1,881 research outputs found
Leadership development: applying new learning in an organisational context
No full textThis paper presents findings from a qualitative study evaluating the impact of a leadership development intervention. The evaluation was designed to look beyond individual learning, but explore organisational learning once participants rejoined their organisations. A range of interviews were conducted with participants and their line managers to elicit perceptions about what participants learned, how interviewees thought the learning was used in practice and what organisational procedures are in place to integrate new learning into work practices within the organisation. The evaluation shows that individual learning took place, but little organisational learning transpired. The research found that lack of time to practice new learning and fragmented organisational support are the factors that influence learning transfer. Additional factors influencing the identification of learning transfer are the non-alignment of organisational strategy/need with the education agenda supporting this strategy/need and the limited understanding of measurable benefits - financial or behavioural - that such training may provide
Who needs memory? The case for the Markovian organisation
No full textThis paper examines the contradiction of organisational memory: that an organisation requires a memory to operate effectively, but that that same memory inhibits and constrains its ability to operate effectively. We briefly review the field of organisational memory and note its close connection with organisational learning.We introduce a conceptual framework pioneered by Schultze and Stabell for examining contradictions in the area of knowledge management. We use this framework to distinguish between the conventional view of organisational memory, which implicitly or explicitly regards knowledge as a commodity, and a constructivist view, from which emerges a picture of the Markovian organisation: an organisation the future behaviour of which is determined not by memories of the past but by its current state, characterised by an organisational consciousness informed by the activities in which it is engaged. While the emphasis of this paper is theoretical, we suggest that adopting this Markovian view of the organisation might be particularly appropriate to practitioners in organisations that are immersed in turbulent environments.<br/
"Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin (...to transfer some knowledge?)" Narrative approaches to the transfer and interpretation of organisational knowledge
No full textA decision tree conceptualization of choice of knowledge transfer mechanism: the views of software development specialists in a multinational company
No full textPurpose– The purpose of this paper is to empirically study transfer mechanisms of technological knowledge, and to explore the interplay among the factors that influence the choice of a mechanism.Design/methodology/approach– This paper reports on a qualitative case study designed to explore the reasons underlying the selection of intra-organizational knowledge transfer mechanisms. This research was carried out as an exploratory case study, which allowed one to observe the phenomenon in a natural setting.Findings– The results of the present study indicate the interplay between the factors, and link the factors in a sequence that help decide a mechanism. A decision to select a mechanism depends upon several variables; some of them override others, others are interlinked, and sometimes there is a causal link.Research limitations/implications– It is based on a sample of employees that may not be representative of the broader population. Since the samples were drawn only from a MNC, the results may not be generalised. The case study method which was employed in this research does not permit the generalisation of the results.Originality/value– The knowledge transfer literature has discussed the mechanisms used to transfer technological knowledge, but has failed to adequately address the rationale behind the selection of an appropriate knowledge transfer mechanism. The extant literature has isolatedly identified factors that impact on the choice of knowledge transfer mechanism. These issues are not effectively addressed in prior research. The findings are summarized diagrammatically in the form of a decision tree which provides a conceptualization of the decision processes involved in the selection of the medium for knowledge transfer
The identification and cultivation of appropriate communities of practice in higher education
No full textThis chapter is specifically concerned with Communities of Practice of teachers, rather then students, in Higher Education, and with the teaching role rather than other roles such as research (although many of the arguments presented within the chapter can be generalised to other contexts). Following a short introduction to Communities of Practice, the chapter presents a classification of Communities of Practice utilising the dimensions of community structure and of knowledge activity. Drawing upon the work of Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002), the cultivation of Communities of Practice is discussed, and the question of how different types of community may be cultivated is considered. The chapter then addresses how these considerations may apply within Higher Education teaching. It is concluded that a flexible approach, which allows the nature of a Community of Practice to be modified in accordance with needs, is desirable
Leadership evaluation: an impact evaluation of a leadership programme
No full textThe HCIU and the School of Management undertook an empirical investigation into the impact of Leadership Development for NHS middle-management staff. The cohort was a cross-disciplinary mix of clinical and management personnel from 17 NHS organisations in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The research focused on evaluating the impact of the development intervention on the individuals and their organisations. The aims were to identify if such an intervention changes the thinking and behaviour of staff and their organisations, without losing sight of evaluating the costs and benefits of a development programme. The framework used for the evaluation was Phillips and Phillips’ modified version of Kirkpatrick’s framework for training evaluation.The results show that the intervention had a substantial impact on the individuals taking part. The participants reported improved self-confidence, more reflective and broader thinking, a heightened sense for other people’s behaviours and actions, and some participants also reported the acquisition of useful management tools to initiate and deal with change and its inherent challenges. However, the research also showed that training and development within the NHS tends to happen haphazardly rather than as an organisation-wide coordinated action. Nearly all research participants (including line-managers of the course participants) confirmed that there are rarely any mechanisms in place to support the application or integration of newly acquired knowledge and skills once back within the working environment. This was amplified by the disintegrated approach of selection and needs analysis on an organisational level before sending individuals on the programme. As the evaluated programme was part of a WDC sponsored pilot project, the cost-benefit analysis did not deliver any significant results. However, it was clear that the lack of appropriate needs analysis contributed to the lack of potential measure to assess the usefulness and benefits of such an intervention. Based on these findings the research report produced a number of recommendations for the strategic, operational, and individual levels within an organisation.<br/
Balancing the skills: the need for an improvement pyramid
No full textImprovements in health services require a range of technical skills, but like all complex organisational tasks they also rely on the personal skills and attitudes of the staff carrying out the changes. That much is axiomatic.1 2 3 Less certain, but surely potentially helpful to front-line staff undertaking improvement initiatives, is ascertaining just what might be the right sets of skills needed for different kinds of improvement tasks in varying circumstances.4 5 6Useful insights into the ways in which a range of organisational circumstances demand such skills were exposed when the Heath Foundation, an independent charity working to improve healthcare quality in the UK, funded our project to help local ‘improvement groups’ learn how to bring about specifically agreed developments, while simultaneously observing how the improvements worked out. By formatively evaluating the processes involved, the intention was to help the Health Foundation promulgate improvement skills more effectively in future. The methods that we used are briefly summarised in box and have been published fully elsewhere along with the details of the sites, participants, processes and outcomes.7 In brief, two National Health Service (NHS) sites were chosen for being exceptionally well primed, due to their apparent excellence in continual quality improvement, to benefit from extra funding, facilitation and expertise aimed at helping them make better use of ‘improvement science’.8 The expectation was that the focus would be on technical skills (such as rapid improvement cycles, process mapping, tailored outcome measures and data analysis), which would be made available as needed through the Health Foundation’s extensive network of improvement experts
The challenges of navigating a topic to a prospective researcher: the case of knowledge management research
No full textExploring a researchable topic and narrowing it down sufficiently to make it workable is a first task in any scientific research. This is particularly difficult when the researcher is a novice, because s(he) is unlikely to be properly aware of what the essential issues and the research question(s) in the field are. This article addresses the question of how to navigate a research topic for an academic project. The article is potentially of interest to novice researchers and researchers new to a field. Illustrating its argument by means of an example in the area of knowledge management, the article proposes a set of guidelines for narrowing down a research topic to workable size. A number of recommendations are made; by utilizing these recommendations to construct a navigation map, it is hoped that a researcher can use fully formulate research question(s). It can be argued that drawing such a navigation map is an art in which prospective researchers need to be trained
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