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1 – 10 of over 2000
Article
Publication date: 7 February 2018

Richard Allister Mills and Stefano De Paoli

The purpose of this paper is to further the debate on Knowledge Artefacts (KAs), by presenting the design of WikiRate, a Collective Awareness platform whose goal is to support a…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to further the debate on Knowledge Artefacts (KAs), by presenting the design of WikiRate, a Collective Awareness platform whose goal is to support a wider public contributing to the generation of knowledge on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of companies.

Design/methodology/approach

The material presented in the paper comes from the first-hand experience of the authors as part of the WikiRate design team. This material is reflexively discussed using concepts from the field of science and technology studies.

Findings

Using the concept of the “funnel of interest”, the authors discuss how the design of a KA like WikiRate relies on the designers’ capacity to translate general statements into particular design solutions. The authors also show how this funnelling helps understanding the interplay between situativity and objectivity in a KA. The authors show how WikiRate is a peer-production platform based on situativity, which requires a robust level of objectivity for producing reliable knowledge about the ESG performance of companies.

Originality/value

This paper furthers the debate on KAs. It presents a relevant design example and offers in the discussion a set of design and community building recommendations to practitioners.

Details

Data Technologies and Applications, vol. 52 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9288

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 March 2015

Arturo E. Osorio, Banu Ozkazanc-Pan and Paul F. Donnelly

While entrepreneurship may be driven by personal interests and lifestyle choices, entrepreneurial actions are not only economically driven opportunity-searching processes but also…

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Abstract

While entrepreneurship may be driven by personal interests and lifestyle choices, entrepreneurial actions are not only economically driven opportunity-searching processes but also enactments of social transformation that may or may not lead to socioeconomic benefits. We advance that exploring these entrepreneurial processes can inform a theory of the firm that may explain how socioeconomic processes shape the socioeconomic environment of communities while serving individuals. This article discusses several understandings of the firm, as theorized in extant literature. Guided by these different conceptualizations, we present a case study of an artist and artisan cluster in Western Massachusetts to demonstrate various understandings of entrepreneurial processes. By way of conclusion, we develop the idea of the firm as a geographically embedded relational understanding aiding entrepreneurs to achieve personal goals while coconstructing their local environment.

Details

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2574-8904

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 7 May 2019

Arash Najmaei and Zahra Sadeghinejad

Inclusive leadership is exhibiting signs of an emerging field of theory and practice. The purpose of this research is to systematically map this emergence and its various facets.

Abstract

Purpose

Inclusive leadership is exhibiting signs of an emerging field of theory and practice. The purpose of this research is to systematically map this emergence and its various facets.

Design/Methodology

Citation information from 91 records on inclusive leadership were extracted from Scopus and analyzed using a series of citation and co-word techniques.

Findings

We identified six clusters of keywords that underpin the current state of research on inclusive leadership. We also unraveled a trend that suggests research on inclusive leadership is moving from a simple approach to leadership on healthcare and education to become a universally desirable style of leadership in parallel with the global increase in the importance of diversity and inclusion.

Originality/Value

This study is the first attempt to develop a complete map of the domain of inclusive leadership. It also provides management researchers and practitioners with a tool for evaluating inclusive leadership publications and provides a systematic and objective means of determining the relative importance of the field in the development of the inclusive leadership research.

Paper type

Bibliometric literature review (Meta analytic review)

Details

Diversity within Diversity Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-172-9

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 January 2013

Kjell Tryggestad, Lise Justesen and Jan Mouritsen

The purpose of this paper is to explore how animals can become stakeholders in interaction with project management technologies and what happens with project temporalities when…

6345

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how animals can become stakeholders in interaction with project management technologies and what happens with project temporalities when new and surprising stakeholders become part of a project and a recognized matter of concern to be taken into account.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on a qualitative case study of a project in the building industry. The authors use actor‐network theory (ANT) to analyze the emergence of animal stakeholders, stakes and temporalities.

Findings

The study shows how project temporalities can multiply in interaction with project management technologies and how conventional linear conceptions of project time may be contested with the emergence of new non‐human stakeholders and temporalities.

Research limitations/implications

The study draws on ANT to show how animals can become stakeholders during the project. Other approaches to animal stakeholders may provide other valuable insights.

Practical implications

Rather than taking the linear time conception for granted, the management challenge and practical implication is to re‐conceptualize time by taking heterogeneous temporalities into account. This may require investments in new project management technologies.

Originality/value

This paper adds to the literatures on project temporalities and stakeholder theory by connecting them to the question of non‐human stakeholders and to project management technologies.

Details

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8378

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2013

Noora Jansson

The purpose of this paper is to challenge some taken-for-granted practices related to organizational change in order to understand how organizational change as practice is…

12874

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to challenge some taken-for-granted practices related to organizational change in order to understand how organizational change as practice is conditioned by mundane assumptions.

Design/methodology/approach

A critical analysis of the taken-for-granted assumptions revealed by a literature review was conducted utilizing practice theory approach in which human behavior and social context are intertwined. Hence, the analysis of this theoretical paper focuses on practices, praxis and practitioners in organizational change.

Findings

The results suggest that certain elements that are believed to be universal in organizational change are, in fact, particular within context. The key finding and message of this research is that organizational change in practice is a manifestation of particularity. The conclusion is that certain mundane assumptions condition organizational change practices by ignoring the importance of power, phronesis and paradox, which lie in human interaction within social context.

Research limitations/implications

The proposal that the dominating discourse on organizational change involves some taken-for-granted assumptions, challenges scholars to question the ways organizations are currently studied, and perhaps draws more attention to power, context and particularity in future research.

Practical implications

The analysis demonstrates that the social aspect of organizational realities is crucial in organizational change, and should not be underestimated by the practitioners in the process. This realism of practice complexity indicates that the pitfalls of organizational change are more context dependent and thus, more numerous than generally is assumed.

Originality/value

This research contributes to both theory and practice by offering a critical view on some of the taken-for-granted organizational change practices. This paper also demonstrates originality by introducing the concept of “organizational change as practice” in analogue of “strategy as practice” (SAP).

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 26 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 August 2014

Noora Jansson

– The purpose of this paper is to examine how discursive practices are involved in organizational change.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how discursive practices are involved in organizational change.

Design/methodology/approach

This research scrutinizes organizational change by combining discourse and practice approaches. A case study at a public university hospital is conducted with a narrative analysis method.

Findings

The key finding of this research is that discursive practices are involved in organizational change through discourse phronesis. Discourse phronesis is a socially and contextually developed phenomenon, and hence discursive practices are particular within context. The case study revealed four particular discursive practices as examples of discourse phronesis: field practices, mandate practices, priority practices and word practices.

Practical implications

The results of this research advance awareness of the concealed power within discursive practices and, more importantly, invite practitioners to pursue the intellectual virtue of discourse phronesis while implementing organizational change. Discourse phronesis may be utilized as a gateway to advance change goals and to translate various discourses and actions that otherwise might remain unexplained.

Originality/value

Although extensively studied, organizational change has not previously been directly approached through discourse phronesis, and by doing so this empirical research provides novelty value to both organizational change research and discourse analysis. By introducing the concept of discourse phronesis, this research offers scholars an alternative lens, the intellectual practicality lens, through which to approach organizational change and perhaps to develop new understandings of the great challenges that organizational change complexities usually generate.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 27 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 17 July 2011

William A. Pasmore

High rates of failure in organizational change efforts call attention to the need to identify and address persistent problems that threaten success. This chapter outlines issues…

Abstract

High rates of failure in organizational change efforts call attention to the need to identify and address persistent problems that threaten success. This chapter outlines issues that frequently hinder progress in various stages of the change process and offers advice to consultants and their clients in overcoming these issues. While models to guide intervention have advanced and the field has progressed, more attention still needs to be paid to the issues outlined here in order to enhance success rates in major change initiatives. New directions for research are suggested that would aid the field in continuing its evolution.

Details

Research in Organizational Change and Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-022-3

Article
Publication date: 5 June 2017

Jan Pries-Heje and Richard Baskerville

The purpose of this paper is to use translation theory to develop a framework (called FTRA) that explains how companies adopt agile methods in a discourse of fragmentation and…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to use translation theory to develop a framework (called FTRA) that explains how companies adopt agile methods in a discourse of fragmentation and articulation.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative multiple case study of six firms using the Scrum agile methodology. Data were collected using mixed methods and analyzed using three progressive coding cycles and analytic induction.

Findings

In practice, people translate agile methods for local settings by choosing fragments of the method and continuously re-articulating them according to the exact needs of the time and place. The authors coded the fragments as technological rules that share relationships within a framework spanning two dimensions: static-dynamic and actor-artifact.

Research limitations/implications

For consistency, the six cases intentionally represent one instance of agile methodology (Scrum). This limits the confidence that the framework is suitable for other kinds of methodologies.

Practical implications

The FTRA framework and the technological rules are promising for use in practice as a prescriptive or even normative frame for governing methodology adaptation.

Social implications

Framing agile adaption with translation theory surfaces how the discourse between translocal (global) and local practice yields the social construction of agile methods. This result contrasts the more functionalist engineering perspective and privileges changeability over performance.

Originality/value

The use of translation theory and the FTRA framework to explain how agile adaptation (in particular Scrum) emerges continuously in a process where method fragments are articulated and re-articulated to momentarily suit the local setting. Complete agility that rapidly and elegantly changes its own environment must, as a concomitant, rapidly and elegantly change itself. This understanding also elaborates translation theory by explaining how the articulation and re-articulation of ideas embody the means by which ideas travel in practice.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 30 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 October 2020

Colleen E. Mills and Faith Jeremiah

This study presents an original empirically based conceptual framework representing mobile microbusiness founders' experiences when converting to a franchise business model that…

Abstract

Purpose

This study presents an original empirically based conceptual framework representing mobile microbusiness founders' experiences when converting to a franchise business model that links individual-level variables to a sociomaterial process.

Design/methodology/approach

An exploratory interpretive research design produced this framework using data from the enterprise development narratives of mobile franchisors who had recently converted their mobile microbusinesses to a franchise business model.

Findings

The emergent framework proposes that franchisor’s conversion experience involves substantial identity work prompted by an identity dilemma originating in a conflict between role expectations and franchising operational demands. This dilemma materializes during franchise document creation and requires some degree of “identity undoing” to ensure business continuity. By acting as boundary-objects-in-use in the conversion process, the franchise documents provide a sociomaterial foundation for the business transition and the development of a viable franchisor identity.

Research limitations/implications

There is scant literature addressing the startup experiences of mobile microbusiness franchisors. The study was therefore exploratory, producing a substantive conceptual framework that will require further confirmatory studies.

Practical implications

By proposing that conversion to a franchise business model is experienced as an identity transformation coupled to a sociomaterial process centred on system documentation, this original empirically based conceptual framework not only addresses a gap in the individual-level literature on franchise development but also provides a framework to direct new research and discussions between intending franchisors and their professional advisors about person–enterprise fit.

Originality/value

The conceptual framework is the first to address franchisors' experience of transitioning any type of microbusiness to a franchise business model.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 27 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

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