Jane McKenzie and Sharon Varney
This paper aims to consider middle managers’ influence on organizational learning by exploring how they cope with demands and tensions in their role and whether their practice…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to consider middle managers’ influence on organizational learning by exploring how they cope with demands and tensions in their role and whether their practice affects available team energy.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 43 managers from three large organizations involved in major change assessed their group’s energy using a tested and validated instrument, the OEQ12©. This generated six distinct categories of team energy, from highly productive to corrosive. Thirty-four of these managers, spread across the six categories, completed a Twenty Statements Test and a follow-up interview to explore their cognitive, affective and behavioural responses to coping with resource constraints and tensions in their role.
Findings
The research provides preliminary insights into what distinguishes a middle manager persona co-ordinating teams with highly productive energy from those managing groups with less available energy to engage with knowledge and learning. It considers why these distinctions may affect collective sensitivities in the organizational learning process.
Research limitations/implications
Informants were not equally distributed across the six team energy categories; therefore, some middle manager personas are more indicative than others.
Practical implications
This research suggests areas where middle manager development could potentially improve organizational learning.
Originality/value
This study offers early empirical evidence that middle managers’ orientation to their role is entangled with the process of energizing their teams in organizational learning during change.
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Vaughan Michell and Jane McKenzie
To increase the spread and reuse of lessons learned (LLs), the purpose of this paper is to develop a standardised information structure to facilitate concise capture of the…
Abstract
Purpose
To increase the spread and reuse of lessons learned (LLs), the purpose of this paper is to develop a standardised information structure to facilitate concise capture of the critical elements needed to engage secondary learners and help them apply lessons to their contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
Three workshops with industry practitioners, an analysis of over 60 actual lessons from private and public sector organisations and seven practitioner interviews provided evidence of actual practice. Design science was used to develop a repeatable/consistent information model of LL content/structure. Workshop analysis and theory provided the coding template. Situation theory and normative analysis were used to define the knowledge and rule logic to standardise fields.
Findings
Comparing evidence from practice against theoretical prescriptions in the literature highlighted important enhancements to the standard LL model. These were a consistent/concise rule and context structure, appropriate emotional language, reuse and control criteria to ensure lessons were transferrable and reusable in new situations.
Research limitations/implications
Findings are based on a limited sample. Long-term benefits of standardisation and use need further research. A larger sample/longitudinal usage study is planned.
Practical implications
The implementation of the LL structure was well-received in one government user site and other industry user sites are pending. Practitioners validated the design logic for improving capture and reuse of lessons to render them easily translatable to a new learner’s context.
Originality/value
The new LL structure is uniquely grounded in user needs, developed from existing best practice and is an original application of normative and situation theory to provide consistent rule logic for context/content structure.
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Áine Carroll, Jane McKenzie and Claire Collins
The aim of this study was to explore and understand the leadership experiences of medical consultants prior to a major hospital move. Health and care is becoming increasingly…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to explore and understand the leadership experiences of medical consultants prior to a major hospital move. Health and care is becoming increasingly complex and there is no greater challenge than the move to a new hospital. Effective leadership has been identified as being essential for successful transition. However, there is very little evidence of how medical consultants experience effective leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative methodology was utilized with one-to-one semi-structured interviews conducted with ten medical consultants. These were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. The research complied with the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ).
Findings
Four themes were found to influence medical consultants’ experience of leadership: collaboration, patient centredness, governance and knowledge mobilization. Various factors were identified that negatively influenced their leadership effectiveness. The findings suggest that there are a number of factors that influence complexity leadership effectiveness. Addressing these areas may enhance leadership effectiveness and the experience of leadership in medical consultants.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a rich exploration of medical consultants’ experience of collective leadership prior to a transition to a new hospital and provides new understandings of the way collective leadership is experienced in the lead up to a major transition and makes recommendations for future leadership research and practice.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that there are a number of factors that influence complexity leadership effectiveness. Addressing these areas may enhance leadership effectiveness and the experience of leadership in medical consultants.
Social implications
Clinical leadership is associated with better outcomes for patients therefore any interventions that enhance leadership capability will improve outcomes for patients and therefore benefit society.
Originality/value
This is the first research to explore medical consultants’ experience of collective leadership prior to a transition to a new hospital.
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Fiona Helen McKay and Hayley Jane McKenzie
Cambodia’s workforce has shifted over time, with internal migration increasing as more people are forced to the cities to find employment. This paper aims to change in workforce…
Abstract
Purpose
Cambodia’s workforce has shifted over time, with internal migration increasing as more people are forced to the cities to find employment. This paper aims to change in workforce participation has led to a number of challenges for people moving into urban areas, particularly women as their role in the household and workforce is changing.
Design/methodology/approach
This research used qualitative research to explore the experiences of 20 Cambodian women working in garment factories. Interviews were conducted in Khmer by a bilingual research assistant. Interviews were recorded and then translated into English. Data were thematically analysed following a constant comparative method.
Findings
Findings indicate that women experience social isolation, job stress and are vulnerable to a variety of health and well-being problems. When moving into the city for work, many rural women leave their children in the care of other family members, including grandparents and other extended families, without a network, they experience isolation and loneliness.
Originality/value
This is the first qualitative work of its kind to investigate the experiences of Cambodian women factory workers and their experiences of moving to urban areas for work.
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Jane McKenzie, Christine van Winkelen and Sindy Grewal
Decisions are integral to daily business practice. Sound and agile decision making is argued to be a core strategic capability. Knowledge helps avoid the consequences of…
Abstract
Purpose
Decisions are integral to daily business practice. Sound and agile decision making is argued to be a core strategic capability. Knowledge helps avoid the consequences of ill‐informed decisions. Facts and expertise provide content; know‐how about the pitfalls and requirements of thinking through problems in different contexts contributes to sound process. This paper seeks to offer a staged framework to guide organisational discussions about how knowledge management (KM) can contribute to better decision‐making capability.
Design/methodology/approach
Consistent with a maturity model approach, the study used an interactive multi‐method design to explore knowledge and decision making with experienced practitioners. Guided by the literature the authors collected input via three focus groups and eight interviews with KM practitioners plus 19 interviews with senior decision makers chosen for their good track record. From the combination of input five stages of capability building in five key areas of intellectual capital development were identified.
Findings
The output is a maturity model that can be used to assess organisational status in knowledge‐enabled decision making and plan for relevant KM interventions to improve organisational capability across a range of contexts.
Practical implications
A discussion around current status raises awareness of the pitfalls that can lead to poor or unsound decisions. This can help individuals reflect on how to improve their practice, and organisations to learn systematically from past experience, improve governance of the decision‐making process and progressively improve capability by planning deliberate developmental action.
Originality/value
The paper provides a rigorously developed tool for systematic evaluation and planning about a critical business capability.
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This paper seeks to identify how leadership can positively influence knowledge work and to explore which leadership practices need to be developed to support organisational…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to identify how leadership can positively influence knowledge work and to explore which leadership practices need to be developed to support organisational learning and agility in the face of continuous change.
Design/methodology/approach
The thinking combines a long history of leadership and change management advice and 12 years of knowledge management research with the insights from a collaborative research project involving 14 large organisations that are members of the Henley KM Forum.
Findings
The result is a framework of 12 leadership agility practices specifically focused on creating conducive conditions for knowledge sharing, learning, engagement and collaboration.
Practical implications
Those responsible for leadership development in the knowledgeable organisation could use this as a well‐grounded starting point for designing learning programs. Leaders in key roles can use it as a gauge for self‐assessment to identify development needs or reflect on how to change their approach when things are not working.
Originality/value
The 12 practices are complementary and mutually supportive. They focus on remedying potential causes of “dis‐ease” in learning and change, caused by the most frequently occurring conflicts and tensions in organisational life.
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Jane McKenzie, Nick Woolf, Christine van Winkelen and Clare Morgan
The purpose of this paper is to challenge an over‐reliance on past experience as the cognitive underpinning for strategic decisions. It seeks to argue that, in complex and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to challenge an over‐reliance on past experience as the cognitive underpinning for strategic decisions. It seeks to argue that, in complex and unknowable conditions, effective leaders use three distinct and complementary thinking capacities, which go beyond those normally learned during their rise to the top.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model of thinking capacities is justified through a review of the psychology literature; the face validity of the proposed model is supported through six in‐depth interviews with successful CEOs.
Findings
A model of non‐conventional thinking capacities describes how strategic decision‐makers make choices that are better adapted to the conditions of uncertainty, ambiguity and contradiction, which prevail in complex situations. These capacities are complementary to the more conventional approaches generally used in thinking about decisions.
Practical implications
The paper aims to stimulate awareness of the limitations of habitual mental responses in the face of difficult strategic decisions. It challenges leaders consciously to extend their abilities beyond conventional expectations to a higher order of thinking that is better suited to multi‐stakeholder situations in complex environments.
Originality/value
The paper responds to the challenge of McKenna and Martin‐Smith to develop new theoretical approaches to complex environments. It extends conventional approaches to decision making by synthesising from the literature some essential thinking capacities, which are well suited to the demands of situations dominated by uncertainty, ambiguity and contradiction.
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Elspeth McFadzean and Jane McKenzie
Today, universities are using technological advances that have enabled them to change their traditional delivery methods. Computer supported collaborative learning permits…
Abstract
Today, universities are using technological advances that have enabled them to change their traditional delivery methods. Computer supported collaborative learning permits students to undertake courses via the Internet. This allows students from all over the world to take part in a course where they can gather information not only from the instructor but also from their fellow students. Consequently, the traditional forms of teaching must be adapted to better serve the needs of virtual learning students. The virtual instructor must do more than just communicate information to the students. He or she must learn to support the collaborative process between the learners and to encourage them to work as a team. This article describes a model for facilitating virtual learning groups and presents a case study to illustrate the concepts of running such a group. In addition, a number of implications for planning and supporting virtual groups are presented.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds his/her own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
The term “middle manager” never feels a particularly satisfactory one. It is the sort of term that people who are in middle management would probably not use to describe their role. They may use head, lead or executive, but they would not rush to place themselves in the middle management bracket. It is, of course, a useful descriptive term, but again you would probably not use it to someone’s face. “Oh, you’re a middle manager, aren’t you?” sounds like you are damning someone with faint praise rather than lauding their achievements in their career so far.
Practical implications
This paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.