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1 – 10 of 63Marc Baker, Mike Barker, Jon Thorne and Martin Dutnell
This paper introduces some of the elements of Knowledge Management and outlines the approaches RM Consulting ‐ the internal consultancy of the Royal Mail and the Post Office ‐ is…
Abstract
This paper introduces some of the elements of Knowledge Management and outlines the approaches RM Consulting ‐ the internal consultancy of the Royal Mail and the Post Office ‐ is taking to support the development of knowledge enablers within the organization. A Knowledge Management approach is described which focuses on people (including the organizational structure), processes and technology. The initial Knowledge Management focus of the organization is aimed principally on explicit knowledge, and the establishment of tools which help to capture internal information. The long‐term challenge is to capture the knowledge of the organization in such a way that all of its employees can maximize the value they provide to the organization’s stakeholders.
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As the limiting factor in many change efforts is having enough talent to replicate and sustain changes once they have been successfully piloted, there is a need for developing the…
Abstract
As the limiting factor in many change efforts is having enough talent to replicate and sustain changes once they have been successfully piloted, there is a need for developing the internal talent to lead change. The change leadership concept assumes that successful ideas already exist in the organisation, but that replicating these ideas alone will not be sufficient. Instead of forcing the organisation to accept one given solution, the program identifies ideas which can be replicated within each particular organisational unit, utilising the principles of positive deviance for managing change. Unlike benchmarking, positive deviance does not focus on solutions but on identifying underlying successful behaviours inside the organisation. This approach helps to develop leadership talent, accelerate organisational learning, encourage results‐oriented change that can be sustained, provide a vehicle for results replication, encourage cross‐cultural/cross‐business/cross‐functional learning and enable leaders to initiate change in a variety of business situations.
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Alessandro Alvarenga, Mehdi Safavi and Gary T. Burke
This paper investigates the intricate process of integrating historically excluded social groups into long-established routines. Drawing on a dialectical perspective, the research…
Abstract
This paper investigates the intricate process of integrating historically excluded social groups into long-established routines. Drawing on a dialectical perspective, the research explores how persistence and change emerge through the interplay of opposing forces, shedding light on the dynamics of integrating new participants while ensuring stability in established routines. The empirical focus is on an Armed Forces’ ground combat training (GCT) course, examining the integration of the first female officers after the formal ban on their participation in close-combat roles was lifted. The findings reveal a nuanced evolution of routine adaptation and truce reformation, characterized by three dialectical cycles: tentative truces, experimental truces, and enactment truces. These cycles involve negotiations between continuity and reformation, accommodation and resistance, and modification and preservation, uncovering a dialectical dance where organizational actors invest intense effort in maintaining the status quo while accommodating ambiguity and settling tensions. The findings extend our understanding of routine dynamics by illuminating the performative aspect of truce-making, highlighting the effortful processes involved in accommodating new participants. This paper establishes a connection between routines and dialectics, providing novel avenues for exploring complex organizational challenges and emphasizing micro-strategies employed by routine participants to address differences in practice. It also contributes to the field of organizational inclusion by offering a dialectical understanding of integration, showcasing the intricate dynamics involved in integrating historically excluded groups into established routines.
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Lykke Brogaard Bertel, Maiken Winther, Henrik Worm Routhe and Anette Kolmos
Problem-based learning (PBL) has been suggested as an approach to education for sustainable development (ESD); however, the integration of interdisciplinarity is continuously…
Abstract
Purpose
Problem-based learning (PBL) has been suggested as an approach to education for sustainable development (ESD); however, the integration of interdisciplinarity is continuously challenged as it requires transfer and collaboration across disciplinary boundaries, as well as integration into an often already-overflowing curriculum. Even in formalized PBL universities emphasizing student responsibility for defining relevant problems, envisioning sustainable solutions and developing transversal competences, interdisciplinary collaboration is still often “relocated” to extra-curricular activities. This paper aims to explore Aalborg University (AAU) Megaprojects as a case for systematically integrating principles of ESD, and particularly interdisciplinarity, into PBL at scale.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proposes a framework for analysing potentials and challenges concerning interdisciplinary framing and facilitation in large-scale projects based on PBL- and ESD-related research and presents findings from a case study on the first three rounds of megaprojects at AAU in 2019 and 2020.
Findings
The findings indicate that interdisciplinary megaprojects have the potential to motivate students to engage in sustainable development; however, they require systematic framing and guided facilitation, particularly in the early stages, for students to take ownership, prioritize collaboration and see the contribution to and connection between disciplines. They also need prioritization at all institutional levels to succeed as an institutional strategy of ESD.
Originality/value
The paper provides insights into the potentials and challenges of framing and facilitating large-scale megaprojects as an approach to integrate the SDGs and interdisciplinary collaboration into higher education. Hence, it aims to provide new insights, concepts and practices for ESD and PBL for sustainability.
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In the era of Big Data, larger volumes of data arrive in various forms at an increasing pace but of questionable quality and value. The abundant information (that emanates from…
Abstract
Purpose
In the era of Big Data, larger volumes of data arrive in various forms at an increasing pace but of questionable quality and value. The abundant information (that emanates from these 5Vs – volume, variety, velocity, veracity, and value) taxes the bounded capacity of managers. This chapter introduces a taxonomy of approaches available for strategic decision making in an information-rich environment, several of which showcase that automation can help to augment (not supplant) managerial decision making. This taxonomy is then applied to an innovation context. Mapping a stylized version of the phases of the innovation process (i.e., front-end innovation, new product development, commercialization) onto the four decision-making approaches yields an organizing framework for understanding strategic decision making in the realm of innovation. The chapter concludes by identifying promising areas for future research.
Methodology/approach
This conceptual chapter: (1) explicates the foundational terminology regarding strategic decision making in a marketing context; (2) provides a primer on the era of Big Data and making strategic decisions in an information-rich environment; (3) introduces a taxonomy, which features approaches to decision making in an information-rich environment; and (4) applies the taxonomy in an innovation context to yield an organizing framework.
Findings
This chapter focuses on the nascent field that is emerging at the intersection of innovation, marketing strategy, and information-rich environments, and breaks new ground by exploring automation available to aid managerial decision making in this realm.
Practical implications
The main practical implication is to elucidate that managers can apply different approaches to decision making in today’s information-rich environment. Tables 2–4 provide to managers 12 examples of the types of decision making in an innovation context.
Originality/value
This chapter introduces a new taxonomy to classify four approaches for making strategic decisions in an information-rich environment, and extends that framework to the innovation realm. This framework aims to prompt researchers to explore important topics that exist at the intersection of innovation, marketing strategy, and managerial decision making in an information-rich environment.
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A central tension in routine dynamics is the paradox of the [n]ever-changing world: how can we consider each routine performance as unique, when it is simultaneously a…
Abstract
A central tension in routine dynamics is the paradox of the [n]ever-changing world: how can we consider each routine performance as unique, when it is simultaneously a recognizable variant of the behavior from the past? Emergent from this paradox is the question of how we can consider routines to be the “same” over time, even as they change. Organizational traditions, which often persist over decades, present a potentially informative case of this paradox as their core rituals are simultaneously recognizable and recognizably in significant flux over the long-term. In this paper, the author draws on a case history of “the Unicorn,” a tradition at a US summer camp that began as a quiet activity for a few children in 1985 and by 2017 had become a weekly spectacle witnessed by hundreds of campers. By drawing on routine dynamics and tradition literatures, the author shows how action visibility and influence by different organizational constituencies over time slowly enabled these changes. This longer-term lens helps illuminate the under-researched, mutually constitutive relationship between routines and traditions, and their long-term dynamics.
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