Fausto Di Vincenzo, Daniele Mascia, Jennie Björk and Mats Magnusson
This paper analyzes how the distribution and structure of employees' attention influence idea survival in an organizational internal crowdsourcing session.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyzes how the distribution and structure of employees' attention influence idea survival in an organizational internal crowdsourcing session.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from an online internal crowdsourcing session carried out within a multinational company with headquarters in Sweden were used to explore how idea attention influenced idea survival.
Findings
Our findings indicate that the positive relationship between attention allocation and idea survival is mediated by idea appreciation, i.e. positive comments and suggestions that employees provide in response to ideas. In addition, we find that competition for attention negatively moderates the relationship between idea attention and positive comments. Finally, our results indicate that ideas are more likely to survive if they are submitted earlier in the crowdsourcing process and when the elapsed time since previously posted ideas in the session is longer.
Practical implications
This study provides organizers of internal crowdsourcing sessions with new insights about factors influencing idea survival and about potential systematic biases in idea selection due to timing and competition between ideas.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature highlighting the relevance of attention-based theory in the context of crowd-based creativity and innovation management.
Details
Keywords
Boris Eisenbart, Massimo Garbuio, Daniele Mascia and Federica Morandi
Managers spend a great deal of time in meetings making decisions critical to organisational success, yet the design aspects of meetings remain largely understudied. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Managers spend a great deal of time in meetings making decisions critical to organisational success, yet the design aspects of meetings remain largely understudied. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the potential impact of one critical design aspect of meetings – namely, whether a decision to be taken (or the meeting in general) was scheduled or not – on the use of distributed information, information elaboration, conflict, speed of decision making, and, ultimately, decision-making effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
The research presented in this paper combines a literature review with empirical data obtained from questionnaires and direct observation of decision making meetings on organisational issues in a hospital. One meeting was scheduled, the other two were unscheduled. A second questionnaire was administered 12 months after the respective decision making meetings to explore and evaluate the efficiency of the decisions made and their implementation.
Findings
This paper suggests that a scheduled meeting with a shared agenda of all decisions to be taken may induce decision makers to form opinions upfront at the meeting, with these opinions eventually serving as sources of conflict during group discussion. Because of the nature of the conflict generated, these meetings are more likely to run long and to not deliver the expected outcomes.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the debate on group decision-making processes by examining the effect of meeting scheduling on information elaboration and conflict in real-world decision-making settings. Although robust evidence has supported the existence of relationships between information elaboration, conflict, and decision-making effectiveness, previous studies have mainly focused on the effects of these processes during scheduled meetings and experimental settings. The findings of the present study show the effect of meeting scheduling on decision-making effectiveness in real-world settings.
Details
Keywords
Fausto Di Vincenzo, Jens Hemphälä, Mats Magnusson and Daniele Mascia
There is a lack of studies investigating the role of the structural configuration of social capital – more specifically, structural holes – for employees' individual learning. The…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a lack of studies investigating the role of the structural configuration of social capital – more specifically, structural holes – for employees' individual learning. The objective of this paper is to address this gap in the literature, ultimately enhancing understanding of the link between the structural configuration of social capital and individual learning.
Design/methodology/approach
An online questionnaire survey was administered to employees affiliated to 22 pharmacies in Sweden to gather attributional and relational data on the individual level. Social network analysis techniques were used to describe salient structural characteristics of individuals' social capital. The impact of social capital on individual learning was explored through ordinal logistic regression models based on maximum likelihood estimations.
Findings
The presence of structural holes initially increases the degree of individual learning, then reaches a maximum and begins to gradually decrease.
Practical implications
The results of the study provide valuable input for the development and management of networks within firms, in order to improve learning and innovation. In addition, given the close proximity between learning, as conceptualized in this study, and other job attitudes, human resource management practices in general could benefit greatly from the results.
Originality/value
In this paper, the authors focus on the structural configuration of social capital, more specifically structural holes, and its inter‐relationship with learning. Although prior literature has analyzed various beneficial effects of social capital, this study is the first of its kind to investigate the role of the structural configuration of the social capital for employees' individual learning.