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1 – 10 of over 4000Angela França Versiani, Pollyanna de Souza Abade, Rodrigo Baroni de Carvalho and Cristiana Fernandes De Muÿlder
This paper discusses the effects of enabling conditions of project knowledge management in building volatile organizational memory. The theoretical rationale underlies a recursive…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper discusses the effects of enabling conditions of project knowledge management in building volatile organizational memory. The theoretical rationale underlies a recursive relationship among enabling conditions of project knowledge management, organizational learning and memory.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employs a qualitative descriptive single case study approach to examine a mobile application development project undertaken by a major software company in Brazil. The analysis focuses on the project execution using an abductive analytical framework. The study data were collected through in-depth interviews and company documents.
Findings
Based on the research findings, the factors that facilitate behavior and strategy in managing project knowledge pose a challenge when it comes to fostering organizational learning. While both these factors play a role in organizational learning, the exchange of information from previous experience could be strengthened, and the feedback from the learning process could be improved. These shortcomings arise from emotional tensions that stem from power struggles within knowledge hierarchies.
Practical implications
Based on the research, it is recommended that project-structured organizations should prioritize an individual’s professional experience to promote organizational learning. Organizations with well-defined connections between their projects and strategies can better establish interconnections among knowledge creation, sharing and coding.
Originality/value
The primary contribution is to provide a comprehensive view that incorporates the conditions required to manage project knowledge, organizational learning and memory. The findings lead to four propositions that relate to volatile memory, intuitive knowledge, learning and knowledge encoding.
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Elena Pellizzoni, Daniel Trabucchi, Federico Frattini, Tommaso Buganza and Anthony Di Benedetto
This study aims to shed lights on the dynamics of involving and sharing knowledge with stakeholders in the process of new service development (NSD) over time.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to shed lights on the dynamics of involving and sharing knowledge with stakeholders in the process of new service development (NSD) over time.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a paradigmatic case focused on the development of the digital MBA program by the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano. Primary and secondary data have been largely collected and analyzed, involving multiple stakeholders of the development process.
Findings
This study describes how several stakeholders have been involved during the phase of the NSD process, showing two variables that ruled their involvement: the level of control exerted by the School on the stakeholders and the level of flexibility of the stakeholders.
Research limitations/implications
This research offers insights to the understanding of the dynamics of involving and sharing knowledge with multiple-stakeholders in NSD. From a theoretical perspective, it contributes to stakeholder theory linking it with the service management literature, highlighting the role of cyclical fluctuations in the involvement activities.
Practical implications
This research offers insights to managers dealing with the development of new services, offering them a novel view on how various stakeholders may be involved over time, in different moment and in different ways, to properly enhance the development process thanks to their knowledge sharing.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the service management literature emphasizing the role of multiple stakeholders while providing insights and suggestions to manage the complex relationships created by their involvement and their knowledge.
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Maria Jakubik and Peeter Müürsepp
This conceptual paper aims to contribute to the knowledge management (KM) literature by seeking to determine whether wisdom management (WM) will replace KM in future.
Abstract
Purpose
This conceptual paper aims to contribute to the knowledge management (KM) literature by seeking to determine whether wisdom management (WM) will replace KM in future.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory paper follows the interpretivist research philosophy and the deductive approach. The data collection is based on selected literatures from three disciplines (KM, philosophy and psychology). The findings were qualitatively analysed.
Findings
The findings are threefold: (1) the discussion of wisdom has been either neglected or superficially discussed in the KM literature; (2) despite the fact that wisdom is widely discussed and researched in philosophy and psychology disciplines, there is no commonly agreed upon definition of wisdom, and a dichotomy exists between the implicit and explicit theories of wisdom; (3) wisdom research in philosophy and psychology disciplines provides valuable input to KM by identifying the dimensions, components and characteristics of wisdom and wise individuals.
Research limitations/implications
Important sources may have been unintentionally overlooked in this paper. This paper identifies the need for empirical research and discussion about WM as the next potential phase of KM. It offers several implications for researchers, managers and management educators as this paper shows that WM is emerging as a new discipline.
Originality/value
This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the fifth phase of KM by drawing attention to wisdom and WM as the next potential phase of KM.
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Paolo Canonico, Ernesto De Nito, Vincenza Esposito, Mario Pezzillo Iacono and Gianluigi Mangia
In this paper, we depart from extant conceptualisations of knowledge translation mechanisms to examine projects as a way to achieve effective knowledge transfer. Our empirical…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, we depart from extant conceptualisations of knowledge translation mechanisms to examine projects as a way to achieve effective knowledge transfer. Our empirical analysis focused on a university–industry research project in the automotive industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical analysis was based on a qualitative investigation. We analysed material collected within a research project involving a partnership between two universities and Fiat-Chrysler Automotive (FCA), a multi-brand auto manufacturer with a product range covering several different market segments. We used three data collection techniques: internal document analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews.
Findings
Our findings show that, in a U-I research project, goals represent a key dimension to support knowledge translation. Defining the goal implies an ongoing negotiation process, where researchers and company employees work together, in order to converge towards a shared meaning of the goal. In this sense, goal orientation and goal-based interaction have significant implications for knowledge translation processes.
Originality/value
Studies to date have focussed on the concept of knowledge translation as a way to contextualise the transfer from the source of knowledge to the receiver and to interpret the knowledge to be exchanged. This study expands the understanding of knowledge translation mechanisms in university–industry research settings. It investigates the concept of projects as powerful knowledge translation mechanism in a dynamic and longitudinal perspective. Our contribution provides insight, reflecting on how the use of projects may represent a way to facilitate knowledge transfer and build up new ideas and solutions.
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Riccardo Giannetti, Lino Cinquini, Paola Miolo Vitali and Falconer Mitchell
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a substantial organization gradually builds a management accounting system from scratch, changing its accounting routines by…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a substantial organization gradually builds a management accounting system from scratch, changing its accounting routines by learning processes. The paper uses the experiential learning theory and the concept of learning style to investigate the learning process during management accounting change. The study aims to expand the domain of management accounting change theory to emphasize the learning-related aspects that can constitute it.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides an interpretation of management accounting change based on the model of problem management proposed by Kolb (1983) and the theory of experiential learning (Kolb, 1976, 1984). The study is based on a 14-year longitudinal case study (1994‐2007). The case examined can be considered a theory illustration case. Data were obtained from a broad variety of sources including interviews, document analysis and adopting an interventionist approach during the redesign of the costing system.
Findings
The paper contributes to two important aspects of management accounting change. First, it becomes apparent that the costing information change was not a discrete event but a process of experience and learning conducted through several iterations of trial-and-error loops that extended over the years. Second, the findings reveal that the learning process can alter management accounting system design in a radical or incremental way according to the learning style of the people involved in the process of change.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the adopted research approach, results could be extended only to other organizations presenting similar characteristics. Several further areas of research are suggested by the findings of this paper. In particular, it would be of interest to investigate the links between learning styles and communication and its effect on management accounting change.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for the management of learning during management accounting change, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of this process.
Originality/value
This paper is one response to the call for an interdisciplinary research approach to the management accounting change phenomena using a “method theory” taken from the discipline of management to provide an explanation of the change in management accounting. In respect of the previous literature, it provides two main contributions, namely, the proposal of a model useful both to interpret and manage learning processes; the effect of learning style on management accounting routines change.
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Elham Rostami, Fredrik Karlsson and Ella Kolkowska
The purpose of this paper is to survey existing information security policy (ISP) management research to scrutinise the extent to which manual and computerised support has been…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to survey existing information security policy (ISP) management research to scrutinise the extent to which manual and computerised support has been suggested, and the way in which the suggested support has been brought about.
Design/methodology/approach
The results are based on a literature review of ISP management research published between 1990 and 2017.
Findings
Existing research has focused mostly on manual support for managing ISPs. Very few papers have considered computerised support. The entire complexity of the ISP management process has received little attention. Existing research has not focused much on the interaction between the different ISP management phases. Few research methods have been used extensively and intervention-oriented research is rare.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should to a larger extent address the interaction between the ISP management phases, apply more intervention research to develop computerised support for ISP management, investigate to what extent computerised support can enhance integration of ISP management phases and reduce the complexity of such a management process.
Practical implications
The limited focus on computerised support for ISP management affects the kind of advice and artefacts the research community can offer to practitioners.
Originality/value
Today, there are no literature reviews on to what extent computerised support the ISP management process. Findings on how the complexity of ISP management has been addressed and the research methods used extend beyond the existing knowledge base, allowing for a critical discussion of existing research and future research needs.
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Yasin Sahhar, Raymond Loohuis and Jörg Henseler
The purpose of this study is to identify the practices used by service providers to manage the customer service experience (CSE) across multiple phases of the customer journey in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify the practices used by service providers to manage the customer service experience (CSE) across multiple phases of the customer journey in a business-to-business (B2B) setting.
Design/methodology/approach
This study comprises an ethnography that investigates in real time, from a dyadic perspective, and the CSE management practices at two service providers operating in knowledge-intensive service industries over a period of eight months. Analytically, the study concentrates on critical events that occurred in phases of the customer journey that in some way alter CSE, thus making it necessary for service providers to act to keep their customers satisfied.
Findings
The study uncovers four types of service provider practices that vary based on the mode of organization (ad hoc or regular) and the mode of engagement (reactive or proactive) and based on whether they restore or bolster CSE, including the recurrence of these practices in the customer journey. These practices are conveniently presented in a circumplex typology of CSE management across five phases in the customer journey.
Research limitations/implications
This paper advances the research in CSE management throughout the customer journey in the B2B context by showing that CSE management is dynamic, recurrent and multifaceted in the sense that it requires different modes of organization and engagement, notably during interaction with customers, in different phases of the customer journey.
Practical implications
The circumplex typology acts as a tool for service providers, helping them to redesign their CSE management practices in ongoing service and dialogical processes to keep their customers more engaged and satisfied.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to infuse a dyadic stance into the ongoing discussion of CSE management practices in B2B, in which studies to date have deployed only provider or customer perspectives. In proposing a microlevel view, the study identifies service providers' CSE management practices in multiple customer journey phases, especially when the situation becomes critical.
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Ewa Wikström, Jonathan Severin, Ingibjorg H. Jonsdottir and Magnus Akerstrom
Process facilitation as part of a complex intervention for changing or improving practices within workplaces is becoming a common work method. The aim of this study was to…
Abstract
Purpose
Process facilitation as part of a complex intervention for changing or improving practices within workplaces is becoming a common work method. The aim of this study was to investigate what characterizes the process-facilitating role in a complex intervention.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study focuses on a complex work environment intervention targeting eight organizational units (workplaces) in the Swedish healthcare sector. The study applies a mixed-method approach and has been carried out in two steps. First, a qualitative process evaluation was performed. Secondly, an evaluation was conducted to see to what extent these identified conditions and mechanisms affected the quantitative intervention effect in term of sickness absence.
Findings
The analysis shows that the facilitating role consisted of three overlapping and partially iterative phases. These phases involved different activities for the facilitating role. Depending on how the facilitating role and the intervention were designed, various supporting conditions were found to significantly affect the outcome of the intervention measured as the total sickness absence.
Research limitations/implications
It is concluded that the facilitation is not static or fixed during the change process. Instead, the facilitation role develops and emerges through the process of support during the different implementation phases.
Practical implications
The facilitative role of performing support is based on a combination of support role activities and expert role activities. The support role focuses on support activities, while the expert role includes capacity building through knowledge- and legitimacy-oriented activities.
Originality/value
This study contributes to earlier research by developing a methodological approach for carrying out process facilitation in complex interventions.
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Susi Poli, Fernanda Stringassi de Oliveira and Alice Trentini
The chapter aims to provide an overview of organisational structures in Research Management and Administration (RMA); in doing so, the chapter moves from explaining main sources…
Abstract
The chapter aims to provide an overview of organisational structures in Research Management and Administration (RMA); in doing so, the chapter moves from explaining main sources of knowledge – broadly on HE Management (HEM) and specifically on RMA – to assessing institutionalisation and maturity level of the profession.
Understanding these forms of knowledge will help readers design research support services and develop a competency/career development plan.
Additionally, the chapter aims to call for individuals and institutions to engage with the varied forms of knowledge associated with different phases of a research project life cycle (RPLC). The goal is to raise individual awareness while helping countries improve their RMA maturity.
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Yannis Steffen Oetken, Christian Hofstadler and Felix Meckmann
The individual levels involved in real estate management are thoroughly discussed in the literature. This paper provides a structured meta-analysis of the different theoretical…
Abstract
Purpose
The individual levels involved in real estate management are thoroughly discussed in the literature. This paper provides a structured meta-analysis of the different theoretical approaches in German-speaking countries. It also investigates the integration of transaction management and technical due diligence into the concepts of organisation theory. In this process, the interfaces are analysed and optimised models are developed for transferring the technical due diligence findings to the operational level.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews with transaction management experts were conducted based on a narrative literature review. These interviews shed light on how the components of transaction management and due diligence are integrated into the transaction process, with a particular focus on technical due diligence. They also provide insights into how the related results are taken into account in relation to the transaction, and how they are transferred into the operational phase.
Findings
It becomes apparent that the role of transaction management is not clearly defined and delimited in the structural model of the real estate industry. Technical due diligence findings are usually transferred to the operation of the property via several, manual interfaces with corresponding losses of knowledge. The related models derived and developed for the purpose of operational optimisation define the role of transaction management against a technical background and identify the interfaces to be considered.
Practical implications
The significance of transaction management for subsequent operations is discussed and elaborated on. More specifically, transferring safety-relevant, high-priority findings from the technical due diligence exercise plays a crucial role for the modelling stage. On the implementation level, the derived models serve as a basis for customising the internal organisational structure.
Originality/value
In Germany, there has hardly been any research into the involvement of technical experts in the real estate transaction process to date. This paper provides initial approaches to optimising organisational structures and sustainably integrating technical due diligence findings into real estate operations.
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