Search results

Knowledge is critical for organisational effectiveness and competitive advantage. Knowing that you know, knowing what you know, and knowing that you do not know, are critical aspects of knowledge management. Increasing emphasis is placed on the need to identify and use tacit knowledge, as well as explicit knowledge. This discussion examines the unique role of narrative (in the form of storytelling) in eliciting tacit knowledge (including tacit meta‐knowledge) in the sensemaking of organisations.

Attempts to document how different forms of ignorance may evolve in different organizational dialogues and become embedded in organizational context. Develops the four primary forms of ignorance based on the research from social psychology, public opinion studies, legal studies, behavioral economics, and clinical psychology. The recognition of the historic interdisciplinary evolution of the concept of ignorance plays an important role in the knowledge economy and learning organizations. If management is not aware of the various latent forms of organizational ignorance, it is difficult to develop meaningful innovation programs for organizations in the twenty‐first century. Develops a framework to address the issue of “not knowing what one does not know” (i.e. ignorance of ignorance) that may be the biggest barrier for organizations to becoming an active participant in the knowledge economy.

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between change interventions and organizational learning. It seeks to identify the process through which team learning is developed, the factors that affect organizational learning and its influences on organizational effectiveness.

Two groups of samples from a Singapore large manufacturing firm that had implemented change interventions for two years were selected. Qualitative data from 45 employees using the laddering, non‐directive interviewing technique, and 20 leaders using focus group discussions were gathered.

Changes to organizational systems and structure have led to a state of not‐knowing which contributes to defensive dynamics. Learning begins with the unlearning of old habits by encouraging new thinking patterns through rigorous feedback loops. Expectations of leaders should also be redistributed to facilitate and integrate the various aspects of learning.

Change interventions have led organizational learning to develop in reciprocal directions where the initial top‐down approach is subsequently supported and driven by a bottom‐up approach. The strategy is to engage employees in collaborative decision making embedded in constant dialogue and reflection.

Organizational learning strategies, developed from the lessons learned, are based on organizational infrastructures with an emphasis on efficiency, effectiveness and transformation. One of the critical considerations is the institutionalization of learning as being integral to daily work practices.

The study extends the theoretical basis of the “fifth discipline” by incorporating the nominalist perspective such that organizations, as organisms, have the capacity to recreate themselves for the expansion of the shared vision.

Suggests that as we begin to drown in information, technology is not the only way to resolve the resulting stress. Argues that as people become less able to absorb, let alone process, all the information and knowledge that is around, we need to consider other ways of working. Being crammed full of information may not be the solution. Rather we need to give ourselves permission to not know, and then work together, to share, and to allow ourselves time and space to consider what we really do need to know. For that we have to be asking the right questions. Concludes that sharing, co‐operating, applying action learning and open space conferencing approaches are just some of the ways forward.

To write about Heinz von Foerster: to interpret him, to describe his real thoughts, to be “a foersterist”.

Considers that Heinz von Foerster, who used admiration and a not knowing approach as an epistemological basis, like most outstanding, emblematic figures in the history of mankind, liked to be called someone without disciplines, without “‐ist‐s”. It is the author's preference to call him a “withoutist”. The withoutist conveys knowledge from her/his epistemological position of self reference in an a priori manner.

To use a metaphor: she/he is so sharp that he does not wound his/her counterpart by conveying information, since there are no subject‐object borders to pierce through. He tries to learn learning, understand understanding. The term “withoutist” has a paradoxical meaning: being classified a withoutist means at the same time not to be classifiable.

Understanding a withoutist means not to understand him/her, but understand ourselves: it is a second‐order understanding. It shows up the never‐ending self referential process of construction and knowledge, observer and observed. The ethical position of the withoutist is the a priori acceptance of her/his counterparts opinion, his/her being right.

This chapter examines the barriers to reentry for justice involved young people in the US and Australia from the perspectives of the 44 Australian and 14 US stakeholders who work with them. The interviews were analyzed using inductive content analysis to identify key internal and external barriers. Results suggest a need for improvement in the areas of collaboration among systems, family engagement, and student self-determination. The discussion focuses on the similarities and differences in the barriers that exist across nations and systems. Implications for future research, practice, and policy are included to improve transition services and supports for juvenile justice involved youth.

…the astonishing struggle that lasts forever Francine Du Plessix Gray (2000). …the simultaneous sound of…both harmonies and dissonances Kurt Lüscher (2000). I wanted to watch my father die because I hated him. Oh, I loved him… Sharon Olds (1992).The concept of absolute absence or presence is not meaningful for adult children when an elderly parent’s mind is slipping away. This is a time of increased ambiguity in the family boundary, in which the status and roles of the demented elder are no longer clear, and often not agreed upon. Not knowing if a parent is absent or present, the potential for ambivalence in the adult children is high. Within this intergenerational context, the main thesis of this paper is that the ambiguous loss of a parent with dementia provides fertile ground for increased ambivalence in intergenerational relations (Boss, 1999, 2002). The heightened ambiguity and resulting ambivalence may or may not be problematic, depending on cognitive awareness and family processes.

The present study explored the adjustment (i.e. survival vs stay) of a unique group of Turkish entrepreneur immigrants in the United Kingdom, whose initial experiences upon their move were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.

Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore this immigrant group's experience on the path to potential immigration success or failure as indicators of adjustment. The content of the interviews was analyzed via theoretical thematic analysis.

Key career capital aspects hindering entrepreneurial effort under the unique conditions of Covid-19 were defined as not knowing how to start a business (in general, in the host country and under extreme conditions), why they should persist to stay, and whom to contact in the host country. Key facilitating career capital aspects were defined as knowing how to revise the business plans when needed and knowing why they left the home country, preferred the host country and should persist to stay there. Each unique aspect was mapped onto specific components of the context (home country, host country and profession) to add depth to the analyses.

The study contributes to the literature primarily by integrating career capital framework with different elements of the context. It also represents the first effort to adopt the framework to identify the critical career capital aspects of entrepreneur immigrants.

Researchers play an essential, and indeed powerful, role in honouring and empowering the voices of people from marginalised communities. This chapter seeks to step beyond the already comprehensive ethical and methodological literature on ‘doing’ research by offering a reflection on the less articulated, but no less substantiative, aspects of conducting qualitative research with those for whom that which is most important, as the writer Audrey Lorde suggests, must be spoken. The delicate dance of interest and objectivity, a tolerance of not knowing and uncertainty and the willingness to hold competing truths with equal reverence are discussed and illuminated with examples from my own research with young people with experiences of mental health difficulties. This chapter is offered with the intention of foregrounding some of the more tacit, but no less bruising, aspects of the research interplay. Equally, it is offered in the hope that, in bringing into the open our limitations and vulnerabilities as researchers, we might be better positioned to understand, indeed honour, that which is most important for those in distress.

Profiles Professor Reg Revans — the father of action learning — who does not seem to have been given the recognition he deserves in the UK, and aims to put the record straight here. Contends that many of Revans' ideas have been picked up and incorporated, over time, into a lot of today's accepted management techniques. Sets out Reg Revans' beliefs that action learning is a process of inquiry, beginning with the experience of not knowing what to do next and finding that an answer is not available from current expertise. Concludes that the typical implementation of action learning is usually grown through small learning sets of 5‐6 people — joint questioning takes place and action is generated and discussed.