3,789 research outputs found

    Teacher-training, ICT, creativity, MOOC, Moodle - What pedagogy?

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    The paper discusses learning theories and pedagogical approaches that inform the design of a teacher-training MOOC implementing creativity techniques and ICT tools. The article describes different versions of the course that applies Learning Design Studio as a course format and The First Principles of Instruction as an approach to structure the content and learning activities. It is claimed that the course needs to accommodate the learning profiles based on learning styles, learning locus of control and behavioral patterns as identified by MOOC research.European Commission, Project Number: 531086-LLP-1-2012-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP Agreement Number: 2012-4275 / 001-00

    A study of the experiential service design process at a luxury hotel

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    This thesis explores the process of designing experiential services at a luxury hotel. These processes were surfaced by means of a methodology that used the principles of jazz improvisation. Due to similarities between experiential service design and elements in jazz improvisation, representing experiential service design through the jazz improvisation metaphor leads to a new framework for exploring the process of experiential service design that is iterative in nature. A gap in the service design literature is that experiential service design is not operationalized in organizational improvisation, and one contribution from this study will be to fill that gap. This study contributes to the field of knowledge by exposing a new perspective on how experiential services can be better designed by adapting some of the design tools from this luxury hotel; a second contribution is a recommendation for how the improvisational lens works as an investigative tool to research experiential organizations. In the process, some new dimensions to understanding complexity are contributed. The research process utilized qualitative research methods. Frank Barrett (1998) identified seven characteristics of jazz improvisation which I have used as a heuristic device: 1) provocative competence (i.e., deliberately creating disruption); 2) embracing errors as learning sources; 3) minimal structures that allow for maximum flexibility; 4) distributed task (i.e., an ongoing give and take); 5) reliance on retrospective sensemaking (organizational members as bricoleurs, making use of whatever is at hand); 6) hanging out (connecting through communities of practice); and 7) alternating between soloing and supporting. This research is grounded in the body of literature regarding complexity, organizational improvisation, service design and experience design. The role of heterogeneous minimal structures that are fluid and optimize uncertainty is central to this investigation. Themes such as sensemaking and the role of story, meaning-making, organizational actors' use of tangible and intangible design skills, and embracing ambiguity in efforts to design experiential services are explored throughout the dissertation. The anticipatory nature of experiential service design is a principle outcome from the data that is incorporated into the new conceptual framework highlighting a "posture of service"

    Participatory simulation in hospital work system design

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    When ergonomic considerations are integrated into the design of work systems, both overall system performance and employee well-being improve. A central part of integrating ergonomics in work system design is to benefit from emplo y-ees’ knowledge of existing work systems. Participatory simulation (PS) is a method to access employee knowledge; namely employees are involved in the simulation and design of their own future work systems through the exploration of models representing work system designs. However, only a few studies have investigated PS and the elements of the method. Yet understanding the elements is essential when analyzing and planning PS in research and practice.This PhD study investigates PS and the method elements in the context of the Danish hospital sector, where PS is applied in the renewal and design of public hospitals and the work systems within the hospitals. The investigation was guided by three research questions focusing on: 1) the influence of simulation media on ergonomic evaluation in PS, 2) the creation of ergonomic knowledge in PS, and 3) the transfer and integration of the ergonomic knowledge into work system design.The investigation was based on three PS cases in the Danish hospital sector. The cases were analyzed from an ergonomics system perspective combined with theories on knowledge creation, transfer, and integration. The results are presented in six scientific papers from which three core findings are extracted: 1) simulation media attributes influence the type of ergonomic conditions that can be evaluated in PS, 2) sequences and overlaps of knowledge creation activities are sources of ergonomic knowledge creation in PS, and 3) intermediaries are means of knowledge transfer, and interpretation and transformation are means of knowledge integration

    Managing Supplier Integration into Product Development: A Literature Review and Conceptual Model

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    Industrial clusters, Regional agglomerations, Technological learning, Technological capability, Knowledge spillovers, Regional innovation systems

    Good Governance: The Inflation of an Idea

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    Good governance has grown rapidly to become a major ingredient in analyses of what's missing in countries struggling for economic and political development. Intuitively and in research, good governance is a seductive idea--who, after all, can reasonably defend bad governance? Nevertheless, the popularity of the idea has far outpaced its capacity to deliver. In its brief life, it has also muddied the waters of thinking about the development process, and has become conflated with the capacity to generate growth, alleviate poverty, and bring effective democracy to peoples in poor countries. Scholars and practitioners need to develop a reasonable understanding of what good governance can deliver--and what it cannot. They must also assume more realistic expectations about how much good governance can be expected in poor countries struggling with a plethora of demands on their capacities to pursue change. In this paper, I explore how and why the concept of good governance emerged and grew, and then suggest ways that academics and practitioners can become more sensitive to the limitations of fads and to curb the tendency toward idea inflation.

    Essays on the nature and dynamics of higher-order organizational capabilities

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    Today’s business environments have become fast-moving, involving frequent, rapid and unpredictable change. As such, firms are struggling to (find new ways to) create and sustain competitive advantage. Scholars in organization science, and strategic management in particular, have shifted focus towards competing on higher-order (i.e. meta-)organizational capabilities in fast-moving business environments; organizational capabilities that may define a firm strategically as being key drivers of long-term business performance. However, the main question that needs to be answered refers to what the key dimensions of such higher-order organizational capabilities in dynamic business environments are. This doctoral dissertation therefore examines the following central research question: What are the key dimensions of higher-order organizational capabilities in addressing situations of changing market and competitive conditions? This dissertation builds upon the notions of dynamic capability and ambidexterity. The notion of dynamic capability explains how organizations may develop competitive advantage in fast-moving business environments, by focusing on the dynamic processes of assembling, deploying and integrating a firm’s resource base. Dynamic capabilities stress the importance of the history of a firm’s current capabilities, and the importance of revising and reconfiguring these in the future. As such, firms are able to address changing environments and/or create market change. However, in situations of changing market and competitive conditions, firms need to demonstrate the ability to timely response to new circumstances, along with the ability to address existing environments. In this respect, scholars introduced the notion of ambidexterity, which refers to performing different and often competing challenges. Here, competitive advantage may result from being efficient in managing today’s business demands, while at the same time being effective in adapting to changing business environments and/or in creating market change. As such, firms need a focus on both exploitation and exploration; that is, on their current activities in existing domains along with developing new activities in non-existing domains. The current literature comprises a variety of conceptualizations and interpretations of dynamic capability and ambidexterity, providing a significant challenge for both scholars and practitioners to understand and develop these meta-organizational capabilities. In order to assess the collective understanding of both concepts, Chapter 2 introduces a systematic literature review approach. Such an approach involves a comprehensive search of all potentially relevant papers and books of dynamic capability and ambidexterity, and the use of explicit, reproducible criteria in the selection of papers and books for review. Drawing on systematic literature reviews, the foundations, antecedents and consequences of dynamic capability and ambidexterity are explored in terms of definitions, operationalizations and measurements of their key dimensions. As a result, a (re-)definition of dynamic capability and ambidexterity is proposed. These definitions point at ways in which dynamic capability and ambidexterity can be operationalized and measured more effectively in future research. As such, Chapter 2 develops a definition and operationalization of dynamic capability and ambidexterity in terms of their key dimensions. Chapter 2 therefore contributes to the development of a theoretical understanding of the key dimensions of dynamic capability and ambidexterity, providing a starting point for future theoretical and empirical studies that advance our collective understanding of dynamic capability and ambidexterity. The insights from the systematic literature reviews provide a theoretical basis for the empirical studies in this dissertation. The empirical studies in Chapter 3 and 4 extend our empirical understanding of the dynamics entailed in the way ambidexterity is performed in service firms. Empirically studying ambidexterity in the service industries contributes to previous studies that have mainly been conducted in manufacturing firms, whereas relatively less attention has been paid to the challenges of exploitation versus exploration in service firms. Moreover, ambidexterity is particularly challenging for service firms, because new service development requires integrating the needs of new service operations and processes with existing business activities. As such, this dissertation extends and builds (new) theory in the field of dynamic capability, and ambidexterity in particular, which lead to main findings and implications that are of general scientific value for scholars and provide valuable insights for practitioners (in service firms). The empirical study in Chapter 3 studies ambidexterity from an organization design perspective by examining the relationship between decentralization and ambidexterity. As such, this study provides an in-depth understanding of the impact of decentralization on the dynamics entailed in the way ambidexterity is organized, balanced and connected in large service firms, incorporating the role of timing and interdependencies. Recently, scholars have suggested that a decentralized structure facilitates ambidexterity. However, comparative case studies of two service innovations in a large decentralized retail bank in the Netherlands paint a more complex picture. First, a literature review implies that decentralization may activate highly different generative mechanisms. Subsequently, the case study findings show that the activation of these generative mechanisms depends on the actual use of the decentralized structure. Moreover, these generative mechanisms and their outcomes gain and lose dominance in different phases of the innovation process. In particular, the effectiveness of the decentralized structure depend on the interdependence of exploitation and exploration activities. A decentralized structure appears to be of limited help for ambidexterity if exploration involves complex service innovation that needs to be integrated into the exploitative core of the organization. In other words, a decentralized structure does not support ambidexterity when exploitation and exploration activities are strongly interdependent. Overall, the main contribution of chapter 3 is to elaborate and extend existing theory. In this respect, Chapter 3 contributes to the literature by combining the literature on ambidexterity, organizational design and service innovation. The empirical study in Chapter 4 studies ambidexterity from a managerial perspective by examining the relationship between an organization’s founding conditions and the degree of ambidexterity in organizational practices in small-to-medium sized service firms. As such, this study extends our understanding of the dynamics entailed in the way competing priorities are performed, especially when these priorities demand both continuity and renewal. More specifically, this study explores the way founding conditions impact organizational practices, and in particular the capability to change these practices. The findings of comparative case studies of two practices in three management consulting SME’s in the USA, the Netherlands and the UK reveal how founding conditions affect the way competing demands of continuity and renewal are addressed. The case study findings primarily suggest the importance of founders’ blueprints, embedded in their employment models. These blueprints are difficult to alter, and as such mark the firm’s future path by impacting the level of ambidexterity in practices over an extended period of time. Overall, the main contribution of Chapter 4 is to build new theory. In this respect, Chapter 4 contributes to the literature by combining the literature on ambidexterity, founding conditions and practice-based research. Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes the main findings and (practical) implications of the studies described in previous chapters of this dissertation. Subsequently, a general conclusion regarding the central research question is given. In this respect, by drawing on the systematic literature reviews and empirical studies, this chapter describes a taxonomy of key dimensions of ambidexterity as a higher-order organizational capability. As such, this taxonomy integrates the previous chapters, and serves to answer the central research question in this dissertation. Finally, this chapter describes the main limitations of this dissertation and makes suggestions for future research

    Non-formal youth development and its impact on young people’s lives: case study – Brathay Trust, UK

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    Brathay Trust is a youth development charity in the UK, which has been working with young people for over 65 years. Brathay works in both community and residential youth development settings. This paper presents the current political context in which Brathay is situated in the UK. It then details how the Trust has developed a robust theoretical framework to underpin a non-formal youth development approach. This involved a process of practice based evidence to understand and underpin the delivery of Brathay’s work, as well as the challenge of demonstrating impact using evidence based practice. The tensions between practice based evidence and evidence based practice are problematised and implications discussed

    EPortfolio: The Scholarly Capstone for the Practice Doctoral Degree in Occupational Therapy

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    A critical decision doctoral faculty must make is deciding what is the most appropriate capstone or terminal requirement for the practice doctorate degree that is consistent with the program’s curriculum. EPortfolios are a viable option for documenting doctoral students’ advanced knowledge and competence. After creating a professional development plan, the students record individual experiences and reflections framed by a self-selected metaphor, provide objective documentation of achievements, and verify advanced competence in a specific area in their ePortfolios. As the students construct their ePortfolios, they must engage in self-directed learning that is grounded in evidence-based and reflective practice, with a focus on developing professional characteristics. The purpose of this article is to describe the rationale and process of using an ePortfolio as the terminal requirement for a practice doctorate degree in occupational therapy

    Fruits of Gregory Bateson’s epistemological crisis: embodied mind-making and interactive experience in research and professional praxis

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    Background: The espoused rationale for this special issue, situated “at the margins of cybernetics,” was to revisit and extend the common genealogy of cybernetics and communication studies. Two possible topics garnered our attention: 1) the history of intellectual adventurers whose work has appropriated cybernetic concepts; and 2) the remediation of cybernetic metaphors. Analysis: A heuristic for engaging in ïŹrst- and second-order R&D praxis, the design of which was informed by co-research with pastoralists (1989–1993) and the authors’ engagements with the scholarship of Bateson and Maturana, was employed and adapted as a reïŹ‚exive in-quiry framework.Conclusion and implications: This inquiry challenges the mainstream desire for change and the belief in getting the communication right in order to achieve change. The authors argue this view is based on an epistemological error that continues to produce the very problems it intends to diminish, and thus we live a fundamental error in epistemology, false ontology, and misplaced practice. The authors offer instead conceptual and praxis possibilities for triggering new co-evolutionary trajectories
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