Academic staff development as a catalyst for curriculum change towards education for sustainable development: an output perspective
Barth, M. , & Rieckmann, M. (2012). Academic staff development as a catalyst for curriculum change towards education for sustainable development: an output perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 26, 28-36.
Implementing education for sustainable development (ESD) in university curricula poses a new challenge to the academic... more Implementing education for sustainable development (ESD) in university curricula poses a new challenge to the academic system. In recent years many universities have undertaken activities towards its implementation and numerous case studies of such processes have been documented. However, it remains a great challenge to change university curricula in such a way that they are transformed into ‘built-in’ sustainability. How then can deep-rooted implementation be facilitated? It has been argued that learning processes which can enable transformative changes largely depend on academic staff and their capabilities and willingness to support such processes. Although there are only few examples that focus on academic staff in higher education as a starting point to bring about change, research indicates promising opportunities to do so. In this context this article describes the case of an academic staff development programme which was implemented at the Universidad Técnica del Norte (Ecuador) and analyses the extent to which such a programme has positive effects on transformative changes towards a sustainable university. The analysis of the programme shows that it not only facilitated the personal competence development of the participating academic staff and changed their teaching practice, but also that it influenced the general organisational development of the university. The results of this case study thus highlight the potential benefits of ESD academic staff development programmes in terms of their relevance for initiating individual learning processes as well as for facilitating social learning and, in this respect, confirm the idea that the competence development of academic staff is an essential prerequisite for a sustainability paradigm shift in higher education.
A configuration model of organizational culture
SageOpen (forthcoming)
The paper proposes a configuration model of organizational culture, which explores dynamic relationships between... more The paper proposes a configuration model of organizational culture, which explores dynamic relationships between organizational culture, strategy, structure and operations of an organization (internal environment) and maps interactions with the external environment (task and legitimization environment). A major feature of the configuration model constitutes its well- defined processes, which connect the elements of the model systematically to each other such as single- and double-loop learning, operationalization of strategies, legitimization management, etc.. The model is grounded in a large review of literature in different research areas and builds on widely recognized models in the field of organization and culture theory. It constitutes a response to the call for new models, which are able to ‘capture the empirical complexity of contemporary organizations’ (Suddaby, Hardy & Huy, 2011, p. 237). The configuration model of organizational culture is of particular interest to scholars who investigate into cultural phenomena and change over time.
Research Framework for Evaluating the Effects of Artistic Interventions in Organizations
research report, 81 pages
TILLT, Gothenburg 2009
The past decades have witnessed the emergence of a multitude of ways to stimulate innovation and organizational... more
The past decades have witnessed the emergence of a multitude of ways to stimulate innovation and organizational learning in response to changes in society and economic pressures. Among these are “artistic interventions” - when some form of art is brought into an organization for several hours, days, or months, to trigger or support a learning and change process at the individual, group, or organizational level. The underlying assumption of practitioners is that bringing people, processes, and products from the “foreign culture” of the arts into the workplace helps to stimulate new ways of thinking and acting by irritating routines, challenging established mindsets, and developing new skills. Artistic interventions in organizations are
conducted with high expectations of a multitude of positive outcomes. Research has not kept pace with these developments in practice. Very few empirical studies have been conducted to establish whether the high hopes placed on these interventions are justified. This report presents a research framework designed to start closing the gap between research and practice by enabling an analysis of the values that artistic interventions add in organizations. It is based on our past
research, on existing literature, and on a series of three “Artful Research” workshops conducted in Berlin in September 2009, at which thirty three artists, people from companies and from intermediary organizations, consultants, and researchers shared their knowledge about the effects they have observed in connection with artistic interventions in organizations. The report answers two questions: 1) Where should attention be
directed to find the kinds of value that artistic interventions add in organizations? 2) And how should the research be conducted?
Conceptual Barriers to Creating Integrative Universities
by Jon Awbrey
Awbrey, S.M., and Awbrey, J.L. (May 2001), “Conceptual Barriers to Creating Integrative Universities”, Organization : The Interdisciplinary Journal of Organization, Theory, and Society 8(2), Sage Publications, London, UK, pp. 269–284.
Today’s society looks to universities for solutions to broad-based issues that require cross-disciplinary expertise.... more Today’s society looks to universities for solutions to broad-based issues that require cross-disciplinary expertise. Yet, the organizational structure of our institutions remains locked in academic and administrative silos that have little genuine ability to communicate or to recognize the interdependence of knowledge. Why does the capacity to communicate between disciplines and units remain limited? How do formalizations of our experience create barriers? What kind of reflection would it take to subject our mental models of knowledge and learning to critical inquiry? This discussion highlights one of the most entrenched ‘group identity myths’ that underlie the structure of modern academic institutions, the ‘triviality of integration’ thesis.
Communities of Design in International Service Firms
This paper was presented at the EGOS conference in Vienna and was published in the conference proceedings.
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Download (.doc) Challenges in Human Resource Management and Organisational Development in the Arabian Gulf: An Analysis of National Identity and Diversity
The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences
Middle Eastern economies generally lag behind global competitors. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is no exception, as... more Middle Eastern economies generally lag behind global competitors. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is no exception, as it faces many challenges including future demographics, employment of its national workforce, sustainability issues, educational concerns, as well as diversity and gender related problems. In truth, a well designed Emiratisation process (a policy for reducing the demand for expatriate workers) coupled with the active participation of Emirati women in mainstream society, including the private sector, can help in alleviating many of the UAE’s problems. The challenge for the rulers of the UAE, is to engage its national human resource in education and employment whilst moving in step with advanced nations and respecting Arab and Islamic tradition. Thus, due in part to the advancement and comparatively liberal nature of the UAE in comparison to other countries on the peninsula, the international community looks to the UAE, and the city of Dubai in particular, as a model for a new, prosperous and sustainable 21st century Middle East. The implications of the research presented here are that there are a number of challenges facing Emirati society and by implication the Arabian Gulf region, which need to be addressed if change and advancement envisaged by the region is to be realised.
Organisational Justice: Migrant Worker Perceptions In Organisations In the United Arab Emirates
Journal of Business Systems, Governance and Ethics
A justice framework can be used to understand how individuals within organisations respond to a variety of human... more A justice framework can be used to understand how individuals within organisations respond to a variety of human resource practices and also can be used prescriptively in designing the procedures and enactment of human resource practices. The principles of justice can be applied in order to understand the consequences of any human resource practice. This paper examines the impact of the perception of organisational justice on job satisfaction of unskilled workers in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The key findings of the research revealed Dubai as having the largest proportion of expatriate workers globally and that these employees present a high level of grievance towards their employers. Major issues highlighted by the survey include pay, workload, job responsibilities, bias, and employer injustice.
Cognitive Style in Organizational Climate
Co-authored with M. J. Kirton
Published as Book Chapter in M. J. Kirton (Ed.) Adaptors and Innovators: styles of creativity and problem solving. Routledge: London, 1990
The chapter reviews how cognitive styles of creativity, problem solving and decision making interact with the... more The chapter reviews how cognitive styles of creativity, problem solving and decision making interact with the prevailing organizational climate of large organizations. The chapter reviews the classic Aston Studies and how recent work in cognitive style may illuminate some of the residual puzzles therein. Do they make the climate? Or are they shaped by it, via coping behaviour? Distinctions are drawn between 'psychological climate' and wider climate, and the discussion focusses on organizational change and development challenges.
Leading IT-Enabled Change Inside Ericsson: A Transformation Into a Global Network of Shared Service Centres
Iveroth, E. (2010). Leading IT-Enabled Change Inside Ericsson: A Transformation Into a Global Network of Shared Service Centres. Doctorial thesis No. 146, Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, 116 pp., ISSN 1103-8454.
The purpose of this thesis is to explore—from a managerial perspective—how IT-enabled change is designed, led, and... more
The purpose of this thesis is to explore—from a managerial perspective—how IT-enabled change is designed, led, and sustained from-within an organisation. This is an issue of central concern because there is a considerable lack of research that directly incorporates IT in management and organisational change studies. In addition, earlier research has recurrently focused on abstract theorising, aggregated perspectives, and exploring organisational change from the outside, from-without. Consequently, the present body of research provides limited knowledge of how organisations in practice lead large-scale IT-enabled transformations.
The thesis herein sets out to explore this question, and does so by following the change designers and agents of the telecommunications company Ericsson, that transformed its finance and accounting unit from a highly decentralised structure into a shared service centre structure (SSC) entitled: “The Global F&A Transformation Programme”. The formal transformation lasted three years, was enabled by an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and was driven in the majority of Ericsson’s sub-units situated in more than 140 countries.
Theoretically, this thesis addresses the research question: how do actors and structures influence large-scale IT-enabled change? The principal finding of the thesis is a four-stage analytical framework built on the concepts of common ground, common meaning, common interest, and common behaviour: The Commonality Framework for IT-enabled Change. The value of the framework is that it depicts the interplay between actors and structures on a micro-level. In doing so, the framework explains the different levels of complexity in a transformation and how they require different structures to be used, different activities to be performed, different skills to be applied, and different roles to be played. The framework can be used by both academics and practitioners to develop, assess, and improve IT-enabled change projects.
In a broader perspective, the findings further suggest that change comes about as an upward spiral, within which the moving targets of IT and organisation are intimately interconnected. This reciprocal interconnectedness between IT and organisation across time implies that if changes are done to technological properties, this necessitates changes to the organisational properties, and vice versa. Organisations at the hands-on-level more or less have to change to make use of the IT-enabled advantages. Thus, successful IT-enabled change is more than the technology artefact per se, and requires thoughtful attentiveness not only to the technological and material side, but also to the organisational, social and human side of change.
The theoretical contribution of this thesis is the in-depth exposition of different aspects and interplays between the properties of actors and structures from-within the organisation. The empirical contribution is the description of how contemporary multinational organisations initiate, lead, and sustain large-scale IT-enabled change.
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Questioning Quotas: Applying a Relational Framework for Diversity Management Practices in the United Arab Emirates
Forstenlechner, I.; Lettice, F. and Ozbilgin, M. (2011) Questioning Quotas: Applying a Relational Framework for Diversity Management Practices in the United Arab Emirates, Human Resource Management Journal.
The use of quota systems to improve demographic diversity in organisations is receiving mixed responses from... more The use of quota systems to improve demographic diversity in organisations is receiving mixed responses from commentators. This paper demonstrates that the normative success and failure of a quota system is contingent upon the multilevel and relational dynamics of the diversity management intervention which uses the tool of quotas. Focusing on a quota system, which seeks to promote localisation of the workforce in the United Arab Emirates, this paper presents a longitudinal case study. We analyse the multilevel dynamics of the implementation of the quota system to show how the interdependence of these levels influenced the outcome of the quota programme. The study also accounts for the complexity of normative assessment of the quota based diversity intervention, by illustrating how a diverse set of vested interests, a multiplicity of discourses, and the interplay of schemas of change, support and resistance between managers and employees come into play.
Innovation in Sports Technologies
S. Devecioğlu, O. Altıngül, Innovation in Sports Technologies ( Spor Teknolojilerinde İnovasyon), IATS 6th International Advanced Technologies Symposium,16 18 May 2011, Elazig, Turkey
Technology, is described as the key for competitive advantage and increase profits on production machinery, production... more
Technology, is described as the key for competitive advantage and increase profits on production machinery, production methods, the products 'innovation' to create these innovations, to increase production, and to raise reproductivity. Rapid developments in science and technology in the last century; lead the world order into the competition and this competition make peoples existing resources to change the pattern and development the existing facilities and systems. Both longer, healthy and increased quality of human life span accelerated the development of technology and technology use turned into necessity rather than a privilege as described in various studies. This period is defined as the beginning of a new century; pioneered the change and transformation of the political, economic and cultural systems so make people acquainted with technology, and formation of both new habits and sport culture. Recent advances in technology; develops and renews the sports figure. In many countries, sports technology producing systems are created. In this study, products in sports industry, their development process and the current state of innovation technologies in conceptual descriptive was evaluated.
Keywords—Sports, Technology, Innovation, Product
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NNOVATION IN SPORTS MANAGEMENT
S.Devecioğlu, O, Altıngül,E.Yıldırım, "INNOVATION IN SPORTS MANAGEMENT" (Sporda İnovasyon Yönetimi), Verimlilik Dergisi, Ocak, 2011
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Change is a slow dance: A review by Penny Plowman
http://genderatwork.wordpress.com/
Gender at Work Dialogues ... Discussions on gender equality
17th December 2007
Change is a slow dance: A review by Penny Plowman
GENDER AT WORK: “Change is a slow dance’. Editors: Michel... more
Change is a slow dance: A review by Penny Plowman
GENDER AT WORK: “Change is a slow dance’. Editors: Michel Friedman and Shamim Meer (2007). Review by Penny Plowman
Introduction
‘Change is a slow dance’ makes an important contribution to the quest for understanding how change happens and why organisational change for gender equality is so difficult. Explored through three organisational case studies, this Gender at Work monograph provides significant insights into what it means to build development organisations for gender equality. From the outset the reader is made well aware of the complexity of the task at hand. Working at the interface of the personal and professional, lessons from Gender at Work’s Action Learning Programme in South Africa reveal that to do development differently i.e. engage with women’s rights and gender issues across all programmes and not just the ‘women’s programme’, organisations need to reflect at two levels: personal and group. By doing this, the findings from each organisation together with the insights of Friedman and Meer, demonstrate not only the ‘what’ of change i.e. examining personal/organisational values, practice and vision but also the ‘how’ i.e. steps for meaningful reflection. In addition, three clear messages stand out about the importance of 1) external support over time, 2) strong guidance and 3) trust. Without each of these ‘ingredients’ change is unlikely.
Organisational Change From Two Perspectives: Gender and Organisational Development
By exploring two approaches to organizational change, gender and organizational development (OD), the author argues... more By exploring two approaches to organizational change, gender and organizational development (OD), the author argues that OD is flawed since it perpetuates existing gender inequalities by failing to address them. By contrast, the gender approach brings change both for women and for men and is contextualized in a broader agenda of social transformation. Analysis of how power is gendered is the critical starting point. While gender is not disconnected from other forms of oppression--such as race and class--special attention needs to be given to gender because experience has shown it gets lost. This article seeks to contribute to breaking new ground in theory and practice in order to promote organizations that are both equitable and effective.
Enhancing knowledge in organizations: Developing capacity and capability through learning and leadership
by Terri Seddon
Co-authored with Len Cairns
Published in K.Leithwood, P. Hallinger, G.C.Furman, P. Gronn, J.MacBeath, G.Mulford and K. Riley (Eds) Second International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Administration, Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic, 2002, pp. 720-759