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Although the particular policies that groups establish may serve to differentiate those groups from others in the broader community, policies are better envisioned as aspects of group life in the making than as structures or rules that define the character or operations of the groups under consideration. Addressing instances of policy as humanly engaged ventures, this statement attempts to demystify policy by (a) examining organizational directives in process terms, (b) explicitly incorporating people into the study of the policy‐making process. This paper also addresses policy in ways that (c) are more amenable to ethnographic research on actual instances of policy and (d) contribute to a sustained, comparative analysis of “policy in the making”.

How companies can become better at knowing what they know, and share what they know have in recent years become dominant fields of research within knowledge management. The literature focuses on why people share knowledge, or why they fail to share knowledge, whilst the discussion of what they actually share has been pinned down to the concept of best practices. In this paper it is argued that there is more to knowledge sharing than the sharing of best practices. Knowledge sharing is more than the closing of performance gaps and the sharing of stocks of knowledge – knowledge sharing is also about bridging situations of organizational interdependencies and thereby supporting ongoing organizational activities.

The paper is both theoretical and empirical. Theoretically, the concept of organizational interdependence is applied to create a conceptual framework encompassing four types of knowledge to be shared. The theoretical framework is applied on a case company to empirically illustrate how knowledge sharing encompasses different types of knowledge.

The paper identifies four types of knowledge that are pivotal to share: professional knowledge, coordinating knowledge, object‐based knowledge, and know‐who. Hence, the paper expands the common belief that knowledge sharing is solely about sharing best practices.

Since knowledge sharing encompasses at least four types of knowledge, the practice of facilitating knowledge sharing must necessarily focus on different channels enabling the sharing of knowledge. The practical implications of the paper, hence, direct attention to not solely sharing best practices but also knowledge bridging organizational interdependencies.

The paper argues that best practices have dominated the discourse on what knowledge is to be shared but, to become better at understanding and practising knowledge sharing, states that one must expand one's view on what knowledge is being shared.

Social innovation has been attracting attention in the literature and the practice field due to its intention to create social value. However, the social innovation process is still poorly studied and is marked by several disagreements in the existing models, often built from data coming from developed countries. So, the focus of this study is to answer the following research question: how is the social innovation process configured in a developing context?

The study investigated three cases of Brazilian social innovation processes through a qualitative approach. The authors also use the institutional levels perspectives to analyse the cases.

The main findings indicate that the social innovation process comprises five phases and occurs between the micro, meso and macro institutional levels. Besides, the social innovation process relies on the participation of different partners, in a non-sequential process, with the possibility of returning from one stage to another and is evaluated continuously over time.

This study may be useful for social entrepreneurs and their teams in organisations that generate social innovations (such as social enterprises) to understand how well-established initiatives have organised themselves over time. Public policymakers may also use the insights provided to create more favourable environments to create new social innovation initiatives and expand the existing ones.

The characteristics of the social innovation process revealed in this study contributes to the advancement of the area, mainly because it considers the perspective of institutional levels and is based on data from a developing country.

Contemporary research on service quality and satisfaction has limitations. First, current satisfaction models treat the consumer as an isolated individual, not considering the social context of the service provision. Second, while satisfaction and quality are thought to be process outcomes, the dominant survey research approaches are not well suited to learning about processes. Finally, popular paradigms assume consumers’ determination of service quality and satisfaction is based solely on a set of attributes. Symbolic interaction and ethnographic methods expand the theoretical basis of service quality/satisfaction research beyond an individually centered psychological view to consider social influences and processes, thereby providing a deeper understanding of how consumers experience quality and satisfaction. The knowledge gained from this approach is easily accessible to service managers and may serve to improve employee recruiting, training and evaluation. Examples of employing symbolic interaction and ethnographic methods are provided. Actions to improve the management of service providers are listed

This paper is an attempt to analyze the nature and extent of social exclusion across regions, ethnolinguistic groups and different professions in Pakistan.

By using household level data of Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement Survey, the authors have constructed Social Exclusion Index (SEI) as well as multidimensional deprivation scores across of the households. SEI has been developed by using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) whereas multidimensional deprivation scores have been calculated by following the methodology proposed by Alkire and Foster 2011. In total nine household level indicators related with living standards, education and health have been used for this purpose. In next step the relationship of different household characteristics such as profession of household head region of residence and ethnolinguistic identity has been explored with SEI and multidimensional deprivation scores.

The empirical results of our analysis show that even after controlling for the income of household, SEI and multidimensional deprivation scores have been found to be significantly different across different professions, different regions and different linguistic groups.

This confirms the prevalence of social exclusion in Pakistani society. Compensatory government policies are suggested as an option to cope with the problem of social exclusion.

The aim of this paper is gaining a deeper understanding of potential negative effects of (smart)phone use at work. The authors do so by exploring mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions between leader phubbing, leaders snubbing their followers by glancing at their phones during an interaction; and follower (1) work engagement and (2) performance.

The authors conducted a survey-based time-lagged, multi-source and team-based study of leaders (N = 93) and their followers (N = 454).

Results of this paper showed that leader phubbing negatively relates to follower (1) work engagement and (2) performance through less perceived leader support. Contradictory to the hypothesis, the relationship between leader phubbing and perceived leader support was negative for male leaders only.

The authors contribute to existing research by (1) adding perceived support as an important mediator between leader phubbing and work engagement/performance, (2) exploring the effects of leader gender and (3) adding information on the cultural robustness of the leader phubbing phenomenon by testing it outside the Western work context.

In this study, active empathetic listening is purposed as being an antecedent to a salesperson's communication skill, ability to maintain quality relationships and build trust. The study proposes that communication skill, relationship quality and trust all moderate the relationship between AEL and sales performance.

Survey research using salespersons was conducted; structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses of the model.

The findings confirmed that AEL was positively related to salespersons' communication skills, relationship quality and trust. The proposed moderators of communication and trust received support when predicting sales performance.

This was the first empirical study to examine the role of AEL in a relationship selling model. AEL was found to directly affect levels of trust, relationship quality and overall communication skills of salespeople. More research on the role of AEL in the relationship selling process should be investigated.

Managers that focus on long-term relationships in a dyadic buyer-seller relationship may benefit most from this study. A scale that can be used to measure existing levels of AEL in the sales force is included. AEL may better enable salespeople to develop long-term relationships with their customers.

This study examines a form of listening (AEL) that is proposed to be superior to other forms of listening within the personal selling context. Presently little research on the importance of listening and its impact on relationship building exists. This is the first study to test AEL as an antecedent to relationship skills of salespeople.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a process model for the role transformation of vulnerable consumers through support services.

The study is based on four years of participant observation at a community-based support service and in-depth interviews with the consumers. Visual ethnography was used to document the process of the consumers' role transformation through service exchanges.

The main outcome of this study is a consumer transformation model, describing consumers' role transformation processes, from recipients to generic actors. The model demonstrates that vulnerable consumers will transform from recipients to quasi-actors before becoming generic actors.

Vulnerable consumers' participation in value cocreation can be promoted by providing social support according to their dynamic roles. By enabling consumers to participate in value cocreation, social support provision can become sustainable and inclusive, especially in rural areas affected by aging and depopulation. Transforming recipients into generic actors should be a critical aim of service provision in the global challenge of aging societies.

Beyond identifying service factors, the research findings describe the mechanism of consumers' role transformation process as a service mechanics study. Furthermore, this study contributes to transformative service research by applying social exchange theory and broadening service-dominant logic by describing the process of consumer growth for individual and community well-being.

Anticipating behaviour and responding to the needs of complexity and problematic issues requires modelling to facilitate analysis and diagnosis. Using arguments of anticipation as an imperative for inquiry, the purpose of this paper is to introduce generic modelling for living systems theory, and assigns the number of generic constructs to orders of simplex modelling. An nth simplex order rests in an nth order simplex cybernetic space. A general modelling theory of higher orders of simplexity is given, where each higher order responds to every generic construct involved, the properties of which determining the rules of the complex system being that is represented. Higher orders of simplexity also explain greater degrees of complexity relatively simply, and give rise to the development of new paradigms that are better able to explain perceived complex phenomena.

This is Part 3 of three linked papers. Using principles that arise from Schwarz’s living systems set within a framework provided by cultural agency theory, and with a rationale provided by Rosen’s and Dubois’ concepts of anticipation, the papers develop a general modelling theory of simplex orders. They show that with the development of new higher orders, paradigm shifts can occur that become responsible for new ways of seeing and resolving stubborn problematic issues. Part 1 established the fundamentals for a theory of modelling associated with cybernetic orders. Using this, in this Part 2 the authors established the principles of cybernetic orders using simplex modelling. This included a general theory of generic modelling. In this Part 3 the authors extend this, developing a fourth order simplex model, and exploring the potential for higher orders using recursive techniques through cultural agency theory. The authors also explore various forms of emergence.

Cultural agency theory can be used to generate higher simplex through principles of recursion, and hence to create a potential for the generation of families of new paradigms. The idea of conceptual emergence is also tied to the rise of new paradigms.

The use of higher order simplex models to represent complex situations provides the ability to condense explanation concerning the development of particular system behaviours, and hence simplify the way in which the authors analyse, diagnose and anticipate behaviour in complex situations. Illustration is also given showing how the theory can explain the emergence of new paradigms.

Cultural agency can be used to structure problem issues that may otherwise be problematic, within both a top-down and bottom-up approach. It may also be used to assist in establishing behavioural anticipation given an appropriate modelling approach. It may also be used to improve and compress explanation of complex situations.

A new theory of simplex orders arises from the new concept of generic modelling, illustrating cybernetic order. This permits the possibility of improved analysis and diagnosis of problematic situations belonging to complex situations through the use of higher order simplex models, and facilitates improvement in behavioural anticipation.

When managers set aspirations for their firms, they typically compare their own firms' performance to past aspirations as well as to the performance of social reference groups. The authors explore how firm generic strategy affects managers' adaptation of firm aspirations in response to feedback from three social reference groups that vary in terms of breadth (population average, strategic group, and one direct rival).

The authors propose that firm generic strategy (low-cost or differentiation) functions as an organizational information filter through with managers interpret performance feedback. The authors test for whether generic strategy has a moderating effect on the influence of performance feedback from social reference groups.

Based on a longitudinal sample of US airlines, the study shows that all firms are influenced most strongly by their strategic groups. Low-cost and differentiation generic strategies differ in terms of which social reference group motivates a larger reaction when overperforming: low-cost firms are more influenced by the population average which is contributed to by the entire industry than are differentiating firms, while differentiating firms are more swayed by the narrow focus of their direct rivals than are low-cost firms.

Although firm strategy represents a core decision at the firm level, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, performance feedback research, surprisingly, has not yet integrated generic strategy into its models.