Absorptive capacity and the effect of social integration mechanisms in knowledge utilization

Tiedosta on tullut määräävä tekijä yrityksensuorituskyvylle. Yritykset hankkivat aktiivisesti uutta tietoa ulkoisesta ympäristöstään ja tallentavat sitä tietokantoihinsa. Uusi tieto on innovaatioiden ja uusien ideoiden peruselementti. Uudet ideat pitää myös kaupallistaa, jotta niiden avulla voidaan hankkia kilpailuetua. Absorptiivisen kapasiteetin malli yhdistää tiedon prosessointiin liittyvät kyvykkyydet, jotka vaikuttavat yrityksen kykyyn hyödyntää tietoa tehokkaasti. Ennen kuin tietoa voidaan käyttää uusien tuotteiden ja palveluiden luomiseen, täytyy sitä jakaa yrityksessä ja muuttaa se yrityksen toimintaa palvelevaksi. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa innovaatiot ovat vahvasti liitetty yrityksen kykyyn uudistua. Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma tutkii sosiaalisten integraatiomekanismien vaikutusta potentiaalisen absorptiivisen kapasiteetin muuttamiseen toteutuneeksi absorptiiviseksi kapasiteetiksi. Yksilöiden ja osastojen välisen yhteistyön sekä luottamuksen vaikutus tiedon sisäistämiseen tutkittiin. Tutkielma pohjautuu monikansallisessa yrityksessä keväällä 2006 suoritettuun uudistumiskyky-tutkimukseen. Tutkielma keskittyy yrityksen kykyyn uudistua uuden tiedon ja innovaatioiden avulla. Tutkielma on kvantitatiivinen tapaustutkimus. Tutkielmassa tehtyjen havaintojen mukaan sosiaaliset integraatiomekanismit ovat tärkeitä uuden tiedon hyödyntämisessä. Tiedon eksplisiittyyden havaitaan vaikuttavan tiedon muuttamiseen yritykselle hyödylliseksi resurssiksi.

Knowledge communication and translation- A knowledge transfer model

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a process model for knowledge transfer in using theories relating knowledge communication and knowledge translation. Design/methodology/approach – Most of what is put forward in this paper is based on a research project titled “Procurement for innovation and knowledge transfer (ProFIK)”. The project is funded by a UK government research council – The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The discussions are mainly grounded on a thorough review of literature accomplished as part of the research project. Findings – The process model developed in this paper has built upon the theory of knowledge transfer and the theory of communication. Knowledge transfer, per se, is not a mere transfer of knowledge. It involves different stages of knowledge transformation. Depending on the context of knowledge transfer, it can also be influenced by many factors; some positive and some negative. The developed model of knowledge transfer attempts to encapsulate all these issues in order to create a holistic framework. Originality/value of paper – An attempt has been made in the paper to combine some of the significant theories or findings relating to knowledge transfer together, making the paper an original and valuable one.

The quintuple way: cognitive Strategies - transformation strategies

In this work five different ways of intervention, strategically articulated, on the social world, are established. And it includes two approaches regarding the realm of knowledge and that of social change. In the second approach, five basic categories are proposed: society, State, economy, poverty and power, which work as basic a framework understand society and to serve as an orientation to carry out the necessary change. This approach to fundamental problems in our society can be applied both to world order conflicts as well as to regional and local ones. The five-fold way embodies the set of strategic packages that make it possible to understand social life and to transform it.

The quintuple way: cognitive Strategies - transformation strategies

In this work five different ways of intervention, strategically articulated, on the social world, are established. And it includes two approaches regarding the realm of knowledge and that of social change. In the second approach, five basic categories are proposed: society, State, economy, poverty and power, which work as basic a framework understand society and to serve as an orientation to carry out the necessary change. This approach to fundamental problems in our society can be applied both to world order conflicts as well as to regional and local ones. The five-fold way embodies the set of strategic packages that make it possible to understand social life and to transform it.

The quintuple way: cognitive Strategies - transformation strategies

In this work five different ways of intervention, strategically articulated, on the social world, are established. And it includes two approaches regarding the realm of knowledge and that of social change. In the second approach, five basic categories are proposed: society, State, economy, poverty and power, which work as basic a framework understand society and to serve as an orientation to carry out the necessary change. This approach to fundamental problems in our society can be applied both to world order conflicts as well as to regional and local ones. The five-fold way embodies the set of strategic packages that make it possible to understand social life and to transform it.

Vieraalla kielellä tapahtuvan sisäisen viestinnän vaikutukset organisaation tietovarantoon postmodernin tietokäsityksen viitekehyksessä

Tutkimus pohtii tiedon ja kielitaidon välistä suhdetta kansainvälisen organisaation sisäisessä viestinnässä. Työssä keskitytään erityisesti virallisen kielen vaihtamisen vaikutuksiin organisatorisentiedon laatuun ja määrään. Aihepiiriä lähestytään käsiteanalyyttisin keinoin. Työn on kvalitatiivinen ja siinä on käytetty kirjallista materiaalia, jonka kanssa tutkijalla ei ole ollut vuorovaikutuksessa. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat että on todennäköiseksi, jopa lähes varmaa, että organisaation virallisen kielen vaihtuminen muuttaa organisaation viestintärakennetta. En seurauksena kommunikaatiosuhteet eivät perustu enää osaamiseen tai viralliseen asemaan organisaatiossa. Uudet viestintäverkostot muodostuvat kielitaidon varaan jolloin väistämättä sivutetaan henkilöitä joilla olisi tietämystä, mutta ei kielitaitoa jakaa sitä organisaatiolle. Kansainvälistyminen tuo mukanaan laajemman potentiaalisentietovarannon, joka on mahdollista saada palvelemaan organisaatiota. Näiden kahden vastakkaisen seikan kokonaisvaikutus organisaation tietovarannolle kaipaa lisätutkimusta.

Enhancing absorptive capacity in a non-research and development. An action research approach to converting individual observations into organisational awareness

The ability to recognize potential knowledge and convert it into business opportunities is one of the key factors of renewal in uncertain environments. This thesis examines absorptive capacity in the context of non-research and development innovation, with a primary focus on the social interaction that facilitates the absorption of knowledge. It proposes that everyone is and should be entitled to take part in the social interaction that shapes individual observations into innovations. Both innovation and absorptive capacity have been traditionally related to research and development departments and institutions. These innovations need to be adopted and adapted by others. This so-called waterfall model of innovations is only one aspect of new knowledge generation and innovation. In addition to this Science–Technology–Innovation perspective, more attention has been recently paid to the Doing–Using–Interacting mode of generating new knowledge and innovations. The amount of literature on absorptive capacity is vast, yet the concept is reified. The greater part of the literature links absorptive capacity to research and development departments. Some publications have focused on the nature of absorptive capacity in practice and the role of social interaction in enhancing it. Recent literature on absorptive capacity calls for studies that shed light on the relationship between individual absorptive capacity and organisational absorptive capacity. There has also been a call to examine absorptive capacity in non-research and development environments. Drawing on the literature on employee-driven innovation and social capital, this thesis looks at how individual observations and ideas are converted into something that an organisation can use. The critical phases of absorptive capacity, during which the ideas of individuals are incorporated into a group context, are assimilation and transformation. These two phases are seen as complementary: whereas assimilation is the application of easy-to-accept knowledge, transformation challenges the current way of thinking. The two require distinct kinds of social interaction and practices. The results of this study can been crystallised thus: “Enhancing absorptive capacity in practicebased non-research and development context is to organise the optimal circumstances for social interaction. Every individual is a potential source of signals leading to innovations. The individual, thus, recognises opportunities and acquires signals. Through the social interaction processes of assimilation and transformation, these signals are processed into the organisation’s reality and language. The conditions of creative social capital facilitate the interplay between assimilation and transformation. An organisation that strives for employee-driven innovation gains the benefits of a broader surface for opportunity recognition and faster absorption.” If organisations and managers become more aware of the benefits of enhancing absorptive capacity in practice, they have reason to assign resources to those practices that facilitate the creation of absorptive capacity. By recognising the underlying social mechanisms and structural features that lead either to assimilation or transformation, it is easier to balance between renewal and effective operations.

Percepción de residentes de medicina de urgencias en Colombia del ambiente educativo en los servicios de urgencias

Introducción: La atención de calidad en urgencias sólo es posible si los médicos han recibido una enseñanza de alta calidad. La escala PHEEM (Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure) es un instrumento válido y fiable, utilizado internacionalmente para medir el entorno educativo, en la formación médica de posgrado. Materiales y métodos: Estudio de corte trasversal que utilizó la escala PHEEM versión en español para conocer el entorno educativo de los programas de urgencias. El coeficiente alfa de Cronbach se calculó para determinar la consistencia interna. Se aplicó estadística descriptiva a nivel global, por categorías e ítems de la escala PHEEM y se compararon resultados por sexo, año de residencia y programa. Resultados: 94 (94%) residentes llenaron el cuestionario. La puntuación media de la escala PHEEM fue 93,91 ± 23,71 (58,1% de la puntuación máxima) que se considera un ambiente educativo más positivo que negativo, pero con margen de mejora. Hubo una diferencia estadísticamente significativa en la percepción del ambiente educativo entre los programas de residencia (p =0,01). El instrumento es altamente confiable (alfa de Cronbach = 0,952). La barrera más frecuente en la enseñanza fue el hacinamiento y la evaluación fue percibida con el propósito de cumplir normas. Discusión: Los resultados de este estudio aportaron evidencia sobre la validez interna de la escala PHEEM en el contexto colombiano. Este estudio demostró cómo la medición del ambiente educativo en una especialidad médico-quirúrgica, con el uso de una herramienta cuantitativa, puede proporcionar información en relación a las fortalezas y debilidades de los programas.

Historielärares historier : Ämnesbiografi och ämnesförståelse hos gymnasielärare i historia

The overall aim of this study is to analyse history teachers’ understanding of the school subject history. The aim have also been to uncover what factors the history teachers say have affected their understanding of the school subject. Based on survey and interview methods, the question that this study deals with is: in the light of which general understanding of the school subject history, do the teachers make didactic choices on a daily basis? The first theme is biographical. The teachers’ life-history is taken into consideration and several factors in the teachers’ background and the school environment have been identified. It also seems as if the teachers’ understanding of the school subject goes from an elementary and searching approach to one that is more complex and convinced. The second theme is a more structural approach. The results shows three major orientations among the teachers’ general understanding namely, educational (bildung) orientation, critical orientation and identity orientation. Even though a main orientation can be seen among the teachers, an important result is also that the orientation is overall complex. At the most general level some patterns can be seen. First the connection between the teachers’ biography and their general understanding of the school subject. In the understanding of the school subject, it is also notable that teachers relate in different ways to history as science, history as identity and history from an ideological viewpoint. It is also possible to note some signs of change in the school subject history that follows a lager historiographical context.

Um desejo de eu[não] viver sem me notar: o museu como instituição pedagógica emancipatória

Os museus são organizações que se encontram em crise e a museologia procura redefini-los a partir de sua função social democratizante por meio da cultura. Eles deixam para trás a noção de templos e coleções de objetos para assumirem um papel que modifica a sociedade e a própria estrutura das cidades, sem uma teoria que contemple esse novo papel. Suplantar as contradições existentes é o novo objetivo social dessas organizações e sua forma de ser e agir é a principal motivação deste ensaio que tem como objetivo final analisar como os museus contemporâneos podem se constituir em um local privilegiado para a práxis libertadora por meio de seu caráter pedagógico. Acreditamos que assim os museus contemporâneos podem ser “alguém” com quem a sociedade pode contar em seu processo emancipatório. Para isso o papel dessas organizações deve se transformar, assumindo um viés democrático em lugar de privilegiar questões econômicas e se constituindo em espaço privilegiado para educação libertadora. Para isso faz-se uma adaptação do método pedagógico de Paulo Freire para os museus, destacando quatro momentos principais: desvelamento do conhecimento de si e da sua realidade pelas exposições e pesquisas; crítica acerca do conhecimento desvelado; transformação do objeto em sujeito / práxis; exposição da denúncia ou do anúncio de um mundo melhor. Acredita-se que esse processo, fortemente embasado na crítica e mediado pelo amor possa delimitar o museu em seu novo papel como espaço privilegiado onde acontece parte do processo emancipatório. No entanto, os museus contemporâneos podem se constituir em um local privilegiado para a práxis libertadora por meio de seu potencial pedagógico se essas organizações mais do que aplicarem um método libertador se reformularem completamente.

As práticas educativas na saúde da família: uma cartografia simbólica

This qualitative research aimed to understand the educational activities carried out in Family Health Units, of the municipality of Mossoró-RN. It was used symbolic cartography to organize and present data from reality. It started on the approach of Health Education and knowledge transformation practice, aiming at the development of autonomy and responsibility of individuals and healthcare, publicized by the appreciation of the interpersonal relations area established in services, such as educational emancipator practices contexts. Individual and collective interviews were realized, conducted with health professionals and users of ESF, about themes, activities, membership, the difficulties, the potential and the design of health education that permeate everyday Family Health Strategy. From what was apprehended, thematic maps were done with the analysis of educational practices of professionals belonging to the Family‟s Health. Links are built with the wires of conceptions of education reflected on themes and activities of family health teams. The storylines are rebinded by voices about the difficulties and the potential of educational processes for emancipator postures. For users, health education means proper care and information on disease prevention. Professionals understand that it is all information that is given to users, about health, social well-being, economic and general condition of human being as a way of preventing and treating disease. Mark printed on voices denote that activities and themes worked don‟t motivate users enough for their participation, being that physicians and dentists also get excluded themselves from educational practices. Elderly groups are those who get most involved with the activities. The size of the contained area and its seclusion from community make harder the access of users, as well as diminishing the quality of educational actions and links users-professionals. Therefore, the searching for medicines, medical consultations and wish to be well served are trademarks of voices from the users that interconnect with enlightening information and guidelines offered by professionals to users. It brings out practices that need to incorporate the social, the subjective and act with practices of prevention and health promotion, on the basis of lifestyles. The dialogical model, which needs to be approached since planning phase of health education actions could arouse interest of involved groups; promoting a relationship of dialogue and listening; discussing the local reality; stimulating practical methodological dialetics; promoting processes of deconstruction of concepts, values and attitudes, as more necessary than construction, using multiple languages. The defended thesis denotes paths to other studies aimed at understanding a dialogical template committed to exchanges of knowledge, and discover strategies that encourage formation of critical consciousness and the discovery of how is the training of new generations of healthcare professionals to belong to the project of society, in its technical, scientific, pedagogical, ethical, political and humanistic dimensions

Didactic transposition: an example in the educative system in Costa Rica

This paper includes some fundamental ideas about the theory of didactic transposition of Yve Chevallard (1980), from which it is made an analysis of the knowledge transformation suffers from the mathematical level to the scholastic level. To demonstrate this transformation, it is analyzed the theme of integers, which is included in the seventh- grade curriculum of the educational system of Costa Rica.

The First WORKS Conference on Transformation of Work in a Global Knowledge Economy

The relationship between the changes of the global economy and individual working conditions formed the background of the first WORKS conference “The transformation of work in a global knowledge economy: towards a conceptual framework”, held in Chania, Greece from 21st – 22nd September, 2006 and attended by around 50 European researchers. Experts from academia and trade unions from all over the world were invited to give insights into their field of research, contributing to one of the main topics of the conference: (i) globalisation and organisational restructuring, (ii) workers’ organisation, the quality of working life and the gender dimension and (iii) global experiences and recommendations.

Reflections on the transformation of education for the knowledge age. 'Reflexiones sobre la transformación de la educación para la era del conocimiento'.

Monográfico con el título: 'Aprendizaje y construcción del conocimiento en la red'. Resumen basado en el de la publicación