The War of the Woods: Facilitators and Impediments of Organizational Learning Processes

This study examines unfolding organizational learning processes at MacMillan Bloedel, a company which, after years of resisting stakeholder pressures for change, disengaged from the field’s dominant paradigm and developed a new solution. We elaborate the Crossan, Lane and White multi–level framework of organizational learning processes, finding support for the four feedforward learning processes they identified (intuiting, interpreting, integrating and institutionalizing), and adding two action–based learning processes: ‘attending’ and ‘experimenting’. We introduce the concept of a ‘legitimacy trap’ to describe an organization’s over–reliance on institutionalized knowledge when external challenges arise. The trapped organization rejects external challenges of its legitimacy when it perceives the sources of those challenges to be illegitimate. Feedforward learning is blocked as the organization escalates its commitment to its institutionalized interpretations and actions. Taking a grounded theory approach, we discuss how individuals attend to new stimuli and engage in intuiting about them, how groups interpret, experiment with and integrate new solutions, and how the firm validates and institutionalizes the successful solution. Facilitators and impediments of each of these learning processes are identified. Our additions to the model recognize the importance of context in organizational learning processes, and suggest how power may impact organizational learning.     

The role of self-determination theory in marketing science: An integrative review and agenda for research

The marketing literature is replete with the repeated use of traditional theories of behaviour, such as ‘the consumer decision model,’ the ‘theory of buyer behaviour,’ the ‘theory of reasoned action,’ the ‘theory of planned behaviour,’ and ‘the model of goal-directed behaviour.’ The conclusions and criticisms that are drawn from these theories stem from the many ways in which these theories are applied, which reduces the efficiency of these approaches in the sense of predictability and generalizability across different cultures. Moreover, these theories have minimal influence on autonomously motivated behaviours. Despite these limitations, marketing scientists have overwhelmingly applied these theories to predict consumer intention and behaviour. However, theories that are actually capable of explaining consumers' motivations have been surprisingly ignored in the marketing literature; for instance, ‘self-determination theory’ (SDT) is a leading theory of human motivation that has been proven effective at identifying the contingencies that affect motivation and behaviour. Therefore, the goal is to review the marketing research in which SDT is used. To this end, we review all empirical studies published on the subject over a 20-year period. Several clusters of research are identified in which SDT appears to be more promising in addressing marketing problems. Finally, we provide directions for future research in greater detail.     

Learning in and from projects: the learning modes and a learning capability model

Abstract

The notion of ‘project delivery’ is well embedded in and across the management and organizational sciences literature – generating a narrative that reflects and recognizes the instrumental nature of projects and programmes in strategy execution. Project management, as a distinct and well-established body of research enquiry, has increasingly sought to focus our attention on the impacts of complexity, risk and uncertainty in projects; the corollary being a desideratum to strengthen our theoretical understanding of how insight and learning from projects may influence improvements to organizational efficiency. The wider literature suggests that organizational learning remains a challenging proposition, particularly in the context of organizations operating in environments of high complexity. In this paper, we enhance the conversation on organizational learning through a series of case studies, generating evidence of thirteen ‘learning modes’. The paper proposes that mature organizations tend to exhibit a greater number of learning modes and that there is a tendency to capture and socialize knowledge with a greater emphasis on the context of the learning situation rather than the learning artefact in isolation. The empirical evidence gathered in this paper forms the basis of a capability model, characterized by the thirteen modes of learning. The model intimates that learning occurs, and is more effective, when knowledge and information are enacted in practice through the learning modes which form a nucleus of the organizational learning capability. The research concludes with a 'call to action' that emphasizes the strategic importance of learning practices and routines in project oriented-organizations.     

Learning and development experiences of self-initiated expatriate women in the United Arab Emirates

The article explores self-initiated expatriate women's experiences of working and learning in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Adler's (Adler, N. 1987. Pacific basin managers: A Gaijin, not a woman. Human Resource Management 26, no. 2: 169–91) seminal study and Tung's (Tung, R.L. 2004. Female expatriates: The model of the global manager. Organizational Dynamics 33: 243–53) research suggest that expatriate women operating in a foreign host culture are categorized as a ‘Third Gender’: host nationals would perceive them as ‘foreign’ first and ‘women’ second, consequently according them different privileged treatment inworkplaces than host national women colleagues. This qualitative study of self-initiated expatriate women highlights how the women's constructions of themselves as ‘foreign’ and ‘female’ in the UAE provide a lens through which they reflect upon their own experiences of learning and development. In the absence of support from their own organizations and/or driven by their own aspirations, the women embarked upon their professional development initiatives; networking, coaching and formal qualifications. Key themes of vulnerability in being a foreigner, gendered workplaces, informal learning and women's agency in their own learning and development emerge from the analysis. The women's experiences suggest that their ‘Third Gender’ identity frames both constraints and opportunities within their social and work environment. The research focus on self-initiated expatriate women developing their professional practice, without the organizational Human Resource Development (HRD) support normally provided for assigned expatriates, is a key contribution to HRD, expatriate and international management literature where gender has tended to be ignored.     

案例行动学习法——效率与效果的兼顾

案例教学法、行动学习法等主流商科情境教学模式虽在国内商学院中得到广泛的应用,但囿于使用过程中的资源限制、实施变形及方法本身的局限性,导致教学双方的反馈尚不尽如人意。本文介绍了一种全新的商科情境教学方法--"案例行动学习法"。论文应用建构主义理论探讨了"案例行动学习法"的基本原理,研究了该种方法的能力建构机理,分析了其成为工商管理主流情境教学方法的效率与效果的平衡机理,介绍了前期应用的效果。研究结果表明,"案例行动学习法"作为一种全新的工商管理情境教学方法,能够将案例教学与行动学习两种方法的优点有机结合在一起,具备在全国范围内推广的条件。     

HRD standards and standardization: where now for human resource development?

This paper examines standard-setting and standardization processes currently being undertaken in the human resources field and makes a ‘call to action’ for human resource development (HRD) scholars and practitioners to influence these developments. The paper provides a reflexive ‘insider account’ of HR standards development combining personal experience with theoretical perspectives; ‘grey’ and practitioner literatures; and secondary data sources. Drawing on scholarly literature sources, opportunities and dilemmas of standardization processes in the HR field are discussed. Grounded in the standardization literature, alternative approaches to system-wide (meta) standards are identified. Drawing on publically available information, different standardization approaches in USA and UK are discussed. The paper critiques the dominant performance-orientated paradigm and ‘rules-based’ approach to standards and argues for an alternative, principles-based approach for HR standardization to support sustainable individual and organizational performance. These issues have important consequences for HRD identity, pedagogy, education, and practice. In addition to the development of an original typology of emerging HR standardization, the paper contributes a new perspective to debates about the identity, values, purpose, and contribution of HRD and the relationship between HRD and human resource management (HRM).     

A ‘No Blame’ Approach to Organizational Learning

In high‐reliability organizations (HROs) even minor errors can seriously hinder the very existence of the firm and the safety of employees and customers. Field studies have shown that HROs encourage the reporting of errors and near misses, exploiting these incidents to improve their operative processes. In this paper, we describe this practice as a ‘no blame’ approach to error management, and link it to learning theory, showing how no blame practices can enhance organizational learning. By taking a cognitive perspective of organizations, we draw on existing contributions and on a set of empirical case studies to discuss the characteristics of no blame practices, and their applicability in traditional, non‐HROs. Our findings show that, in exploiting information from error‐reporting, no blame practices are beneficial in environments where learning and reliability issues are particularly relevant. Empirical evidence suggests that a no blame approach can be extremely constructive for organizations that want to enhance their learning processes. We conclude that a no blame approach is a valuable way to achieve an organization that has flexibility and variability. However, no blame practices imply a set of organizational issues and costs that pose significant challenges to firms operating in non‐high‐reliability settings. The findings from our study contribute to the literature on HROs and organizational learning.     

Action learning and control theory

The essay is a kind of ‘product mix’ of two separate concepts, manifestly quite different but found ultimately to blend into a common message. The author found management literature over the past two decades somewhat difficult to assimilate, due perhaps to an engineering training where problems are always simplified into tangible models and laws. Control theory (or cybernetics), however, seemed to offer a way out of the difficulty, especially as psychologists were using control theory to take them beyond the range of the ‘conditioned reflex’, and the author was encouraged to try out cybernetic ideas in terms of human problems in management and industry. The development of ‘action learning’ as a pragmatic yet sophisticated technique has provided a challenge for the cybernetic model. It is thought that many readers, particularly those with an engineering or scientific background, might find this exposition in social cybernetics helpful in getting a comprehensive grasp of action learning.     

8 Organizations and Management in China

Abstract

China’s economic transition and its integration into the global economy have been widely recognized as among the most important social changes in the past three decades. This transformation has attracted scholarly attention from multiple disciplines, and sociologists have made particularly important contributions to literature emphasizing theories of organizations, organizational change, and management practice. In this article, we present a critical review of the state of sociological literature on organization and management issues in the transition process. We focus on studies that explore how organizations shaped the trajectory of China’s economic transition, how organizations affect important social and economic outcomes during transition, and the unique challenges that managers face in China’s transition context. We conclude with suggestions for resolving central debates and future research directions.     

Action Learning - A Paradigm in Emergence: the Problems Facing a Challenge to Traditional Management Education and Development

This paper examines the proposition that action learning is a new paradigm in management education. Action learning is becoming widely accepted methodology for the development of managers and managerial competence. This is in both public and private sector organizations and within the context of certificated and organisationally based programmes. The paper seeks to use Kuhn's work on the nature of paradigms and change as a way of explaining the increase of interest in his approach. Importantly, although this approach promises to answer some of the problems of traditional management education, it is not without its own critics. Kuhn's criteria for a paradigm change are explained with reference to action learning literature and knowledge of practice. From this a framework is developed that compares a traditional approach to management education with an action learning approach on three levels. Our conclusion is that action learning is a new paradigm, but for the maximum benefit to be gained from the approach its application needs to be more carefully considered, particularly in relation to the provision of some wider external frameworks for the manager to use as‘tools for thinking’     

A practical approach to achieving Agility–a theory of constraints perspective

This article documents an action research (AR) project aimed at identifying the practical steps needed to become an agile manufacturer through a combination of the theory of constraints (TOC) and resource- based view (RBV) approaches in a small to medium enterprise (SME) in the Australian manufacturing sector. To date, lean production has been highlighted as a possible catalyst for creating an agile manufacturer, despite the evidence suggesting that lean manufacturing lacks the responsiveness and adaptability to effectively handle a rapidly changing market place and only works well in a stable environment. A more flexible system of production is required to fully encompass the agile characteristics needed to attain a competitive advantage. This research provides empirical evidence that the TOC perspective can be used as a practical approach for becoming an agile manufacturer. The study provides a workable approach for small firms to achieve ‘Agility’ in practice.     

Action,Reaction and Resignation: How Refugee Women and Support Organisations Respond to Labour Market Integration Challenges during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Even without the impact of a global pandemic, refugee women face obstacles to their integration into the labour market. Complex integration challenges are situated across different, yet interwoven, levels. These include restrictive policies at the institutional level, limited funding for support measures at the organisational level and a lack of skills at the individual level. Many of these are gendered and specifically affect women. Some might be further intensified by Covid-19. However, the pandemic's effect on the labour market integration of refugee women has yet to be explored.This paper examines specific challenges support organisations and refugee women have faced during the pandemic and their responses to these. Following a process perspective, we utilise a qualitative methods approach with semi-structured interviews. We collected our data in Austria, a European country that hosts numerous refugees and has an elaborate support network.Results show that the external shock of the pandemic amplified the importance of developing digital skills to support post-pandemic labour market integration. In addition, the pandemic exacerbated challenges for refugee women and support organisations. This led to ‘action’, ‘reaction’ and ‘resignation’ responses. We discuss these, and provide avenues for further research and practice.     

A journey around decision-making: Searching for the “big picture” across disciplines

This paper carries out an interdisciplinary literature review to develop an updated framework that integrates all aspects of decision-making. It proposes a framework that combines the evolutionary perspective with the complexity theory to integrate the ontological communalities between the examined disciplines (operational research, psychology and management). Decision-making is regarded as a systemic, multi-tiered information-based process, founded on the interaction of the decision-maker with the environment in a sort of learning path which co-evolves through variation–selection–retention mechanisms nourished by environmental feedback.Such a complex-coevolutionary perspective provides valuable insights concerning some as-yet-unexplored aspects of decision-making, such as inter- and intra-individual differences in decision-making, as well as the interaction of ‘rational’ and ‘intuitive’ processes or some contradictory evidence (regarding ‘fractionated expertise’ and ‘escalation of commitment’).Practical implications on management education are highlighted, as well as methodological limitations and needs for further studies. The journey is not yet over and probably never will be, but, from an evolutionary perspective, it is the journey, not the arrival, that matters.     

Identities and Identity Work in Organizations

Identities, people's subjectively construed understandings of who they were, are and desire to become, are implicated in, and thus key to understanding and explaining, almost everything that happens in and around organizations. The research contribution that this review paper makes is threefold. First, it analyses the often employed but rarely systematically explored concept ‘identity work’, and argues that it is one metaphor among many that may be useful in the analysis of professional and more generally work identities. Second, it focuses on five fundamental, interconnected debates in contemporary identities research centred on notions of choice, stability, coherence, positivity and authenticity. Third, it outlines the roles that the concept ‘identity work’ may play in bridging levels of analysis and disciplinary boundaries, and sketches some possible future identities‐focused ideas for further research. Under‐specification has meant that ‘identity’ has not always fulfilled its analytical promise in either theoretical explorations of identities issues or in empirical studies of identities in practice; and it is to these ends that this paper seeks to contribute.     

Workplace Bullying,Mobbing and General Harassment: A Review

Research into workplace bullying has continued to grow and mature since emerging from Scandinavian investigations into school bullying in the late 1970s. Research communities now exist well beyond Scandinavia, including Europe, the UK, Australia, Asia and the USA. While the terms ‘harassment’ and ‘mobbing’ are often used to describe bullying behaviour, ‘workplace bullying’ tends to be the most consistently used term throughout the research community. In the past two decades especially, researchers have made considerable advances in developing conceptual clarity, frameworks and theoretical explanations that help explain and address this very complex, but often oversimplified and misunderstood, phenomenon. Indeed, as a phenomenon, workplace bullying is now better understood with reasonably consistent research findings in relation to its prevalence; its negative effects on targets, bystanders and organizational effectiveness; and some of its likely antecedents. However, as highlighted in this review, many challenges remain, particularly in relation to its theoretical foundations and efficacy of prevention and management strategies. Drawing on Affective Events Theory, this review advances understanding through the development of a new conceptual model and analysis of its interrelated components, which explain the dynamic and complex nature of workplace bullying and emphasize current and future debates. Gaps in the literature and future research directions are discussed, including the vexing problem of developing an agreed definition of workplace bullying among the research community, the emergence of cyberbullying, the importance of bystanders in addressing the phenomenon and the use of both formal and informal approaches to prevention and intervention.     

Not more learning logs! A research based perspective on teaching reflective learning within HR professional education

The challenges of teaching reflective learning, whilst not peculiar to the HR profession, assume a poignancy given HR's claim to be the natural custodians of ‘all things learning’. The paper discusses the impact of attempts to enhance the reflective learning curriculum within one professional HR programme. Tensions in terms of the positioning of reflective learning within a predominantly functionalist management curriculum can, in part, be ameliorated. Developing a capability amongst students for reflective dialogue and careful construction of assessment work, for example, can enhance engagement with reflective learning rather than simply ‘knowing’ about it. More problematic is impact beyond the classroom. Research revealed ambivalence in respect of transfer and significance beyond the specifics of the professional programme. HR graduates need a capability that extends beyond individual reflective learning and into creating and supporting reflective learning in organizations. Herein lies the distinctive and fundamental challenge facing tutors of reflective learning within HR professional education.     

The nature of action learning

Action Learning has developed to such an extent that there is now a demand to ‘know’ what it is. There is one way, and one way alone, of getting to ‘know’ what action learning is, and that is by doing it. For those who most clamour to ‘know’ what something might be are usually the victims of an educational system that leaves the vast majority who pass through it ignorant of the meaning of the verb to ‘know’ .... If, for example, I am asked “Do you know that woman?”, it is most probable that the questioner does not ‘know’ what he is asking me. Does he mean “Do I know her name? Or where she lives? Or am I able to introduce him to her? Or what she does for a living? Or do I recognise her by sight? Or have I been to bed with her? And, if so, what progress did I make?...” Thus, with action learning: “Have I read a book about it? Or attended a seminar at which somebody was trying to sell places on an action learning programme? Or visited a set of participants meeting as part of such a programme? Or tried to organise real persons tackling real problems in real time, and trying thereby to learn with and from each other? Or been an active participant myself in such a programme?...” To ‘know’ what action learning is, one must have been responsibly involved in it; since this cannot have been done merely by reading about action learning, it is impossible in this, or any other, note to convey more than the vaguest impression of what this educational approach may be. The day action learning becomes explicable in words alone will be the day to abandon the practice of it.     

The benefits of embedding experiential learning in the education of planners

Abstract

In a future of complexity, uncertainty and fragmented governance we envision planning graduates who will be better prepared for the real world of planning as a result of an experiential learning (EL) approach in undergraduate tertiary education. In this paper, we present the findings of an Australian research project in which planning educators developed and tested a range of experiential planning principles based on sound pedagogical theory. Embedding EL principles and activities within the planning curriculum provides a structured programme of engagement between theory and practice over the four years of an undergraduate Australian planning programme, including opportunities for work-integrated learning. Students gain experience in negotiated decision-making involving a wide range of interactions with planning practitioners. Students become more adaptable—cognizant of mechanisms influencing change, and recognize the value of lifelong learning founded on critical reflection. We propose that a more systematic approach to integrating experiential learning in tertiary planning education culminating in ‘work integrated learning’ would provide a vehicle for further partnerships with responsive local practitioners and communities. Finally, this paper also argues that applying experiential learning does not compromise the quality of planning education based on greater academic rigour.     

Revitalizing the MBA for the New Millennium: A Collaborative Action Research Approach

Business schools are facing increased competition due to information technology innovations and customer dissatisfaction. In response, business schools are turning to a variety of solutions, such as team teaching, integrated curricula, and distance learning. This article presents the results of a collaborative action research project initiated by one business school faced with the need to revitalize its MBA program. The faculty engaged in this project learned much about the challenges of teaching an integrative course and the constancy of change. We share our conclusions and recommendations about an integrated curriculum, distance learning, adult learning, team teaching, revisions in program duration and structure, as well as advice on the necessary administrative support and compensation for business schools contemplating such changes. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.