Search results

Research on antecedents of organizational learning generally ignores the fact that organizational learning is at least a two‐dimensional construct and that its dimensions may be conflicting. This research often fails to investigate the simultaneous effects of antecedents on these dimensions. To address this gap in the literature, this paper aims to discuss the effects of empowerment and knowledge conversion, two factors often considered to be important antecedents of organizational learning.

The approach adopted involves a review of and reflection on the pertinent literature on learning organizations, organizational learning, empowerment and knowledge conversion.

It is found that both antecedents have contradictory effects on two dimensions of organizational learning. Empowerment affects second‐order learning in a positive sense, but first‐order learning in a negative sense. Knowledge conversion is positively related to first‐order learning, but negatively to second‐order learning. Thus, it appears that efforts to improve organizational learning on one dimension may have (unintended) effects on the other, unmeasured dimension.

The paper connects disjointed streams of theory and research in a novel way that is of interest and importance to both the academic literature and to organizational practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to gain more insight into employees' on‐the‐job learning. Its specific purpose is to develop and validate a classification of on‐the‐job learning activities and learning themes, focusing on the nursing profession in particular.

Two successive studies were conducted for this purpose. In the first study in‐depth interviews with 20 Dutch nurses were analysed using a grounded theory approach. The content validity of the categories found in the first study was investigated in the second study by interviewing 17 supervisors and eight educators from different hospitals in The Netherlands.

The paper finds that the main categories of learning activities are: learning by doing one's regular job, learning by applying something new in the job, learning by social interaction with colleagues, learning by theory or supervision, and learning by reflection. First‐order learning activities and second‐order learning activities can be distinguished. The main categories of on‐the‐job learning themes are: the technical‐practical domain, the socio‐emotional domain, the organisational domain, the developmental domain, and a pro‐active attitude to work.

The validation study was conducted by the same researchers as the first study. The findings are based on one profession (nursing) in one country (The Netherlands).

The categories can be used by nurse educators and health sector managers/trainers to develop comprehensive and structured intervention methods for the improvement of on‐the‐job learning which do justice to the complexity and diversity of on‐the‐job learning by nurses. HR (development) professionals can use the classification as part of a competence management and development system.

The study provides a detailed, complete and multi‐dimensional explication of nurses' on‐the‐job learning activities and learning themes, grounding the classification and framework in empirical data and using multiple data sources.

This paper is based on several years of ethnographic and desk-based research studying the Hare Krishna movement. The work is the first in a series exploring how segments of specific faith communities embrace dietary veganism and how this relates to the concept of transformational learning/change in the context of sustainability transitions. The focus is on how these communities embrace a plant-based diet representing different rationales and attitudes of learning in the process of organisational change.

I investigated Krishna practices extensively by visiting and volunteering in several of its farm communities in Europe. I used the mixed method of qualitative observations, participation, in-depth interviews and email interviews during a period of ten weeks spent in the communities altogether. I had not been in contact with Hare Krishna believers before the fieldwork.

Krishna veganism is analysed in the context of sustainability transitions by drawing on the concept of transformative (third-order) learning/change. Findings reveal an unexpected tendency to veganism despite the movement's worldview and radical commitment to dairy consumption. By calling into question their own collective dietary paradigm, the Hare Krishna community provides an exemplary case of third-order learning and change in an organisational context.

The paper invites scholars to include third-order learning into sustainability transitions frameworks while aiming to address the shortcomings of theorising levels of learning. The connection between Krishna veganism, third-order learning and sustainability transitions has not been put forward before.

This study examines the moderating effect of international involvement on the relationship between two dimensions of managerial tenure and firm performance. Data for 89 Fortune 500 firms of varying levels of international involvement were gathered and analyzed. The results of the empirical examination provided significant support for the moderating effect of internationalization on the relationship between top management team tenure and firm performance. In general, in firms with relatively higher levels of foreign involvement, teams with higher organizational tenure and lower job tenure realized superior performance outcomes.

Complex crises affect tightly coupled systems making them highly unpredictable. This paper aims to determine how organizations learn from their crisis experience shaping their knowledge and transformation trajectory toward and beyond survival. A theoretical framework integrating organizational learning (OL) and knowledge management in organizational transformation (OT) in complex crises is presented.

This conceptual paper presents a systematic literature review on OT in crisis from 2000 to 2021. To achieve integration, the authors searched for studies on OT, knowledge management and OL, each paired with a crisis.

Crises highlight the emergent and decentered nature of knowing and organizing. This study suggests that OT is achieved through various changes in organizational knowledge. Different learning modes enable the transformation of knowledge in a crisis: contextual or situated learning, strategic and collective integration.

The authors' pandemic experience may have influenced the analysis. This paper does not account for new types of learning emerging due to the influence of digital technologies.

Organizations may hasten renewal through distributed crisis management facilitated by contextual and strategic learning and collective integration.

This study categorizes learning, based on its function in crisis management, into three types: contextual learning for creative problem-solving, strategic learning for leadership and direction and collective integration to evaluate their crisis journey. Through this classification, this study sheds light on the types of knowledge needed to manage crises effectively, showing that organizations can leverage their crises by transforming and innovating themselves in this turbulent period.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the processing of product returns at five case companies using a complex adaptive systems (CAS) logic to identify agent interactions, organization, schema, learning and the emergence of adaptations in the reverse supply chain.

Using a multiple-case study design, this research applies abductive reasoning to examine data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews and direct researcher observations collected during site visits at case companies.

Costly or high-risk returns may require agents to specialize the depth of their mental schema. Processing agents need freedom to interact, self-organize and learn from other agents to generate emergent ideas and adapt.

Limiting the depth of individual agent schema allows managers to better allocate labor to processing product returns during peak volume. To boost adaptability, managers need to craft a dynamic environment that encourages agents with diverse schema to interact, anticipate, and self-organize to brainstorm new ideas. Managers need to resist the urge to “control” the dynamic environment that ensues.

This paper builds on existing research that studies the key decision points in the analysis of product returns by exploring how processing-agent behaviors can create adaptability in the reverse supply chain. Additionally, this research follows in the tradition of Choi et al. (2001) and Surana et al. (2005) and proposes the application of CAS to a specific part of the supply chain – the processing of product returns.

Since there are increasing international concerns with both the positive and negative impacts of globalization on indigenous and national development, how to manage the realities and practices of globalization and localization in education for maximizing the benefits and minimizing the disadvantages for the development of individuals and their local community inevitably becomes a key issue in educational development particularly in the developing countries. Proposes a typology of multiple theories of fostering local knowledge and human development to address this key concern. These theories have varied emphasis on global dependence and local orientation and therefore they have their own characteristics, strengths, and limitations. The typology can provide a wide spectrum of alternatives for policy‐makers and educators to conceptualize and formulate their strategies and practices in developing local education. Also presents how to facilitate individual learning and organizational learning in fast‐changing local and global environments and how to foster both individual knowledge and institutional knowledge in schools as the major contribution to the growth of local knowledge and local development. It is hoped that the theories and ideas raised in this paper can benefit the ongoing international efforts for globalization and localization in education for the future of our next generations in the new millennium.

Many higher education institutions are committed to developing students as skilled professionals and responsible citizens for a more sustainable future. In addition to the formal curriculum for sustainability education, there is an increasing interest in informal learning within universities. This paper aims to extend the current understanding of the diversity and significance of informal learning experiences in supporting students’ learning for sustainability.

Six focus groups were formed with 30 undergraduate and postgraduate students from an Australian higher education institution committed to supporting graduate competencies for sustainability. An inductive and qualitative inquiry was designed to enable participants to reflect on the ways in which their university experiences support meaningful and significant learning for sustainability.

The paper presents a typology of the diverse communities of informal learning that students create and engage with. These range from ongoing to transient groups, from environmentally to more socially oriented groups and from incidental to intended learning, from local to national in scale, with varying types and degrees of connection to the formal curriculum and the university campus. The paper demonstrates that these student-led experiences support three domains of learning: cognitive, practical and affective.

Deepening the understanding of the forms and significance of student-led learning within their university experience contributes to the identification of the roles that informal learning may play alongside formal education in developing graduates as agents of change for a more sustainable future.

Chapter 7 synthesizes the perception research into plausible design and configuration strategies for the learning experience dimension of a psychophysical learning system. The processes used in all five senses to reduce information into a perception are again used to create learning activities and processes, which facilitate the learning and discriminate meaning from the learning objects and activities. This process attends to the interactions across the categories of content to determine the critical components of the discipline to include in the learning experience. Once again, the focus of the psychophysical learning experience is placed on the structure of the (external) discipline, which is used to configure the learning experiences.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceived effects of a maritime cross-sector collaboration exercise. More specifically, this study aims to examine whether past exercise experience had an impact on the operative exercise participant’s perceived levels of collaboration, learning and usefulness.

This was a non-experimental quantitative survey-based study. A quantitative methodology was chosen over qualitative or mixed-methods methodologies as it was considered more suitable for data extraction from larger population groups, and allowed for the measurement and testing of variables using statistical methods and procedures (McCusker and Gunaydin, 2015). Data were collected from a two-day 2017 Norwegian full-scale maritime chemical oil-spill pollution exercise with partners from Norway, Germany, Iceland, Denmark and Sweden. The exercise included international public emergency response organizations and Norwegian non-governmental organizations. The study was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (ref. 44815) and the exercise planning organization. Data were collected using the collaboration, learning and utility (CLU) scale, which is a validated instrument designed to measure exercise participant’s perceived levels of collaboration, learning and usefulness (Berlin and Carlström, 2015).

The perceived focus on collaboration, learning and usefulness changed with the number of previous exercises attended. All CLU dimensions experienced decreases and increases, but while perceived levels of collaboration and utility reached their somewhat modest peaks among those with the most exercise experience, perceived learning was at its highest among those with none or little exercise experience, and at its lowest among those with most. These findings indicated that collaboration exercises in their current form have too little focus on collaborative learning.

Several limitations of the current study deserve to be mentioned. First, this study was limited in scope as data were collected from a limited number of participants belonging to only one organization and during one exercise. Second, demographical variables such as age and gender were not taken into consideration. Third, limitation in performing a face-to-face data collection may have resulted in missing capturing of cues, verbal and non-verbal signs, which could have resulted in a more accurate screening. Moreover, the measurements were based on the predefined CLU-items, which left room for individual interpretation and, in turn, may cause somewhat lower term validity. As the number of international and national studies on exercise effects is scarce, it is important to increase further knowledge and to learn more about the causes as to why the perceived effects of collaboration exercises are considered somewhat limited.

Exercise designers may be stimulated to have a stronger emphasis on collaborative learning during exercise planning, hence continuously work to develop scripts and scenarios in a way that leads to continuous participant perceived learning and utility.

Collaboration is established as a Norwegian national emergency preparedness principle. These findings may stimulate politicians and top crisis managers to develop national collaboration exercise script guidelines that emphasize collaborative learning and development.

This study shows how exercise experience impacted participant’s perceived levels of collaboration, learning and usefulness. Findings indicated that collaboration exercises in their current form have too little focus on collaborative learning.