Organizational Learning Processes

A configuration model of organizational culture

by Daniel Dauber

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.

An Organizational Learning Perspective on the Contracting Process

by Fabrice Lumineau

Lumineau F., Fréchet M., & Puthod D. 2011. “An Organizational Learning Perspective on Contract Design.” Strategic Organization, 9(1): 8-32.

The contracting process is a crucial step in alliance development and its success. However, the existing literature... more The contracting process is a crucial step in alliance development and its success. However, the existing literature reveals surprisingly little investigation into how organizational learning relates to the process of contract making. We therefore conducted an in-depth longitudinal study of the alliance contracting process in the animated film industry. First, our findings suggest that during the contracting process, firms can learn about the way to deal with the contracting process, about themselves and their partner, and about the transaction features. Second, the case analysis indicates a combination of experiential, vicarious, and inferential learning mechanisms. Combining these insights into the objects and the mechanisms of learning during the contracting process, we discuss how contracting and learning processes are related and analyze the role of the contracting process in supporting organizational learning. The findings show that the drafting of contractual clauses fosters learning and, in turn, this learning triggers new contractual negotiations. Hence we suggest that the alignment between transaction features and the choice of contractual governance results from learning during the contracting process. We then propose avenues for future research.

Technological Learning through Cooperation: studying Greek firms

by Apostolos Rafailidis

10th Latin – American Seminar of Technology Management, ALTEC 2003, Mexico, “Knowledge, Innovation and Competitiveness: challenges from globalization”, Mexico City, Mexico 22 – 24 Oct, 2003
co-authored with Giannis Tselekidis

In this paper, we consider technological learning of firms as crucial for their long – term survival and ... more In this paper, we consider technological learning of firms as crucial for their long – term survival and  competitiveness.  Thinking  that  a  partial  answer  to  the  issue  of  the  closure  of  the  technological  gap  be-tween  technologically  more  advanced  and  technologically  less advanced firms  is  the  transfer  of  technology from the former to the latter, we consider the opportunities for learning that are present in inter – firm techno-logical cooperation agreements. The study of the factors that have a bearing upon the learning achieved by the
technologically less developed firms, through their cooperation with more advanced ones, constitutes the ob-jective of our study. This objective is pursued through 31 cases of technological cooperation agreements be-tween  Greek  and  foreign  firms,  specifically  aimed  at  technological  learning.  We  test  several  theoretical  hy-potheses on factors that seem to have a bearing upon learning achieved. The results seem to indicate that fac-tors related to the quality of the relationship between partners have a major role to play for learning.

Offsets as a Technology Strategy Tool: technology transfer through cooperation in Greece

by Apostolos Rafailidis

2nd International Conference on Defence, Security and Economic Development, Technological Education Institute of Larissa, Greece 18 – 20 June 2004

Industrial Participation (IP) appears to be gradually replacing offsets as a term in the literature referring to... more Industrial Participation (IP) appears to be gradually replacing offsets as a term in the literature referring to defence procurement. IP implies some sort of industrial cooperation between buyer and supplier of defence equipment, while at the same time technology transfer  is often thought as the most suitable and acceptable tool of IP. The first part of this paper is an effort to define technology transfer, through the study of concepts like technology, know – how, know – why, knowledge, technological accumulation and learning. The main point made is that the study of the results of technology transfer offsets should also include “soft” parameters, and mainly the learning achieved on the part of the buyer. Following this logic, the second part of the paper presents some empirical evidence from firms of the Greek defence industry. The focus is on some of the factors that may affect the success of technological learning through cooperation agreements. More specifically, 31 cases of technological cooperation involving technology transfer to and from these firms are examined in respect to: (a) their longevity, (b) their complexity, (c) the technological distance between the partners and, (d) the technological and other motives and goals driving Greek firms. It is thought that these are four of the parameters that have an immediate effect on the success of the technology transfer process.

Capabilities for Innovation: Preliminary Results on Hellenic SMEs

by Apostolos Rafailidis

Global Business & Economics Anthology (vol II, issue I, Dec. 2010, ISSN 1553-1392)
co-authored with Panagiotis Mitropoulos and Ioannis Mitropoulos

Continuous innovation can create sustainable competitive advantage for firms. This advantage can be called dynamic, as... more Continuous innovation can create sustainable competitive advantage for firms. This advantage can be called dynamic, as it is not based on something firms just “have” but on something they strive to create and maintain. What gives firms the potential to innovate is, to a large extent, their own capabilities. It is the process of creation, preservation and renewal of these capabilities that can set firms apart.
This paper uses constructed variables as proxies for three main kinds of firm capabilities (strategic, internal and external) in order to reach some preliminary conclusions as to which of these appear to be more closely associated with successful innovation efforts. To this end, 33 Hellenic manufacturing SMEs are studied through questionnaires and the results show that the availability and quality of the capabilities studied appears to be statistically significant for success in innovation. External capabilities are found to be extremely significant for this sample of firms.

Learning and External Technology Management

by Apostolos Rafailidis

Doing Business Across Borders Journal, Special Issue on Innovation & Technologies, vol. 1 (No.2), pp. 72 – 90, Nov. 2002
co-authored with Giannis Tselekidis

In this paper, it is argued that a firm’s learning attitude forms the basis for the creation of dynamic capabilities.... more In this paper, it is argued that a firm’s learning attitude forms the basis for the creation of dynamic capabilities. Firms that do have such capabilities also have a more efficient knowledge codification process, and manage the feedback in a
better way, than do other firms.
Efficient learning from external sources and effective external technology management are becoming essential assets for the future survival and development of todays technologically less developed firms. In the near future, the technological and financial value of a firm may partly defined by the number, type, scope and
quality of cooperative agreements it is involved in.

Corporate Sustainability Survey 2011

by Dhiman Chowdhury

Sustainability paradox has become a debate of our time; adding to this predicament is sometimes the questionable... more Sustainability paradox has become a debate of our time; adding to this predicament is sometimes the questionable behaviors of the corporations. This detrimental demeanor is counterproductive, as it for the entity so do for our common goods. The issue of sustainability is a dilemma of our which many scholars pondered over last decades, yet despite their efforts, the message is somewhat convoluted through a plethora of conflicting strategies, definitions, mandates and regulatory measures. The obfuscation has created deviation in the discourse of “sustainability” measures without addressing systemic discord with sustainability challenges at organizational and societal level, and societal and ecological level. This survey examines presence and absence of a particular behavioral dimension in global corporations and corollary effect of it. In addition, this global survey unveils previously unknown data depicting correlation between certain behavioral dimension at workplace and other corporate level factors including profitability, innovation and market leadership. This global survey serves as the basis for further research to find a common ground that brings institutional integration to sustainability conjectures.

Migrant networks, language learning and tourism employment

by Peter Lugosi

This paper is published as:
Janta, H., Lugosi, P., Brown, L. and Ladkin, A. Migrant networks, language learning and tourism employment. Tourism Management Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 431-439. Please consult the published version if citing.

This paper examines the relationship between migrants’ social networks, the processes of language acquisition and... more This paper examines the relationship between migrants’ social networks, the processes of language acquisition and tourism employment. Data collected using netnography and interviews are used to identify the strategies that Polish workers in the UK use to develop their language skills. The paper highlights the roles played by co-workers, co-nationals and customers in migrants’ language learning, both in the physical spaces of work and the virtual spaces of internet forums. It also shows how migrant workers exchange knowledge about the use of English during different stages of their migration careers: prior to leaving their country of origin and getting a job, during their employment and after leaving their job. Implications for academic inquiry and human resource management practice are outlined.

The Organization that Never Sleeps: A Metaphorical Pathology of Organizational Insomnia

by Dennis Schoeneborn

University of Zurich, Institute of Organization and Administrative Science (IOU), IOU Working Paper No. 103 (available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1512498)

The application of metaphors as a means to advance our understanding of organizations has a long-standing tradition in... more The application of metaphors as a means to advance our understanding of organizations has a long-standing tradition in management studies. Generally speaking, metaphors allow for a description of organizational characteristics and functions in the terminology of another domain of interest. Organizational learning and organizational memory are two prominent examples of anthropomorphic metaphors in management studies which draw on the human mind as the source domain. In the light of recent advancements in neuroscience, however, they lack the complementing metaphor of organizational sleep, though sleep plays a particularly important role for learning and memory of the human mind. Based on the view that communication constitutes organizations (CCO), this study recontextualizes the metaphors of organizational learning and memory in terms of organizational sleep-wake cycles. Finally, the ideal-typical distinction between a regularly resting organization and an insomniac organization leads to a reconsideration of existing theories of organizational learning and memory.

Action Research and Organisational Learning – A Norwegian Approach to Doing Action Research in Complex Organisations

by Olav Eikeland

An abbrieviated version will be published in Educational Action Research Journal, Vol 20.2, published June 2012 . Based on a key-note speech at the CARN conference in Cambridge in November 2010.

The purpose of the article is to present a specific approach to the practice of action research “in complex... more The purpose of the article is to present a specific approach to the practice of action research “in complex organisations”. Clearly, there are many approaches to the challenge of doing action research in organisations; approaches that are, and also must be, quite context dependent and specific. But my purpose is neither to give an overview nor a recommendation of how action research is or should be done in complex organisations by different schools of action researchers around the world. The approach I will present has grown through practical experience accumulated over many years with doing action research in many different Norwegian organisations with organisational change and development as the specific objective. I will limit myself to an outline of this Norwegian context, and to how I and others have worked specifically with organisational learning both practically and theoretically within or in relation to a broad Norwegian or Scandinavian approach to action research and organisation development represented by many individuals.

On a more theoretical level I will indicate briefly how such an action research approach can be justified as a more or less “logical consequence” from certain methodological and epistemological critiques of blind spots, internal contradictions, and insufficiencies in conventional social research methods. While action research is often criticised for being “un-scientific” or “pre-scientific”, this justification strategy, when elaborated, shows in what way action research could be seen as and actually be “post-scientific” rather than “pre-scientific”. I will also suggest briefly how the present approach to organisational learning has actually sprung directly from perspectives extracted from reading Aristotle continuously since the beginning of the 1980s (cf. Eikeland, 2008). It might be called Aristotelian, but the approach owes much to others as well.

Toward the Learning Organization: The Case of Circular Re-Engineering

by Georges Romme

Published in: Knowledge and Process Management, 1998

Recently, researchers and practitioners in the area of knowledge and process management have been moving from a... more Recently, researchers and practitioners in the area of knowledge and process management have been moving from a largely IT-driven approach to a more holistic, people-focused approach, acknowledging that the IT perspective was insufficiently appreciative of the human dimension. This paper deals with circular re-engineering which focuses on the decision-making system as a potentially powerful learning and communication infrastructure. Circular re-engineering differs from other engineering approaches in its focus on human decision making as the key business process, and is done in two stages. First, a learning and communication (or circle) structure is added to the administrative structure, and subsequently, this new structure is used to re-engineer and re-organize work processes. The case of the industrial company Matrex illustrates how an organization’s learning disability can be reduced by way of circular re-engineering.

Understanding Organisational Culture As a Trait Theory

by Daniel Dauber

This paper aims at an organisational culture theory redefining existing concepts of organisational or corporate... more This paper aims at an organisational culture theory redefining existing concepts of organisational or corporate culture dimensions. It does this by embracing a new concept of organisational culture that fits with thematic classes of organisation theory. Knowledge cybernetics will be used to show the interconnections (interaction processes) between thematic fields of organisation theory following Hatch and Cunliffe (2006). Its perspective is that social collectives have normative collective minds that can be explored in terms of their social psychological processes, and normative personalities. In concert with Bandura's concept of collective agency, that of "normative personality" is integrated into organisational context and Piaget's notions of how the mind operates are applied to the organisation. Organisational culture manifests itself by different emphasis given to different types of the interconnections interactions between the organisation and its environments and different emphasis on different types of information and knowledge flows within the organisation. The paper offers a theoretical construct exploring organisational culture from the perspective of thematic fields of organisation theory. It requires further elaboration and development of a questionnaire to be tested in different contexts and samples. It has the capacity to provide pragmatic meaning in case studies and may contribute to identification of dysfunctions of information and knowledge management in organisations. This is the first approach to take a view from the thematic fields of organisation theory on research into organisational culture by applying knowledge cybernetics.