Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
The Hindi film industry is known affectionately throughout the world as “Bollywood”. All the glitter and glamour of Hollywood can be found in Mumbai (formerly Bombay which provided the “B” in “Bollywood”) along with prolific production surpassing anything Hollywood can hope to attain. While at one time the market for Bollywood films was mainly the South Asian sub‐continent, the last two decades have witnessed an explosive growth in audiences, linked to a rapid increase in sales to overseas markets. There are several factors which may account for this success including economic migration from South Asia to Europe and North America, an increasing interest in Indian culture on the part of Western audiences fueled in part by the success of Anglo‐Indian films such as “Bend it Like Beckham” or “East is East” and the proliferation of satellite television. However, there is what could be perceived as a fly in the ointment of Bollywood's success. The genre of films produced by the major Mumbai studios is very limited, and as such can't hope to rival the more universal appeal of Hollywood films. While the Mumbai film industry demonstrates some aspects of growth and development, these tend to be in the realm of technical expertise. Creativity and experimentation in story line, subject matter or plot development are noticeable by their absence.
Practical implications
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.
Details
Keywords
Sonal Minocha and George Stonehouse
This paper aims to highlight the nature of strategic learning in Bollywood, India's Hindi Film Industry. Film making is an art that requires continuous learning as a prerequisite…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight the nature of strategic learning in Bollywood, India's Hindi Film Industry. Film making is an art that requires continuous learning as a prerequisite to creativity and innovation. Improved competitive performance goes beyond operational organisational learning into strategic learning. This research investigates the extent to which strategic learning, as opposed to operational learning, is taking place within film making organisations operating in the Bollywood setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was conducted through two descriptive case studies of production houses in Bollywood using semi‐structured observations and interviews with producers and directors in the case study sites. Data are analysed using techniques of interpretive “illuminative evaluation”.
Findings
The research suggests that the current frame of film making at Bollywood is stuck in a learning trap, in that organisational learning tends to be adaptive not generative and leads only to technical innovation. There has been no change in the paradigm of film making from one rooted in the past and the present, in terms of India's history, social and political context, to one looking to the future. For this paradigm shift to take place a future vision is proposed in the form of strategic learning and innovation, allowing Bollywood to go beyond the domestic Indian market and make a contribution to world cinema by breaking away from its current formulaic approach to film making. These findings also have implications for other management learning and practice contexts.
Research limitations/implications
Although this research is limited to Bollywood, it has implications which potentially go beyond it in the form of a new frame as described above, and also for the organisational learning literature which has tended to focus on learning in general, rather than differentiating between operational learning and strategic learning; whereas operational learning can improve production processes, strategic learning depends upon creativity and innovation as the basis of improved competitive performance.
Practical implications
The paper concludes that the research site is trapped within its current frame of learning and, in order to break away from it, it must embrace strategic learning to move beyond the traditional loops of organisational learning. The practical implications of the paper lie in furthering the understanding of the nature of strategic learning in a creative industry, which may, in turn, shed new light on strategic learning within similar contexts.
Originality/value
The originality of the research stems from the focus on strategic learning and a new site for its exploration in the form of the Bollywood setting. Furthermore it extends understanding of the organisational factors affecting the status of strategic learning in organisations.
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Keywords
Guangming Cao, Yanqing Duan, Trevor Cadden and Sonal Minocha
– The purpose of this paper is to develop, and explicate the significance of the need for a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop, and explicate the significance of the need for a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value.
Design/methodology/approach
Embracing a systems perspective, this paper examines the interrelationship between IT and other organisational factors at the organisational level and its impact on the business value of IT. As a result, a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value is developed. An example of enhancing IT business value through developing systemic capabilities is then used to test and demonstrate the value of this framework.
Findings
The findings suggest that IT business value would be significantly enhanced when systemic capabilities are generated from the synergistic interrelations among IT and other organisational factors at the systems level, while the system’s human agents play a critical role in developing systemic capabilities by purposely configuring and reconfiguring organisational factors.
Practical implications
The conceptual framework advanced provides the means to recognise the significance of the need for understanding IT business value systemically and dynamically. It encourages an organisation to focus on developing systemic capabilities by ensuring that IT and other organisational factors work together as a synergistic whole, better managing the role its human agents play in shaping the systems interrelations, and developing and redeveloping systemic capabilities by configuring its subsystems purposely with the changing business environment.
Originality/value
This paper reveals the nature of systemic capabilities underpinned by a systems perspective. The resultant systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value can help us move away from pairwise resource complementarity to focusing on the whole system and its interrelations while responding to the changing business environment. It is hoped that the framework can help organisations delineate important IT investment considerations and the priorities that they must adopt to create superior IT business value.
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Keywords
Jane Turner, Sharon Mavin and Sonal Minocha
To critique individual learning experiences in organization, explore the role people play in inhibiting learning in organization and explore theories of individual learning as…
Abstract
Purpose
To critique individual learning experiences in organization, explore the role people play in inhibiting learning in organization and explore theories of individual learning as “theories in use”, drawing on a metaphor of steps and dance.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a subjective qualitative approach engaging in semi‐structured interviews with individual participants and narrative data analysis. A metaphor of “steps” and “dance” is used to analyse narrative data and theories “in use”; the “steps” imply a fixed form which constrains the individual within the confines of the job role, while the “dance” relates to a fluidity and flexibility which enables individuals to express movement and therefore learning.
Findings
Empirical data reveal a level of “not learning” in practice and raise the significance of both upward and downward feedback and questioning in learning levels. Results highlight the management‐employee relationship and the crucial role of managers in unlocking or inhibiting individual learning. In “Scriptorg” individuals are trapped in a cycle of “not learning” or at best single loop learning; new steps are inhibited by the management approach and there is no evidence of “dancing” in learning terms.
Originality/value
The paper examines theoretical insights in practice through case study exploration to highlight the significance of managers in inhibiting individual learning in organization and reinforces that practitioners should focus on interventions that unlock managerial learning, addressing the psychological and behavioural characteristics of managers, consequently enabling individuals to dance.
Details
Keywords
Reviews the latest management development across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
Reviews the latest management development across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
An organization willing to improve its operations and services needs a managerial team committed to learning. The literature argues that the absence of individual learning within the organization prevents work processes from being challenged and therefore enhanced. A survey of staff perception at public sector organization Scriptorg shows that inhibiting learning could have even more negative effects.
Practical implications
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.