Managing digital coordination of design: emerging hybrid practices in an institutionalized project setting

What happens when digital coordination practices are introduced into the institutionalized setting of an engineering project? This question is addressed through an interpretive study that examines how a shared digital model becomes used in the late design stages of a major station refurbishment project. The paper contributes by mobilizing the idea of ‘hybrid practices’ to understand the diverse patterns of activity that emerge to manage digital coordination of design. It articulates how engineering and architecture professions develop different relationships with the shared model; the design team negotiates paper-based practices across organizational boundaries; and diverse practitioners probe the potential and limitations of the digital infrastructure. While different software packages and tools have become linked together into an integrated digital infrastructure, these emerging hybrid practices contrast with the interactions anticipated in practice and policy guidance and presenting new opportunities and challenges for managing project delivery. The study has implications for researchers working in the growing field of empirical work on engineering project organizations as it shows the importance of considering, and suggests new ways to theorise, the introduction of digital coordination practices into these institutionalized settings.

Co-operative explanatory capabilities in organizational design and personnel management

Based on an online image archive documenting the construction and history of an early computing company, the fictional story of "Co-Operative Explanatory Capabilities in Organizational Design and Personnel Management” follows the development of an experimental approach to worker productivity into a religious cult. The project investigates the place of creativity in efficiency management and the operation of bureaucratic systems in a post-industrial work environment. The project has spawned a series of collages, featured on the Economic Thought Projects 7" collaboration with Gelbart, The Eleventh Voyage, as well as the film of Co-Operative Explanatory Capabilities in Organizational Design and Personnel Management, which has also been published as a short story in Vertigo of the Modern and on Sacrifice Press.

An approach to develop flexible systems with organizational-interoperability requirements

Flexibility of information systems (IS) have been studied to improve the adaption in support of the business agility as the set of capabilities to compete more effectively and adapt to rapid changes in market conditions (Glossary of business agility terms, 2003). However, most of work on IS flexibility has been limited to systems architecture, ignoring the analysis of interoperability as a part of flexibility from the requirements. This paper reports a PhD project, which proposes an approach to develop IS with flexibility features, considering some challenges of flexibility in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) such as the lack of interoperability and the agility of their business. The motivation of this research are the high prices of IS in developing countries and the usefulness of organizational semiotics to support the analysis of requirements for IS. (Liu, 2005).

Quantifying sources of inter-model diversity in the cloud albedo effect

There is large diversity in simulated aerosol forcing among models that participated in the fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), particularly related to aerosol interactions with clouds. Here we use the reported model data and fitted aerosol-cloud relations to separate the main sources of inter-model diversity in the magnitude of the cloud albedo effect. There is large diversity in the global load and spatial distribution of sulfate aerosol, as well as in global-mean cloud-top effective radius. The use of different parameterizations of aerosol-cloud interactions makes the largest contribution to diversity in modeled radiative forcing (up to -39%, +48% about the mean estimate). Uncertainty in pre-industrial sulfate load also makes a substantial contribution (-15%, +61% about the mean estimate), with smaller contributions from inter-model differences in the historical change in sulfate load and in mean cloud fraction.

Exploration of relational factors: Sino-foreign joint-venture partnering

Purpose – Despite recent threats of economic contraction, China still offers attractive opportunities for foreign companies seeking to expand their business activities through joint venturing (JV) partnering entry strategies. Recent research has indicated a growing recognition of the importance of relational factors in JV partnering. The purpose of this paper is to build on recent research findings that identify critical relation success factors in JVs and explores these in the context of a Hong Kong-based civil aviation services company seeking to expand business activities in Greater China. Design/methodology/approach – While the extant management literature focuses primarily on factors relevant to the inter-partner relationship between partners in the formation stage of a joint venture, this research takes a dynamic stakeholder perspective in respect of the relevant relational factors over the evolution of a partnership. The research described in this paper is based on a case-based study that identifies and examines the relevance and importance of uniquely Chinese factors such as guanxi, renqing and mianzi in the specific context of a strategic partnering relationship. Findings – This phenomenological study provides empirical evidence of critical linkages of these to intrinsically Chinese notions of guanxi, mianzi and renqing – it links these to key strategic partnering success factors identified to be trust, conflict resolution, commitment and cooperation. This study thereby reinforces the importance of the uniquely Chinese relational context in cross-border JVs. Moreover, the research findings suggest that these factors underpin the dynamic bi-directional stakeholder relationship in a Sino-foreign strategic partnership. Originality/value – This study conceptually links the uniquely Chinese relational factors (guanxi, mianzi and renqing) to key success factors supporting the establishment of a strategic partnership in a Sino-foreign context; moreover, it contributes empirical evidence substantiating the proposed conceptual linkage.

Reducing defects through organizational learning within a Housing Association environment

Housing Associations (HAs) contribute circa 20% of the UK’s housing supply. HAs are however under increasing pressure as a result of funding cuts and rent reductions. Due to the increased pressure, a number of processes are currently being reviewed by HAs, especially how they manage and learn from defects. Learning from defects is considered a useful approach to achieving defect reduction within the UK housebuilding industry. This paper contributes to our understanding of how HAs learn from defects by undertaking an initial round table discussion with key HA stakeholders as part of an ongoing collaborative research project with the National House Building Council (NHBC) to better understand how house builders and HAs learn from defects to reduce their prevalence. The initial discussion shows that defect information runs through a number of groups, both internal and external of a HA during both the defects management process and organizational learning (OL) process. Furthermore, HAs are reliant on capturing and recording defect data as the foundation for the OL process. During the OL process defect data analysis is the primary enabler to recognizing a need for a change to organizational routines. When a need for change has been recognized, new options are typically pursued to design out defects via updates to a HAs Employer’s Requirements. Proposed solutions are selected by a review board and committed to organizational routine. After implementing a change, both structured and unstructured feedback is sought to establish the change’s success. The findings from the HA discussion demonstrates that OL can achieve defect reduction within the house building sector in the UK. The paper concludes by outlining a potential ‘learning from defects model’ for the housebuilding industry as well as describing future work.

The Key Role of the School Principal’s Leadership in the Schooling of Newly Arrived Immigrant Pupils in Sweden : Experiences from an Interactive Action Research Project

When newly immigrated children and young people begin school in Sweden, certain challengesarise. These may result from weak Swedish-language skills and different schooling backgrounds,as well as organizational and pedagogical limitations in the schools. This generates demands onschool leaders to lead and develop the organization and teachers competences to meet these pupils’needs. This situation was behind the initiation of the project “New Immigrants and Learning—Competence Development for Teachers and School Principals.” The project ran in schools infour Swedish municipalities, its aim was to develop leadership, organizational and pedagogicalskills that would facilitate the schooling and integration of newly arrived pupils. This article aimsto describe and discuss a Participant Action Research (PAR) based on a think tank and researchcircles, drawing special attention to the role of the school leaders. It will also examine whether theresearch circles and the project overall served to develop educational and intercultural leadership,organizational conditions, collegial learning, pedagogical methods and competence in terms ofschooling for this pupil group.

Capacidade de inovação: análise estrutural e o efeito moderador da organicidade da estrutura organizacional e da gestão de projetos

Este trabalho tem por objetivo revelar o inter-relacionamento envolvendo os principais determinantes da capacidade de inovação. Até hoje inexistem estudos empíricos que apresentam um modelo abrangente sobre uma base de dados em larga escala mostrando as principais rotas para o desenvolvimento da capacidade de inovação. A partir de uma revisão abrangente e sistemática da literatura, construiu-se um modelo teórico integrando os principais fatores sugeridos em artigos teóricos e de revisão. Desenvolveu-se uma escala de medição confiável e testou-se o modelo empiricamente em uma amostra de 243 firmas brasileiras de vários ramos empresariais. Os métodos utilizados incluem a análise fatorial confirmatória, equações estruturais e a análise multigrupo da invariância estrutural. Os resultados evidenciaram o efeito direto do conhecimento do cliente e do mercado, assim como da gestão estratégica da tecnologia sobre o desempenho em inovação. Ambos os fatores são afetados pela intenção estratégica de inovar e pela liderança transformadora, por meio da gestão de pessoas para inovação. A organicidade da estrutura organizacional e a gestão de projetos têm efeito moderador positivo sobre a relação entre a gestão estratégica da tecnologia e o desempenho em inovação. Esse efeito moderador, entretanto, não se revelou na relação entre o conhecimento do cliente e do mercado e o desempenho em inovação, o que foi explicado post-hoc. O valor deste estudo está na apresentação de uma escala de medição confiável e de um modelo teórico validado empiricamente que integra várias correntes de estudo e explicita como a ação da liderança pode estruturar e alavancar os recursos gerenciais para gerar e manter a capacidade da organização de inovar. Tal modelo se constitui em um road-map que pode ajudar os gerentes a desenvolver estratégias e práticas capazes de alavancar o desempenho em inovação.

Lean management and innovation in operational efficiency: the EGR project implemented by Pirelli Tyre Brazil in Santo André plant

O trabalho tem como objetivo avaliar e descrever analiticamente a implementação de práticas de manufatura enxuta pela Pirelli Pneus no seu complexo industrial da América Latina. Além de uma descrição estruturada e ampla dos princípios de produção de Toyota e fundamentos teóricos do Lean thinking, uma ênfase especial será dedicada ao projeto EGR (Especialistas em Gestão da Rotina), como uma ferramenta estratégica para ser usada pela empresa multinacional italiana no futuro próximo, de modo a alcançar um resultado mais eficaz e eficiente na gestão da rotina diária. Este projeto, que representa um componente significativo do Pirelli Manufacturing System (PMS) e, principalmente, voltado para supervisores e gestores de plantas, consiste principalmente em ajudar a empresa a desenvolver a capacidade empresarial para avaliar corretamente o gap potencial existente entre os resultados atuais e os esperados, para tanto entender os desvios, bem como as causas subjacentes, e melhorar continuamente o desempenho da empresa por meio da padronização de processos e redução de desperdicios. Esses objetivos podem ser perseguidos, atuando em dois meios essenciais: habilidades técnicas e comportamentais de liderança para apoiar cada equipe de projeto; uma maior eficácia na gestão de indicadores de desempenho nas diferentes unidades de fábrica, de acordo com KPIs estabelecidos no nível central pelo Head Quarter. Além disso, a investigação será focada na experiência peculiar da planta de Santo André, onde o EGR começou como piloto, com o objetivo de captar as alterações relevantes (no lado organizacional e econômico) que este projeto trouxe para a empresa, através da realização de pesquisa de campo e entrevistas, que são orientados a recolher provas, considerações e opiniões de todos os principais atores envolvidos.

For profit social entrepreneurship: milestones to develop an efficient social venture

Inúmeras questões terríveis e alarmantes são ainda mal resolvidas, apesar da mobilização de ONGs para aliviá-los. Por muito tempo, o setor privado deu as costas a preocupações tal qual estas. Ate que um novo tipo de empreendedor revolucionário apareceu com um novo conceito para combater a pobreza. Mohamed Yunus desbravou empreendedorismo social quando criou a Grameen Bank 36 anos atrás: ele desafiou regras convencionais e estritas alugando dinheiro para Bengalis desmerecidos de credito, tudo isso obtendo lucro no mesmo tempo. Hoje, empreendedorismo social esta um fenômeno mas a maioria dos empreendedores do setor dos e meia ainda enfrentam dificuldades. A pesquisa acadêmica sobre o empreendedorismo social com fins lucrativos ainda está hesitante. O presente trabalho é uma modesta tentativa de analisar quais são os desafios que um empreendedor social com fins lucrativos enfrentará ao longo do caminho para criar seu empreendimento e sustentar os seus objetivos. O exame da literatura mostra que as dificuldades enfrentadas pelos empreendedores são devido a vários fatores, compreendo questões diretamente relacionadas a incerteza do mercado e o contexto local, questões organizacionais, de financiamento, de ética e questões relacionadas a resistência do modelo de negocio. As proposições derivando do exame da literatura foram confrontadas a casos concretos através de entrevistas com empreendedores sociais, investidores de impacto e instituições de apoio. Resultados da pesquisa corroboram as proposições do inicio mas enfatizam necessidade de resolver, com consideração cuidadosa, as questões relacionadas a incerteza do mercado e ao desenho duma governança adequada. A respeito da incerteza do mercado, a identificação das partes interessadas no empreendimento social e a adoção duma mentalidade eficaz para ajustar suposições iniciais para a realidade local, são um padrão chave de sucesso para o empreendimento social. No nível organizacional, a constituição dum time perito e comprometido junto com o desenho duma governança certa para equilibrar o desejo de obter lucro e a necessidade de sustentabilidade financeira é uma garantia de sucesso para o empreendedor social.

On paternalistic leadership fit: exploring cross-cultural endorsement, leader-follower fit, and the boundary role of organizational culture

Although cross-cultural leadership research has thrived in international business literature, little attention has been devoted to understanding the effectiveness of non-western theories beyond their original contexts. The purpose of this study is to examine the cross-cultural endorsement of paternalistic leadership, an emerging non-western leadership theory, using data from GLOBE project. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses we found measurement equivalence of a scale derived from GLOBE’s data, which enabled us to compare the endorsement of paternalistic leadership dimensions across 10 cultural clusters and 55 societies. Our study revealed that there are significant differences in the importance societies give to each dimension, suggesting that paternalism as leadership style is not universally nor homogeneously endorsed. Furthermore, results suggest that different patterns of endorsement of each of these dimensions give rise to idiosyncratic shades of paternalistic leadership across societies. Implications for theory and future research on international business are discussed.

The art of being together: a social constructionist perspective on dialogic methods in the organizational context

The purpose of this project is to understand, under a social constructionist approach, what are the meanings that external facilitators and organizational members (sponsors) working with dialogic methods place on themselves and their work. Dialogic methods, with the objective of engaging groups in flows of conversations to envisage and co-create their own future, are growing fast within organizations as a means to achieve collective change. Sharing constructionist ideas about the possibility of multiple realities and language as constitutive of such realities, dialogue has turned into a promising way for transformation, especially in a macro context of constant change and increasing complexity, where traditional structures, relationships and forms of work are questioned. Research on the topic has mostly focused on specific methods or applications, with few attempts to study it in a broader sense. Also, despite the fact that dialogic methods work on the assumption that realities are socially constructed, few studies approach the topic from a social constructionist perspective, as a research methodology per se. Thus, while most existing research aims at explaining whether or how particular methods meet particular results, my intention is to explore the meanings sustaining these new forms of organizational practice. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 people working with dialogic methods: 11 facilitators and 14 sponsors, from 8 different organizations in Brazil. Firstly, the research findings indicate several contextual elements that seem to sustain the choices for dialogic methods. Within this context, there does not seem to be a clear or specific demand for dialogic methods, but a set of different motivations, objectives and focuses, bringing about several contrasts in the way participants name, describe and explain their experiences with such methods, including tensions on power relations, knowledge creation, identity and communication. Secondly, some central ideas or images were identified within such contrasts, pointing at both directions: dialogic methods as opportunities for the creation of new organizational realities (with images of a ‘door’ or a ‘flow’, for instance, which suggest that dialogic methods may open up the access to other perspectives and the creation of new realities); and dialogic methods as new instrumental mechanisms that seem to reproduce the traditional and non-dialogical forms of work and relationship. The individualistic tradition and its tendency for rational schematism - pointed out by social constructionist scholars as strong traditions in our Western Culture - could be observed in some participants’ accounts with the image of dialogic methods as a ‘gym’, for instance, in which dialogical – and idealized –‘abilities’ could be taught and trained, turning dialogue into a tool, rather than a means for transformation. As a conclusion, I discuss what the implications of such taken-for-granted assumptions may be, and offer some insights into dialogue (and dialogic methods) as ‘the art of being together’.

Organizational modeling with a semantic wiki: formalization of content and automatic diagram generation

A key to maintain Enterprises competitiveness is the ability to describe, standardize, and adapt the way it reacts to certain types of business events, and how it interacts with suppliers, partners, competitors, and customers. In this context the field of organization modeling has emerged with the aim to create models that help to create a state of self-awareness in the organization. This project's context is the use of Semantic Web in the Organizational modeling area. The Semantic Web technology advantages can be used to improve the way of modeling organizations. This was accomplished using a Semantic wiki to model organizations. Our research and implementation had two main purposes: formalization of textual content in semantic wiki pages; and automatic generation of diagrams from organization data stored in the semantic wiki pages.

Sistemas de medição de desempenho para projetos de PD&I no Setor de Petróleo e Gás Natural

Organizations are seeking new ideas, tools and methods aiming to improve management process and performance. On the other hand, system performance measurement needs to portray organizational changes and provide managers with a set of true and more appropriate information for the decision-making process. This work aims to propose a performance measurement system in the academic field regarding Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) in the oil and gas industry. The research performed a bibliographic review in a descriptive exploratory manner. A field research was conducted with an expert focus group in order to gather new indicators. As for the validation of these indicators, a survey with experienced professional was also realized. The research surveyed four segments in and outside of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte-Brazil such as oil and gas project coordinators, staff at Academic Planning Offices, FUNPEC employees as well as coordinators from Petrobrás. The performance measuring system created from this study features three interrelated performance indicators pointed out as: process indicators, outcome indicators and global indicators. The proposal includes performance indicators that seek to establish more appropriate strategies for effective institution management. It might help policy making of university-industry interaction policies