Dynamic Models of Appraisal Networks Explaining Collective Learning

This paper proposes models of learning process in teams of individuals who collectively execute a sequence of tasks and whose actions are determined by individual skill levels and networks of interpersonal appraisals and influence. The closely-related proposed models have increasing complexity, starting with a centralized manager-based assignment and learning model, and finishing with a social model of interpersonal appraisal, assignments, learning, and influences. We show how rational optimal behavior arises along the task sequence for each model, and discuss conditions of suboptimality. Our models are grounded in replicator dynamics from evolutionary games, influence networks from mathematical sociology, and transactive memory systems from organization science.Comment: A preliminary version has been accepted by the 53rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control. The journal version has been submitted to IEEE Transactions on Automatic Contro

Foreign Direct Investment in Ireland: Policy Implications for Emerging Economies

The increasingly important role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the global economy is linked to questions of how the foreign direct investment (FDI) they control impacts on overall economic activity in the recipient countries. Of specific interest is the policy context in which such FDI flows into the developing country and how a government can influence the impact of those flows. This paper reviews some of the literature in two key contextual areas, namely, when the host country policy regime promotes FDI selectively, and secondly, where it promotes the creation of industrial clusters. It explores the insights of this literature for the development of the strong MNE sector in the Irish economy and draws lessons from the Irish experience for emerging economies.Note: Length:

What can management theories offer evidence-based practice? A comparative analysis of measurement tools for organisational context

Background: Given the current emphasis on networks as vehicles for innovation and change in health service delivery, the ability to conceptualise and measure organisational enablers for the social construction of knowledge merits attention. This study aimed to develop a composite tool to measure the organisational context for evidence-based practice (EBP) in healthcare. Methods: A structured search of the major healthcare and management databases for measurement tools from four domains: research utilisation (RU), research activity (RA), knowledge management (KM), and organisational learning (OL). Included studies were reports of the development or use of measurement tools that included organisational factors. Tools were appraised for face and content validity, plus development and testing methods. Measurement tool items were extracted, merged across the four domains, and categorised within a constructed framework describing the absorptive and receptive capacities of organisations. Results: Thirty measurement tools were identified and appraised. Eighteen tools from the four domains were selected for item extraction and analysis. The constructed framework consists of seven categories relating to three core organisational attributes of vision, leadership, and a learning culture, and four stages of knowledge need, acquisition of new knowledge, knowledge sharing, and knowledge use. Measurement tools from RA or RU domains had more items relating to the categories of leadership, and acquisition of new knowledge; while tools from KM or learning organisation domains had more items relating to vision, learning culture, knowledge need, and knowledge sharing. There was equal emphasis on knowledge use in the different domains. Conclusion: If the translation of evidence into knowledge is viewed as socially mediated, tools to measure the organisational context of EBP in healthcare could be enhanced by consideration of related concepts from the organisational and management sciences. Comparison of measurement tools across domains suggests that there is scope within EBP for supplementing the current emphasis on human and technical resources to support information uptake and use by individuals. Consideration of measurement tools from the fields of KM and OL shows more content related to social mechanisms to facilitate knowledge recognition, translation, and transfer between individuals and groups

Mapping the information-coping trajectory of young people coping with long term illness: An evidence based approach

Purpose - Purpose: We explore the relationship between information and coping information from the experiences of young people coping with long term illness. Design/methodology/approach - Methodology: Situational Analysis was used as a methodological approach. It has roots in the Chicago Symbolic Interactionism School. Cartographic approaches enabled the analysis, mapping the complexities emerging from the data. Findings - Findings: As the young people became more informed about their health conditions, and gained knowledge and understanding both about their illnesses, their own bodies and boundaries, their confidence and capacity to cope increased. Gaining confidence, the young people often wanted to share their knowledge becoming information providers themselves. From the data we identified five positions on an information-coping trajectory (1) Information deficiency (2) Feeling ill-informed (3) Needing an injection of information (4) Having information health and (5) Becoming an information donor. Research limitations/implications - Research limitations/implications: The research was limited to an analysis of thirty narratives. The research contributes to information theory by mapping clearly the relationship between information and coping. Originality/value - Originality/value: The information theories in this study have originality and multi-disciplinary value in the management of health and illness, and information studies

Employment relations in Chile : evidence of HRM practices

This paper presents empirical evidence about HRM practices in Chilean organisations with the aims of providing an overview of employment relations and adding to limited existing literature. Research was conducted in a sample of 2000 Chilean workers in the Metropolitan Region. The paper argues that HRM practices in Chilean organisations illustrate the normative perspective of modern HRM discourse, where managers understand the nature of employment relationships to be the control of workers. While HRM processes are articulated under a discourse of worker emancipation, in reality, discursive practices perpetuate patterns of subordination that have historically shaped employment relations in Chile

Bounded Rationality in the Economics of Organization Present Use and (Some) Future Possibilities

The way in which bounded rationality enters contemporary organizational economics theorizing is examined. It is argued that, as it is being used, bounded rationality is neither necessary nor sufficient for producing the results of organizational economics. It is at best a rhetorical device, used for the purpose of loosely explaining incomplete contracts. However, it is possible to incorporate much richer notions of bounded rationality, founded on research in cognitive psychology, and to illuminate the study of economic organization by means of such notions. A number of examples are provided.Varieties of bounded rationality, incomplete contracts, economic organization, cognitive psychology