473,731 research outputs found

    Intelligent leadership and leadership competencies : developing a leadership framework for intelligent organizations

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    The purpose of this study was to develop a leadership framework for intelligent organizations. This was done by analyzing the future working environment of managers, leadership as a phenomenon and as a process and leadership competencies. How leadership is typically learned and trained and how we could improve these activities, was also studied. One of the contentions of this thesis is that as the world is shifting from an industrial paradigm to a post-industrial paradigm, it is necessary that we understand the consequences of this shift vis-à-vis leadership culture and practice. In my study I have tried to apply a methodological approach, which I have termed as "science by doing". It can be seen as belonging to a certain school of action research. In this approach, I have tried to combine a practical approach and a scientific approach. Moreover, through practical follow-up management development projects the idea has been to create new, personally experienced, tested and interpreted knowledge. This orientation is underpinned by a balance between direct personal experience and indirect intellectual abstraction. It is an approach that goes beyond fragmented theories and that could possibly point a way towards a new school of leadership. I have used the research design with three layers: 1. personal skill map research; 2. leadership development in practice; and 3. the new framework for leadership. The objective of personal skill map research was to apply and develop the method of analyzing and developing personal key skills. Personal key skills (e.g. decision making and stress management) are that kind of general skills (altogether 14 skills), which we need to be effective and to create a sense of well-being in our normal life. This research was my licentiate dissertation and has formed an important basis for this research in which I have continued the same theme but focused on leadership competencies. Leadership development in practice means that I have documented five case studies concerning management development at Kone and Nokia during the nineties. All these cases are different kind of leadership development projects which give us a lot of practical experience about our topic. The main purpose of this research has been to define the new framework for leadership. This has been done on the basis of my own experiences and extensive theoretical research in which I have tried to go through all the relevant leadership theories. I have grouped those theories into 14 clusters and analyzed what they could give to leadership in the 21st century. I believe that we need a radical paradigm shift in our thinking about leadership; a move from an industrial to a postindustrial paradigm. We don't know exactly what this new paradigm will look like, but I have outlined ten cornerstones for this new framework Based on this framework I have developed an intelligent leadership model. The model itself is based on the system theory and it tries to describe the leadership process as a whole with the ten key elements that belong to it. One of the main premises I make is that intelligent leadership is shared and collaborative and therefore significantly different from the way leadership has been addressed in mainstream models. Moreover, leadership is seen as a process, not a position. It therefore goes without saying that the proverbial followers are actively involved inthis model and that they are also engaged in the phenomenon of leadership, not "followership". It is also important to state that purpose and vision give the justification for leadership. Leadership is always based on universal principles and values. Future leaders are living in a turbulent and chaotic environment, where the real power to act comes from recognizing the pattern of change and sensing and seizing windows of opportunity. In this kind of environment they will need a lot of competencies to survive. I have defined a competence tree of a leader or leadership, which consists of six clusters and altogether 26 competencies. This is based on the personal skill map research (the skill tree of a life), a comprehensive summary of previous competence research in the leadership area and some examples from practice (e.g. Nokia, Ahlstrom and ITU). I have also developed a Leadership Self-Assessment Tool, which consists of 160 items. The leadership competence framework and the self-assessment tool was tested with sixteen executives ("successful people managers") from Ahlstrom, Fortum, Kone and Nokia. This group considered the competence tree of a leader comprehensive, practical and useful. Also the self-assessment tool was considered useful, and it gave a lot of self-reflection impulses. People usually learn leadership best by doing. Good self-reflection competencies and awareness about your own learning obstacles are needed for this. Also management and leadership training is useful when its timing is correct and it is tailored to the company's situation. It should always start with self-leadership. Intelligent leadership widens the area of influence from individuals to teams, to organizations and to societies. Intelligent leadership should help individuals to develop themselves comprehensively as human beings. It should support working individuals in becoming self-directed teams. It should support organizations in becoming intelligent. And in addition to this, it should support us in building intelligent societies, where we can integrate economy, ethics and ecology. This is the ultimate goal of all leadership training. During the last twenty years a huge amount of studies and books on leadership have been published both by academics and practitioners. I have a strong belief that today there is a momentum, and we have enough leadership knowledge that enables us to achieve the intellectual breakthrough and go beyond fragmented theories towards a new school of leadership; "a new scientific management" for the 21st century. I hope this research can support that progress in a tiny way.reviewe

    From Cells to Cell Theory: What Would Kuhn Say?

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    Cells as we know them today were discovered in the 1600s by Robert Hooke. A couple hundred years later, scientists came to a final conclusion about how cells arose. The theory of spontaneous generation of life was abandoned in favor of cell theory, the idea that all cells come from preexisting cells. Louis Pasteur was an important thinker and experimentalist in this transition. Furthermore, the implications of this transition were far reaching and can even be seen today with the constant use of HeLa cells in scientific research. But what would Thomas Kuhn, philosopher of science, have to say about this transition? Does this transition fit into his conception of a paradigm shift? Does the transition alter the scientific imagination in such a way as to transform the world of scientists and alter the cultural perspective? If Kuhn was still around, he definitely would agree that this transition meets all his requirements for an effective paradigm change

    Buddhist Shunyata and the Christian Trinity

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    Reading porn: the paradigm shift in pornography research

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    This paper examines the paradigm shift in pornography theory and research from a focus on 'texts and effects' through to work emerging from the late 1980's onwards. The paper considers the reconceptualisation of pornography as a category, the location of pornography in relation to cultural hierarchy and form, the changing status of pornography in relation to mainstream representations, the significance of developing technologies and the movement towards more situated accounts of pornographic texts and their audiences as a series of attempts to contextualise the question 'what is pornography?'</p

    Searching for the Kuhnian moment : the Black-Scholes-Merton formula and the evolution of modern finance theory

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    The Black-Scholes-Merton formula has been put to widespread use by options traders because it provides a means of calculating the theoretically 'correct' price of stock options. Traders can therefore see whether the market price of stock options undervalues or overvalues them compared with their hypothetical Black-Scholes-Merton price, before choosing to buy or sell options accordingly. As a consequence of this close relationship between options pricing theory and options pricing practice, a strong performativity loop was activated, whereby market prices quickly converged on the hypothetical Black-Scholes-Merton prices following the dissemination of the formula. The theory has therefore had significant real-world effects, but how should we characterize the initial instinct to derive the theory from a philosophy of science perspective? The two books under review suggest that a Kuhnian reading of the advancement of scientific knowledge might well be the most appropriate. But, on closer inspection, it becomes clear that the publication of the Black-Scholes-Merton formula should not be seen as a Kuhnian moment with paradigm-shaping attributes. It is shown that, at most, the formula acts as an important exemplar which, via its use in the training of options pricing theorists and options pricing practitioners, reinforces the entrenchment of finance theory within the orthodox economics worldview

    Neoliberalism by stealth? Exploring continuity and change within the UK social enterprise policy paradigm

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    Social enterprise has been portrayed as challenging neoliberalism, and alternatively, as neoliberalism by stealth. Here we conceptualise social enterprise as a microparadigm nested within wider political and economic frameworks. Our analysis of continuity and change over a period of political and economic crisis in England demonstrates considerable evidence of normative change in the ideas underpinning social enterprise policies. However, further analysis reveals that the (neoliberal) cognitive ideas underpinning the social enterprise paradigm remained intact. This suggests that policy paradigms can accommodate normative differences within a shared cognitive framework, and hence, are more fluid, and have greater longevity, than previously recognised

    Galileo's Revenge: ways of construing knowledge and translation strategies in the era of globalisation

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    Galileo’s fateful confrontation with the Holy Office in 1633 is often taken to mark the start of the Scientific Revolution, the moment when a whole new approach to knowledge began to take over the western world. Amongst the many repercussions of this great epistemological shift was the development of a new ‘transparent’ type of discourse, felt to reflect reality more directly than the elaborate verbal edifices of the Scholastics. Today, the ‘authoritative plain style’, as Lawrence Venuti calls it, is so prevalent in English academic and factual writing that knowledge configured otherwise is rarely allowed past the cultural gatekeepers. There are countries, however, where, for historical and cultural reasons, the Scientific Revolution never really took place. In Spain and Portugal, for example, the anthropocentric paradigm favoured by the Christian humanist tradition has persisted well into the 21st century, and as a result, many of the academic texts produced in these countries operate according to an entirely different philosophy of language. This paper discusses some of the linguistic and ideological problems of translating such scholarship into a form that is publishable in English

    A paradigm shift in theorizing about justice? A critique of Sen: Laura Valentini

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    In his recent book The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen suggests that political philosophy should move beyond the dominant, Rawls-inspired, methodological paradigm – what Sen calls ‘transcendental institutionalism’ – towards a more practically oriented approach to justice: ‘realization-focused comparison’. In this article, I argue that Sen's call for a paradigm shift in thinking about justice is unwarranted. I show that his criticisms of the Rawlsian approach are either based on misunderstandings, or correct but of little consequence, and conclude that the Rawlsian approach already delivers much of what Sen himself wants from a theory of justice
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