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Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 29 November 2023

Abstract

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Research Management and Administration Around the World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-701-8

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 29 July 2021

John C.A.M. van Beers, Desirée H. van Dun and Celeste P.M. Wilderom

Lean implementations in hospitals tend to be lengthy or lack the desired results. In addressing the question, how can lean be implemented effectively in a hospital-wide setting…

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Abstract

Purpose

Lean implementations in hospitals tend to be lengthy or lack the desired results. In addressing the question, how can lean be implemented effectively in a hospital-wide setting, this paper aims to examine two opposing approaches.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors studied two Dutch university hospitals which engaged in different lean implementation approaches during the same four-year period: top-down vs bottom-up. Inductive qualitative analyses were made of 49 interviews; numerous documents; field notes; 13 frontline meeting observations; and objective hospital performance data. Longitudinally, the authors depict how the sequential events unfolded in both hospitals.

Findings

During the six implementation stages, the roles played by top, middle and frontline managers stood out. While the top managers of one hospital initiated the organization-wide implementation and then delegated it to others, the top managers of the other similar hospital merely tolerated the bottom-up lean activities. Eventually, only the hospital with the top-down approach achieved high organization-wide performance gains, but only in its fourth year after the top managers embraced lean in their own daily work practices and had started to co-create lean themselves. Then, the earlier developed lean infrastructure at the middle- and frontline ranks led to the desired hospital-wide lean implementation results.

Originality/value

Change-management insights, including basic tenets of social learning and goal-setting theory, are shown to advance the knowledge of effective lean implementation in hospitals. The authors found lean implementation “best-oiled” through role-modeling by top managers who use a phase-based process and engage in close cross-hierarchical or co-creative collaboration with middle and frontline managerial members.

Details

International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-4166

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 September 2019

Peter E. Johansson, Helena Blackbright, Tomas Backström, Jennie Schaeffer and Stefan Cedergren

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding regarding how managers attempt to make purposeful use of innovation management self-assessments (IMSA) and performance…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding regarding how managers attempt to make purposeful use of innovation management self-assessments (IMSA) and performance information (PI).

Design/methodology/approach

An interpretative perspective on purposeful use is used as an analytical framework, and the paper is based on empirical material from two research projects exploring the use of IMSA and PI in three case companies. Based on the empirical data, consisting of interviews and observations of workshops and project meetings, qualitative content analysis has been conducted.

Findings

The findings of this paper indicate that how managers achieve a purposeful use of PI is related to their approach toward how to use the specific PI at hand, and two basic approaches are analytically separated: a rule-based approach and a reflective approach. Consequently, whether or not the right thing is being measured also becomes a question of how the PI is actually being interpreted and used. Thus, the extensive focus on what to measure and how to measure it becomes edgeless unless equal attention is given to how managers are able to use the PI to make knowledgeable decisions regarding what actions to take to achieve the desired changes.

Practical implications

Given the results, it comes with a managerial responsibility to make sure that all managers who are supposed to be engaged in using the PI are given roles in the self-assessments that are aligned with the level of knowledge they possess, or can access.

Originality/value

How managers purposefully use PI is a key to understand the potential impact of self-assessments.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 36 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 29 November 2023

Jeff Ritchie, Emma Lythgoe and John Donovan

Starting in the late 1950s with the creation of the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA), followed by the formation of other professional organisations…

Abstract

Starting in the late 1950s with the creation of the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA), followed by the formation of other professional organisations both in the USA and Europe, there was a growing sense that research management was indeed a profession. One goal was the creation of professional standards that would lead to a standard training curriculum and, ultimately, a professional credential, and there have been many attempts at developing research administration certification. Now, in the US, accreditation through the Research Administrators Certification Council (RACC) exam has become ubiquitous, whereas in other parts of the world, certification by portfolio is more common. This chapter will compare and contrast the salient features of certification, certificates, and degree programs in research administration and review their development and growth over the past 30 years. The chapter will discuss their relative merits and how they work to advance the profession of research administration.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Research Management and Administration Around the World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-701-8

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 29 March 2022

Marian Konstantin Gatzweiler, Corinna Frey-Heger and Matteo Ronzani

In this article, we explore some of the barriers that prevent learning about grand challenges. By grand challenges, we refer to transformational social and environmental issues

Abstract

In this article, we explore some of the barriers that prevent learning about grand challenges. By grand challenges, we refer to transformational social and environmental issues and the critical barriers toward addressing them. Despite recent research contributions, initiatives, and calls for action to focus on such concerns, relatively little is known about the different barriers that hinder learning about grand challenges. To explore these issues, we draw from Rayner’s (2012) concept of uncomfortable knowledge, defined as knowledge that is disagreeable to organizations because it may challenge their value base, self-perception, organizing principles, or sources of legitimacy. Focusing on the example of recent programmatic attempts to advance “responsible education” in business schools, we identify three barriers to learning about grand challenges: Cognitive overload, emotional detachment, and organizational obliviousness. We conclude by outlining several implications on how to overcome these barriers, adding to recent academic and policy debates on how to make business school education more attuned to the transformational and social challenges of our time.

Details

Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-829-1

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 23 April 2020

Paula Ungureanu, Carlotta Cochis, Fabiola Bertolotti, Elisa Mattarelli and Anna Chiara Scapolan

This study investigates the role of collaborative spaces as organizational support for internal innovation through cross-functional teams and for open innovation with external…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates the role of collaborative spaces as organizational support for internal innovation through cross-functional teams and for open innovation with external stakeholders. In particular, the study focuses on collaborative spaces as tools for multiplex (i.e., simultaneous internal and external boundary management in innovation projects).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a qualitative study in a multi-divisional organization that set up in its headquarters a collaborative space for collaborative product development. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and participant observations.

Findings

Findings highlight that the relation between expectations and experiences about the collaborative space impact on employees' ability to perform boundary work inside and outside the organization. In addition to the collaborative space's affording role for expectations about hands-on collaborative innovation (space as laboratory), the study also highlights a set of collaboration constraints. These latter are generated by perceived boundary configurations (i.e. degree of boundary permeability and infrastructure in internal and external collaborations) and by discrepancies between expectations (space as laboratory) and actual collaboration experiences in the space (i.e. space as maze, cloister, showcase and silo). We show that space-generated constraints slow down internal and external boundary work for innovation and generate a trade-off between them.

Originality/value

Using the process-based perspective of boundary work, the paper connects studies on cross-functional teaming and open innovation through the concept of “multiplex boundary work.” It also contributes to the literature on boundary work by showing the challenges of using collaborative spaces as organizational support tools for multiplex boundary spanning.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 24 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 23 December 2021

Jennifer Martin, Maureen A. Flynn, Zuneera Khurshid, John J. Fitzsimons, Gemma Moore and Philip Crowley

The purpose of this study is to present a quality improvement approach titled “Picture-Understanding-Action” used in Ireland to enhance the role of healthcare boards in the…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to present a quality improvement approach titled “Picture-Understanding-Action” used in Ireland to enhance the role of healthcare boards in the oversight of healthcare quality and its improvement.

Design/methodology/approach

The novel and practical “Picture-Understanding-Action” approach was implemented using the Model for Improvement to iteratively introduce changes across three quality improvement projects. This approach outlines the concepts and activities used at each step to support planning and implementation of processes that allow a board to effectively achieve its role in overseeing and improving quality. This approach matured over three quality improvement projects.

Findings

The “Picture” included quantitative and qualitative aspects. The quantitative “Picture” consisted of a quality dashboard/profile of board selected outcome indicators representative of the health system using statistical process control (SPC) charts to focus discussion on real signals of change. The qualitative picture was based on the experience of people who use and work in health services which “people-ised” the numbers. Probing this “Picture” with collective grounding, curiosity and expert training/facilitation developed a shared “Understanding”. This led to “Action(s)” from board members to improve the “Picture” and “Understanding” (feedback action), to ask better questions and make better decisions and recommendations to the executive (feed-forward action). The Model for Improvement, Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles and a co-design approach in design and implementation were key to success.

Originality/value

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time a board has undertaken a quality improvement (QI) project to enhance its own processes. It addresses a gap in research by outlining actions that boards can take to improve their oversight of quality of care.

Details

International Journal of Health Governance, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-4631

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 17 November 2023

Olof Wadell and Anna Bengtson

The purpose of this study is to develop a model of a starting situation for relationship initiation in turbulent business networks.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop a model of a starting situation for relationship initiation in turbulent business networks.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is designed as an extreme single case study that takes its point of departure in a company’s bankruptcy in the Swedish automotive industry.

Findings

This study illustrates how a new business relationship can start from a resource combination previously controlled by one actor (i.e. a single company) in a turbulent business network, thereby bringing nuances to the common understanding that new relationships start in stable business networks where resource combinations are developed between actors in established business relationships.

Originality/value

Previous studies have stated that the development of a mutual orientation between actors leads to the formation of a business relationship. The business relationship then leads to resource adaptations between the two companies. The developed model, however, illustrates that this pattern can be reversed in situations of turbulence. Hence, previously adapted resources might lead to the formations of a business relationship. Based on this observation, the authors argue that there are reasons to question if previous models of business relationship initiation and development in business networks are adequately equipped for analysis in turbulent business networks.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 39 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 29 November 2023

Fernanda Stringassi de Oliveira, Alice Trentini and Susi Poli

The aim of this chapter is to describe a four-type model of organisational structures and to discuss two cases, Embrapa and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, as…

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to describe a four-type model of organisational structures and to discuss two cases, Embrapa and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, as well as additional cases at SAM-Research and the centre for shared medical support services established at the University of Bologna.

These cases should help readers understand the importance of designing distinctive, tailored-made support services while keeping these structures flexible for further adaptation under unforeseen changes.

The chapter concludes by stressing the role of institutions to steadily invest in the design of these tailored support structures and in personalised training for their support staff.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Research Management and Administration Around the World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-701-8

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 December 2021

Torbjörn Ljungkvist and Börje Boers

The purpose of this study is to understand venture capital family businesses (VCFBs) governance of portfolio companies through the deal process.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand venture capital family businesses (VCFBs) governance of portfolio companies through the deal process.

Design/methodology/approach

This study applies a theory-developing approach. A model of VCFB governance is developed whose key aspects are illuminated by four examples (cases) of VCFBs.

Findings

Recent research suggests that a venture capital firm's corporate deal processes can be divided into the pre-deal, deal and post-deal phases. Based on the age, size and succession dimensions, propositions for how a governance trajectory develops for VCFBs, affecting the deal process of target family firms (TFFs), are presented. These propositions highlight how the family owners' actions and behavior are related to VCFB governance, which in turn, influences the three phases involved in making an investment.

Originality/value

The propositions suggest how personal and administrative VCFBs' governance of the deal process of portfolio companies is significantly affected by centrifugal and centripetal forces that drive the respective types of governance where third-generation family owners appear as changers of governance approach.

Details

Journal of Family Business Management, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-6238

Keywords

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