The tempest: Creating dialogue from points of difference

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Competing for knowledge:creating, connecting and growing

With the buzzwords of knowledge-based economy and knowledge-driven economy, policy-makers, as well as journalists and management consultants, are pushing forward a vision of change that transforms the way advanced economies work. Yet little is understood about how the knowledge-based economy differs from the old, traditional economy. It is generally agreed that the phenomenon has grown out of the branch of economic thought known as new growth theory. Digesting up-to-date thinking in economics, management, innovation studies and economic geography, this significant volume provides an account of these developments and how they have transformed advanced economies.

Specialpedagogers och speciallärares olika roller och uppdrag : skilda föreställningar möts och möter en pedagogisk praktik

Syftet med artikeln är att belysa olika föreställningar kring specialpedagogers och speciallärares roller och uppdrag samt att förstå varför denna olikhet finns. Syftet är också att problematisera  dessa föreställningar  och synliggöra dilemman som kommer till uttryck i talet om de båda yrkesgruppernas roller och uppdrag.  Bakgrunden till studien är de skilda och ofta disparata uppfattningar som råder om vad yrkesgrupperna ska arbeta med, hur de ska genomföra sina uppdrag och varför. Konsekvenserna av detta kan leda till att uppdrag genomförs på ett sätt som inte står i överensstämmelse med styrdokumentens föreskrivna demokrati-, samhälls- och kunskapsuppdrag. Samtal har genomförts med specialpedagoger, speciallärare utbildade efter 2008 och rektorer. Den metodologiska ansatsen har varit kunskapande samtal. Kunskapande samtal utgår från ett kommunikationsteoretiskt perspektiv och bygger på Jürgen Habermas teori om det kommunikativa handlandet. Karen Barads teori om agentisk realism har använts för att förstå hur olika föreställningar kring roller och uppdrag uppstår, skapas och förändras i samspel med andras uppfattningar men även i samspel med exempelvis rum, texter och metoder. Olika föreställningar om roller och uppdrag belyses liksom dilemman som dessa föreställningar kan ge upphov till då yrkesrollerna möts i, och möter, en pedagogisk praktik. Resultatet visar att specialpedagoger och speciallärare behöver finnas med i det kontinuerliga arbetet ute på skolor och förskolor men att det kan betyda olika slags organisatoriska lösningar för yrkesgrupperna. En fråga som uppstår är om de specialpedagogiska yrkesgrupperna alltid och i alla sammanhang bör finns så nära barnen/eleverna som möjligt eller om det finns grund för ett mer distanserat sätt att arbeta? Författaren föreslår att svensk förskola och skola bör utnyttja det faktum att det finns två olika specialpedagogiska yrkesgrupper och särskilja deras roller och uppdrag på ett tydligt sätt. Om specialpedagogik dessutom tar avstamp i ett kommunikationsteoretiskt perspektiv skapas förutsättningar och möjligheter för barns/elevers lärande utifrån ett inkluderande synsätt.

Innovation through virtual communities of Practice: motivation and constraints in the knowledge-creation process

Communities of Practice are places which provide a sound basis for organizational learning, enabling knowledge creation and acquisition thus improving organizational performance, leveraging innovation and consequently increasing competitively. Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP‟s) can perform a central role in promoting communication and collaboration between members who are dispersed in both time and space. The ongoing case study, described here, aims to identify both the motivations and the constraints that members of an organization experience when taking part in the knowledge creating processes of the VCoP‟s to which they belong. Based on a literature review, we have identified several factors that influence such processes; they will be used to analyse the results of interviews carried out with the leaders of VCoP‟s in four multinationals. As future work, a questionnaire will be developed and administered to the other members of these VCoP‟s

Virtual communities of practice: investigating motivations and constraints in the processes of knowledge creation and transfer

With accelerated market volatility, faster response times and increased globalization, business environments are going through a major transformation and firms have intensified their search for strategies which can give them competitive advantage. This requires that companies continuously innovate, to think of new ideas that can be transformed or implemented as products, processes or services, generating value for the firm. Innovative solutions and processes are usually developed by a group of people, working together. A grouping of people that share and create new knowledge can be considered as a Community of Practice (CoP). CoP’s are places which provide a sound basis for organizational learning and encourage knowledge creation and acquisition. Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP's) can perform a central role in promoting communication and collaboration between members who are dispersed in both time and space. Nevertheless, it is known that not all CoP's and VCoP's share the same levels of performance or produce the same results. This means that there are factors that enable or constrain the process of knowledge creation. With this in mind, we developed a case study in order to identify both the motivations and the constraints that members of an organization experience when taking part in the knowledge creating processes of VCoP's. Results show that organizational culture and professional and personal development play an important role in these processes. No interviewee referred to direct financial rewards as a motivation factor for participation in VCoPs. Most identified the difficulty in aligning objectives established by the management with justification for the time spent in the VCoP. The interviewees also said that technology is not a constraint.

Innovation through virtual communities of practice: motivations and constraints in the knowledge-creation process

This paper appears in International Journal of Projectics. Vol 4(1), pp. 39-49

Action non humaine dans l’organisation en changement : un examen épistémologique comparatif de la ventriloquie

L’étude de la gestion du changement s’attache à identifier ce qui peut être agissant dans l’organisation, la faisant évoluer dans un sens favorable ou défavorable aux objectifs définis par ceux qui en ont la charge. La présente étude a pour objet de comparer les propositions d’une approche ventriloque de la communication, telle qu’elle est formulée par François Cooren dans Action and agency in dialogue (2010) avec deux ouvrages traitant du changement organisationnel : The knowledge-creating company (Notaka & Takeuchi, 1995) et La Danse du changement (Senge, 1999). L’objectif est d’examiner dans quelle mesure la perspective ventriloque permet une meilleure compréhension de la nature et des contributions de ces différentes formes d’agentivité. A travers cet examen comparatif, l’ambition de ce travail est aussi d’offrir un point de vue sur la ventriloquie elle-même qui mette en exergue ses aspects les plus novateurs et démontre ainsi l’avancée représentée notamment par l’agentivité non humaine et la dislocalité de l’interaction.

O uso de jogos no ensino e aprendizagem de Matemática nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental: levantamento de teses e dissertações

Pós-graduação em Educação - FCT

The firm. Techno-organizational changes, industrial relations and performances. An enquiry on Reggio Emilia local industrial system

It is not unknown that the evolution of firm theories has been developed along a path paved by an increasing awareness of the organizational structure importance. From the early “neoclassical” conceptualizations that intended the firm as a rational actor whose aim is to produce that amount of output, given the inputs at its disposal and in accordance to technological or environmental constraints, which maximizes the revenue (see Boulding, 1942 for a past mid century state of the art discussion) to the knowledge based theory of the firm (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka & Toyama, 2005), which recognizes in the firm a knnowledge creating entity, with specific organizational capabilities (Teece, 1996; Teece & Pisano, 1998) that allow to sustaine competitive advantages. Tracing back a map of the theory of the firm evolution, taking into account the several perspectives adopted in the history of thought, would take the length of many books. Because of that a more fruitful strategy is circumscribing the focus of the description of the literature evolution to one flow connected to a crucial question about the nature of firm’s behaviour and about the determinants of competitive advantages. In so doing I adopt a perspective that allows me to consider the organizational structure of the firm as an element according to which the different theories can be discriminated. The approach adopted starts by considering the drawbacks of the standard neoclassical theory of the firm. Discussing the most influential theoretical approaches I end up with a close examination of the knowledge based perspective of the firm. Within this perspective the firm is considered as a knowledge creating entity that produce and mange knowledge (Nonaka, Toyama, & Nagata, 2000; Nonaka & Toyama, 2005). In a knowledge intensive organization, knowledge is clearly embedded for the most part in the human capital of the individuals that compose such an organization. In a knowledge based organization, the management, in order to cope with knowledge intensive productions, ought to develop and accumulate capabilities that shape the organizational forms in a way that relies on “cross-functional processes, extensive delayering and empowerment” (Foss 2005, p.12). This mechanism contributes to determine the absorptive capacity of the firm towards specific technologies and, in so doing, it also shape the technological trajectories along which the firm moves. After having recognized the growing importance of the firm’s organizational structure in the theoretical literature concerning the firm theory, the subsequent point of the analysis is that of providing an overview of the changes that have been occurred at micro level to the firm’s organization of production. The economic actors have to deal with challenges posed by processes of internationalisation and globalization, increased and increasing competitive pressure of less developed countries on low value added production activities, changes in technologies and increased environmental turbulence and volatility. As a consequence, it has been widely recognized that the main organizational models of production that fitted well in the 20th century are now partially inadequate and processes aiming to reorganize production activities have been widespread across several economies in recent years. Recently, the emergence of a “new” form of production organization has been proposed both by scholars, practitioners and institutions: the most prominent characteristic of such a model is its recognition of the importance of employees commitment and involvement. As a consequence it is characterized by a strong accent on the human resource management and on those practices that aim to widen the autonomy and responsibility of the workers as well as increasing their commitment to the organization (Osterman, 1994; 2000; Lynch, 2007). This “model” of production organization is by many defined as High Performance Work System (HPWS). Despite the increasing diffusion of workplace practices that may be inscribed within the concept of HPWS in western countries’ companies, it is an hazard, to some extent, to speak about the emergence of a “new organizational paradigm”. The discussion about organizational changes and the diffusion of HPWP the focus cannot abstract from a discussion about the industrial relations systems, with a particular accent on the employment relationships, because of their relevance, in the same way as production organization, in determining two major outcomes of the firm: innovation and economic performances. The argument is treated starting from the issue of the Social Dialogue at macro level, both in an European perspective and Italian perspective. The model of interaction between the social parties has repercussions, at micro level, on the employment relationships, that is to say on the relations between union delegates and management or workers and management. Finding economic and social policies capable of sustaining growth and employment within a knowledge based scenario is likely to constitute the major challenge for the next generation of social pacts, which are the main social dialogue outcomes. As Acocella and Leoni (2007) put forward the social pacts may constitute an instrument to trade wage moderation for high intensity in ICT, organizational and human capital investments. Empirical evidence, especially focused on the micro level, about the positive relation between economic growth and new organizational designs coupled with ICT adoption and non adversarial industrial relations is growing. Partnership among social parties may become an instrument to enhance firm competitiveness. The outcome of the discussion is the integration of organizational changes and industrial relations elements within a unified framework: the HPWS. Such a choice may help in disentangling the potential existence of complementarities between these two aspects of the firm internal structure on economic and innovative performance. With the third chapter starts the more original part of the thesis. The data utilized in order to disentangle the relations between HPWS practices, innovation and economic performance refer to the manufacturing firms of the Reggio Emilia province with more than 50 employees. The data have been collected through face to face interviews both to management (199 respondents) and to union representatives (181 respondents). Coupled with the cross section datasets a further data source is constituted by longitudinal balance sheets (1994-2004). Collecting reliable data that in turn provide reliable results needs always a great effort to which are connected uncertain results. Data at micro level are often subjected to a trade off: the wider is the geographical context to which the population surveyed belong the lesser is the amount of information usually collected (low level of resolution); the narrower is the focus on specific geographical context, the higher is the amount of information usually collected (high level of resolution). For the Italian case the evidence about the diffusion of HPWP and their effects on firm performances is still scanty and usually limited to local level studies (Cristini, et al., 2003). The thesis is also devoted to the deepening of an argument of particular interest: the existence of complementarities between the HPWS practices. It has been widely shown by empirical evidence that when HPWP are adopted in bundles they are more likely to impact on firm’s performances than when adopted in isolation (Ichniowski, Prennushi, Shaw, 1997). Is it true also for the local production system of Reggio Emilia? The empirical analysis has the precise aim of providing evidence on the relations between the HPWS dimensions and the innovative and economic performances of the firm. As far as the first line of analysis is concerned it must to be stressed the fundamental role that innovation plays in the economy (Geroski & Machin, 1993; Stoneman & Kwoon 1994, 1996; OECD, 2005; EC, 2002). On this point the evidence goes from the traditional innovations, usually approximated by R&D investment expenditure or number of patents, to the introduction and adoption of ICT, in the recent years (Brynjolfsson & Hitt, 2000). If innovation is important then it is critical to analyse its determinants. In this work it is hypothesised that organizational changes and firm level industrial relations/employment relations aspects that can be put under the heading of HPWS, influence the propensity to innovate in product, process and quality of the firm. The general argument may goes as follow: changes in production management and work organization reconfigure the absorptive capacity of the firm towards specific technologies and, in so doing, they shape the technological trajectories along which the firm moves; cooperative industrial relations may lead to smother adoption of innovations, because not contrasted by unions. From the first empirical chapter emerges that the different types of innovations seem to respond in different ways to the HPWS variables. The underlying processes of product, process and quality innovations are likely to answer to different firm’s strategies and needs. Nevertheless, it is possible to extract some general results in terms of the most influencing HPWS factors on innovative performance. The main three aspects are training coverage, employees involvement and the diffusion of bonuses. These variables show persistent and significant relations with all the three innovation types. The same do the components having such variables at their inside. In sum the aspects of the HPWS influence the propensity to innovate of the firm. At the same time, emerges a quite neat (although not always strong) evidence of complementarities presence between HPWS practices. In terns of the complementarity issue it can be said that some specific complementarities exist. Training activities, when adopted and managed in bundles, are related to the propensity to innovate. Having a sound skill base may be an element that enhances the firm’s capacity to innovate. It may enhance both the capacity to absorbe exogenous innovation and the capacity to endogenously develop innovations. The presence and diffusion of bonuses and the employees involvement also spur innovative propensity. The former because of their incentive nature and the latter because direct workers participation may increase workers commitment to the organizationa and thus their willingness to support and suggest inovations. The other line of analysis provides results on the relation between HPWS and economic performances of the firm. There have been a bulk of international empirical studies on the relation between organizational changes and economic performance (Black & Lynch 2001; Zwick 2004; Janod & Saint-Martin 2004; Huselid 1995; Huselid & Becker 1996; Cappelli & Neumark 2001), while the works aiming to capture the relations between economic performance and unions or industrial relations aspects are quite scant (Addison & Belfield, 2001; Pencavel, 2003; Machin & Stewart, 1990; Addison, 2005). In the empirical analysis the integration of the two main areas of the HPWS represent a scarcely exploited approach in the panorama of both national and international empirical studies. As remarked by Addison “although most analysis of workers representation and employee involvement/high performance work practices have been conducted in isolation – while sometimes including the other as controls – research is beginning to consider their interactions” (Addison, 2005, p.407). The analysis conducted exploiting temporal lags between dependent and covariates, possibility given by the merger of cross section and panel data, provides evidence in favour of the existence of HPWS practices impact on firm’s economic performance, differently measured. Although it does not seem to emerge robust evidence on the existence of complementarities among HPWS aspects on performances there is evidence of a general positive influence of the single practices. The results are quite sensible to the time lags, inducing to hypothesize that time varying heterogeneity is an important factor in determining the impact of organizational changes on economic performance. The implications of the analysis can be of help both to management and local level policy makers. Although the results are not simply extendible to other local production systems it may be argued that for contexts similar to the Reggio Emilia province, characterized by the presence of small and medium enterprises organized in districts and by a deep rooted unionism, with strong supporting institutions, the results and the implications here obtained can also fit well. However, a hope for future researches on the subject treated in the present work is that of collecting good quality information over wider geographical areas, possibly at national level, and repeated in time. Only in this way it is possible to solve the Gordian knot about the linkages between innovation, performance, high performance work practices and industrial relations.

Business processes and knowledge management

Knowledge has been a subject of interest and inquiry for thousands of years since at least the time of the ancient Greeks, and no doubt even before that. “What is knowledge” continues to be an important topic of discussion in philosophy. More recently, interest in managing knowledge has grown in step with the perception that increasingly we live in a knowledge-based economy. Drucker (1969) is usually credited as being the first to popularize the knowledge-based economy concept by linking the importance of knowledge with rapid technological change in Drucker (1969). Karl Wiig coined the term knowledge management (hereafter KM) for a NATO seminar in 1986, and its popularity took off following the publication of Nonaka and Takeuchi’s book “The Knowledge Creating Company” (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). Knowledge creation is in fact just one of many activities involved in KM. Others include sharing, retaining, refining, and using knowledge. There are many such lists of activities (Holsapple & Joshi, 2000; Probst, Raub, & Romhardt, 1999; Skyrme, 1999; Wiig, De Hoog, & Van der Spek, 1997). Both academic and practical interest in KM has continued to increase throughout the last decade. In this article, first the different types of knowledge are outlined, then comes a discussion of various routes by which knowledge management can be implemented, advocating a process-based route. An explanation follows of how people, processes, and technology need to fit together for effective KM, and some examples of this route in use are given. Finally, there is a look towards the future.

Gestão do conhecimento : estudo de caso Orquestra Juvenil de Guitarras do Algarve

Mestrado em Gestão e Empreendedorismo

As disfunções da memória organizacional e suas implicações no uso dos sistemas de informação: um caso de estudo

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de Informação

Yritysten väliset verkostot tietojohtamisen näkökulmasta – Case Imatran Seudun Koivukeskus

Alueellinen yrityskeskittymä sisältää monenlaisia yhteistyöverkostoja siinä toimivien yritysten välillä. Olemassa olevien verkosto- ja tietojohtamisteorioiden pohjalta yhteistyöverkostot jaettiin niiden perustehtävän mukaan kolmeen eri päätyyppiin, jotka ovat tuottaja-, kehittäjä- ja innovaatioverkosto. Tutkimusongelmana oli määrittää, voidaanko verkostoja eritellä niiden perustehtävän mukaan ja näkyykö perustehtävän erilaisuus niiden organisoitumis- ja kommunikointitavassa. Tutkimuskohteena oli kasvava puualan keskittymä, Imatran Seudun Koivukeskus. Tutkimusmenetelmänä käytettiin tapaustutkimusta ja aineistonkeruumenetelmänä teemahaastattelua. Aineistoa käsiteltiin käyttämällä menetelmänä profilointia ja teemoittelua. Tutkimuksen perusteella voitiin alueelta erottaa selvästi kolme verkostojen päätyyppiä, jotka toimivat alueella tietoa luovana, välittävänä ja soveltavana tasona. Päätyyppien välillä havaittiin eroja, kun kriteereinä käytettiin verkostojen suhteita, osaamista, tiedonkulkua ja johtajuutta. Koivukeskukselle erityisen tärkeänä verkostotyyppinä pidettiin kehittäjäverkostoa, sillä se toimii alueen sosiaalisen pääoman kasvualustana ja täten auttaa muiden verkostotyyppien kehittymistä. Mikäli kaikki päätyypit saadaan toimi-maan tehokkaasti, alueen innovaatioverkostossa syntyvät uudet prosessi- ja tuoteinnovaatiot ovat välittömästi siirrettävissä tehostamaan tuotantoa. Alueellinen yrityskeskittymä sisältää kaikkia edellä mainittuja verkostotyyppejä, ja yksittäinen toimija voi kuulua samanaikaisesti kaikkiin verkostotyyppeihin. Johtopäätöksenä esitettiin, että alueellisen yrityskeskittymän kilpailuetu syntyy alueen sisälle muodostuvien tuottaja-, kehittäjä- ja innovaatioverkoston kautta. Alueellisen yrityskeskittymän verkostopohjaisen kehittämisen avuksi kehitettiin yksinkertainen työkalu.

Sosiaalityö ja maahanmuuttajat. Lastensuojelun ammattilaisten ja asiakkaiden vuorovaikutus ja tulkinnat

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tuottaa tietoa siitä, mitä maahanmuuttajia koskevat erityiskysymykset suomalaisessa lastensuojelun sosiaalityössä ovat ja miten näitä kysymyksiä lastensuojelussa käsitellään. Teoreettismetodologisena viitekehyksenä on sosiaalinen konstruktionismi. Etnisten suhteiden tutkimusperinteessä työ paikantuu keskusteluun, jossa kulttuuri ja etnisyys nähdään sosiaalisesti rakentuvina ja muuntuvina. Analyysissä sovelletaan diskurssianalyyttistä metodologiaa. Tutkimus rakentuu yhteenveto-osiosta ja neljästä artikkelista. Maahanmuuttajasosiaalityötä ja lastensuojelua tarkastellaan sosiaalityöntekijöiden, muiden ammattilaisten ja asiakkaiden kielenkäytön kautta. Aineisto koostuu 11 lastensuojelun asiakaskeskustelusta ja niiden jälkeen keskustelun osapuolille tehdyistä haastatteluista, joita on yhteensä 35. Tutkimuksessa analysoidaan seuraavia kysymyksiä: Miten sosiaalityöntekijät tulkitsevat maahanmuuttajasosiaalityön erityisyyttä oman ammatillisen tehtävänsä näkökulmasta? Minkälaisia ominaisuuksia sosiaalityöntekijät rakentavat maahanmuuttaja-asiakkaille? Miten lastensuojelun keskusteluissa puhutaan monikulttuurisuuteen liittyvistä teemoista, kuten erilaisuudesta ja samanlaisuudesta sekä kulttuuri- ja rasismikysymyksistä? Miten maahanmuuttajalasten ja -nuorten osallisuus lastensuojelun asiakaskeskusteluissa rakentuu aikuisten ja lasten itsensä tuottamana? Mitä ja miten maahanmuuttajalapset ja -nuoret puhuvat kokemuksistaan lastensuojelussa ja suomalaisessa yhteiskunnassa? Maahanmuuttajien erityiskysymyksiä ovat kieleen, kulttuuriin ja valtayhteiskunnan toimintaan liittyvät ymmärtämisvaikeudet, kokemukset arkipäivän rasismista sekä perheen ja yhteisön merkittävä, osin ristiriitainen rooli. Lapsilla ja nuorilla kulttuuri on muuntuvaa ja jatkuvien neuvottelujen kohteena. Aineiston lastensuojelutilanteiden taustalla on usein kouluympäristöön liittyviä vaikeuksia. Haastatteluissa lapset kertovat kokemuksistaan ja toimijuudestaan perheeseen, yhteisöön ja kouluun paikantuvissa tilanteissa. Asiakaskeskusteluissa lasten puhuja-asema on usein heikko, jos aikuiset eivät aktiivisesti vahvista sitä. Jotkut lapset ottavat itse vahvan puhuja-aseman. Asiakaskeskusteluissa maahanmuuttajien erityiskysymyksistä puhutaan harvoin eksplisiittisesti. Haastatteluissa sosiaalityöntekijät enemmän tai vähemmän tietoisesti paikantavat maahanmuuttajasosiaalityötä vieraannuttavaan, sopeuttavaan, tasa-arvoistavaan, kulttuuritietoiseen, rasismitietoiseen ja osallistavaan kehykseen. Kehykset nostavat sosiaalityön tavoitteista, menetelmistä ja asiakkaasta keskeisiksi erilaisia asioita. Tulkinnat ovat muuntuvia, vaikka osoittavat myös tiettyä säännönmukaisuutta. Kulttuuri on keskeinen käsite erilaisuuden ja samanlaisuuden ymmärtämiseksi. Sekä työntekijät että asiakkaat perustelevat toivottavia elämäntapoja "omalla kulttuurillaan" ja selittävät ongelmia ”erilaisella kulttuurilla”. Kulttuurin käsitettä voidaan myös käyttää työvälineenä asiakaskeskusteluissa avattaessa asiakkaan omaa näkökulmaa korostavaa dialogia. Perheen ja kulttuurisen yhteisön merkitys on tärkeää arvioida lapsen ja nuoren hyvinvoinnin ja kulttuurisen identiteetin kehittymisen näkökulmasta. Sosiaalityöntekijöillä on merkittävä välittäjän rooli yhtäältä valtayhteiskunnan ja maahanmuuttaja-asiakkaiden, toisaalta vanhempien, yhteisöjen sekä lasten ja nuorten välillä. Lastensuojelussa haasteena on arkipäivän rasismin tiedostaminen sekä siihen pureutuvien työmenetelmien kehittäminen.