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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 July 2022

Wioleta Kucharska and Teresa Rebelo

This study aims to examine the micromechanisms of how knowledge culture fosters human capital development.

2176

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the micromechanisms of how knowledge culture fosters human capital development.

Design/methodology/approach

An empirical model was developed by using the structural equation modeling method based on a sample of 321 Polish knowledge workers employed in different industries.

Findings

This study provides direct empirical evidence that tacit knowledge sharing supports human capital, whereas tacit knowledge hiding does not, and this hiding is considered a waste of knowledge. If tacit knowledge does not circulate within an organization, it is a severe waste of an organization. The findings indicate that shame from making mistakes might impede the sharing of knowledge gained from making those mistakes, and in such cases, the knowledge remains hidden.

Practical implications

Leaders aiming to ensure human capital growth should implement an authentic learning culture composed of a learning climate and mistakes acceptance components that enable open discussion about mistakes on each organizational level.

Originality/value

The knowledge culture is found to be an essential element of building human capital but, at the same time, not sufficient without a learning culture, and its mistakes acceptance component. A permanent organizational learning mode that supports a continuous organizational shared mental model reframing is an antidote to tacit knowledge hiding.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 29 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 21 October 2021

Wioleta Kucharska

This study aims to present the overview of intellectual capital creation micro-mechanisms concerning formal and informal knowledge processes. The organizational culture

4334

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to present the overview of intellectual capital creation micro-mechanisms concerning formal and informal knowledge processes. The organizational culture, transformational leadership and innovativeness are also included in the investigation as ascendants and consequences of the focal relation of intellectual capital and knowledge processes.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a sample of 1,418 Polish knowledge workers from the construction, healthcare, higher education and information technology (IT) industries, the empirical model was developed using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method.

Findings

The study exposes that the essence of transformational leadership innovativeness oriented is developing all intellectual capital components. To do so, leaders must support both formal and informal knowledge processes through the organizational culture of knowledge and learning. Furthermore, for best results of the knowledge transformation into intellectual capital, the learning culture must be shaped by both components: learning climate and acceptance of mistakes.

Practical implications

Presented findings can be directly applied to organizations to enhance innovativeness. Namely, leaders who observe that the more knowledge is formally managed in their organizations, the less effective the knowledge exchange is-should put more effort into supporting informal knowledge processes to smoothly develop human and relational intellectual capital components. Shortly, leaders must implement an authentic learning culture, including the mistakes acceptance component, to use the full organizational potential to achieve intellectual capital growth. Intellectual capital growth is essential for innovativeness.

Originality/value

This study presents the “big picture” of all intellectual capital creation micro-mechanisms linking transformational leadership with organizational innovativeness and explains the “knowledge paradox” identified by Mabey and Zhao (2017). This explanation assumes that intellectual capital components are created informally (i.e. human and relational ones) and formally (i.e. structural ones). Therefore, for best effects, both formal and informal knowledge processes, must be supported. Furthermore, this study exposes that the intensity of all explored micro-mechanisms is industry-specific.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 May 2021

Wioleta Kucharska

This study aims to understand and compare how the mechanism of innovative processes in the information technology (IT) industry – the most innovative industry worldwide – is…

3671

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to understand and compare how the mechanism of innovative processes in the information technology (IT) industry – the most innovative industry worldwide – is shaped in Poland and the USA in terms of tacit knowledge awareness and sharing driven by a culture of knowledge and learning, composed of a learning climate and mistake acceptance.

Design/methodology/approach

Study samples were drawn from the IT industry in Poland (n = 350) and the USA (n = 370) and analyzed using the structural equation modeling method.

Findings

True learning derives from mistake acceptance. As a result of a risk-taking attitude and critical thinking, the IT industry in the USA is consistently innovation-oriented. Specifically, external innovations are highly correlated with internal innovations. Moreover, a knowledge culture supports a learning culture via a learning climate. A learning climate is an important facilitator for learning from mistakes.

Originality/value

This study revealed that a high level of mistake acceptance stimulates a risk-taking attitude that offers a high level of tacit knowledge awareness as a result of critical thinking, but critical thinking without readiness to take a risk is useless for tacit knowledge capturing.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 25 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 July 2021

Silvia Ivaldi, Giuseppe Scaratti and Ezio Fregnan

This paper aims to address the relevance and impact of the fourth industrial revolution through a theoretical and practical perspective. The authors present both the results of a…

8197

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to address the relevance and impact of the fourth industrial revolution through a theoretical and practical perspective. The authors present both the results of a literature review, highlighting the new competences required in innovative workplaces and a pivotal case, which explores challenges and skill models diffused in industry 4.0, describing the role of proper organizational learning processes in shaping new work cultures.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper aims to enhance the discussion around the 4.0 industrial revolution addressing both a theoretical framework, valorizing the existing scientific contributes and the situated knowledge, embedded in a concrete organizational context in which the fourth industrial revolution is experienced and practiced.

Findings

The findings acquired through the case study endorse what the scientific literature highlights about the impact, the new competences and the organizational learning paths. The conclusions address the agile approach to work as the more suitable way to place humans at the center of technological progress.

Research limitations/implications

The paper explores a specific organizational context, related to a high-tech multinational company, whose results illustrate the empirical evidence sustaining transformations in the working, professional and organizational cultures necessary to face the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution. The research was conducted with the managers of an international company and this a specific and limited target, even though relevant and interesting.

Practical implications

The paper connects the case with the general scenario, this study currently faces, to suggest hints and coordinates for crossing the unfolding situation and finding suitable matching between technological evolution and the development of new work and professional cultures and competences.

Social implications

Due to the acceleration that the COVID-19 has impressed to the use of digital technologies and remote connexion, the paper highlights some ambivalences that the quick evolution of the new technologies entails in relation to work and social conditions.

Originality/value

The opportunity to match both a literature analysis and an in-depth situated case study enhances the possibility to achieve a more articulated and complex view of the viral changes generated in the current context by the digitalization process.

Details

Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 34 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 August 2016

Buddhini Gayathri Jayatilleke and Charlotte Gunawardena

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how university academics from three different cultural and linguistic backgrounds perceived their own cultural context and how it…

8198

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how university academics from three different cultural and linguistic backgrounds perceived their own cultural context and how it influences on online learning.

Design/methodology/approach

The views of 30 faculty members from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Mauritius who engaged in a six-week professional development online course were gathered through a self-reflection questionnaire, posts on an asynchronous discussion forum and personal self-reflections in journal entries. Content analysis of three asynchronous discussion forums indicated the emergence of categories and themes related to traditional culture and the impact of culture on online learning that were triangulated with questionnaire data and journal entries.

Findings

Cultural perceptions of Sri Lankans and Pakistanis showed similar patterns in their recognition that their cultures exhibit characteristics of high power distance, collectivism and feminine values, while there were no definite dimensional perspectives from the Mauritians. The inability to define their own cultural context using bi-polar dimensions may reflect the sociocultural context of Mauritius. While these frameworks may explain more traditional cultures like those in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, they are unlikely to be useful to define cultural characteristics when the society is diverse, multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual like Mauritius.

Research limitations/implications

This study was based on a small sample of participants from three ethnic origins and cannot be generalized. It has generated questions for further research.

Practical implications

The findings have implications for accounting for culture in designing and delivering online courses.

Originality/value

This study will benefit instructional designers/curriculum designers/teachers to design culturally sensitive and culturally adaptive online courses.

Details

Asian Association of Open Universities Journal, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1858-3431

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 December 2014

Jacqueline Prowse

With the proliferation of international education initiatives, research into the transfer of pedagogy across cultures is essential to ensure that quality education is delivered in…

Abstract

With the proliferation of international education initiatives, research into the transfer of pedagogy across cultures is essential to ensure that quality education is delivered in a culturally accessible form. One of the factors impeding such research is the lack of widely accepted theoretical frameworks (Dimmock & Walker, 2005). This paper examines the development and effectiveness of a cross cultural framework that was used to compare a Business program at a Canadian College with its branch campus in Qatar (Prowse & Goddard, 2010). Findings are compared to results in the literature to gauge the robustness of the framework. The framework developed in the study was found to be a helpful means of allowing a comparison of pedagogy across two cultures.

Details

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2077-5504

Content available
Article
Publication date: 24 January 2022

Jamini Ranjan Meher, Lagna Nayak, Rohita Kumar Mishra and Gokulananda Patel

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of learning culture and knowledge sharing (KS) on organizational effectiveness (OE). This study also proposed to…

1323

Abstract

Purpose

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of learning culture and knowledge sharing (KS) on organizational effectiveness (OE). This study also proposed to investigate the role of employee competency in organizational success.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on the primary and secondary sources of data. The primary data comprises 392 responses from different information technology firms located in India, whereas secondary sources are based on journals, reports, company manuals, etc. The data was analyzed in partial least square-structural equation modeling using SMART-PLS 3.3 software.

Findings

This study confirms the conceptual model with the collected data. The key contributors to the model are organizational learning culture (OLC), KS, employee competencies (EC) and OE. The OLC and KS are the independent variables, and OE is the dependent variable, whereas the EC is the mediating variable in the research model. The findings reveal that there is a significant OLC on KS, EC and OE. Likewise, the relationship between KS and OE is also significant. The mediation analysis confirms the EC is significant for the relationships. However, the mediating effects of KS on the relationship between OLC and EC are not significant in this research.

Practical implications

An effective learning culture that leads to an increase in KS activities eventually enhances EC and promotes OE. It indicates that strengthening the learning culture will result in the promotion of knowledge sharing, and it is obvious that the employees’ competencies will increase when the employee is skilled and knowledgeable.

Originality/value

With references to different theories, this study provides an integrated model that shows the relationships between OLC, KS, EC and OE. By strengthening the OLC and KS, this relationship is benevolent to the success of the organization. The created framework paves the way for scholars to further explore insights from inside each component.

Details

VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, vol. 54 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5891

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 January 2023

Junmin Li and Matthias Pilz

This paper aims to investigate the in-company training according to the technologically demanding and safety-critical feature of the aircraft industry. This study addresses to the…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the in-company training according to the technologically demanding and safety-critical feature of the aircraft industry. This study addresses to the tension between the structured and the more incidental part of in-company learning in their training and learning environment.

Design/methodology/approach

Against the background of concepts of workplace learning from vocational training research and concepts of the safety management system from safety research, aircraft companies from England and Germany were visited. Data from interviews with training managers and trainees as well as non-participant observations are analysed.

Findings

The findings show that workplace vocational learning in this industry is guided by different measures to design the learning environment to prevent purely incidental and informal knowledge acquisition. However, the formalisation of informal learning process leads to a high expenditure of material, personnel and time resources. The findings show that trainers and training managers working together internationally creatively manage different training systems. The training activities are designed to convey the values of safety culture like responsibility, accuracy, transparent communication and reporting. The requirements of the safety management system are also met through the training.

Research limitations/implications

Challenges and tensions in the actual implementation of the training activities could not be identified. The people interviewed were selected by the companies, so there is a risk that certain perceptions are over-represented.

Practical implications

The results show that the safety-critical industry needs its own pedagogical approach to workplace learning, which is not based on independent work processes in the workplace. Insights can be drawn for in-company training in other safety-critical industries too. However, to enable effective in-company learning, which at the same time strengthens the safety culture of the company, many resources must be used. The companies must consider all dimensions of work from the individual level to the work structure level.

Originality/value

This paper discusses the tension between formal and informal learning and shows the specific design of this tension on the basis of a concrete industry for the specific needs of this industry. The results lead to the realisation that the general discussion about workplace learning must be viewed in a differentiated way depending on the industry.

Details

Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 35 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1366-5626

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 July 2021

Jasna Pocek, Diamanto Politis and Jonas Gabrielsson

This study focuses on extra-curricular start-up programs for students at higher educational institutions. It explores the social and situated learning experiences of students who…

2289

Abstract

Purpose

This study focuses on extra-curricular start-up programs for students at higher educational institutions. It explores the social and situated learning experiences of students who participate in start-up programs, as well as how the processes and outcomes of entrepreneurial learning are potentially shaped by this context.

Design/methodology/approach

The study follows multiple cohorts of students who have participated in an extra-curricular start-up program managed by three collaborating universities in Greater Copenhagen. The data have been inductively analyzed using semi-structured interviews with students and project managers during and after the start-up program, complemented with project progress reports, observation notes and survey data.

Findings

The analysis generates a grounded, theoretically informed process model of entrepreneurial learning situated in extra-curricular start-up programs. The model depicts how the immersion, comprehension and co-participation in entrepreneurship as social practice subsequently enables students to expand knowledge structures and develop greater self-confidence in performing entrepreneurship. The model identifies three interconnected components that trigger entrepreneurial learning among students, which allow them to acquire two set of competencies: venture creation competencies and enterprising competencies.

Originality/value

The findings offer unique insights into how the social and relational environment influence and shape the learning experience of students, hence filling the research void on entrepreneurial learning in the situated context of extra-curricular enterprise activities. The findings also elucidate how individual learning experiences of students are potentially shaped by the immersion, comprehension and co-participation in entrepreneurship as social practice.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 26 December 2023

Bradley J. Olson, Satyanarayana Parayitam, Matteo Cristofaro, Yongjian Bao and Wenlong Yuan

This paper elucidates the role of anger in error management (EM) and organizational learning behaviors. The study explores how anger can catalyze learning, emphasizing its…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper elucidates the role of anger in error management (EM) and organizational learning behaviors. The study explores how anger can catalyze learning, emphasizing its strategic implications.

Design/methodology/approach

A double-layered moderated-mediated model was developed and tested using data from 744 Chinese CEOs. The psychometric properties of the survey instrument were rigorously examined through structural equation modeling, and hypotheses were tested using Hayes's PROCESS macros.

Findings

The findings reveal that anger is a precursor for recognizing the value of significant errors, leading to a positive association with learning behavior among top management team members. Additionally, the study uncovers a triple interaction effect of anger, EM culture and supply chain disruptions on the value of learning from errors. Extensive experience and positive grieving strengthen the relationship between recognizing value from errors and learning behavior.

Originality/value

This study uniquely integrates affect-cognitive theory and organizational learning theory, examining anger in EM and learning. The authors provide empirical evidence that anger can drive error value recognition and learning. The authors incorporate a more fine-grained approach to leadership when including executive anger as a trigger to learning behavior. Factors like experience and positive grieving are explored, deepening the understanding of emotions in learning. The authors consider both negative and positive emotions to contribute to the complexity of organizational learning.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 62 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

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