Learning How and Learning What: Effects of Tacit and Codified Knowledge on Performance Improvement Following Technology Adoption

This paper examines effects of tacit and codified knowledge on performance improvement as organizations gain experience with a new technology. We draw from knowledge management and learning curve research to predict improvement rate heterogeneity across organizations. We first note that the same technology can present opportunities for improvement along more than one dimension, such as efficiency and breadth of use. We compare improvement for two dimensions: one in which the acquisition of codified knowledge leads to improvement and another in which improvement requires tacit knowledge. We hypothesize that improvement rates across organizations will be more heterogeneous for dimensions of performance that rely on tacit knowledge than for those that rely on codified knowledge (H1), and that group membership stability predicts improvement rates for dimensions relying on tacit knowledge (H2). We further hypothesize that when performance relies on codified knowledge, later adopters should improve more quickly than earlier adopters (H3). All three hypotheses are supported in a study of 15 hospitals learning to use a new surgical technology. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

略论人力资源外包管理

围绕人力资源外包管理这一新方法,概述了其理论内涵和目前国内外实践的发展现状,在分析“外包”管理的优势与意义、对适宜“外包”的项目范围进行界定的基础上,重点阐述了“外包”的六种方案,并指出“外包”可能导致的企业机密外泄和不利于企业人力资源管理技能、经验和员工积极性提高等问题,以期对企业实行人力资源外包管理提供一定的指导或借鉴。     

学习型组织理论对人力资源管理教学的启示

在高校人力资源管理教学中运用学习型组织理论对师资培养、教师角色定位、教学方法的运用以及专业知识体系的设计等进行了探讨,得出了几点启示。     

高校加强发展战略管理工作探析

结合科学发展观,对高等学校加强发展战略管理工作的意义进行探讨,分析了目前高校在发展战略管理工作中存在的工作机构建设滞后,管理缺乏科学性、系统性、创新性等,并提出了相应的对策。     

Interorganizational Determinants of Environmental Purchasing: Initial Evidence from the Consumer Products Industries*

Environmental purchasing consists of the purchasing function's involvement in activities that include reduction, recycling, reuse, and substitution of materials. Despite the potentially important role that the purchasing function can play in a firm's environmental activities, little research has been performed to date that examines the factors that impact environmental purchasing. The authors develop and empirically test a theoretical model that examines how interorganizational factors both drive and constrain purchasing's involvement in environmental activities. The empirical findings suggest that environmental purchasing activities will be facilitated through increased coordination with suppliers as well as downstream members of the supply chain, including retailers. The results also suggest the need for increased coordination within the firm, particularly between the purchasing function on the inbound side and marketing and distribution functions on the outbound side.     

Fostering Risk Taking in Research and Development: The Importance of a Project's Terminal Value

Large firms face a conflict in managing a portfolio of high-risk projects. When an ongoing project is thought to have a low likelihood of success, project team members take risks to improve its chances of success. However, upper-level managers who allocate resources tend to withhold resources from a project with a low likelihood of success in favor of others in the portfolio that look more promising. Because this paucity of resources influences project team members to avoid risk, the total effect of success likelihood on risk taking is conflicted. The influence on risk taking of a project's terminal value—defined as the value that remains in the firm in the event of project failure—is unequivocally positive, because both senior management resource allocation and project team risk-taking propensity are encouraged by terminal value. Thus, firms can override the ambivalent effect of likelihood of success on project decision making by focusing attention on a project's terminal value.     

Staffing a Multiskilled Workforce with Varying Levels of Productivity: An Analysis of Cross-training Policies*

Service operations that utilize cross-trained employees face complex workforce staffing decisions that have important implications for both cost and productivity. These decisions are further complicated when cross-trained employees have different productivity levels in multiple work activity categories. A method for policy analysis in such environments can be beneficial in determining low-cost staffing plans with appropriate cross-training configurations. In this paper, we present an integer linear programming model for evaluating cross-training configurations at the policy level. The objective of the model is to minimize workforce staffing costs subject to the satisfaction of minimum labor requirements across a planning horizon of a single work shift. The model was used to evaluate eight cross-training structures (consisting of 36 unique cross-training configurations) across 512 labor requirement patterns. These structures, as well as the labor requirement patterns, were established based on data collected from maintenance operations at a large paper mill in the United States. The results indicate that asymmetric cross-training structures that permit chaining of employee skill classes across work activity categories are particularly useful.     

Managing the International Strategic Sourcing Process as a Market-Driven Organizational Learning System*

This study examines the effects of market-driven organizational learning on a select set of strategic sourcing outcomes involving the sourcing function of a Fortune 500 multinational corporation. The focus is on the dyadic activities and relationships between the domestic and international strategic business units (SBUs) and the corporate buying center. The hypothesized relationships are tested on the overall sample and based on a two-by-two matrix framework defined by international versus domestic settings and frequent versus infrequent sourcing scenarios. Based on a sample of 179 domestic and 167 international SBUs, the results suggest that market-driven organizational learning in the strategic sourcing units influences customer satisfaction, relationship commitment, and cycle time of the sourcing process. However, while the set of learning orientations appears to be strategically robust across the four quadrant scenarios (moderator settings), the sourcing situations differ somewhat in the specific tactical learning orientations preferred.     

Causal Linkages in Supply Chain Management: An Exploratory Study of North American Manufacturing Firms

In this paper we investigate the key causal linkages in supply chain management. We propose a conceptual framework and test this framework on data from 215 North American manufacturing firms using structural equation modeling techniques. Three major research issues are addressed in this study: Do sourcing decisions affect the degree to which firms achieve manufacturing goals of cost, flexibility, dependability, and quality? Does the degree of manufacturing goal achievement lead to higher customer responsiveness? Does the degree of manufacturing goal achievement lead to higher internal manufacturing performance? The study examines the relationship among sourcing decisions, manufacturing goals, customer responsiveness, and manufacturing performance. The results support the notion that an integrated supply chain involves aligning sourcing decisions to achieve manufacturing goals that are set to respond favorably to the needs of customers.     

Integration Between Business Planning and Information Systems Planning: Validating a Stage Hypothesis

This paper proposes and empirically validates a stages of growth model for the evolution of Information Systems Planning (ISP). A questionnaire survey of senior IS executives is used to gather information pertaining to the stages of growth model, which includes measurement of the nature and level of integration between business planning (BP) and ISP. The del test is used to validate empirically benchmark variables for each stage of BP-ISP integration. The results support the stages of growth model of BP-ISP integration and the benchmark variables are generally found to be successful in predicting the stage of integration.