Gaps in organizational leadership : linking strategic and operational activities through design-led propositions

The relationship between design process and business systems has been of interest to both practitioners and researchers exploring the numerous opportunities and challenges of this unlikely relationship. Often the relationship is presented as building design thinking capability within an organization, which can be broadly described as the union of design and strategy. Brown (2008) notes that design thinking is ‘‘a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technically feasible and what business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunities’’ (p. 1). The value that design thinking brings to an organization is a different way of framing situations and possibilities, doing things, and tackling problems: essentially a cultural transformation of the way it undertakes its business. The work of Martin (2009) has clearly shown the generalized differences between design thinking and business thinking, highlighting many instances in which these differences have been overcome, but also noting the many obstacles of trying to unify both approaches within an organization. Liedtka (2010) encourages firms to try and persist in overcoming these barriers, as she has noted that ‘‘business strategy desperately needs design ... because design is all about action and business strategy too often turns out to be only about talk ... fewer than 10 percent of new strategies are ever fully executed’’ (p. 9).

Communication and organizational social networks : a simulation model

Recent management research has evidenced the significance of organizational social networks, and communication is believed to impact the interpersonal relationships. However, we have little knowledge on how communication affects organizational social networks. This paper studies the dynamics between organizational communication patterns and the growth of organizational social networks. We propose an organizational social network growth model, and then collect empirical data to test model validity. The simulation results agree well with the empirical data. The results of simulation experiments enrich our knowledge on communication with the findings that organizational management practices that discourage employees from communicating within and across group boundaries have disparate and significant negative effect on the social network’s density, scalar assortativity and discrete assortativity, each of which correlates with the organization’s performance. These findings also suggest concrete measures for management to construct and develop the organizational social network.

From the Editor

The five articles appearing in this issue of the journal reflect the breadth of project management research and the cross-fertilization of ideas from other management disciplines with project management. These articles focus on the evolution of project management theory (“A Bibliometric View on the Use of Contingency Theory in Project Management Research” by Hanisch and Wald), interfirm knowledge management and learning in project networks (“Exploring Negotiation Through Boundary Objects in Global Design Project Networks” by Di Marco, Alin, and Taylor), learning within one project organization (“Organizational Learning in Project-Based Companies: A Process Thinking Approach” by Koskinen), identifying the factors affecting project performance (“Factors Causing Design Schedule Delays in Turnkey Projects in Taiwan: An Empirical Study of Power Distribution Substation Projects” by Yau and Yang), and considering the antecedents of negative employee behavior and its consequences for project team performance (“Counteracting Free-Riding With Team Morale—An Experimental Study” by He).

From the editor

In this issue of the Journal, articles presented to the readers cover project management practices throughout history (“Frontinus—A Project Manager From the Roman Empire Era,” Walker and Dart), project success and failure revisited through integrated theoretical lens on the one hand (“Translation and Convergence in Projects: An Organizational Perspective on Project Success,” Alderman and Ivory) and, on the other hand, with a focus on systems engineers' capacity for engineering systems thinking (“The Relationship Among Systems Engineers' Capacity for Engineering Systems Thinking, Project Types, and Project Success,” Frank, Sadeh, and Ashkenasi), project management offices (PMOs) investigated through community of practice theory (“Exploring PMOs Through Community of Practice Theory,” Aubry, Müller, and Glückler), influence of cultural patterns on project team behavior (“Cultural Patterns Influencing Project Team Behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study in Ethiopia,” Jetu, Riedl, and Roithmayr), and human factors and differences of perception and their impact on risk management (“Exploring Risk Dimensions in the Indian Software Industry,” Sharma, Sengupta, and Gupta)...

“They’re My Two Favourites” versus “The Bigger Scheme of Things” : pro-Am historians remember Australian television

This chapter reports on eleven interviews with Pro-Am archivists of Australian television which aimed to find out how they decide what materials are important enough to archive. Interviewees mostly choose to collect materials in which they have a personal interest. But they are also aware of the relationship between their own favourites and wider accounts of Australian television history, and negotiate between these two positions. Most interviewees acknowledged Australian television’s links with British and American programming, but also felt that Australian television is distinctive. They argued that Australian television history is ignored in a way that isn’t true for the UK or the US. Several also argued that Australian television has had a ‘naïve’ nature that has allowed it to be more experimental.

Effect of Australia's walk to work day campaign on adults' active commuting and physical activity behavior

Purpose. To determine whether Australia's Walk to Work Day media campaign resulted in behavioural change among targeted groups. Methods. Pre- and postcampaign telephone surveys of a cohort of adults aged 18 to 65 years (n = 1100, 55% response rate) were randomly sampled from Australian major melropolitan areas. Tests for dependent samples were applied (McNemax chi(2) or paired t-test). Results. Among participants who did not usually actively commute to work was a significant decrease in car only use an increase in walking combined with public transport. Among those who were employed was a significant increase in total time walking (+16 min/wk; t [780] = 2.04, p < .05) and in other moderate physical activity (+120 min/wk; t [1087] = 4.76, p < .005), resulting in a significant decrease in the proportion who were inactive (chi(2) (1) = 6.1, p < .05). Conclusion. Although nonexperimental, the Walk to Work Day initiative elicited short-term changes in targeted behaviors among target groups. Reinforcement by integrating worksite health promotion strategies may be required for sustained effects.

The relationship between unsafe working conditions and workers’ behavior and their impacts on injury severity in the U.S.

Unsafe acts of workers (e.g. misjudgment, inappropriate operation) become the major root causes of construction accidents when they are combined with unsafe working conditions (e.g. working surface conditions, weather) on a construction site. The overarching goal of the research presented in this paper is to explore ways to prevent unsafe acts of workers and reduce the likelihood of construction accidents occurring. The study specifically aims to (1) understand the relationships between human behavior related and working condition related risk factors, (2) identify the significant behavior and condition factors and their impacts on accident types (e.g. struck by/against, caught in/between, falling, shock, inhalation/ingestion/absorption, respiratory failure) and injury severity (e.g. fatality, hospitalized, non-hospitalized), and (3) analyze the fundamental accident-injury relationship on how each accident type contributes to the injury severity. The study reviewed 9,358 accidents which occurred in the U.S. construction industry between 2002 and 2011. The large number of accident samples supported reliable statistical analyses. The analysis identified a total of 17 significant correlations between behavior and condition factors and distinguished key risk factors that highly impacted on the determination of accident types and injury severity. The research outcomes will assist safety managers to control specific unsafe acts of workers by eliminating the associated unsafe working conditions and vice versa. They also can prioritize risk factors and pay more attention to controlling them in order to achieve a safer working environment.

Biology or behavior : which is the strongest contributor to weight gain?

Combating unhealthy weight gain is a major public health and clinical management issue. The extent of research into the etiology and pathophysiology of obesity has produced a wealth of evidence regarding the contributing factors. While aspects of the environment are ‘obesogenic’, weight gain is not inevitable for every individual. What then explains potentially unhealthy weight gain in individuals living within an environment where others remain lean? In this paper we explore the biological compensation that acts in response to a reduced energy intake by reducing energy needs, in order to defend against weight loss. We then examine the evidence that there is only a weak biological compensation to surplus energy supply, and that this allows behavior to drive weight gain. The extent to which biology impacts behavior is also considered.

Variation in risk seeking behavior in a natural experiment following a large negative wealth shock induced by a natural disaster

An ongoing challenge in behavioral economics is to understand the variations observed in risk attitudes as a function of their environmental context. Of particular interest is the effect of wealth on risk attitudes. The research in this area has however faced two constraints: the difficulty to study the causal effects of large changes in wealth, and the causal effects of losses on risk behavior. The present paper address this double limitation by providing evidence of the variation of risk attitude after large losses using a natural disaster (Brisbane floods) as the setting for a natural experiment.

Exploring the Pro-Am interface between production and produsage

This conference celebrates the passing of 40 years since the establishment of the Internet (dating this, presumably, to the first connection between two nodes on ARPANET in October 1969). For a gathering of media scholars such as this, however, it may be just as important not only to mark the first testing of the core technologies upon which much of our present-day Net continues to build, but also to reflect on another recent milestone: the 20th anniversary of what is today arguably the chief interface through which billions around the world access and experience the Internet – the World Wide Web, launched by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.

An extended theory of planned behavior intervention for older adults With Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease

A randomized controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of a 4-wk extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) intervention to promote regular physical activity and healthy eating among older adults diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease (N = 183). Participants completed TPB measures of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention, as well as planning and behavior, at preintervention and 1 wk and 6 wk postintervention for each behavior. No significant time-by-condition effects emerged for healthy eating. For physical activity, significant time-by-condition effects were found for behavior, intention, planning, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm. In particular, compared with control participants, the intervention group showed short-term improvements in physical activity and planning, with further analyses indicating that the effect of the intervention on behavior was mediated by planning. The results indicate that TPB-based interventions including planning strategies may encourage physical activity among older people with diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Experimental studies of the shear behavior and strength of LiteSteel beams with stiffened web openings

Abstract: LiteSteel beam (LSB) is a new cold-formed steel hollow flange channel section produced using a patented manufacturing process. It is commonly used as flexural members in residential, industrial and commercial buildings. Current practice in flooring systems is to include openings in the web element of floor joists or bearers so that building services can be located within them. Test results have shown that the shear capacity of LSBs can be reduced considerably by the inclusion of web openings. A cost effective method of eliminating the detrimental effects of a large web opening is to attach suitable stiffeners around the web openings of LSBs. A detailed experimental study consisting of 17 shear tests was therefore undertaken to investigate the shear behaviour and strength of LSBs with stiffened circular web openings. Both plate and stud stiffeners with varying sizes and thicknesses were attached to the web elements of LSBs using a number of screw-fastening arrangements in order to develop a suitable stiffening arrangement for LSBs. Simply supported test specimens of LSBs with an aspect ratio of 1.5 were loaded at mid-span until failure. This paper presents the details of this experimental study of LSBs with stiffened web openings, and the results of their shear capacities and associated behavioural characteristics. Suitable screw-fastened plate stiffener arrangements have been recommended in order to restore the original shear capacity of LSBs.

Concurrent and longitudinal links between children’s and their friends’ antisocial and prosocial behavior in preschool

Concurrent and longitudinal links between children’s own and their nominated best friends’ antisocial and prosocial behavior were studied in a normative sample of 3–5-year-olds (N = 203). Moderating effects of age and gender were also explored. Subscales of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) were used to obtain teacher ratings of behavior for each target child and his/her nominated best friends. Nomination of best friends with higher levels of antisocial behavior and lower levels of prosocial behavior was concurrently linked to more antisocial behavior in boys. Nomination of highly prosocial best friends was concurrently linked to more prosocial behavior in both boys and girls. However, the study found no longitudinal effects of best friends’ behavior on target child’s behavior over a one-year period. A group of children who nominated no best friends at T1 were generally perceived as less prosocial, but not more antisocial, than other children. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Framing sexual harassment through media representations

This article examines mainstream news media texts reporting sexual harassment in four industrialized countries. The study first identifies the aspects of sexual harassment cases considered newsworthy by asking how the media texts characterize such cases. Second, the study illuminates the discourses evident in these texts, which are theorized as a mode by which understandings of workplace gender (in)equality shape, and are shaped by, individuals, organizations and the community. The analysis reveals that the media most frequently reports “classic” sexual harassment and emphasizes scandalous allegations and overtly sexualized conduct. The hegemony of a discourse of sexual harassment as an individualized problem of inappropriate employee behavior is also evident. By contrast, discourses presenting sexual harassment as a systemic issue, or as symptomatic of broader gender inequality, are less frequent. We argue that these media representations limit opportunities to frame sexual harassment as dynamic, complex, and part of the practice of gendering in and beyond organizational boundaries.