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We discuss the impact of complexity science on the design and management of health care organizations over the past decade. We provide an overview of complexity science issues and their impact on thinking about health care systems, particularly with the rising importance of information systems. We also present a complexity science perspective on current issues in today’s health care organizations and suggest ways that this perspective might help in approaching these issues.

We review selected research, focusing on work in which we participated, to identify specific examples of applications of complexity science. We then take a look at information systems in health care organizations from a complexity viewpoint.

Complexity science is a fundamentally different way of understanding nature and has influenced the thinking of scholars and practitioners as they have attempted to understand health care organizations. Many scholars study health care organizations as complex adaptive systems and through this perspective develop new management strategies. Most important, perhaps, is the understanding that attention to relationships and interdependencies is critical for developing effective management strategies.

Increased understanding of complexity science can enhance the ability of researchers and practitioners to develop new ways of understanding and improving health care organizations.

This analysis opens new vistas for scholars and practitioners attempting to understand health care organizations as complex adaptive systems. The analysis holds value for those already familiar with this approach as well as those who may not be as familiar.

This chapter briefly explores selected English and general education policy documents, curricula, and textbooks within the context of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) from a Critical Discourse Analysis perspective and examines how they have changed pre- and post-21st century. First, a policy document related to education in KSA in general (pre-21st century) is analyzed along with an English language teaching (ELT) policy document of the same period. Next, two general policy documents post-21st century are explored, followed by one related to ELT policy. Finally, one post-21st century document related to higher education is discussed. The “network of practices” within which these documents are situated are first detailed, as well as the structural order of the discourse, and some linguistic analysis of the choice of vocabulary and grammatical structures (Meyer, 2001). Issues which might be problematic to the learning and teaching identities of the students and teachers interpreting these documents are also highlighted. Finally, we consider whether the network of practices at this institution and KSA in general “needs” the problems identified in the analysis and critically reflect on the analysis.

This study adopts a goal setting theory as the theoretical framework for studying the motivational effect of budgetary participation on job performance. This study proposes that budgetary participation affects job performance via two intervening variables, namely budget goal difficulty and budget goal commitment. The results show that budgetary participation enhances job performance directly and indirectly via budget goal difficulty and budget goal commitment.

An attempt is made to bring together the various initiatives imposed on local government and individual establishments. The need for greater accountability, coupled with greater emphasis on financial control throughout the system, may stifle flexibility, responsiveness and imagination if not handled carefully in the current climate. New initiatives require strategic management and a good leadership to succeed.

Centralized waiting lists (CWLs) for patient attachment to a primary care provider have been implemented across Canada, including Quebec. Little is known about the implementation of CWLs and the factors that influence implementation outcomes of such primary care innovations. The purpose of this paper is to explain variations in the outcomes of implementation by analyzing the characteristics of CWLs and contextual factors that influence their implementation.

A multiple qualitative case study was conducted. Four contrasting CWLs were purposefully selected: two relatively high-performing and two relatively low-performing cases with regard to process indicators. Data collected between 2015 and 2016 drew on three sources: 26 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, 22 documents and field notes. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research was used to identify, through a cross-case comparison of ratings, constructs that distinguish high from low-performing cases.

Five constructs distinguished high from low-performing cases: three related to the inner setting: network and communications; leadership engagement; available resources; one from innovation characteristics: adaptability with regard to registration, evaluation of priority and attachment to a family physician; and, one associated with process domain: engaging. Other constructs exerted influence on implementation (e.g. outer setting, individual characteristics), but did not distinguish high and low-performing cases.

This is the first in-depth analysis of CWL implementation. Results suggest important factors that might be useful in efforts to continuously improve implementation performance of CWLs and similar innovations.

There has been much debate in the literature regarding whether political pressures are beneficial or detrimental to public agencies’ performance and outcomes. This chapter explores under what conditions, if any, do political pressures have any positive effects.

A survey methodology and multivariate regression models are applied to assess the relationship between political pressures and public agencies’ performance and outcomes, using data from South-America and Europe. The theoretical scope is developed drawing from the public sector, management control, and goal-setting literatures.

The effects of political pressures on public agencies’ performance and public officers’ job satisfaction are moderated by technical certainty. At low levels of technical certainty political pressures have negative effects while at high levels they have positive effects.

All limitations of survey research apply.

Governments, public officers, and politicians should take into account the dynamics described in this study so as to limit the negative effects of political pressures and take advantage of the positive ones.

This is the first study to suggest that the effects of political pressures on public agencies vary depending on the nature of the task public agencies perform. The results reported here bring a new perspective to the literature, helping to clarify prior conflicting results. In addition, the fact that results are consistent for South American and European public agencies suggests that these findings might be generalizable across cultural boundaries.

In this paper, we argue that work should be recognized as “commons.” We call for a new approach to how managers define their role and responsibility regarding the problem of work flexibility and of its societal implications. We argue that, in the global and digitized economy, it is in the best interest of all the company’s stakeholders that managers choose combinations of work arrangements and human resource policies considering the externalities of these decisions. Managers’ responsibility spans to the costs and risks that the broader social system of organizational stakeholders will bear because of their decisions. When labor market institutions are “thin,” it is management’s responsibility to contribute structuring and shaping them, so that the interests of workers, independent of the work arrangements, are considered.

Purpose: Provide insights on how social entrepreneurship (SE) knowledge can be more effectively generated by universities through the entrepreneurial creation and effective management of a knowledge network centered on international collaborative research; illuminate how one such network has enabled Latin American researchers to advance the knowledge and practice frontiers in the hemisphere and globally. Methodology/Approach: Retrospective analysis of the two-decade evolution of the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network, a pioneering international research collaboration (IRC) of Ibero-American management schools. Findings: Documents factors and dynamics enabling the successful creation and operation of international knowledge networks. Analyzes the key mechanisms for capturing synergies in collaborative research. Identifies specific effectiveness determinants for successfully operating an international social enterprise knowledge generation network. Identifies multiple impacts of a knowledge generation network. Research Implications: Advances understanding of IRCs. Provides a model for assessing knowledge network multiple impacts. Identifies a series of future research opportunities and needs. Practical Implications: Provides operational guidance for researchers developing or operating collaborative international knowledge networks. Social Implications: Reveals the value of collaboration in international research and factors that contribute to effective collaboration. Originality/Value: Provides unique retrospective study of an IRC network operated by developing country schools of management. Expands the scope of recent comparative research on SE education to include a set of countries in Ibero-America. Documents an approach to assessing the impacts of a knowledge network. Identifies important areas for advancing future social enterprise research and teaching.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the occurrence of job level, salary and job authority demotions in the workplace through the analysis of Belgian Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC)-data of 2007-2011.

Three hypotheses are tested: H1: there is a gender inequality in job authority demotions. H2: the level of education and the probability of being subject to a job level, salary or job authority demotion are negatively correlated. H3: age is negatively correlated with job level, salary or job authority demotion probabilities. The cross-sectional data of the SILC cover a specific time period with data on inter alia living conditions. The longitudinal data give information on inter alia income and non-monetary variables over a period of four years. The authors estimate multivariate regression models for binary demotion variables. These analyses allow the authors to estimate the odds of being demoted. The authors discuss the demotion rates, the bivariate correlations and the regression analysis.

The data analysis result in the fact that base salary demotions are not commonly applied as literature and the Belgian law on salary protection endorses. Fringe benefits demotions, as for instance the abolition of a company car or a bonus are, however, more frequent. There is a gender gap with regard to job authority demotion. Highly educated respondents are less confronted with job authority demotions. Age is negatively correlated with base salary/fringe benefits or job authority demotion probabilities, but not with job-level demotions. H1 is thus confirmed. H2 and H3 only partly confirmed.

Several analyses were restricted because the EU-SILC did not question all dimensions of demotion in detail.

This study contributes to the scarce literature on demotion and to empirical studies on demotions regarding job level, salary and job authority.

The world is currently facing one of the most significant refugee crises in history, posing challenges to policymakers in host countries needing to facilitate socio-economic integration of refugees urgently. Policymakers and scholars have started shedding light on the entrepreneurial potential of refugees. Refugees confront considerable institutional barriers in their new environments. Particularly challenging is that they lose connection to their home country ecosystem through forced displacement and are not yet well-embedded in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem of the host country. The disconnection to the local ecosystem hinders refugees from accessing various resources essential to entrepreneurial activities. Against this background, this chapter illuminates the role of business incubators in integrating refugee entrepreneurs into the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, paying particular attention to relational dynamics within incubators. This study conducts explorative qualitative research with a single case study of a German business incubator for refugees. This study identifies three types of relational dynamics that characterise operation of refugee business incubators and two mechanisms constructive and descriptive to their mission. Finally, this study derives practical implications for refugee business incubators and policymakers in refugee-hosting countries.