Capacity building for conservation: problems and potential solutions for sub-Saharan Africa

To successfully achieve their stated conservation goals individuals, communities and organisations need to acquire a diversity of skills, knowledge and information (capacity). Despite current efforts to build and maintain appropriate levels of conservation capacity, it has been recognised that there will need to be a significant scaling-up of these activities in sub-Saharan Africa. This is because of the rapidly growing number and extent of environmental problems in the region. This paper presents a range of socio-economic contexts relevant to four key areas of African conservation capacity building: protected area management, community engagement, effective leadership, and professional e-Learning. Under these core themes, 39 specific recommendations are presented. These were derived from multi-stakeholder workshop discussions at an international conference held in Nairobi (Kenya) in 2015. At the meeting, 185 delegates (practitioners, scientists, community groups and government agencies) represented 105 organisations from 24 African nations and 8 non-African nations. The 39 recommendations constitute five broad types of suggested action: those that recommend (i) the development of new methods, (ii) the provision of capacity building resources e.g. information or data, (iii) the communication of ideas or examples of successful initiatives, (iv) the implementation of new research or gap analyses, (v) the establishment of new structures within and between organisations, and (vi) the development of new partnerships. A number of cross-cutting issues also emerged from the discussions. For example, all four workshops highlighted the need for a greater sense of urgency in developing capacity building activities in response to ongoing and rapid socio-environmental change in the region. Delegates also felt that conservation organisations, responsible agencies and donors need to recognise capacity building as one of the most urgent conservation issues we face. The need to develop novel and cost-efficient capacity building methodologies (and associated evaluation metrics), was also identified as a key issue. However, it was stressed that future of capacity building efforts will be best served by integrating new methods with more established activities. Importantly, given the broad suite of social, cultural and economic contexts found across sub-Saharan Africa, the need to move away from ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches was strongly recommended in all thematic areas. Lastly, it was recognised that closing the gap between capacity need and capacity provision in the region will only be achieved through multi-partner capacity initiatives and networks.Additional co-authors: Vivian Kosgei, Anthony Kuria, Chris Magero, Maaike Manten, Paul Mugo, Eduard Müller, Julie Mulonga, Leo Niskanen, Josephine Nzilani, Mary Otieno, Nisha Owen, Juliet Owuor, Stuart Paterson, Sébastien Regnaut, Richard Rono, Joseph Ruhiu, Jesse Theuri Njoka, Lucy Waruingi, Brian Waswala Olewe and Emily Wilso

Gestão de carreiras na era digital: um estudo sobre competências dos líderes e práticas adotadas na gestão de profissionais da área de TI

Purpose: this research seeks to identify the main competencies and career management practices applied by leaders of large IT services organizations, highlighting them in degrees of relevance for career guidance for technical teams between Generations X and Y coexisting in the Digital Age. Additionally, the research factors a major transformation in the work relationships environment, turning to the full remote mode, besides the digital acceleration caused by the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil during 2020. Design/Methodology/approach: the research was carried out with a qualitative methodology, with in-depth interviews with a semi-structured script, portraying the experiences of top leaders. Findings: highlights as relevant competencies: the importance of the manager's role as to career guidance, management skills of generational expectations, leadership style oriented to the knowledge worker, besides the affiliative aspects in the relationship with the employees. As for management practices, highlights: training diagnostic, frequent communication, promotion of talents with high potential, adaptation of career plans, adoption of a differentiated coaching process for each generation and, above all, encouragement of the employee's protagonism throughout the career planning process. Research limitations: the study has limitations regarding companies’ profiles with restricted instruments related to human resources’ methodologies, proper people’s development tools, or internal support developing talent and minimum maturity processes for managers leading career development counting with Information Technology business orientation in Brazil. Originality/value: significant contribution regarding career management in a remote work environment with 2 generations co-existing in an accelerated digitalization season.Objetivo: pesquisa busca identificar as principais competências e práticas de gestão de carreira aplicadas por líderes de grandes organizações prestadoras de serviços de TI, destacando-as em graus de relevância para orientação de carreira para equipes técnicas entre as Gerações X e Y coexistindo na Era Digital. Adicionalmente, a pesquisa fatora a transformação nas relações no ambiente de trabalho, convertidas por completo para o modelo remoto, além da aceleração digital causada pela pandemia do coronavírus no Brasil em 2020. Metodologia: a pesquisa foi realizada com metodologia qualitativa, com entrevistas em profundidade com roteiro semiestruturado, retratando as experiências das principais lideranças, Resultados: destacam-se como competências relevantes: importância do papel do gestor quanto à orientação de carreiras, habilidades de gestão de expectativas geracionais, estilo de liderança orientado para o trabalhador do conhecimento, além de aspectos afiliativos na relação aos funcionários. Quanto às práticas de gestão, destaque-se: diagnóstico de capacitação, comunicação frequente, promoção de talentos com alto potencial, adaptação dos planos de carreira, adoção de um processo de coaching diferenciado para cada geração e, incentivo ao protagonismo do funcionário no processo de planejamento de carreira. Limitações de pesquisa: o estudo apresenta limitações quanto ao perfil de empresas com limitação de instrumentos relacionados à metodologia de gestão de recursos humanos, ferramentas apropriadas para desenvolvimento de pessoas, ou suporte interno para desenvolvimento de talentos e maturidade de processos mínima para gestores de carreiras que contam com Tecnologia de Informação como orientação de negócios no Brasil. Originalidade: contribuição significativa quanto a gestão de carreiras em ambiente de trabalho remoto entre 2 gerações coexistindo durante um período de aceleração digital

Towards A New Understanding of Managerial Competencies: In-depth Study of SME Internationalisation

Due to the increasing involvement of enterprises in international markets, the strategic management of the transition of an organisation from purely domestic into a multinational organisation has become increasingly important. The literature shows that a significant number of the organisation that choose to internationalise are SMEs which command little resources to enable this transition. Increased diversity, ambiguity and complexity as well as uncertainty, instability and high levels of competition are considered to be the characteristics of the context of SME internationalisation and the root cause of some of the challenges that SME managers face. This thesis focuses on the ever-growing emphasis on the management of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) specifically by exploring the managerial competencies required for SME internationalisation. It aims to identify the managerial competencies required for SME internationalisation. This qualitative study is informed by the grounded theory methodology. Using semi-structured interviews, primary data was collected from interviewing 52 SME managers who were directly involved in the internationalisation of their respective SME. In contrast to existing thinking in strategic management, which outlines a set of competencies (a functionalist perspective) which can be dynamically arranged (dynamic capabilities/entrepreneurship perspective), this study highlights that managerial competency is a unique, individual and dynamic experience. The study highlights that, in practice, SMEs do not engage in a great deal of systematic strategic planning and their managers have significantly different experiences of the SME internationalisation process. This becomes evident in how they perceived themselves and their different individual experiences during the internationalisation of their SMEs. Additionally, the findings indicate that managerial competency may involve an interaction and interrelation with information and the dynamic arrangement of functional competencies, but the focus of academics and practitioners needs to shift to understanding internationalisation as an experience. This thesis investigates the importance of agency and structure and how competency is a negotiation with the environment that is driven by the SME agent (i.e., the manager) via the managerial experience of SME internationalisation. The implication of the thesis is that there is a need for a paradigm shift in existing thinking from theorising managerial competencies required for SME internationalisation (functionalist perspective) to theorising individual managerial experiences of SME internationalisation i.e., agential experience (agency theory perspective). These are experiences which support SME managers in managing their organisations throughout the transitional period and when their organisation has been fully internationalised and is competing in the diverse international environment. Thus, the study highlights that the ontology of SME managerial competency is not understood in full currently. It identifies the paradigm shift that is needed and has developed the theoretical understanding of managerial competencies as an agential experience. The empirical approach reflects future research

Technology management as a profession and the challenges ahead

This paper is aimed at current and future managers in the field of technology management (TM), and those who train and educate them. After briefly describing TM as a management discipline, the potential challenges likely to rise in the field are introduced according to three processes given in the TM framework: innovation, operation and strategy. Then, a set of propositions are developed regarding the potential impact of those challenges on TM professionals. Concentrating on a long term perspective provides TM professionals with the opportunity to consider their existing knowledge and skill base so that they can prepare for the challenges they will face in the future. The paper ends with implications for professionals and educators.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jengtecman.2016.05.00

Understanding Change in the Deutsche Telekom Group: The Problem of Organisational Learning at Top Management Level

Performance and sustainability of a company are often viewed as being strongly influenced by its top management. And yet, despite a rich literature in the field of organisational learning, little is known about how the top management of a company acquires and maintains the knowledge of "how to run the business", especially in fast-changing environments. This study focuses on Deutsche Telekom as it sought to transform itself during a turbulent period from a traditional operator into an international, diverse business player. This work seeks to extend the theory and understanding of organisational learning to this particular group of people at the apex of the organisation and contributes to the debate of top-level organisational learning (TLOL) as a dynamic capability. The study, which is based upon longitudinal, qualitative research, featuring separate cases embedded within a single, large organisation, explores the methods and outcomes of TLOL. Comparative cases in different organisational settings and business contexts, at corporate and at divisional level, were used in this diversified organisation to empirically investigate the deployed initiatives and methods as well as drivers of and barriers to TLOL. The research contributes to and expands upon current theory by providing empirical evidence that the interplay between exogenous factors, strategy, the characteristics of the organisation and of the top management group shapes the methods used for TLOL. It provides evidence of the link between learning method and organisational outcomes. The study finds that in the turbulent environment described, the deployed methods for TLOL in the mature part of the organization differed substantially from the learning methods used in the young, fast-growing divisions. The learning methods used did, however, not produce exclusively positive results. Finally, by developing a new conceptual framework, the study allows researchers and management to systematically examine and shape top-level organisational learning within their own organisations

Toward an Ontology of Workarounds: A Literature Review on Existing Concepts

While workarounds are studied frequently in information systems research, a coherent and interrelated structure to organize the knowledge of the field is still missing. In this study, we provide a first step towards an ontology of workarounds in order to enable researchers to study the relationships among the core concepts. By identifying existing literature, we discover three gaps in workaround research: (1) lack of conceptual consensus, (2) fragmentation and (3) static perspective. To advance theory, we provide an overview of different types of workarounds that are frequently used in literature. Based on these findings we derive core concepts of workarounds that are used in literature and provide an ontology of workarounds

Competence of project management professionals according to type of project: a systematic literature review

Globalization and economic volatility changed the dynamics of production chains, which required new organizational arrangements from companies, leading them to projectization. Additionally, project professionals are managing increasingly complex projects, which demand an extensive and specific set of competences. In this context, this paper aims to identify the competences of project professionals by project type. A systematic literature review was carried out using the Scopus and Web of Sciences academic databases. The research corpus consisted of 209 articles published between 1989 and 2022. As a result, this research identified 173 competences distributed in 14 different project types; some competences have a greater significance for a given project type. As a contribution, when dealing specifically with projects and competences, project professionals, companies, and educational institutions can learn about the fundamental competences by type of project, improve the processes of selection and diagnosis of the professional, adapt educational programs, or even establish plans for project professionals career

The Influence Of Using Mobile Technologies During Project Execution On Perceived Managerial Competencies Of Emerging Construction Firm Owners/ Managers In The Free State Province

DissertationThe exponential growth in the utilisation of mobile technologies (MTs) for cost reduction and improving organisational efficiency is widely acknowledged in entrepreneurship literature. Despite this promise, the exact effect of MTs on the managerial competencies of small, micro, and medium enterprises is yet to be fully comprehended by emerging construction firms (ECFs). To address this gap, the current study drew on a quantitative approach and survey conducted on 252 emerging construction firms' owners/managers in the Free State province of South Africa to establish how mobile technology adoption during project execution impacted the perceived managerial competencies (MCs) of these entrepreneurs. The results indicate that the adoption of MTs during project execution has a positive and statistically significant effect on the communicative and social competencies of ECF owners and managers, with MT adoption during project execution explaining 65.1% of the variance of communicative competencies and 71.2% of social competencies. The results further demonstrate that the type of device used (laptops and tablets) used moderated the strength of the MT adoption-MC relationship. The study recommends the wider rollout of other mobile technologies to improve managerial competencies in ways that optimise the efficiency of project-related operations. The study contributes to the broad project management theory and literature, especially project execution, by exploring how mobile technology adoption facilitates enhanced communication and social competencies that improve organisational efficiency of ECFs

A Framework for Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Project Management

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementThis dissertation aims to support the project manager in their daily tasks. As we use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in everyday life, it is necessary to include them in business and change traditional ways of working. For the purpose of this study, it is essential to understand challenges and areas of project management and how artificial intelligence can contribute to them. A theoretical overview, applying the knowledge of project management, will show a holistic view of the current situation in the enterprises. The research is about artificial intelligence applications in project management, the common activities in project management, the biggest challenges, and how AI and ML can support it. Understanding project managers help create a framework that will contribute to optimizing their tasks. After designing and developing the framework for applying artificial intelligence to project management, the project managers were asked to evaluate. This study is essential to increase awareness among the stakeholders and enterprises on how automation of the processes can be improved and how AI and ML can decrease the possibility of risk and cost along with improving the happiness and efficiency of the employees