The role of the market sub-system and the socio-technical sub-system in innovation and firm performance : a dynamic capabilities approach

Organizational learning has been studied as a key factor in firm performance and internationalization. Moving beyond the past emphasis on market learning, we develop a more complete explanation of learning, its relationship to innovation, and their joint effect on early internationalization. We theorize that, driven by the founders’ international vision, early internationalizing firms employ a dual subsystem of dynamic capabilities: a market subsystem consisting of market-focused learning capability and marketing capability, and a socio-technical subsystem comprised of network learning capability and internally focused learning capability. We argue that innovation mediates the proposed relationship between the dynamic capability structure and early internationalization. We conduct case studies to develop the conceptual framework and test it in a field survey of early internationalizing firms from Australia and the United States. Our findings indicate a complex interplay of capabilities driving innovation and early internationalization. We provide theoretical and practical implications and offer insights for future research.

Resistances, facilitators and influences on professionals' knowledge sharing behaviour : a case study

The centrality of knowledge sharing to organisations' sustainability has been established. This case study illustrates the influences on individual knowledge sharing decision-making and behaviour among professionals and paraprofessionals - specifically civil engineers and design drafters - in a large public sector organisation that provides transportation infrastructure. The case examines the ways in which overlapping sets of values and behavioural drivers affect knowledge sharing orientation and practices in a collective of experts and novices working in an environment that is largely project-based. The alignment among sector, profession and organisation values provides a supportive environment for knowledge sharing, however individual behaviour is found to be most strongly influenced by the presence and quality of relational capital.

Towards simple rules heuristics for IT business value

The business value of IT (BVIT) has been a prominent and central research topic in the IS discipline. Due to continuous and unpredictable technology and business changes, a more dynamic perspective on IT business value that includes organizational learning is required. We suggest that simple rules heuristics can address this challenge. The simple rules heuristics approach has been introduced by Eisenhardt and co-authors (Bingham & Eisenhardt, 2011; Bingham, Eisenhardt, & Furr, 2007; Eisenhardt & Sull, 2001) to better understand strategic decision making for capturing superabundant, heterogeneous, fastmoving opportunities. They argue that explicit organizational learning can translate accumulated experience into increasingly effective heuristics for strategic processes in highvelocity environments. We make three main contributions by exploring the suitability of a simple rules heuristics approach for the creation of IT business value: (1) we propose six types of simple rules heuristics for capturing IT-based opportunities in dynamic environments, including synergy heuristics as specifically relevant in an IT context, (2) we show how a simple rules heuristics approach can advance our understanding of dynamics and organizational learning for BVIT, and; (3) we introduce the strategic logic of opportunity to BVIT.

Kaveriporukasta liiketoiminnaksi : Tuotannon häiriöt ja organisaation oppiminen nopeasti muuttuvassa yrityksessä

In the 1990 s the companies utilizing and producing new information technology, especially so-called new media, were also expected to be forerunners in new forms of work and organization. Researchers anticipated that new, more creative forms of work and the changing content of working life were about to replace old industrial and standardized ways of working. However, research on actual companies in the IT sector revealed a situation where only minor changes to existing organizational forms were seen .Many of the independent companies faced great difficulties trying to survive the rapid changes in the products and production forms in the emerging field. Most of the research on the new media field has been conducted as surveys, and an understanding of the actual everyday work process has remained thin. My research is a longitudinal study of the early phases of one new media company in Finland. The study is an analysis of the challenges the company faced in a rapidly changing business field and the attempts to overcome these challenges. The two main analyses in the study focus on the developmental phases of the company and the disturbances in the production process. Based on these analyses, I study changes and learning at work using the methodological framework of developmental work research. Developmental work research is a Finnish variant of the cultural-historical activity theory applied to the study of learning and transformations at work. The data was gathered over a three-year period of ethnographic fieldwork. I documented the production processes and everyday life in the company as a participant observer. I interviewed key persons, video and audio-taped meetings, followed e-mail correspondence and collected various documents, such as agreements and memos. I developed a systematic method for analyzing the disturbances in the production process by combining the various data sources. The systematic analysis of the disturbances depicted a very complex and only partly managed production process. The production process had a long duration, and no single actor had an understanding of it as a whole. Most of the disturbances had to do with the customer relationships. The nature of the disturbances was latent; they were recognized but not addressed. In the particular production processes that I analyzed, the ending life span of a particular product, a CD-ROM, became obvious. This finding can be interpreted in relation to the developmental phase of the production and the transformation of the field as a whole. Based on the analysis of the developmental phases and the disturbances, I formulate a hypothesis of the contradictions and developmental potentials of the activity studied. The conclusions of the study challenge the existing understanding of how to conceptualize and study organizational learning in production work. Most theories of organizational learning do not address qualitative changes in production nor historical challenges of organizational learning itself. My study opens up a new horizon in understanding organizational learning in a rapidly changing field where a learning culture based on craft or mass production work is insufficient. There is a need for anticipatory and proactive organizational learning. Proactive learning is needed to anticipate the changes in production type, and the life cycles of products.

Kouluruokailuhenkilöstö matkalla kasvattajaksi

The National Board of Education in Finland has defined school catering as a part of education in comprehensive schools. School catering is defined in Finnish law and is financed by the municipalities. The emphasis on supplementary education in the school curriculum obliges the whole staff to learn new professional roles and to co-operate in the school com-munity. An in-service training programme, Smart Catering Staff (SCS) was designed and put into practice among school catering staff. The aim of the one-year SCS programme was to add to and encourage the development of the know-how of catering personnel regarding new challenges in the school community as well as to enhance and empower their educator’s role in the school. The content of the programme consisted of four two-day intensive teaching sessions as well as assignments which were carried out between theese sessions. The main contents of the SCS programme were personal and organizational learning, school curriculum concerning school catering, school culture and co-operation, customer service, and the role of catering staff as educators. The data in this action research was gathered from 2000 to 2008. The results show that the SCS programme can change the work community culture in that the catering staff is more encouraged to participate in the development projects of the school, and can see themselves more as educators alongside the teaching staff. It is concluded that in school communities all adults can be educators, but to achieve this aim empowering in-service training is needed. The school catering staff’s commitment to participation in the education align with the educational goals of the school unite children’s and teens safety nets. This can affect for example the growth of communal responsibility and prevention of alienation. Key words: School Catering, Smart School Catering Staff, Expanded Education, School Community, Action Research

Owner-driven decision support in holding-specific forest planning

Socio-economic and demographic changes among family forest owners and demands for versatile forestry decision aid motivated this study, which sought grounds for owner-driven forest planning. Finnish family forest owners’ forest-related decision making was analyzed in two interview-based qualitative studies, the main findings of which were surveyed quantitatively. Thereafter, a scheme for adaptively mixing methods in individually tailored decision support processes was constructed. The first study assessed owners’ decision-making strategies by examining varying levels of the sharing of decision-making power and the desire to learn. Five decision-making modes – trusting, learning, managing, pondering, and decisive – were discerned and discussed against conformable decision-aid approaches. The second study conceptualized smooth communication and assessed emotional, practical, and institutional boosters of and barriers to such smoothness in communicative decision support. The results emphasize the roles of trust, comprehension, and contextual services in owners’ communicative decision making. In the third study, a questionnaire tool to measure owners’ attitudes towards communicative planning was constructed by using trusting, learning, and decisive dimensions. Through a multivariate analysis of survey data, three owner groups were identified as fusions of the original decision-making modes: trusting learners (53%), decisive learners (27%), and decisive managers (20%). Differently weighted communicative services are recommended for these compound wishes. The findings of the studies above were synthesized in a form of adaptive decision analysis (ADA), which allows and encourages the decision-maker (owner) to make deliberate choices concerning the phases of a decision aid (planning) process. The ADA model relies on adaptability and feedback management, which foster smooth communication with the owner and (inter-)organizational learning of the planning institution(s). The summarized results indicate that recognizing the communication-related amenity values of family forest owners may be crucial in developing planning and extension services. It is therefore recommended that owners, root-level planners, consultation professionals, and pragmatic researchers collaboratively continue to seek stable change.

Hur höra tyst kunskap? Utveckling av en metod för studier av tyst kunnande

Det tysta kunnandet utgör en stor del av kunskapsresursen både hos oss som individer och i arbetsorganisationerna. Trots att vi omger oss med böcker, manualer och databaser, som alla är exempel på explicit kunskap, så är det ”den rätta känslan”, erfarenheten och våra färdigheter som avgör om och hur vi klarar av våra uppgifter. Dessa begrepp är alla relaterade till den tysta dimensionen av kunskap. En dimension som traditionellt karaktäriserats som abstrakt, individuell, omedveten, praktisk, erfarenhetsbaserad och framför allt svår att uttrycka. Alla dessa är karaktärsdrag som ställt speciella krav inom kunskapsforskning och -ledning. Resultatet av detta är att både forskning och ledning av det tysta kunnandet har åsidosatts till förmån för forskning och ledning av explicit kunskap. Ett bidragande problem har varit bristen på lämpliga metoder för att ur ett företagsekonomiskt perspektiv studera och leda tyst kunnande. Ett annat problem har varit oklarhet i begreppet tyst kunskap. Detta har lett till brist på förståelse och/eller missförstånd. För att råda bot på svårigheten att uttrycka vårt tysta kunnande har människan utvecklat olika begrepp som i vår vardagskommunikation symboliserar tyst kunnande. Begrepp som intuition, människokännedom, förhandlingsförmåga och kultur används vanligt och med dem uttrycker vi den tysta dimensionen av kunnande. Dessa begrepp utgör även grunden för den intervjumetod som utvecklats för att empiriskt studera eller i ledningssyfte kartlägga tyst kunnande. Metoden använder dessa ”Epitet för Tyst Kunskap” (ETK) som bas för stimuluskort-intervjuer. Intervjuer som visat sig öka möjligheten att utforska och kartlägga tyst kunnande i organisationer oberoende av om man är forskare eller företagsledare.

Unraveling the helix of change : An activity-theoretical study of health care change efforts and their consequences

M.A. (Educ.) Anu Kajamaa from the University of Helsinki, Center for Research on Activity, Development and Learning (CRADLE), examines change efforts and their consequences in health care in the public sector. The aim of her academic dissertation is, by providing a new conceptual framework, to widen our understanding of organizational change efforts and their consequences and managerial challenges. Despite the multiple change efforts, the results of health care development projects have not been very promising, and many developmental needs and managerial challenges exist. The study challenges the predominant, well-framed health care change paradigm and calls for an expanded view to explore the underlying issues and multiplicities of change efforts and their consequences. The study asks what kind of expanded conceptual framework is needed to better understand organizational change as transcending currently dominant oppositions in management thinking, specifically in the field of health care. The study includes five explorative case studies of health care change efforts and their consequences in Finland. Theory and practice are tightly interconnected in the study. The methodology of the study integrates the ethnography of organizational change, a narrative approach and cultural-historical activity theory. From the stance of activity theory, historicity, contradictions, locality and employee participation play significant roles in developing health care. The empirical data of the study has mainly been collected in two projects, funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund. The data was collected in public sector health care organizations during the years 2004-2010. By exploring the oppositions between distinct views on organizational change and the multi-site, multi-level and multi-logic of organizational change, the study develops an expanded, multidimensional activity-theoretical framework on organizational change and management thinking. The findings of the study contribute to activity theory and organization studies, and provide information for health care management and practitioners. The study illuminates that continuous development efforts bridged to one another and anchored to collectively created new activity models can lead to significant improvements and organizational learning in health care. The study presents such expansive learning processes. The ways of conducting change efforts in organizations play a critical role in the creation of collective new practices and tools and in establishing ownership over them. Some of the studied change efforts were discontinuous or encapsulated, not benefiting the larger whole. The study shows that the stagnation and unexpected consequences of change efforts relate to the unconnectedness of the different organizational sites, levels and logics. If not dealt with, the unintended consequences such as obstacles, breaks and conflicts may stem promising change and learning processes.

Työntekijän näkökulmat ja oppiminen ulkoistusprojektissa : "Aluks pelkää muutosta ja sit pelkää, ettei mikään muutukaan."

The aim of this master s thesis was to clarify employees views on outsourcing. The main questions of the study were 1) How the employees dealt with the change created by outsourcing and what things they felt important when implementing the change? 2) What kind of organizational questions the employees paid attention to when moving from one organization to another? 3) What kind of management issues the employees brought up in the outsourcing process? and 4) How the employees reflected change while experienced outsourcing? The theoretical foundations of the study were Jack Mezirow s theory of transformational learning and Yrjö Engeström s theory of expansive learning. The management of outsourcing was viewed by John P. Kotter s change management model. Research casted light on transformation and learning on four levels of analysis: on individual, organizational and management levels and on the level of reflection. The target of the study were the outsourced employees, who were moved from a Finnish public corporation to a private ITC organization along with the services they produce. The study material was eleven interviews from the outsourced employees. The study was implemented by fenomenographical theme analysis. The analysis revealed results in all four levels. On the individual level the main results were the importance of systematic and open information, meaning of social and technical integration and the feeling of employee s own control. On the organizational level the move from the public sector to private and all the changes in organizational culture and in fringe benefitswere fundamental. Organizational learning was analyzed with expansive learning theory. Expanding was perceived in four dimensions: temporal dimension, spatial dimension, responsibility-moral dimension and developmental dimension. On the management level the actions of one s closest manager was vital, as was the upper management s clear engagement and a shared view of the necessity of a change. In the data was found employees reflective talking, which was indicating the meaning of the change and which was interpreted from the learning point of view. According to this study, it is possible to identify and analyze reflective talk and that way have information about employees learning in an organizational change. It was prominent to notice how reflection in the process of outsourcing is extremely versatile and extensive.

Patent intelligence and its implications for patent productivity

The prevailing hypercompetitive environment has made it essential for organizations to gather competitive intelligence from environmental scanning. The knowledge gained leads to organizational learning, which stimulates increased patent productivity. This paper highlights five practices that aid in developing patenting intelligence and empirically verifies to what extent this organizational learning leads to knowledge gains and financial gains realized from consequent higher patent productivity. The model is validated based on the perceptions of professionals with patenting experience from two of the most aggressively patenting sectors in today’s economy, viz., IT and pharmaceutical sectors (n=119). The key finding of our study suggests that although organizational learning from environmental scanning exists, the application of this knowledge for increasing patent productivity lacks due appreciation. This missing link in strategic analysis and strategy implementation has serious implications for managers which are briefly discussed in this paper.

Implantação do Microsoft Project Server na Câmara dos Deputados : um estudo de caso e lições aprendidas

Atualmente não é possível pensar em gestão de projetos sem uma boa ferramenta apoiada em Tecnologia da Informação. Este trabalho estudou o processo de implantação e personalização do Microsoft Project Server na Câmara dos Deputados com o objetivo de avaliar se essa implantação se deu de maneira adequada segundo as melhores práticas de gestão de projetos, além de levantar as principais lições aprendidas no processo. Para tanto foi realizada uma pesquisa documental, em que, na primeira parte fez-se um apanhado em nível teórico das melhores práticas de gestão de projetos, notadamente PMBOK do PMI e a consulta a autores relevantes no contexto da gestão de projetos e da aprendizagem organizacional. Em um segundo momento foram pesquisados documentos relacionados ao processo de implantação como o edital de licitação, atas de reunião, atos normativos, dentre outros. Dos dados levantados foram identificadas falhas por parte da Câmara dos Deputados tais como elevado número de exigências de personalizações no ambiente e conhecimento limitado, a priori, da ferramenta, de suas capacidades e limitações. Por parte da contratada, observou-se falhas como desorganização, planejamento ruim, descumprimento de prazos, pendências, grandes atrasos e mudanças na equipe técnica do projeto. Pela análise dessas falhas, levantaram-se diversas lições aprendidas no processo. Por fim, concluiu-se que o processo de implantação do Microsoft Project Server na Câmara dos Deputados foi parcialmente adequado, pois apesar de ao final estar implantado de acordo com o escopo requerido, o processo como um todo apresentou muitas falhas.

Student Engagement in the School: Interpersonal and Inter-Center Differences

Traducido al castellano e inglés

A Prova Brasil e a contribuição para os processos de letramento e formação de alunos leitores

A avaliação da Educação Básica tem sido alvo de discussões em diversas esferas da sociedade e centra-se em dois aspectos principais: os quantitativos de controle e os organizacionais dos processos de ensino, ou seja, a avaliação pedagógica. O objetivo desta dissertação é refletir sobre a metodologia utilizada na Prova Brasil e as contribuições que esta avaliação pode oferecer a formação de alunos leitores. Há alguns trabalhos na área já que se trata de uma avaliação relativamente recente. Nossa pesquisa se diferencia das demais ao apresentar uma análise detalhada dos tópicos, descritores e itens que compõem a avaliação. O processo de pesquisa empreendido neste estudo perpassa quatro fases: na primeira etapa analisamos os aspectos particulares do sistema avaliativo nacional, na segunda fase refletimos sobre a construção da proposta avaliativa e sua apresentação, na terceira fase relacionamos os elementos presentes na proposta, analisando de que maneira estes elementos afetam positivamente ou negativamente a avaliação e na última fase apresentamos nossas considerações à luz das teorias linguísticas e pedagógicas. Utilizamos como corpus os itens de Língua Portuguesa referentes ao 5 ano de escolaridade liberados pelo INEP. Nossa pesquisa evidenciou que apesar de cada item ter como objetivo verificar a habilidade expressa por um único descritor, boa parte das questões apresenta problemas de seleção textual ou de elaboração fazendo com que determinadas habilidades não sejam efetivamente contempladas na avaliação, fato este que compromete diretamente a confiabilidade dos resultados apresentados. A contribuição social desta pesquisa reside na orientação para o trabalho com a multiplicidade de gêneros que circulam na sociedade, ressaltando a importância da formação plena do educando, não para que ele demonstre bom desempenho em avaliações, mas para que ele possa atuar em favor de sua própria vida e em benefício da sociedade em que está inserido, transformando-a

The missing link between information and action: hastenings and delays as universal reactions to performance feedback

This chapter focuses on what the key decision makers in organizations decide after having received information on the current state of the organizational performance. Because of strong attributions to success and failure, it is impossible to predict in advance which concrete actions will occur. We can however find out what kinds of actions are decided upon by means of an organizational learning model that focuses on the hastenings and delays after performance feedback. As an illustration, the responses to performance signals by trainers and club owners in Dutch soccer clubs are analyzed.

Beyond managerial talent: ‘key group’ identification and differential compensation practices in multinational companies

With the maturation of strategic human resource management scholarship, there appears to be a greater call to move from monolithic workforce management to a more strategic and differentiated emphasis on employees with the greatest capacity to enhance competitive advantage. There has been little consideration in the literature as to whether organizations formally identify key groups of employees based on their impact on organizational learning and core competences. Using survey evidence from 260 multinational companies (MNCs), this paper explores the extent to which key groups of employees are formally recognized and whether they are subject to differential compensation practices. The results demonstrate that just in excess of half of these MNCs identify a key group. There was considerable differentiation in the compensation practices between these key groups, managers and the largest occupational group in the workforce. The results give rise to questions worthy of future investigation, namely whether the differentiated approaches used lead to improved performance outcomes.