As libraries endeavor to respond quickly to changing business conditions, even those libraries with well-organized hierarchies find themselves in difficulty. Jessica Lipnack and…
Abstract
As libraries endeavor to respond quickly to changing business conditions, even those libraries with well-organized hierarchies find themselves in difficulty. Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps in their book “Virtual Teams,” state that hierarchies “use force to defend resources, maintain social ability and control technology” (Lipnack & Stamps, 2000, p. 145), and this characteristic causes the further slowing down of new developments. As a result, public libraries are placed at a disadvantage as they struggle to meet today’s challenges and prepare for the future. Libraries are coming to realize, as many businesses already have, that hierarchies may no longer be the best model for successful operation in a rapidly changing environment.
Jeffrey Stamps and Jessica Lipnack
This chapter is about the relationship between Networked Organizations and Appreciative Inquiry. To set a context, Theory about networks is related to the expressed needs of…
Abstract
This chapter is about the relationship between Networked Organizations and Appreciative Inquiry. To set a context, Theory about networks is related to the expressed needs of Appreciative Inquiry. Stories follow, from both appreciative and network perspectives. Ideas are put to work through practice as expressed by method – consisting of principles, practices, and processes. Further, method is embedded in technology to support functioning networks. In research, we look at learning about human systems and suggest that online digital places form natural laboratories to collect, analyze, and synthesize data. Concluding with Search, we revisit the question of consciousness in human systems.
Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps
Twenty‐first century problems require 21st century organizations. The bureaucratic‐hierarchical pattern that characterizes almost all organizations today was developed in the…
Abstract
Twenty‐first century problems require 21st century organizations. The bureaucratic‐hierarchical pattern that characterizes almost all organizations today was developed in the industrial age of 19th century. Then people had to be in the same place if they were to work together. As we move into the 21st century, the broad array of communication options permits the refiguring of our organizations in order to meet the rapidly changing demands of the business environment.
David L Cooperrider and Michel Avital
Appreciative Inquiry is a constructive inquiry process that searches for everything that “gives life” to organizations, communities, and larger human systems when they are most…
Abstract
Appreciative Inquiry is a constructive inquiry process that searches for everything that “gives life” to organizations, communities, and larger human systems when they are most alive, effective, creative and healthy in their interconnected ecology of relationships. To appreciate, quite simply, means to value and to recognize that which has value – it is a way of knowing and valuing the best in life. In the language of Positive Organizational Scholarship it means a research focus – a positive bias – seeking fresh understanding of dynamics described by words like excellence, thriving, abundance, resilience, or exceptional and life-giving (Cameron, Dutton & Quinn, 2003). In this context the word appreciate means to value those things of value – it is a mode of knowing often connected to the idea of esthetic appreciation in the arts. To appreciate also means to be grateful or thankful for – it is a way of being and maintaining a positive stance along the path of life’s journey. And not incidentally, to appreciate is to increase in value too. Combining the three – appreciation as a way of knowing, as a way of being and as an increase in value- suggests that Appreciative Inquiry is simultaneously a life-centric form of study and a constructive mode of practice. As a form of study, Appreciative Inquiry focuses on searching systematically for those capacities and processes that give life and strength and possibility to a living system; and as a constructive mode of practice, it aims at designing and crafting human organizations through a process in which valuing and creating are viewed as one, and where inquiry and change are powerfully related and understood as a seamless and integral whole. But the key to really understanding Appreciative Inquiry is to put the emphasis on the second word in the inseparable pair. While many are intrigued with the Appreciative Inquiry positive bias – toward the good, the better, the exceptional, and the possible – it is the power of inquiry we must learn more about and underscore. Inquiry is all about openness, curiosity, creative questioning; its spirit involves what Whitehead once called “the adventure of ideas.”
Addresses the issue of cultural diversity in the workplace. Covers the subjects of gender, multiculturalism and age‐related issues, providing a number of statistics for examples…
Abstract
Addresses the issue of cultural diversity in the workplace. Covers the subjects of gender, multiculturalism and age‐related issues, providing a number of statistics for examples. Looks at the impact of technology in areas such as intranets, e‐mail and Web marketing, customer relationship management, virtual offices, automation and virtual teams. Examines the implications of these relationships for corporate America today and in the future.
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Arvind Malhotra and Ann Majchrzak
This paper provides an insight into how companies faced with hypercompetitive environments are leveraging their globally dispersed knowledge resources through far‐flung teams…
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This paper provides an insight into how companies faced with hypercompetitive environments are leveraging their globally dispersed knowledge resources through far‐flung teams. Far‐flung teams are virtual teams that are multi‐unit/multi‐organizational, multi‐functional, globally dispersed and conduct their interdependent activities mainly through electronic media with minimal or no face‐to‐face interactions. A multi‐phase multi‐method study of 55 successful far‐flung teams. The first phase followed a highly successful far‐flung team over a period of ten months. The second phase involved survey participation from members of several far‐flung teams in multiple companies across multiple industries. Distinct communication and knowledge sharing norms emerge in successfuly far‐flung teams. Four different types of IT support are required for task coordination, external connectivity, distributed cognition and interactivity. The communication and knowledge sharing norms that emerged can be used to test impact on failure/success of other far‐flung teams. The impact of each of the four disctinct types of IT support has to be taken into account when studying far‐flung teams. Teams have to achieve a strategic fit between task characteristics, team composition and information technology support to overcome the barriers to knowledge sharing and successful creation of new knowledge in extreme environments faced by far‐flung teams. This paper takes an extensive multi‐methodology empirical approach to exploring successful far‐flung teams. It provides a theoretical model for future research on far‐flung teams.
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Society is entering into an era where the future essentially will be determined by people’s ability to wisely use knowledge, a precious global resource that is the embodiment of…
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Society is entering into an era where the future essentially will be determined by people’s ability to wisely use knowledge, a precious global resource that is the embodiment of human intellectual capital and technology. As people begin to expand their understanding of knowledge as an essential asset, they are realizing that in many ways the future is limited only by imagination and the ability to leverage the human mind. As knowledge increasingly becomes the key strategic resource of the future the need to develop comprehensive understanding of knowledge processes for the creation, transfer and deployment of this unique asset are becoming critical. Educational institutions and training organizations and businesses and knowledge‐based organizations in the public sector are in need of an integrative discipline for studying, researching and learning about the knowledge assets ‐ human intellectual capital and technology. An international society of knowledge professionals is proposed which can provide the necessary focus for fostering collaboration among the best minds and organizations on study, research and learning dedicated to the underlying disciplines and their integrative evolution into the emergence of Knowledge Management as a new discipline.
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Herman P. Hoplin and George S. Hsieh
The terms “outsourcing” and “rightsizing”,along with a third term, “downsizing”, have differentmeanings to different people. Looks into these as alternatives formanagers in…
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The terms “outsourcing” and “rightsizing”, along with a third term, “downsizing”, have different meanings to different people. Looks into these as alternatives for managers in rejuvenating organizations. Outsourcing to many managers means the loss of control of an internal operation. It is not as foreboding as downsizing which, at first impression, has the connotation that jobs are on the line or that expenses must be reduced. Rightsizing may imply a shrinkage in managerial levels to arrive at longer term “fat free” improvements. In a fast‐moving environment traditional methods and organizational forms are too cumbersome, and inflexible to bring about creative organizational change. More radical steps are often needed to capitalize on leaner and more innovative measures which, at the same time, reduce non‐productive “baggage” which has developed over time in most organizations.