The paper aims to show how a Detroit-based company recovered from a fractured culture and staggering projected financial loss by igniting a cultural revolution fueled by listening…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to show how a Detroit-based company recovered from a fractured culture and staggering projected financial loss by igniting a cultural revolution fueled by listening and employee engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
After setting the scene in post-recession Detroit, the case study walks the reader through how the company defined its turnaround goals, engaged its workforce to inspire widespread cultural change and how it is sustaining momentum.
Findings
The paper provides a detailed account of implementing a listening-focused culture and the positive impact it had on Webasto. It suggests that widespread organizational change is only possible when all employees are engaged and involved in the process.
Originality/value
This paper illustrates a real-world example of how an automotive supplier took a people-focused approach to engage its workforce with listening to drive culture change and ultimately impact an organization’s bottom line.
Details
Keywords
Thomas Dahl and Eirik J. Irgens
Is there a specific way of thinking about organisational learning in Nordic countries? Are concepts such as organisational learning and learning organisations imported, or do they…
Abstract
Purpose
Is there a specific way of thinking about organisational learning in Nordic countries? Are concepts such as organisational learning and learning organisations imported, or do they emerge with specific meanings from more local discourses? Beyond that, are they supported by specific learning theories? The purpose of this paper is to trace the way that the concepts of organisational learning and learning organisations appear in research and policy documents in Norway and to identify what sort of learning theories pertain to those concepts. The authors discuss whether Norway’s case exemplifies a Nordic way of thinking about learning in organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
Through an archaeological investigation into the concepts of organisational learning and learning organisations, the authors explore the theoretical and cultural framing of the concepts in research and policy. The authors limit our work to large industrial field experiments conducted in the 1960s and to large education reform in the 2000s.
Findings
During the industrial field experiments in the 1960s, the concept of organisational learning evolved to form participatory learning processes in non-hierarchical organisations able to contribute to democracy at work. Education policy in the 2000s, by contrast, imported the concept of the learning organisation that primarily viewed learning as an instrumental process of knowledge production. That strategy is incommensurable to what we define as a Nordic way, one in which learning is also understood as a cultural and social process advanced by democratic participation.
Originality/value
The authors add to organisational learning theories by demonstrating the importance of cultural context for theories and showing that the understanding of learning is historically and culturally embedded.
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The purpose of this paper is to show how projective techniques – in particular cartoon tests – give useful insights when used as a tool for conducting marketing research into…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how projective techniques – in particular cartoon tests – give useful insights when used as a tool for conducting marketing research into innovative products and services. The paper presents results from four studies on mobile services that were conducted with cartoon tests.
Design/methodology/approach
Using specially developed cartoon tests on four topics in the realm of innovative mobile services, 669 participants (mostly students) were individually and personally interviewed. Each participant was presented with exactly one cartoon test. Each cartoon test had three to four variations. Thus, consumers' reactions to different results of the confrontation with mobile services could be explored. Using content analysis, participants' projections were examined.
Findings
Cartoon tests are a useful research method for researching products and services that the general population are not yet familiar with. Furthermore, specific findings from consumers' confrontation with cartoon tests on mobile advertising, usage of mobile price comparison services and mobile shopping are presented.
Originality/value
A well‐known, but – for the purposes of marketing research – rather seldom used method is applied to research on innovations. The paper shows that using projective techniques is fruitful to gain an understanding of consumers' latent attitudes and behavioral intentions towards mobile service innovations.
Details
Keywords
Gives a bibliographical review of the error estimates and adaptive finite element methods from the theoretical as well as the application point of view. The bibliography at the…
Abstract
Gives a bibliographical review of the error estimates and adaptive finite element methods from the theoretical as well as the application point of view. The bibliography at the end contains 2,177 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the subjects that were published in 1990‐2000.