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The purpose of this paper is to explore how emergent changes are handled in research and development (R&D) projects. R&D projects’ business potential lies in their exploration of the unknown; conversely, this makes them uncertain endeavours, prone to emergent changes.

Uses a single-case-study design, based on a projects-as-practice perspective and a soft systems methodology (SSM) analysis, to map how ad hoc R&D teams handle emergent changes, specifically the solution identification and assessment phase and the implementation plan. An R&D project in the power industry, involving over 250 engineers, was analysed.

This paper shows how emergent changes are handled differently from initiated changes during the decision-making phase. The system analysis shows that the most critical factors for managing these changes are: collective reflection between project parties; and including experienced engineers in implementation-plan reviews.

The results are of relevance both to R&D managers aiming to improve team performance and to general project management. Informal notions of emergent changes can be formalised in the change request process. Weaknesses in the project team’s organisation are highlighted, and details of how of how to mitigate these are provided.

Combines engineering-design and project-management research on emergent changes, adding to the former regarding people–organisational and strategic issues. Furthers understanding of the projects-as-practice approach and emergent change (deviations) handling by ad hoc teams in a project environment. SSM has not previously been used to explore aspects of projects-as-practice, and this is a novel way of adding to the body of knowledge on project praxis and practise.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of training on ad hoc teams in an industrial setting.

In this paper, data were collected from 11 Spanish automobile manufacturer suppliers and included the assessment of the current situation, the creation and holding of different workshops followed by the collection of the results.

The paper finds that ad hoc teams are really effective especially in lean companies.

This paper breaks new ground in analysing the effect of training ad hoc teams in an industrial setting.

Despite air travel having become a widely used means of transportation, the technological sophistication and human skill required for flying an aircraft remains a source of fascination and admiration. Aviation has been coined an ultra-safe system, coping with the duality of safety and efficiency by emphasizing expertise and learning, but also standardization and automation. Highly selected and continuously trained pilots have to work with increasingly complex and autonomous technology, which creates tensions between routinization and responsible action. Research on leadership and coordination in aircrews is reviewed in light of these tensions, pointing to the benefits of a functional approach to leadership which promotes optimal use of all resources in the team toward adaptive coordination. Furthermore, the leadership requirements arising from the fact that aircrews are ad hoc teams, usually only formed for a few flights, are discussed in terms of fast team-building coupled with the reliance on shared knowledge stemming from high levels of standardization. Due to the complex demands for leadership in aircrews, special training programs were developed early on, which have become a standard that many other high-risk industries are still striving for. The generalizability and need for further development of concepts embedded in successfully leading aircrews is scrutinized, focusing especially on leadership in ad hoc teams, the interplay of standardization and leadership, and the balance between shared and formal leadership.

The authors, with disparate organisational affiliations and in different geographic locations, worked together on a qualitative multiple-case study of ad hoc supervisory encounters between general practice (GP) supervisors and GP-registrars. The purpose of this paper is to share our experiences and learning to highlight how valuable pilot work can be when conducting team-based qualitative research.

This paper outlines the value of pilot work in consolidating whole team understanding of the research plan, using our experiences as an example. We first offer a synthesis of published literature relating to pilot work, especially in qualitative research approaches. Next, we outline and justify the pilot work undertaken for the ad hoc supervision study. Lastly, we use each researcher’s voice to describe our experiences and then share the lessons we learned undertaking pilot work in qualitative research.

We found that while pilot work can be useful in refining strategies, data collection processes and analytic instruments. There are further benefits in galvanising whole team understanding of the research plan, in encouraging reflexivity, in ensuring transparency of the research process, and for ethical considerations.

There are few published papers or books which offer researchers guidance regarding pilot work, especially within a qualitative paradigm. Our experience shows there is value in planning and conducting pilot work. We believe others may benefit from our experience as they embark on team-based research.

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the challenges of ad hoc teams in the corporate setting.

Review of the literature about teams, agile methodologies, scrums, etc. was carried out.

While ad hoc teams can create value, their proliferation has had unintended consequences.

The literature review is, by its nature, selective not comprehensive.

Based on the recommendations cited, corporations will be able to make better decisions about when to initiate special teams.

By doing so, companies will eliminate the frustrations employees feel in certain types of teams and improve their quality of life.

Although the subject of ad hoc teams has been extensively covered, this viewpoint takes a fresh look at the overall consequences of their proliferation.

Previous research on workplace meetings identified critical design features, leader behaviors, group dynamics, post-meeting actions, and other factors which help determine the effectiveness of the meeting. But as much as the authors acknowledge that meetings may differ from each other, much of the research appears to assume that it is meaningful to talk about “the meeting” as a single, generic entity (most commonly, the regularly scheduled staff or department meeting). In fact, though, there are several common types of meetings which vary among themselves in terms of a number of measurable parameters such as structure, meeting members, meeting leader, timing and duration, and scope. It is a gratuitous assumption that what the authors know about workplace meetings based on one especially common type applies to all workplace meetings. This chapter offers a historical review of previous attempts to classify meeting types; it then overviews several common types which deviate from the standard staff meeting paradigm, including project team meetings, debrief meetings, committee meetings, site-wide meetings, shift change meetings, and crew formation meetings. In comparing these types to the staff meeting, the authors identify some of the critical differences, thereby providing a first step toward a true taxonomy of meetings.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relation between emotional intelligence (EI), team learning and team psychological safety, using a context sensitive approach.

Using an internet survey‐research design, employees embedded inside work teams were asked to respond to an anonymous survey battery. Careful attention was paid to the collection of data from members of ad hoc teams currently engaged in projects within their respective organizations.

Post analysis, evidence suggested EI was significantly and positively related with team psychological safety and team learning. Likewise, team psychological safety was significantly associated with team learning. Q‐Sorting technique was used to establish discriminant validity between the three scales. Bootstrapping revealed that team psychological safety mediated the relation between EI and team learning.

The paper’s results extend current theoretical bounds of organization learning theory and focus on actionable leverage points for management development. Moreover, by connecting previously disparate literature in both management and human resource development, new frameworks are encouraged as consideration points.

The paper's findings could serve as the basis for new focal points in management development and perhaps shed new light on the role of emotions in work, as well as the role psychological climate plays as a specific leverage point for managers.

This is the first paper to explore the relationship between EI and team learning amongst individual members of real world ad hoc organizational teams. Findings indicate a positive association and further delineate the process in which EI affects team learning.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an action process method including coordination, monitoring, and backup response, to improve collaborative decision making in online library work teams.

The method was tested using a single factor experimental design where some groups used an action process intervention developed by the researcher, while others used team designated ad hoc process. Participants comprised 26 four person teams. The experiment was performed in a distributed environment where teams used Google chat communication, and a shared Google document to organize, clarify, and evaluate information. Decision performance was measured in two ways. Decision accuracy was measured by the selection of a correct choice from four alternatives. Decision quality was measured by shift in suitability ratings from participants’ individual choice to the correct answer after team discussion.

Teams using an action process method based on monitoring, coordination, and backup behaviors had more accurate and higher quality decisions than groups using ad hoc process.

The research demonstrates usefulness of empirically designed, team implemented process methods to improve library decision making. Because the research was conducted in a single context, further research in alternative settings and contexts is suggested.

The research has practical benefits to library work teams and managers performing tasks where effective information sharing and exchange is required to make accurate, high-quality decision.

The paper provides a way to improve decision making using an easy-to-implement, process-driven method.

Illustrates the results accomplished by an ad hoc committee established at a bank to conduct training throughout the organization, with particular emphasis on providing quality customer service. The ad hoc committee proved to be more effective and efficient than the addition of a training department or the use of external trainers. The primary criteria used for selection of committee members were strong technical competences in their primary functions and good presentation skills, as well as being considered informal leaders by their peers. The ad hoc committee was initially trained via utilization of external training consultants. The training programme conducted by the committee made a major contribution to facilitating integration among the various functions and geographically dispersed units of the organization at a very small direct cost. A key component for the success of this type of training is top management support and commitment.

This paper aims to study the symbolic categorisations management accountants produce. It examines the categories they use to describe their work and analyses the meanings they attach to such categories. This aims at explaining how management accountants can follow a common occupational orientation despite the need to adjust their practices to the specificities of their local and organisational context. The author’s argument is that management accountants build symbolic categories to create a bridge between what they do and who they are. The author further argues that symbolic categories are needed to make sense of a practice in tension between a common aspirational orientation and heterogeneous local contexts.

This paper draws on a multiple case field study conducted by observation and interviews in a range of organisations.

This paper examines the empirical diversity of management accountants’ practices and perceptions through the symbolic categories they produce. The author finds that categorisation work constitutes a central mechanism to build a shared narrative despite heterogeneous situations. The author further shows that through symbolic categorisation work, a variety of activities ranging from bookkeeping through managerial support to hierarchical surveillance and challenge in the name of the shareholder are subsumed under stable labels. This, he argues, serves to mask financial accountability, shareholder orientation and hierarchical control behind a narrative of “support” and “partnership”.

This paper contributes to literature on management accountants’ identity by showing the central role played by symbolic categorisations. It also contributes to literature in accounting more generally by showing how symbolic categorisation work blurs the lines between “operational support” and “shareholder value creation”. The same words are used to refer to activities that managers consider helpful to make operational decisions and other activities that increase shareholder control and surveillance and encourage managers to internalise the frames and objectives of shareholder value creation. Symbolic categories that include hierarchical financial accountability within a narrative of “support” and “partnership” masks “financialisation” behind a rhetoric of “business orientation”.