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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Higher education institutions can utilize sustainability reporting tools as a means of increasing organizational learning and strengthening sustainability. Finding ways to deepen and broaden the nature of learning will help better equip these institutions to address complex challenges like climate change.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The use of “homework”, activities outside of the classroom or session, is widely applied in a range of disciplines including teaching, therapy and training. The argument advanced by advocates is that it provides an opportunity to consolidate knowledge learnt in the classroom and develop mastery in an applied environment. However, the use of homework has not been widely discussed or researched within business coaching, which is a form of personal development. This exploratory study aims to examine whether homework, as a coaching intervention, may enhance the clients' learning experience.

Data were collected from eight early career coaches and eight coaching clients. Not all clients were related to the coaches. Each client had experienced a minimum of three coaching sessions. Interviews were recorded and analysed using thematic analysis. The study explored the use of (1) client-led, (2) coach-led and (3) collaboratively developed homework during the engagements.

The findings indicated that homework is widely used and was perceived to have mixed effects. The positioning of the homework by the coach, including the terminology used to describe the activity, and the type of work can affect the level of engagement and thus the perceived value generated.

This is the first study to explore the nature of “homework” in coaching. More work is needed to better inform the use of “homework” in coaching practice, including the type of work and how this is agreed with different types of clients, for example, should homework be coach, collaborative or client led?

This study aims to answer pertinent questions related to the quality of the organisational learning capability measurement model.

A time-separated design informed data collection. The organisational learning capability was exposed to classical higher-order and bifactor confirmatory factor analyses. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis facilitated measurement invariance testing. This study assessed the predictive validity of the organisational learning capability subscales using hierarchical regression analysis.

This study replicated the second-order organisational learning capability model with four subscales. Bifactor modelling confirmed the multidimensionality of the organisational learning capability. The organisational learning capability was invariant between gender groups. The organisational learning capability subscales accounted for a significant variance in innovative work behaviour.

The organisational learning capability exhibits robust properties, making it a plausible option for monitoring the quality of organisational learning. Organisations must appreciate the quality of this dynamic capability and leverage it to generate new sources of value.

This study fills a critical gap in organisational learning-related capabilities in sub-Saharan African contexts, providing a base to influence innovation-related trajectories positively.

Organizational resilience, defined by a firm’s speed in reaching a dynamic equilibrium after a shock and after the shocks are absorbed, and crisis management are critical in a global crisis. The concept of resilience is increasingly used in the economic press; nevertheless, few studies demonstrate empirically how firms became resilient and the lessons to be learned from it. Traditionally, the concept of resilience is approached as resistance in the face of a crisis. The authors go further by showing three-loop learning, which is part of a logic of innovation and regeneration. This study aims to examine how a business can regenerate itself by effectively managing the external threats and disruptions caused by a crisis. Also, this study deepens knowledge on learning process. The double-loop learning process is known in the literature as enabling firms to learn from unexpected events and react accordingly. The findings point out a third loop implying the co-invention of a new business model and a collective mindfulness of changes made.

Using longitudinal data, the authors investigate how the global crisis affects merger negotiations between two companies. This study analyzes the period of dialogue (negotiation) between the two entities with a view to carrying out a merger and then their withdrawal from the project during the pandemic, reshuffling the cards for each company. The negotiation period is not normally disclosed because of its highly confidential and strategic nature and it is therefore difficult for researchers to access merger operations at the negotiation stage. From this viewpoint, this case study was chosen because of the availability of generally inaccessible documentation.

This in-depth case study provides new insights on organizational resilience and the recovery capacity of a firm. The results underline four main triggers that a firm should develop in facing a major crisis: skills; credits; previous and historical relationships; and corporate culture. Recovery capacity depends on reactivity, flexibility, learning and regeneration. Finally, this study points out a three-loop learning experience that can be understood as a learning process in two steps to generate lasting and adaptive changes.

The limitations are those concerning a single case study.

This study highlights the ability to deal with unexpected events. First, this work identifies concrete items that can be perceived by managers as elements enabling a firm to develop resilience. Second, the results show main elements enabling this capacity as reactivity – both companies react quickly and effectively to disturbances to limit the impact on their performance; or flexibility – firms adapt their business model to deal with disruptions. Third, this work underlines a learning capacity process in three steps to recover capacity. This process stimulates creativity and innovation by the teams and stakeholders by placing them at the heart of the change.

This case provides a vivid illustration of firms’ adaptation to a rapidly evolving context because of a global crisis. Theoretical concepts and empirical findings from the literature are combined to present a single consistent picture.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the links between leaders' creation of knowledge in the setting of a leadership development program and the transfer of knowledge to their own organizations.

This is a case study of a leadership development program conducted during 2020–2022. The program was focused on how to lead and manage learning and knowledge processes in organizations, and offered a mix of theoretical perspectives and practical collaborative sessions. Data were collected through interviews and the participants' written reflections on their learning experiences. Total number of interviews was 13.

Overall the participants showed many examples of how they applied theories and practical tools that they had learned during the program in their own organizations. The participants experienced different types of challenges regarding knowledge transfer, but also potential meta-knowledge transfer through dialogue.

Pedagogical organizing of leadership development point to a need for supplementary dialogue between the leader of the development program and both the participating leader and manager.

This study shows that meta-knowledge transfer is not a simple matter of moving codified knowledge from the development program to new settings. Knowledge about others' knowledge requires and stimulates subject-to-subject relations between people through which new knowledge potential is created. These findings confirm and enhance previous studies that indicate the need for social support for soft-skill knowledge transfer.

Project managers face decisions every day and those decisions result in an “either or” situation. This is also true when it comes to the choice of a project management approach, i.e. predictive versus iterative. A case is made in this article that project managers should be ambidextrous and apply practices that are beneficial to the project, irrespective of the origin of the practices.

This study is based on a questionnaire focussing on six themes. The results of 290 projects were analysed using ANOVA and boxplots to test for skewness and variances.

Based on the analysis of 117 practices, most of these projects could be classified as either hybrid or iterative projects. The results indicate that irrespective of the classification of the projects or the industry, projects are managed using a hybrid approach, with a tendency to incorporate more iterative practices than predictive practices.

This article contributes to the current debate on which approach is the best given certain circumstances.

With the recognition that knowledge is ingrained within certain social groups and settings, more recent literature in this field is now spotlighting this human focused or “social dimension” of knowledge management. However, this learning approach faces some constraints, especially, in project context. While the existing body of knowledge has focused on emphasizing the importance of the social processes and practices involved in this approach, there is glaring neglect of the intricacies involved when executing learning through this agency, especially in project settings. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the systemic obstacles in personalizing knowledge flows within and across projects.

This study adopted a positivist philosophical stance couched within a deductive approach. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 203 construction professionals with “hands-on” experience in managing projects in the Ghanaian construction industry.

A mean score analysis showed that all the identified obstacles are significant factors that hinder the personalization of knowledge flows within and across projects. A structure detection analysis generated four principal obstacle components (POCs), explaining about 67.897% of the total variance of the obstacles in personalizing knowledge flows in temporary organizations. The complex web of obstacles was broken out into four broad thematic categories or POCs: obstacles at the individual level, obstacles at the team level, obstacles at the structural level and the limitations of project operations. A fuzzy synthetic evaluation modeling of the four POCs generated criticality indices for each POC exceeding 3.50 on a five-point rating scale, indicating that, all the four POCs as significant obstacles to personalizing knowledge flows within and across projects.

Implications are provided for project managers on the social dynamics of learning in project teams.

The research findings expand existing frontiers of knowledge by addressing the gap in the literature on the complexity of the personalization strategy within projects. The findings would also spark a broader discussion about the importance of developing integrated ways to structure learning in project environments. The culmination of the research will serve as a solid foundation for the development of a future project learning frameworks.

This study investigates how asset specificity, relational governance and firm adaptability relate with supply chain integration (SCI), considering selected food processing firms (FPFs) in Uganda.

This study applies a quantitative research methodology. This research draws on a sample of 103 FPFs that have been selected from a population of 345 FPFs located in Kampala district. Hypothesis testing was done using Smart PLS version 3.

Asset specificity has a significant positive relationship with SCI, and firm adaptability partially mediates this relationship. Also, there is a full mediation impact of firm adaptability on the relationship between relational governance and SCI.

This study focused on perceptual measures to get responses from managers on the level of integration with key suppliers and customers, yet firms deal with a number of suppliers and customers.

This study contributes to existing literature on SCI by applying the transaction cost theory. The study focuses on the influence of asset specificity, relational governance and firm adaptability on SCI in the food processing sector. Literature on relational governance in supply chain using the transaction cost theory remains scanty. Few studies have also focused on firm adaptability as a mediator in the FPS with specific focus on Uganda, yet the sector is highly faced with uncertain events. The uncertain events in the sector and in developing countries call for adaptive strategies. Additionally, this study is the first to use firm adaptability to mediate the influence of asset specificity and relational governance on SCI more so in a developing country like Uganda where the FPS is one of the most important in the economy.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, classify and analyse temporality in information systems development (ISD) literature.

The authors address the temporality and ISD research gap by using a framework – which classifies time into three categories: conceptions of time, mapping activities to time and actors relating to time. The authors conduct a systematic literature review which investigates time in ISD within the Senior Scholars' Basket, Information Technology & People (IT&P), and top two information systems conferences over the past 20 years. The search strategy resulted in 9,850 studies of which 47 were identified as primary papers.

The results reveal that ISD research is ill equipped for contemporary thinking around time. This systematic literature review (SLR) contributes to ISD by finding the following gaps in the literature: (1) clock time is dominant and all other types of time are under-researched; (2) contributions to mapping activities to time is lacking and existing studies focus on single ISD projects rather multiple complex ISD projects; (3) research on actors relating to time is lacking; (4) existing ISD studies which contribute to temporal characteristics are fragmented and lack integration with other categories of time and (5) ISD methodology papers lack contributions to temporal characteristics and fail to acknowledge and contribute to time as a multifaceted interrelated concept.

This work has developed the first SLR on temporality in ISD. This study provides a starting point for ISD researchers and ISD practitioners to test commonly held temporal assumptions of ISD researchers and practitioners.

This research aims to understand how competencies for supply chain professionals are developed and how they can affect the manager's performance, especially the manager's resilience in times of significant supply chain disruptions.

A research model was developed based on a comprehensive literature survey in the area of individual competencies grounded in the knowledge-based view of the firm. We tested our research model using a quantitative, survey-based study with a sample of 175 Pakistani supply chain managers. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling (SEM).

The analysis identified corporate training and knowledge sharing as the main antecedents of supply chain professional's competencies. It also showed that these competencies result in higher performance in the form manager's resilience and job performance.

This study provides a valuable framework for organisations to focus on skill-developing training and promoting a knowledge-sharing culture among employees to achieve desired performance levels.

This study is unique as no prior research studied such a comprehensive model of antecedents and consequences of supply chain professionals' competencies.