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1 – 10 of over 3000This paper proposes a theory-based process model for the generation, articulation, sharing and application of managerial heuristics, from their origin as unspoken insight, to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper proposes a theory-based process model for the generation, articulation, sharing and application of managerial heuristics, from their origin as unspoken insight, to proverbialization, to formal or informal sharing, and to their adoption as optional guidelines or policy.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual paper is built using systematic and non-systematic review of literature. This paper employs a three-step approach to propose a process model for the emergence of managerial heuristics. Step one uses a systematic review of empirical studies on heuristics in order to map extant research on four key criteria and to obtain, by flicking through this sample in a moving-pictures style, the static stages of the process; step two adapts a knowledge management framework to yield the dynamic aspect; step three assembles these findings into a graphical process model and uses insights from literature to enrich its description and to synthesize four propositions.
Findings
The paper provides insights into how heuristics originate from experienced managers confronted with negative situations and are firstly expressed as an inequality with a threshold. Further articulation is done by proverbialization, refining and adapting. Sharing is done either in an informal way, through socialization, or in a formal way, through regular meetings. Soft adoption as guidelines is based on expert authority, while hard adoption as policy is based on hierarchical authority or on collective authority.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are theory-based, and the model must be empirically refined.
Practical implications
Practical advice for managers on how to develop and share their portfolio of heuristics makes this paper valuable for practitioners.
Originality/value
This study addresses the less-researched aspect of heuristics creation, transforms static insights from literature into a dynamic process model, and, in a blended-theory approach, considers insights from a distant, but relevant literature – paremiology (the science of proverbs).
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Linda Lidman, Maria Gustavsson and Anna Fogelberg Eriksson
The purpose of this study is to examine learning and employee-driven innovation (EDI) in the public sector, with a particular focus on the interplay between employee engagement…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine learning and employee-driven innovation (EDI) in the public sector, with a particular focus on the interplay between employee engagement and organisational conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
The material consists of qualitative interviews with 23 participants from three municipal sites of innovation support that participated in a national programme aiming to strengthen municipalities’ innovation work.
Findings
The study found numerous constraining organisational conditions resulting in consequential loss of employee engagement for EDI. The conclusion drawn is that employee engagement and enabling organisational conditions are central to EDI in public sector workplaces, and that incorporating EDI into municipal daily operations requires paying attention to the interplay between organisational conditions and employee engagement.
Originality/value
This paper provides important guidance for supporting EDI in the public sector. Implementing EDI into operations requires employee engagement to be successful. However, employees’ engagement should not be overlooked or taken for granted. A practical implication of this study is that EDI in the workplace must be encouraged by creating a learning environment that supports innovative learning in the workplace. In practice, measures should be taken to support employee engagement by creating organisational conditions that provide a more expansive learning environment to ensure the continuity and perpetuation of EDI in public sector organisations.
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The purpose of this study is to review literature on the relationship between leadership and workplace learning, to critically analyze and discuss findings and to suggest future…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to review literature on the relationship between leadership and workplace learning, to critically analyze and discuss findings and to suggest future research paths based on the synthesis.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applied a refined literature review process leading to a selection of 40 articles, which originated from 14 internationally acclaimed journals.
Findings
When explaining leadership influence regarding individual and team learning, the concepts of role modeling behavior, relational support and negotiation of meaning is significant. If leaders provide support, show exemplary behavior and negotiate individual arrangements with employees, workplace learning development is positively affected.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies should focus on empirical cases further illustrating how the leader–employee relationship is formed in practice, to further understand differences in leadership influence on employee workplace learning.
Practical implications
The gathered knowledge implicates that carefully designed leadership training programs and personalized work arrangements between leader and employees are beneficial for leader’s ability to influence employee workplace learning.
Originality/value
The reviewed studies were solely published in top management journals, which resulted in an original literature selection. This study also discusses implicit or articulated assumptions about the view of learning in the selected studies, offering additional understanding about the underlying learning views in leadership–workplace learning research.
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Ephrem Assefa Haile and Vala Lale Tüzüner
This study aims to determine the effect of organizational learning capability (OLC) on organizational innovation (OI) and identify the type of innovation that is accorded more…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to determine the effect of organizational learning capability (OLC) on organizational innovation (OI) and identify the type of innovation that is accorded more emphasis by Ethiopian manufacturing firms.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applied an explanatory research design, and cross-sectional data were gathered through structured questionnaires from general and HR managers of 197 manufacturing firms in Addis Ababa and Oromia, Ethiopia. The ordinary least square regression method was applied to analyze the data.
Findings
The study provides empirical insights into how OLC affects OI. The findings revealed that the sampled firms have scored low mean values in terms of OLC and OI. In addition, OLC had a positive but low effect on OI and its dimensions. Because of their weak institutional support, the sampled firms tended to emphasize administrative innovation rather than product and process innovations.
Research limitations/implications
This study would have yielded better results if it was built on evidence-based data to reveal how radical or incremental OIs are, as well as how OLC and OI vary across different sectors. The theoretical and practical implications drawn from the findings are also presented.
Originality/value
There is little empirical evidence of the nexus among OLC, process and administrative innovations, especially from the perspective of developing economies. This study empirically supports the direct relationship between the constructs. In developing countries such as Ethiopia, where there are weak institutional resources and support, administrative innovation shall be emphasized in the short run.
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Debora Jeske and Deborah Olson
The onboarding stage of new hires represents a unique opportunity for mutual learning between the new hires and the organisation regardless of the company size. The current paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The onboarding stage of new hires represents a unique opportunity for mutual learning between the new hires and the organisation regardless of the company size. The current paper aims to address these learning opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors reflect on current practice, draw on recent literature and their experience with recruitment and selection processes in the industry to generate new insights and identify opportunities for practitioners and new hires alike.
Findings
Today's new hires expect onboarding experiences that allow for a much greater degree of flexibility, customisation and personalisation. Similarly, many new hires expect hiring, onboarding, and learning and development to be interconnected to generate new learning and career opportunities. However, these expectations require changes in the way in which onboarding is implemented, evaluated and connected to other human resource practices, specifically with the dramatic (and successful) increase in remote work arrangements in 2020 in response to the global impact of the pandemic.
Originality/value
The current paper provides readers with an overview of potential learning opportunities, outlines specific success factors and highlights a variety of pointers for practice and further professional development.
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Helen Poltimäe, Kärt Rõigas and Anneli Lorenz
The purpose of this paper is to identify how different factors of antecedents and processes affect the outcomes of an internship, measured in terms of competency development.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify how different factors of antecedents and processes affect the outcomes of an internship, measured in terms of competency development.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used an internship questionnaire designed for the University of Tartu in Estonia. Responses were obtained from 178 students across different disciplines – humanities and the arts, social sciences, natural sciences and medicine – who had recently taken an internship. Based on current academic literature, the authors create a three-level model: antecedents-processes-outcomes. The antecedents and processes were both differentiated into three factors and tested with a structural equation model.
Findings
The model demonstrates that there are different antecedents that have an effect on internship outcomes, but these only work through internship processes. For example, the objective of the internship and clarity of instructions will only have a positive effect if there is relevant support from the supervisor at the employing company and if the student can use the knowledge and skills gained at university.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on survey data filled in by students, i.e. based on self-perception. Based on the results of the study, the authors claim that an active role and initiative-taking by students in finding suitable internships should be further encouraged.
Originality/value
Whilst previous studies have used a two-level model of internship (or a three-level model for students satisfaction as an outcome) the authors create and test a three-level model measuring competency development as the outcome of an internship.
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Sérgio Rezende, Kátia Galdino and Bruce Lamont
The purpose of this paper is to establish a conversation between international business and international entrepreneurship literatures by analyzing if and how international…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish a conversation between international business and international entrepreneurship literatures by analyzing if and how international opportunities are related to the internationalization process of the firm.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports finding from a backward-looking longitudinal, qualitative, embedded case study of an internationalized Brazilian firm, covering all 13 foreign markets where the firm has operated over 18 years.
Findings
Modal shifts within foreign markets were rare. Over time, the firm learned how to refine, rather than change, the servicing modes within each foreign market; it also learned how to better develop internal and exploitative opportunities, manage a portfolio of servicing modes across foreign markets, and use more complex mode servicing packages. Overall, international opportunities and the internationalization process of the firm were inextricably connected.
Research limitations/implications
The authors acknowledge limitations related to the statistical generalizability of the research method and suggest that statistical validation is needed as the research on opportunities and the internationalization process of the firm progresses.
Practical implications
Internationalizing firms should carefully consider the choice of entry mode in foreign markets. They should also understand that learning is not necessarily associated with change.
Originality/value
The authors show that the internationalization process of a traditional firm can be analyzed through an opportunity lens. This means associating characteristics of international opportunities with mode continuation and modal shifts in all foreign markets where the firm operates.
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Managers’ work is surrounded by complex environments, from which they need to learn, in order to understand them. However, complexity poses several challenges to managerial…
Abstract
Purpose
Managers’ work is surrounded by complex environments, from which they need to learn, in order to understand them. However, complexity poses several challenges to managerial learning, for which usually management educational programs have not prepared managers. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore such challenges and possible ways to overcome them.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper that explores in depth the issue of managerial learning challenges in a complex world. Managers face these challenges during their practice, yet sometimes management education has not prepared them for this.
Findings
Three managerial learning challenges due to complexity are identified. First, through cognition and cognitive structures, managers simplify the world around them. Nevertheless, biases, inertia and inaccuracy emerge, as managers’ mental models are not truly capable of capturing complexity. Second, managers look for information to aid them in their learning processes, but the information they gather is sometimes bogus, invalid or unfounded. Third, managers could seek for support from management research to improve their learning. However, given management research intricacies, limitations and particularities, a learning challenge emerges as well, as management research has been rarely capable to capture complexity.
Originality/value
Having explored these managerial learning challenges due to complexity, this paper discusses a carefulness-based management learning ideal, which by being underpinned by the quality of carefulness and the related concepts of critical thinking, negative capability and a deep learning style, suggests a potential new way to approach management learning in light of complexity.
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Cathrine Reineholm, Daniel Lundqvist and Andreas Wallo
The purpose of this paper is to assess previous research on conditions for managers’ learning and development in daily work practices and how such conditions may influence their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess previous research on conditions for managers’ learning and development in daily work practices and how such conditions may influence their sustainability and also to propose a concept and a heuristic model that reconceptualizes and expands on the theoretical foundations generated in previous studies of managers’ learning and development at work.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on an integrative literature review. The literature search identified 1,403 unique studies. Nine qualitative and seven quantitative studies met the relevance and quality criteria and were included in the review.
Findings
The results of the review found associations between managers’ learning conditions, career opportunities, individual engagement and sustainability. However, the small amount of empirical data used in the reviewed studies and the cross-sectional design of the studies make it difficult to establish the nature of the relationship between different variables.
Practical implications
The results of this paper show that managers need to care for and take advantage of opportunities for their own development and not only function as creators of their employees’ development. Employers should keep in mind that the development environment includes managers and employees.
Originality/value
This paper contributes with an original concept of managers’ development environments and a conceptual model that integrates theory with results from the included studies. Based on the model, propositions that may serve as an agenda for future research are formulated.
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Andreas Wallo, Henrik Kock, Cathrine Reineholm and Per-Erik Ellström
The purpose of this paper is to explore managers’ learning-oriented leadership, and what conditions managers face when working with the promotion of employees’ learning.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore managers’ learning-oriented leadership, and what conditions managers face when working with the promotion of employees’ learning.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with managers in three manufacturing firms. Verbatim expressions of the interview participants were analysed using stepwise analytical procedures.
Findings
The managers used many kinds of activities to promote learning. Most common were activities related to learning opportunities that arose during daily work. The identified activities ranged from being planned to occurring more spontaneously. Depending on the situation or the learning activity, the managers used different behaviours to promote learning. They supported, educated and confronted employees, and they acted as role models. Factors constraining the implementation of learning-oriented leadership included limited resources, and a lack of commitment from top management, employees or the managers themselves.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should study learning-oriented leadership from the employees’ perspective.
Practical implications
Managers’ notions about learning and development constitute an important condition for learning-oriented leadership. Therefore, managers need to be trained in how to promote their employees’ learning at work.
Originality/value
This study adds to the limited knowledge of how managers carry out a learning-oriented leadership in their daily work. The findings contribute knowledge regarding managerial practices of promoting employees’ workplace learning by identifying different activities and behaviours that managers could incorporate into their leadership.
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