Inter-organisational networks, value creation and the process of technology integration in research and development

Traditional methods of R&D management are no longer sufficient for embracing innovations and leveraging complex new technologies to fully integrated positions in established systems. This paper presents the view that the technology integration process is a result of fundamental interactions embedded in inter-organisational activities. Emerging industries, high technology companies and knowledge intensive organisations owe a large part of their viability to complex networks of inter-organisational interactions and relationships. R&D organisations are the gatekeepers in the technology integration process with their initial sanction and motivation to develop technologies providing the first point of entry. Networks rely on the activities of stakeholders to provide the foundations of collaborative R&D activities, business-to-business marketing and strategic alliances. Such complex inter-organisational interactions and relationships influence value creation and organisational goals as stakeholders seek to gain investment opportunities. A theoretical model is developed here that contributes to our understanding of technology integration (adoption) as a dynamic process, which is simultaneously structured and enacted through the activities of stakeholders and organisations in complex inter-organisational networks of sanction and integration.

Professional status, employee attitudes and multiple identifications at work

We conducted two studies exploring the influence of professional status on three targets of organisational identification. In the first study, 180 employees from a large metropolitan hospital completed an organisation-wide survey. As predicted, employees belonging to high-status professional groups reported higher levels of identification with their profession, followed by their work unit and the organisation. In contrast, employees belonging to low-status professional groups reported higher levels of identification with their work unit and the organisation, compared to their profession. Identification with the various targets was also associated with higher levels of job satisfaction and organisational commitment, and lower levels of uncertainty and emotional exhaustion. In the second study, 60 employees from the same hospital took part in semi-structured interviews to further explore issues relating to professional identification. In line with the results of the first study, the professional group was viewed as a central target of identification at work, particularly for those employees belonging to high status professional groups. Professional identification was also identified as a conduit for social meaning and a signifier of intergroup boundaries. Implications for the management of multiple identifications and heterogeneous teams are discussed.

Sport psychology and indigenous performing artists

A group of students from the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts participated in a mental skills training program that focused on goal setting, self-confidence development, and team building. There were 13 two-hour sessions held over a 20-week period. The participants, cultural issues, and the basic structure of the program are described. The author's observations regarding competition, displays of affection, collective values, and the importance of family and nature are provided. The participants qualitatively evaluated the program. Conclusions related to group process, program structure, and diversity are presented. These conclusions should be of value in terms of shaping future group mental skills training programs.

Should the knowledge-based economy be a savant or a sage? Wisdom and socially intelligent innovation

Discourse about knowledge-based economies rarely moves beyond the commercialization of science and engineering, and is locked in the discursive limits of functionalism. We argue that these discourses limit the scope of what knowledge-based economies might achieve because they are uninformed by an adequate conception of knowledge. In particular, knowledge management and knowledge-based economy discourse has not included the axiological dimension of knowledge that leads to wisdom. Taking an axiological perspective, we can discuss policy frameworks aimed at producing the social structures needed to bring fully formed and fully functioning knowledge societies into being. We argue that while the dominant discourse of industrial modernity remains rationalist, functionalist, utilitarian and technocratic, knowledge-based economies will resemble a savant rather than a sage. A wisdom-based renaissance of humanistic epistemology is needed to avoid increasing social dysfunction and a lack of wisdom in complex technological societies.

Issues in training in clinical psychology in Australia: Interplay between training goals and legal standards of practice

Training models in clinical psychology vary across regions, as do the laws that regulate professional practice in psychology. Standards for practice and for entry into professional practice may endure past the point of utility in the face of changing health-care systems and evolving international considerations. Herein the authors review aspects of the Australian 4-year training model, including qualifications for entry to the profession, supervision, and the influence of the profession and the universities in maintaining and in changing to a new training model. Aspects of training in clinical psychology in Australia are also discussed, and the Australian and New Zealand accreditation models are contrasted. Suggestions on ways to move forward are offered.