The Learning Organisation Meme: Emergence of a Management Replicator (or Parrots, Patterns and Performance)

Organisations and organisms are self-maintaining systems which spontaneously seek to preserve an evolved order. Both are enabled by replicators: memes or genes respectively. Whereas genes are the units of transmission of our biological inheritance memes are the units of transmission of our cultural inheritance. They cause organisations to settle into patterns, routines and habits of behaviour: manifestations of a particular memetic inheritance. These patterns enable the organisation but simultaneously limit its performance. Both systems share the evolutionary dynamic of adaptive radiation followed by stabilisation. Memetic examples include new markets, new technologies and new business ideas. Business theories and their derivative, managerial fads, are a class of memes. This paper illustrates the increasing returns dynamic in the evolution of management recipes by contrasting Business Process Re-engineering and the Learning Organisation. It ends with a plea for the Learning Organisations to retain memetic diversity rather than be trapped in sterile competitions to define an LO. The power of the Learning Organisation movement may, paradoxically, be that we are not stuck with what it is

Thriving information system through business intelligence knowledge management excellence framework

In the current digitalization dilemma of an organization, there is a need for the business intelligence and knowledge management element for enhancing a perspective of learning and strategic management. These elements will comprise a significant evolution of learning, insight gained, experiences and knowledge through compelling theoretical impact for practitioners, academicians, and scholars in the pertinent field of interest. This phenomenon occurs due to digitalization transformation towards industry revolution 5.0 and organizational excellence in the information system area. This research focuses on the characteristic of a comprehensive performance measure perspective in an organization that conceives information assessment and key challenges of Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management in perceiving a relevant organizational excellence framework. The dynamic research focusing on the decision-making process and leveraging better knowledge creation. The future of organization excellence seemed to be convergent in determining the holistic performance measure perspective and its factors towards industry revolution 5.0. The research ends up with a typical basic excellence framework that will mash up some characteristics in designing an organizational strategic performance framework. The output is a conceptual performance measure framework for a typical decision-making application for organizational strategic performance management dashboarding

Special Issue: new trends in Process Simulation and Modeling

This special issue of the Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management is focused on new trends in Process Simulation and Modeling.Many business processes are so complex, interconnected and subject to variability. For those reasons, it is hard to understand the components evolution and interactions within the business processes without a dynamic model. Simulation and modeling approach is a good choice to predict processes performance, to compare alternatives and to establish the effect of several scenarios on performance. Moreover, if a process does not yet exist, or company is considering a new implementation, a simulation model can give a clue how well the proposed process will perform. In addition, process simulation and modeling is a growing and exciting research field.Peer Reviewe

The Necessary Architecture of Self-Regulating Teams

In this paper we present the meaning of self-regulation in Self- Regulating Teams (SRTs) and show the importance of self- regulating teams in a learning organisation. Self-regulating (also known as self-managing) teams guide and perform their own tasks without a visible leader. In the present dynamic business environment, SRTs promise to deliver higher motivation and empowerment to the individuals that participate in them as well as elevated performance and efficiency to the organisations that implement them. However, as management support and change in business culture are prerequisites for the success of SRTs, their implementation is not an easy task. Often, unsuccessful SRTs have been (in our opinion, wrongly) criticized as a source of ambiguity for organisations and as yet another management technique that does not deliver its promises. We start exploring the validity of such a criticism by discussing the shift from a training paradigm to a self- development paradigm in order to draw the picture of a learning organisation as an entity that facilitates learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself as a whole. We continue by showing the contribution that SRTs could make to the process of an organisation that aims to become a learning organisation. In this paper we adopt a cybernetic approach to describe the role of SRTs and to identify the necessary conditions for SRTs to work at all. We present the necessary architecture of SRTs; the architecture that is needed to deliver their promised advantages. We show how Gordon Pasks Conversation Theory could be applied to self-regulating teams and present how learning conversation could provide the framework for successful organisational evolution through team development and team self- regulation. We show how the establishment of such an architecture can lead to a better understanding of self-regulating teams and thus to their successful evolution and development within an organisation. We conclude by stating the implications of our analysis

Essay 1: Does ownership structure matter? Essay 2: Asset sale in mutual fund industry

The dissertation studies two aspects of the U.S. registered investment companies. The first essay analyzes the ownership and organizational structure aspect while the second essay investigates the restructure events of those investment companies. We find sellers from mutual fund asset sales are mainly financial conglomerates. Funds under management of those conglomerates experience poor performance during the period prior to asset sales. On the other hand, acquirers are generally highly focused mutual fund companies. Funds acquired by these focused entities experience improvement in both fund performance and operational efficiency. From the analysis of organizational structure, funds managed by focused mutual fund companies demonstrate better performance and operating efficiency than those of diversified ones. Funds managed by diversified fund companies also experience performance deterioration during years following their IPOs, while focused counterparts encounter performance enhancement. From the analysis of ownership structure, funds managed by public mutual fund entities outperform their private competitors. Our evidence indicates that (1) organizational structure (level of concentration), (2) economies of scale, (3) strengthened monitoring, and (4) managerial ownership contribute to the superior performance and greater operating efficiency that occur subsequent to asset sales in the mutual fund industry. We propose (1) a public trade, (2) a focused business line, and (3) a large insider ownership to explain the outperformance and management efficiency. Our results not only contribute to the dynamic of mutual fund operations but also explain the evolution of business model for the industry organizations of the past decades

Do not forget the strategic architecture of your manufacturing network while offshoring

Offshoring manufacturing to low labor cost countries has become trendy. Nearly everyday one sees an announcement in the business press of companies moving to China or India. Whilst production cost is an important consideration in choosing a location for the factory, we argue that one should not become victim of a herd effect and that other parameters e.g. quality, flexibility, transportation and energy costs, etc. need to be taken into consideration in the determination of the optimal manufacturing network. Relocating a factory is changing the strategic architecture of the company's manufacturing network and requires a long term view and a good model to design the architecture of the manufacturing network. Based on empirical survey research and a set of case studies we provide such a model to think about the roles of factories in the strategic manufacturing network of the firm. But we go beyond a classification and a descriptive model and we provide a set of six managerial issues that require senior management's attention in determining the optimal manufacturing network and its dynamic evolution. We argue for example that senior management needs to build a balanced portfolio of different types of factories, has to have a performance measurement system adapted to the type of factory, as well as the appropriate leadership for each of the different types of factories and needs to actively manage the dynamics and the flows of innovation in the factory network. Key words: international manufacturing, network management, outsourcin

Improving productivity of a financial firm: business model evolution in the Caribbean

Purpose – This study explores the role of business model as a state variable during transformation of a financial institution to become a multinational enterprise. Prior studies of the Uppsala model overlooked business model evolution for cross-border productivity and performance. Design/methodology/approach – The research design employs the resource-based view for an in-depth case study of JMMB, a family-managed Jamaica-based financial firm, using data from primary and secondary sources, covering the period 1992 to 2014. Findings – JMMB’s business model was the channel through which resources and capabilities gave rise to an innovative product for successful positioning in an international network. This was augmented by strong family orientation toward customer service, a distinctive asset that shaped the nature and trajectory of the business model. Cross-border alliancing and risk management were crucial dynamic capabilities for replicating the business model in foreign markets. Research limitations/implications – While the observations are not generalizable to other firms, they indicate that a business model is a key unit of analysis for understanding how the firm makes the transition to become a multinational enterprise. Practical implications – Financial institutions may internationalize in a small island, developing stages through a strategy of focused product differentiation based on disruptive innovation with cross-border partnerships for ease of market entry and experiential learning. Social implications – The research has identified opportunities for effective and efficient work methods in pursuit of productivity gains. Originality/value – The study is the first to illustrate business model as a state variable in the Uppsala model of multinational enterprise evolution for a financial firm

Understanding the Costs of Business Process Management Technology

Providing effective IT support for business processes has become crucial for enterprises to stay competitive in their market. Business processes must be defined, configured, implemented, enacted, monitored and continuously adapted to changing situations. Process life cycle support and continuous process improvement have therefore become critical success factors in enterprise computing. In response to this need, a variety of process support paradigms, process specification standards, process management tools, and supporting methods have emerged. Summarized under the term Business Process Management (BPM), they have become a success-critical instrument for improving overall business performance. However, introducing BPM approaches in enterprises is associated with significant costs. Though existing economic-driven IT evaluation and software cost estimation approaches have received considerable attention during the last decades, it is difficult to apply them to BPM projects. In particular, they are unable to take into account the dynamic evolution of BPM projects caused by the numerous technological, organizational and project-specific factors influencing them. The latter, in turn, often lead to complex and unexpected cost effects in BPM projects making even rough cost estimations a challenge. What is needed is a comprehensive approach enabling BPM professionals to systematically investigate the costs of BPM projects. This chapter takes a look at both known and often unknown cost factors in BPM projects, shortly discusses existing IT evaluation and software cost estimation approaches with respect to their suitability for BPM projects, and finally introduces the EcoPOST framework. EcoPOST utilizes evaluation models to describe the interplay of technological, organizational, and project-specific BPM cost factors as well as simulation concepts to unfold the dynamic behavior and costs of BPM projects

Dynamic capabilities and knowledge management: an integrative role for learning?

Modern strategic management theories try to explain why firms differ, because new sources of competitive advantage are keenly sought in the dynamic and complex environment of global competition. Two areas in particular have attracted the attention of researchers: the role of dynamic capabilities, and the firm's abilities for knowledge management. In this paper, we argue that there is a link between these two concepts, which has not been fully articulated in the literature. The aim of the paper is therefore to ascertain the conceptual connection between them as a basis for future research. Our proposed framework acknowledges and critiques the distinct roots of each field, identifies boundaries, and proposes relationships between the constructs and firm performance

A terminal assessment of stages theory : introducing a dynamic states approach to entrepreneurship

Stages of Growth models were the most frequent theoretical approach to understanding entrepreneurial business growth from 1962 to 2006; they built on the growth imperative and developmental models of that time. An analysis of the universe of such models (N=104) published in the management literature shows no consensus on basic constructs of the approach, nor is there any empirical confirmations of stages theory. However, by changing two propositions of the stages models, a new dynamic states approach is derived. The dynamic states approach has far greater explanatory power than its precursor, and is compatible with leading edge research in entrepreneurship