension to implementation. These shifts exposed tensions between components of actors’ organising vision, which influenced their coping behaviours in response to unexpected changes in the project’s strategic ambitions and technological scope. Coherence of vision, both within groups of actors and between them, was a key mediator of coping responses and project outcomes.

This analysis demonstrates the role of actors’ organising vision in bridging institutional logics and coping responses to shape digital transformation projects. It highlights the need to account not only for diverse institutional logics, but also for their changing influence as projects unfold and actors’ attention is directed onto different aspects of the organising vision. From a management perspective, it illustrates the importance of clear and consistent communication, to avoid entrenching conflicting interpretations.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how in a situation of a crisis can Management Accounting Systems (MAS) create tensions in attention to information between top and line managers.

The study is based on a field study.

The findings based on an attention-based view on organizations demonstrate how change to an MAS introduced to handle the crisis failed to integrate top and line managers’ attention toward the common issues. Tightening of budget control was an expected response in such a situation. However, this change produced rather the opposite result – attention to information articulated by the top and line managers became even more disintegrated. This was visible in terms of different interpretations of both the reasons and the strategy of how to get out of the crisis – this is what we call a tension in attention.

The study is subject to the usual limitations of case-based research.

Implications from the study is that there is a need for caution about how managers move in the beginning of the crisis because the initial response sets a tone and trajectory of the crisis. In practice, this means that sense making processes are important in an early stage of a crisis to avoid tensions in attention between different groups in the organization.

The authors argued that little research has been conducted so far regarding what information managers focus their attention on in organizations under financial distress conditions. The originality is the use of an attention-based view together with organizational psychology to understand this area.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the strategic intent and consequent organisation of innovation summits. Innovation summits have recently appeared in practice as a new approach by which firms strategically market and further their open innovation agendas both internally and externally.

To advance the knowledge of this novel phenomenon, which has not yet been described in theory, a qualitative research design is appropriate. Consequently, this research conducts comparative case studies of four leading companies.

The paper contributes knowledge on how innovation summits can be designed and used as a strategic marketing approach to mobilise and match key people for open innovation. The authors find that the strategic scope and cognitive distance of invited firms are critical dimensions in characterising distinct types of innovation summits and propose a classification scheme for understanding different types of summits.

For practitioners, the authors present two central questions to consider before staging a summit: what is the strategic scope and who should be involved? This classification scheme offers managers an understanding of the implications of these choices.

While much research takes a macro-perspective on open innovation, much less is known about the micro-level of bringing parties together. In practise, the concept of innovation summits has gained a significant interest; however, the concept is still relatively unknown in the literature. This paper is one of the first to advance knowledge of this novel phenomenon.

Based on an extensive review of the literature, the purpose of this paper is to propose an analytical model that enables the study of the corporate social responsibility (CSR)’s strategic orientation of companies through the analysis of: the different types of CSR integration into company strategies; the different levels of CSR strategic maturity; and the path necessary to be followed for a company to achieve its full development and correspondingly forecasting which initiatives hold the greatest contribution toward this end.

This paper sets out a conceptual framework, which was drafted building on an extensive critical review of the literature seeking to incorporate the diverse contributions made by the existing CSR models and classifications.

The analytical framework here proposed enables a wide reaching approach to analyzing strategic CSR, their underlying motivations and its core factors. It also extends to considering the different phases of maturity enabling the evaluation of the distinctive levels of CSR integration into the company strategy and the stage at which the company currently stands at on its determined path.

From a practical perspective, the suggested framework enables practitioners to access a practical tool that specifically measures their companies’ CSR maturity and strategic profile and which may serve as well as a means of diagnosis, improvement or of adaptation.

This model of analysis generates the identification of the factors explaining the different levels of CSR integration into the company strategy and evaluating the level of maturity prevailing.

Uses Wenger’s learning architecture as a conceptual framework for analysing the design and support of a Web‐based continuing professional development (CPD) course. Describes the key elements of the learning architecture and discusses their relevance to Web‐based CPD. In particular notes the importance of a design paradigm that focuses on social networks and the support necessary for their development. Using empirical data from a Web‐based course for professionals in health and social care to illustrate aspects of Wenger’s learning architecture, evaluates successful CPD learning against this theoretical framework. The course drew heavily on the participants’ ongoing workplace practice and was significant in shaping that practice. Concludes, on the basis of experience gained through the course, that Wenger’s concepts provide a useful evaluation framework and design paradigm for Web‐based CPD.

Supply chain performance is concerned with managing dependencies between various supply chain members and the joint efforts of all supply chain members to achieve mutually defined goals. There are various performance initiatives reported in the literature but these are often discussed in isolation. Information sharing, information technology, collaborative partnerships, and vendor management that help in improving the supply chain performance are some of the noteworthy initiatives. But there is a need to consider the supply chain in a holistic sense. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a case study of A1, a leading original equipment manufacturer in India, to throw light on the status of supply chain performance initiatives taken in its supply chain.

A situation‐actor‐process (SAP)‐learning‐action‐performance (LAP) model has been applied for the case study of A1. The situation represents the present scenario of the organization. Actors are the participants, influencing the situation to evolve different business processes. Based on SAP, various learning issues have been analyzed which lead to suitable action followed by impact on the performance of the supply chain of the organization. Resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm has been suggested to understand the tangible and intangibles associated with the implementation of a supply chain performance measurement system.

The case study organization has taken various initiatives for improving supply chain performance, such as vendor managed inventory and dealer management system. However, the issues that need attention include measurement of the vendor's performance on criteria which have supply chain orientation, as well as connecting dealers' point of sale information to vendors; This way connects the supply chain as a whole. Emphasis should be placed on second and third tier suppliers, as most of the quality‐related problem is due to them. In the twenty‐first century only those organizations which pay attention to agility, alignment and adaptability for responding to the challenges can gain competitive advantage. SCPMS as a resource can provide a sustained competitive advantage for a firm.

The SAP‐LAP analysis is used to explain soft and hard issues of supply chain performance in a managerial context as applied to the case of A1. The value of SCPMS can be augmented only when it is embedded in an organization through resource complementarity and co‐specialization.

The SAP‐LAP model presents the situation of supply chain performance to participants who may initiate the processes needed to make the supply chain effective and efficient. The synthesis of SAP leads to LAP, which bridges the gap by suggesting improvement actions based on the learning from the present situation, actors and processes.

This is a novel approach to analyze quantitative and qualitative issues of supply chain performance initiatives in a single model and its impact on performance of the supply chain.