Können Organisationen nicht lernen? Facetten organisationaler Lernkulturen

Recently, the concept of ‘learning culture’ has entered the discussion on learning organizations and organizational learning, especially in the German speaking countries. Most of the academics, but also practitioners seem to use the term ‘learning culture’ in a particular sense as nurturing a self-directed, on-the-job learning of all employees. An implicit, often neglected assumption of this conception is that organizations can be divided into those who have a learning culture and those who do not. Although this idea of a dichotomy is also found in the discussion on learning organizations, it can be called into question. Past research has shown that (organizational) learning is a multifaceted phenomenon. Different organizations engage in very diverse kinds of learning due to the fact that they are facing varying environmental conditions. This brings us to doubt the idea of a ?one-best-way“ learning culture. Following the basic question, who learns what, how, when and why, the article presents a set of distinguishing attributes to distinguish between different types of learning cultures. Finally, yet unanswered questions and paths for future research are discussed.     

Barriers to organizational learning: An integration of theory and research

This paper develops a theoretical foundation to describe and explain impediments to organizational learning (OL). Based on the expanded 4I model ( Crossan et al . 1999 . Academy of Management Review , 24 , 522–537), which was further developed by Lawrence et al . (2005 . Academy of Management Review , 30 , 180–191), different learning barriers are categorized and discussed with regard to factors complicating or impeding OL. Finally, the paper analyses the impact of particular barriers on different kinds of organizational units, the relationship between OL barriers, single-loop and double-loop learning, as well as typical combinations of barriers and their respective impact on organizational performance.     

Stereotypical Inferences as Mediators of Age Discrimination: The Role of Competence and Warmth

Drawing on theories of stereotype content and role congruity, this research investigated the role of stereotypes for employment discrimination against older candidates. Study 1 investigated the content of stereotypes about older workers, focusing on warmth and competence as the two core dimensions in social judgement. As predicted, older workers were perceived as less competent but warmer than younger workers. Studies 2 and 3 investigated how these stereotypes interact with job requirements to predict age bias in an experimental setting. Further, they tested if warmth‐ and competence‐related stereotypical inferences mediate the relation between candidate age and selection bias. Results showed that age bias was robust. Older candidates were discriminated against, even if the job primarily required warmth‐related qualities, and independently of evaluators' own age or professional experience in human resources. Moreover, age bias was mediated by competence‐related stereotypical inferences. Age bias was also mediated by inferences related to warmth but those inferences were opposite to the high‐warmth older worker stereotype identified in Study 1 . Implications of the findings for theoretical approaches to age discrimination and for organizational practice designed to combat age discrimination are discussed.     

Improving sample size recalculation in adaptive clinical trials by resampling

Sample size calculations in clinical trials need to be based on profound parameter assumptions. Wrong parameter choices may lead to too small or too high sample sizes and can have severe ethical and economical consequences. Adaptive group sequential study designs are one solution to deal with planning uncertainties. Here, the sample size can be updated during an ongoing trial based on the observed interim effect. However, the observed interim effect is a random variable and thus does not necessarily correspond to the true effect. One way of dealing with the uncertainty related to this random variable is to include resampling elements in the recalculation strategy. In this paper, we focus on clinical trials with a normally distributed endpoint. We consider resampling of the observed interim test statistic and apply this principle to several established sample size recalculation approaches. The resulting recalculation rules are smoother than the original ones and thus the variability in sample size is lower. In particular, we found that some resampling approaches mimic a group sequential design. In general, incorporating resampling of the interim test statistic in existing sample size recalculation rules results in a substantial performance improvement with respect to a recently published conditional performance score.     

Situationen gestalten,um Ärzte am Krankenhaus zu halten

The situation at work in a hospital is often exhausting for medical doctors. Besides deteriorating health, doctors report a diminishing quality of their work. As a consequence, the willingness to change the hospital one is employed by is increased. Aside from important political decisions, doctors and others of responsibility can design their working situation more positively. The authors discuss the doctors’ challenges based on a current survey and introduces situational design—an approach to design working situations optimally so that they positively enhance wellbeing and productivity.     

Willentliches Vergessen – Voraussetzung für Flexibilität und Veränderungsfähigkeit in einer sich permanent verändernden Welt

Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO) - Dieser Beitrag im Journal Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. stellt dar, wie willentliches...