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The presence and practice of individual and organizational humility has the power to enable organizational growth and change. Humility drives behaviors associated with learning and the ability to embrace the value of existing mental models while valuing the insights offered by new perspectives and approaches. This paradox-savvy practice, observed in humble individuals and organizations, allows them to appropriately value what is working about the existing system while simultaneously embracing the need for change. Our research finds humble behaviors emerging within psychologically safe environments that foster an attitude of inquiry, kinship, extraordinary collaboration, and professional excellence. Humble behaviors, at every organizational level, appear to enhance both individual and group capabilities that drive long term strategic advantage. Five capabilities were identified in our research: diverse networks, shared values, flexibility and adaptability, judgment and decision-making, and organizational learning. We bring these concepts to life by synthesizing established and emerging research, as well as diving deeply into an empirical case study that leverages humble practices in order to effectively drive organizational change. We argue that humility can impact organizing at all levels (individuals, leaders, followers, teams, executives, and organizations) and in so doing create the conditions in which sustainable organizational change can flourish.

Ask leaders what their organizations need more of to thrive, and many will identify collaboration. Yet many collaborative efforts fail. A focus on the inner workings of teams, to the exclusion of the ecosystem in which teams work, has masked the importance of a collaborative context. We undertook a single case study of an exemplar firm with the intent of offering a nuanced illustration of the collaborative workplace. We illustrate how three contextual factors related to work, relationships, and behaviors shift the setting from a place where collaboration is hard to do, to one that embodies collaboration as a widespread competence.

Antonioni, Berger, Magritte and Sontag, with their respective challenges to our perceptions of what is real and unreal, set the scene for a discussion of the tension between current policies and norms in higher education systems and the increasingly important need to introduce true interdisciplinarity in university programmes – specifically, here, with regard to the role of the humanities in business-related courses. It is argued that uncertainty and imperfection are key signposts to creativity and innovation. Uncertainty demands the constant search for possibility; imperfection provides the constant opportunity to improve and is therefore the inspiration for innovation. In an exploration focussing principally on the various potentialities of the study of literature, it is suggested that many initiatives to introduce the arts into non-humanities programmes have a common and significant limitation in that they are defined by a specific purpose – by an understandable and, in our current higher education environments, an inevitable need to specify what ‘impact’ the intervention will have on the skills and employability of the student. However, something much more radical is needed if what George Eliot called the ‘vital connections of knowledge’ are to be truly made, and the radical adjustment required runs directly counter to a culture that is dominated by the compulsion to demonstrate impact, set measurable targets and prioritize practical application.

The purpose of this study is to identify contextual antecedents for team learning in professional service firms.

Structural equation modelling was applied to establish reliability and validity and to measure the size of relationships. Evidence was drawn from an empirical sample of 210 consultants in the Nordic professional service industry.

The findings of this study reveal and strongly support that two important contextual antecedent factors that facilitate for team learning in professional service firms are market orientation and leader support for collaborative learning practices. The effect of leader support on team learning is also mediated by a market orientation.

There is a paucity of knowledge on contextual factors that contribute to team learning. This study provides insight of theoretical and practical value.

We live in the Age of Knowledge, which is impelling us towards the Age of Imagination. The technological wave rises and with it rises a wave of change that will affect both the economy and society. When these two waves will reach the coast where knowledge meets ignorance, and how to ride them, are questions that require us to imagine the future. We must, therefore, embark on the vessel of imagination, leaving behind us the baggage of what we know and understand. Imagination is not just the springboard for ideas; it also acts to connect ideas in different ways that may blossom in the garden of an entrepreneurial renaissance. Symbols, metaphors and concepts that belong to our tacit knowledge come to light in our memory. It is from here that the imagination draws its lifeblood, broadening our horizons, inducing us to interact with others who may be the bearers of other cultures. Are we ready to engage in an imaginative learning process to join business with innovation and art? Are we prepared to design a wide-open white space where the actors of entrepreneurship, innovation and art can generate a constructive tension that will sweep away what appears to be mutual antagonism or incompatibility?

Explores how information technology (IT) can help local authorities to better manage their property. Sets out a summary procedure for the development of an IT strategy. Defines the role of the “property professional”. Offers Cardiff City Council as role model. Concludes that two scathing Audit Commission Reports of 1988 offer a baseline from which local government may start improvements in property management.