Search results

The purpose of this treatise is to present an analysis of the importance of positive transformational crisis management. The analysis relates to the difficulty now being faced by Nokia, historically the world's leading manufacturer of technologically advanced mobile phones, of Apple's innovative combination of its iTunes, iPhone, and applications that deliver internet content to the iPhone.

A crisis, typically considered to be a negative issue, can be a positive transformational event in the life of a business firm when that firm recognizes a crisis and makes appropriate changes in its operations to facilitate positive growth and development. However, the initial stage of a crisis must be recognized and appropriately responded to. The crisis management paradigm that is the foundation for this case analysis focuses on four stages of a crisis: the preliminary crisis, acute crisis, chronic crisis, and crisis resolution. The case deals with the innovations of Apple that have enabled the firm to become a direct competitor to Nokia in the smart phone market. The preliminary crisis stage was not appropriately recognized by Nokia, and the firm was thrust into an acute crisis that has now evolved into a chronic crisis. A brief overview is presented of the historical development of both Nokia and Apple, and an analysis of the present crisis situation in which Nokia now finds itself is presented in some detail.

It was concluded that Nokia is now in a very difficult position regarding Apple due to its failure to engage in a timely transformational response to the competitive innovations of Apple.

This is an excellent example of failure in positive transformational crisis management.

This paper aims to explore the impact of action learning (AL) on an individual and an organisation, particularly the process by which each affected the other. The organisation is a UK National Health Service (NHS) Trust that includes two hospitals.

This is a single person case study involving a clinician, but the voice of an author can also be heard. It involves the experience of the individual as they experience AL as part of a leadership development programme leading to a postgraduate certificate. The authors explain their caution of the case study approach and in doing so offer their thoughts in how this paper could be read and impact on practice.

The authors show a process whereby an AL set participant moves from being confident about their project to one of uncertainty as the impact of the project ripples throughout the organisation. Through this process of unsettlement, the individual’s unnoticed assumptions are explored in ways that enable practical action to be taken. In doing so, the individual’s leadership and identity developed.

This is a single person case study in one organisation, thus affecting wider generalisation.

This single case study contributes to the debate on critical AL and the use of AL in the NHS.

The purpose of this paper is to present the perspectives of English adult social care sector partners on the qualifications and standards required for leaders as they prepare to meet the demands of commissioning personalised care. Continuing an action research cycle guided by Coghlan and Brannicks (2010, p. 4) organisational centred model (McCray and Palmer, 2009) it benefits from the previous experience and reflection in action of the partners and researchers. Set in a general social care context, lessons learned from the study outcomes will be of interest to both commissioners of services and service users with acquired brain injury.

A model of action research informed by Coghlan and Brannicks’ (2010, p. 4) organisational centred model focused on context, quality of relationships, quality of the research process and its’ outcomes was used. The role of the authors was to facilitate diagnosis of the leadership issues arising from the implementation of personalised care in the English adult social care sector and in collaboration with sector partners seek resolutions. Six focus groups comprising two commissioners, service providers, user group and care manager/social work leads were facilitated at two separate events in the south of England.

Findings presented are derived from focus group discussions with strategic and organisational leaders and service user partners from the English adult social care sectors. Analysis of focus group data identified a number of themes. The overarching themes of human resource management, gaps in industry standards and leadership are discussed here. Whilst industry sector standard qualifications and frameworks may be at the centre of strategic planning for transformation, findings here have identified that additional support will be required to create leaders who can commission successfully to create cultural change. New approaches to leadership development may be needed to facilitate this process.

The study offers a single method qualitative research approach based on two local authorities in the south of England. It presents a localised and particular view of leadership development needs.

The paper shows how action research can make a contribution to knowledge and practice.

The paper provides interesting new insights into the skills for commissioning in a changing public and third sector environment with reference to commissioning personalised support for people with brain injury.

Maintaining user-focused integrated team working in complex care is one of the demands made of UK health and social care (H&SC) organisations who need employees that are resilient, resilience being the ability to persevere and thrive in the face of exposure to adverse situations (Rogerson and Ermes, 2008, p. 1). Grant and Kinman (2012) write that resilience is a complex and multi-dimensional construct that is underexplored in social care team work. The purpose of this paper is to capture the views of managers in H&SC to explore the making of resilient teams, identify factors that influence team performance and inform organisational workforce development strategy.

A general inductive approach (Silverman, 2011) was applied. Five focus groups were facilitated (n=40) each with eight participants all of whom were leaders and managers of teams in H&SC, working in the integrated care context in the UK.

Findings indicate that further investment in strategies and resources to sustain and educate employees who work in teams and further research into how organisational systems can facilitate this learning positively may contribute to resilient teams and performance improvement. The authors note specifically that H&SC organisations make a distinction between the two most prevalent team types and structures of multi-disciplinary and inter-professional and plan more targeted workforce development for individual and team learning for resiliency within these team structures. In doing so organisations may gain further advantages such as improved team performance in problematic care situations.

Data captured are self-reported perceptions of H&SC managers. Participant responses in the focus group situation may have been those expected rather than those actually modelled in the realities of team work practice (Tanggaard, 2008). Further, in the sample all participants were engaged in a higher education programme and it is possible participants may have been more engaged with their practice and thinking more critically about the research questions than those not currently undertaking postgraduate study (Ng et al., 2014). Nor were the researchers able to observe the participants in team work practice over time or during critical care delivery incidents.

The preliminary link made here between multi-disciplinary and inter-professional team type, and their different stress points and subsequent workforce intervention, contributes to the theory of resilient teams. This provides organisations with a foundation for the focus of workplace learning and training around resilience. H&SC practitioner views presented offer a greater understanding of team work processes, together with a target for planning workforce development strategy to sustain resilience in team working.

This preliminary research found that participants in H&SC valued the team as a very important vehicle for building and sustaining resilience when dealing with complex H&SC situations. The capitalisation on the distinction in team type and individual working practices between those of interprofessional and multidisciplinary teams and the model of team learning, may have important consequences for building resilience in H&SC teams. These findings may be significant for workforce educators seeking to develop and build effective practice tools to sustain team working.

This interorganizational discussion covers Astley and van de Ven's (1983) Organizational Analysis Matrix and key information to understand a broader, macro discussion including the purpose of organizations in society as well as overview the interorganizational relationships between the for-profit sector (i.e., businesses and corporations) and the specific sector of higher education. A consideration of motives, return on investment expectations, and interorganizational behavior is explored. This chapter highlights the complex nature of higher education and the for-profit realm, including inconsistent third-party support and intermingling from the government. Highlights from Sethi's (1975) seminal article serves as the basis for measurement and future expectations in a three-state schema for classifying corporate behavior.