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The core of project management is the management of a temporary task, often with a high degree of uniqueness. The purpose of this paper is to address project management issues where another type of temporality also prevails; when external consultants on short-term contracts cooperate with the employees of the focal firm. The research question is: do external consultants and employees, working together on a project, engage in different or similar knowledge sharing behaviors? What are the impact of autonomous motivation, organizational support and trust on knowledge sharing?

The empirical setting of the study is subsea activities, which is part the oil and gas industry in Norway. The respondents are regular employees with a permanent contract and external consultants employed by a third party; which is the most common external work arrangement in the industry. The sample consists of employees of a focal firm, external consultants of the focal firm and external consultants identified by their employer (two firms). The survey was administered by e-mail to 323 possible respondents. Of these, 268 were from the focal firm (194 employees and 74 external consultants), and 55 from the two consulting companies. After four weeks of collecting data, 138 responses had been registered. This is a response rate of 43 percent. The response rates were similar in the three categories. The survey was designed using Qualtrics, an online survey software tool and was administered by e-mail in the winter of 2012.

The regression analysis found that there was no difference in knowledge sharing between employees and external consultants. Thus the empirical analysis supports the “project identity” hypothesis, rather than the “employment matters” hypothesis. Further, there were positive, significant impacts of autonomous motivation and perceived organizational support on knowledge sharing. The findings are similar across samples. R2 is quite high in models B (0.447) and D (0.458), indicating that a large share of the variation in knowledge sharing is explained by the full model.

Based on the empirical study here, the “employment arrangement” thesis was not supported. The authors believe, however, that combining the two types of temporality (work organization and employment arrangement) is a promising area of exploration and it is not given that further studies will provide similar empirical findings. Further research should explore under what conditions employment arrangements have an impact on knowledge sharing. The research may be extended along three dimensions. First, the study of knowledge sharing when employees and external consultants work together (on projects managed by the focal firm) should be extended to include other firms, other types of competence as well as economic sectors outside petroleum. Second, research on employment arrangements in projects, should consider project contexts that are different from the type emphasized here, such as development projects and projects that have a fundamental inter-organizational character characterized by dual responsibility. Third, a number of others issues, in addition to knowledge sharing, are relevant. Combining the two aspects of temporality may provide opportunities for exploring the impact of organizational context in the field of leadership studies.

Management should strive to increase autonomous motivation and provide organizational support for both employees and external consultants. It is possible to use external consultants without negative effects on the level of knowledge sharing. Managers should be aware of the challenges related to both types of temporality.

Increased awareness of the relevance of both types of temporality in contemporary working life.

In previous research, project organization and temporary employment relations are two distinct areas. This is one of the first empirical studies that have analyzed both aspects of temporality. The paper contributes to the literature on antecedents of knowledge sharing in organizations, and suggest avenues for further research in this issue. Further, in addressing both types of temporality, a number of other research themes are suggested.

The study aims to evaluate the occupational well-being outcomes of the Community-based Participatory Occupational Well-being Intervention for Educators among health care educators.

This study was a community-based participatory action research with pre-test–post-test design, including a year-lasting occupational well-being intervention in the work communities of two higher education institutions for health care in Estonia and one in Finland. Data were collected from Estonian (N = 196) and Finnish health care educators (N = 42) at the pre- and post-intervention by an electronical survey. The intervention included an online occupational well-being course and community-specific development plan, and actions carried out by the Occupational Well-being Development Teams formed in each work community. Data were analysed statistically.

Personal occupational well-being increased in each work community (post-test median 4, scale 0–5) although statistically significant differences were not found. Satisfaction with the occupational well-being development activities increased, especially in the Finnish work community (pre-test mean 2.5, SD 0.8; post-test mean 3.2, SD 1.2, p = 0.005). The study found some increase in certain aspects of occupational well-being in relation to the development actions.

This intervention can act as a facilitator in community-level occupational well-being development but requires a longer period to make the changes visible. Although the results of this study cannot be directly generalized, the intervention and good practices conducted can be utilised in the development of occupational well-being in education at national and international levels.

This study adds information to this understudied area of intervention research on promoting health care educators’ occupational well-being.

Shared understandings of curriculum reform within and between the levels of the educational system are suggested to be crucial for the reform to take root. The purpose of this paper is to explore variation in perceived curriculum coherence and school impact among state- and district-level stakeholders.

The participants (n=666) included state- and district-level stakeholders involved in a national curriculum reform in Finland. Latent profile analysis was employed to identify profiles based on participants’ perceptions of the core curriculum’s coherence and the reform’s impact on school development.

Two profiles were identified: high coherence and impact, and lower consistency of the intended direction and impact. State-level stakeholders had higher odds of belonging to the high coherence and impact profile than their district-level counterparts.

The results imply that more attention needs to be paid in developing a shared and coherent understanding particularly of the intended direction of the core curriculum as well as the reform’s effects on school-level development among state- and district-level stakeholders.

The study contributes to the literature on curriculum reform by shedding light on the variation in perceived curriculum coherence and school impact of those responsible for a large-scale national curriculum reform process at different levels of the educational system.

This study aims to examine the effect of sensory brand experience and involvement on brand equity directly and indirectly through cognitive, emotional and behavioral consumer brand engagement (CBE).

A survey was administered to the customers of a Finnish tableware brand using relevant Facebook channels. A total of 1,390 responses were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The empirical findings suggest that both involvement and sensory brand experience are directly related to the three facets of CBE. Further, involvement, sensory brand experience and CBE jointly explain more than 50 per cent of the variance in brand equity. In addition, the results reveal that emotional engagement was the most influential factor in determining consumers’ overall engagement level.

The framework should be tested in other contexts, and the application of longitudinal research setting is encouraged.

The study highlights not only the importance of holistic CBE management but also the necessity to manage sensory aspects of consumer–brand interactions. In this way, managers can build sustainable consumer–brand relationships.

The nomological network of CBE is not well-known. This study integrates two central constructs (sensory brand experience and brand equity) with the concept of CBE and examines their effects on brand equity both directly and indirectly through cognitive, emotional and behavioral CBE.

Employing institutional logic and institutional work as its theoretical framework, this study analyzes scholars' reactions to performance measurement systems in academia.

Large datasets were collected over time, combining both quantitative and qualitative elements. The data were gathered from a two-wave survey in 2010 (966 respondents) and 2015 (672 respondents), conducted among scholars performing teaching- and research-oriented tasks in three Finnish universities.

The analysis showed statistically significant changes over time in the ways that the respondents were positioned in three major groups influenced by different institutional logics. This study contributes to the international debate on institutional change in universities by showing that in Finnish universities, emerging business logics and existing professional logics can co-exist and be blended among a growing group of academics. The analysis of qualitative open-ended answers suggests that performance measurement systems have led to changes in institutional logic, which have influenced the scholars participating in institutional work at the microlevel in academia.

While most scholars remain critical of performance measurement systems in universities, the fact that many academics are adapting to performance measurement systems highlights significant changes that are generally occurring in academia.

While most extant studies have focused on field- and organizational-level analyses, this study focuses on understanding how the adoption of performance measurement systems affects institutional logic and institutional work at the microlevel. Moreover, the study's cross-sectional research setting increases society's understanding of institutional evolution in academia.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse current challenges and to articulate the preconditions for data-driven, fact-based product portfolio management (PPM) based on commercial and technical product structures, critical business processes, corporate business IT and company data assets. Here, data assets were classified from a PPM perspective in terms of (product/customer/supplier) master data, transaction data and Internet of Things data. The study also addresses the supporting role of corporate-level data governance.

The study combines a literature review and qualitative analysis of empirical data collected from eight international companies of varying size.

Companies’ current inability to analyse products effectively based on existing data is surprising. The present findings identify a number of preconditions for data-driven, fact-based PPM, including mutual understanding of company products (to establish a consistent commercial and technical product structure), product classification as strategic, supportive or non-strategic (to link commercial and technical product structures with product strategy) and a holistic, corporate-level data model for adjusting the company’s business IT (to support product portfolio visualisation).

The findings provide a logical and empirical basis for fact-based, product-level analysis of product profitability and analysis of the product portfolio over the product life cycle, supporting a data-driven approach to the optimisation of commercial and technical product structure, business IT systems and company product strategy. As a virtual representation of reality, the company data model facilitates product visualisation. The findings are of great practical value, as they demonstrate the significance of corporate-level data assets, data governance and business-critical data for managing a company’s products and portfolio.

The study contributes to the existing literature by specifying the preconditions for data-driven, fact-based PPM as a basis for product-level analysis and decision making, emphasising the role of company data assets and clarifying the links between business processes, information systems and data assets for PPM.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the initiation of accounting information system projects. Specifically, it examines the role of the predictive analytics (PA) project initiator in the integration of financial and operational sales forecasts.

The study uses a field study method to address the studied phenomenon in eight Finnish companies that have recently adopted PA systems. The data are primarily based on 19 interviews in the companies and five interviews with the PA consultants.

The authors found that initiators appear to play a major role regarding the degree of integration of financial and operational sales forecasts. The initiators from an accounting function have a tendency to pay more attention to the integration than the representatives from other functions, such as operations and sales.

The study also makes a practical contribution to companies in showing and discussing the important role of the accounting department as an initiator of a project if the target is to achieve a tight coupling of financial and operational forecast figures, i.e., “one set of numbers”.

Even though companies have increasingly adopted PA systems in recent years, we still know little about how the initiation affects the design of accounting information systems overall. The central contribution of the paper, therefore, is to show that if a PA project is initiated by the accounting department, data integration becomes more likely. It contributes also to the discussion related to the appropriateness of data integration in the context of forecasting.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on reflexivity in organization and management studies by scrutinizing the possibilities of self‐reflexivity.

By means of auto‐ethnography, the authors analyze their own experiences as (pro‐)feminist men in the field of gender studies.

The authors argue that self‐reflexivity is partial, fragmentary and transient: it surfaces in situations where the authors’ activities and identities as researchers are challenged by others and they become aware of their precarious position.

The paper's perspective complements more instrumental understandings of self‐reflexivity, and stimulates further debate on its limits as well as potential.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a structured review of literature on lesson study (LS) in initial teacher education (ITE). The focus was on how learning and observation were discussed in studies of LS in ITE.

Each national team (in Norway and Britain) undertook independent searches of published peer-reviewed articles. The resulting articles were then combined, screened and collaboratively reviewed, the focus being on two areas of enquiry: how learning is represented and discussed; and the extent to which observation is described and used to capture evidence of learning.

The literature review indicated that there was no universally held understanding of, or explanation for, the process of observation, how it should be conducted, and who or what should be the principal focus of attention. There was also a lack of clarity in the definition of learning and the use of learning theory to support these observations.

This study was limited to a review of a selection of peer-reviewed journal articles, published in English. It arrives at some tentative conclusions, but its scope could have been broadened to include more articles and other types of published material, e.g. theses and book chapters.

Research that investigates the use of LS in ITE needs to be more explicit about how learning is defined and observed. Furthermore, LS research papers need to assure greater clarity and transparency about how observations are conducted in their studies.

This literature review suggests that discussion of both learning and observation in ITE LS research papers should be strengthened. The review highlights three principal challenges that ITE LS researchers should consider: how to prepare student-teachers to observe (professional noticing being a promising option), the wide variation in the focus of classroom observation in ITE lesson studies, and discussion of what is understood by learning needs to stand at the heart of preparation for lesson studies in ITE.