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1 – 10 of over 11000Louise Brøns Kringelum and Jacob Brix
This study aims to investigate the implications of applying critical realism to the study of organizational learning. It considers critical realism as an alternate theoretical…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the implications of applying critical realism to the study of organizational learning. It considers critical realism as an alternate theoretical science foundation to the domains of empirical realism and social constructivism that characterize most of the field of organizational learning.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts the approach of a philosophical/conceptual discussion.
Findings
This study finds that the critical realist approach makes it possible for organizational learning researchers to apply a prescriptive change agenda. It requires researchers to study the context in which organizational learning occurs. These two features enable the researcher to propose what the world must be like for organizational learning to occur. Hence, a critical realist foundation moves organizational learning theory a step closer to its theoretical sibling, the learning organization.
Originality/value
This study reveals the potential in applying critical realism to the study of organizational learning and identifies its related strengths.
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Enrico Guarini, Francesca Magli and Andrea Francesconi
The purpose of this study is to analyse how academic staff cope with the new culture of performance measurement and assessment in universities. In particular, the study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyse how academic staff cope with the new culture of performance measurement and assessment in universities. In particular, the study aims to shed light on how external pressures related to measurement of research performance are translated into organisational and individual academic responses within the university and the extent to which these responses are related specifically to the operational features of performance measurement systems (PMS).
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a case study conducted in an Italian public university and based on interviews with a cross-disciplinary sample of faculty members.
Findings
The study provides insights into how linking financial incentives and career progression to research performance metrics at the system and organisational levels may have important reorientation effects on individual behaviours and epistemic consequences for the academic work.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on interviews, so one limitation is related to the risk of researcher and interviewee personal bias. Moreover, this study is focused on one single case of a specific university setting, which cannot be fully representative of the experiences of others.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature on management accounting by exploring the factors that might explain why the unintended effects of PMS on academics’ behaviour reported by several studies might occur. From a practitioner’s point of view, it shows features of PMS that may produce unintended effects on academic activities. It also highlights the need to rethink PMS for the evaluation of university performance through the involvement of different stakeholders.
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Salvatore V. Falletta and Wendy L. Combs
The purpose of the paper is to explore the meaning of Human Resources (HR) analytics and introduce the HR analytics cycle as a proactive and systematic process for ethically…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to explore the meaning of Human Resources (HR) analytics and introduce the HR analytics cycle as a proactive and systematic process for ethically gathering, analyzing, communicating and using evidence-based HR research and analytical insights to help organizations achieve their strategic objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual review of the current state and meaning of HR analytics. Using the HR analytics cycle as a framework, the authors describe a seven-step process for building evidence-based and ethical HR analytics capabilities.
Findings
HR analytics is a nascent discipline and there are a multitude of monikers and competing definitions. With few exceptions, these definitions lack emphasis on evidence-based practice (i.e. the use of scientific research findings in adopting HR practices), ethical practice (i.e. ethically gathering and using HR data and insights) and the role of broader HR research and experimentation. More importantly, there are no practical models or frameworks available to help guide HR leaders and practitioners in doing HR analytics work.
Practical implications
The HR analytics cycle encompasses a broader range of HR analytics practices and data sources including HR research and experimentation in the context of social, behavioral and organizational science.
Originality/value
This paper introduces the HR analytics cycle as a practical seven-step approach for making HR analytics work in organizations.
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Florian Fahrenbach and Florian Kragulj
Considering personality as changeable through a bottom-up process of altering states, habits and traits, constitutes a shift in the predominant paradigm within personality…
Abstract
Purpose
Considering personality as changeable through a bottom-up process of altering states, habits and traits, constitutes a shift in the predominant paradigm within personality psychology. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider Bateson’s theory of learning and organizational triple-loop learning in light of this recent empirical evidence.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a multi-disciplinary conceptual approach. Based on an integrative analysis of literature from recent work in personality psychology, four dimensions (process, content, time and context) are identified that allow linking personality change and triple-loop learning.
Findings
Identifying a bottom-up process of changing states, habits and traits as being central to change personality, allows for reconsidering Bateson’s theory of learning as a theory of personality development (Learning II) and personality change (Learning III). Functionally equivalent, organizational triple-loop learning is conceptualized as a change in an organization’s identity over time that may be facilitated through a change in responding to events and a change in the organization’s routines.
Practical implications
Interventions that change how organizations respond to events and that change the routines within an organization may be suitable to facilitate triple-loop learning in terms of changing organizational identity over time.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the discussion on Bateson’s theory of learning and organizational triple-loop learning. As interest in personality change grows in organization studies, this paper aims to transfer these findings to organizational learning.
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Aleš Zebec and Mojca Indihar Štemberger
Although businesses continue to take up artificial intelligence (AI), concerns remain that companies are not realising the full value of their investments. The study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Although businesses continue to take up artificial intelligence (AI), concerns remain that companies are not realising the full value of their investments. The study aims to provide insights into how AI creates business value by investigating the mediating role of Business Process Management (BPM) capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
The integrative model of IT Business Value was contextualised, and structural equation modelling was applied to validate the proposed serial multiple mediation model using a sample of 448 organisations based in the EU.
Findings
The results validate the proposed serial multiple mediation model according to which AI adoption increases organisational performance through decision-making and business process performance. Process automation, organisational learning and process innovation are significant complementary partial mediators, thereby shedding light on how AI creates business value.
Research limitations/implications
In pursuing a complex nomological framework, multiple perspectives on realising business value from AI investments were incorporated. Several moderators presenting complementary organisational resources (e.g. culture, digital maturity, BPM maturity) could be included to identify behaviour in more complex relationships. The ethical and moral issues surrounding AI and its use could also be examined.
Practical implications
The provided insights can help guide organisations towards the most promising AI activities of process automation with AI-enabled decision-making, organisational learning and process innovation to yield business value.
Originality/value
While previous research assumed a moderated relationship, this study extends the growing literature on AI business value by empirically investigating a comprehensive nomological network that links AI adoption to organisational performance in a BPM setting.
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This study aims to better inform environmental management at universities by applying and validating the policy integration processes theory through a case study of Manchester…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to better inform environmental management at universities by applying and validating the policy integration processes theory through a case study of Manchester Metropolitan University.
Design/methodology/approach
Social network analyses were used to identify, differentiate and categorise working networks of individuals and departments and the interconnections between them.
Findings
In an organisation, networks can be developed and active at departmental level but not at individual level. High numbers of departments can be doing work related to sustainable development whilst having low and medium levels of interconnections between departments. Influence of stakeholders throughout the network suggests levels of sustainable development policy integration at individual and departmental.
Practical implications
New insights provide evidence for universities’ environmental managers of the need of developing and implementing strategies that involve individuals’ work between departments by providing incentives, supporting capacity building and staff empowerment.
Originality/value
This paper applied and validated the theory of policy integration processes, showing that work at individual level and between departments needs more attention.
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