Complexity, Uncertainty, and Organizational Congruency

Many scholars in the fields of organization theory and management strategy have argued that there is a tension between the two types of organizational learning activities, exploration and exploitation. They appear to be substitutes: the greater the skill at one, the harder it is to do the other well. It is often argued that the two activities compete for scarce resources when firms need different capabilities and management policies to promote one over the other. We present another explanation that attributes the phenomenon to the dynamic interactions among the activities, search, knowledge sharing, evaluation, and alignment within organizations relying on the NK Landscape framework (Kauffman 1993). Our results show that successful organizations tend to bifurcate into two types: those that always promote individual initiatives and build organizational strengths on individual learning and those good at aligning the individual knowledge base and exploiting shared knowledge. Straddling between the two types often fails. The intuition is that an equal mixture of individual search and organizational alignment slows down individual learning compared to the first orga nization type while making it difficult to update institutionalized knowledge because individuals' knowledge base is not so sufficiently aligned as in the second type. In such gstraddlingh organizations, once individuals get stuck with locally-best solutions in an uncoordinated manner, they cannot agree on how to improve the organizational knowledge. Straddling is especially inefficient when the operation is sufficiently complex (in other words, the interdependency is high) or when the business environment is sufficiently uncertain.

Learning company for sustainable competitiveness: Towards a model and theory development

Previous studies on learning organizations do not provide a strategic framework of adapting organizational learning for sustainable competitiveness. This paper reviews various contributions on developing learning companies with an objective of proposing ideal management practices for sustainable competitiveness. Based on existing literature review, the essence of integrating business strategy with learning which helps the organization realize sustainable competitiveness. The paper holds that managers need to identify learner’s needs and provide conducive learning opportunities and nurture knowledge sharing as part of organizational culture. Further, existing incentives should enhance the desire to learn, as well as developing appropriate mechanisms, leadership and management approaches. The paper adopts the systems approach to exhibit how organizational learning may be adapted within organizational settings. Based on existing theories and previous discussions, the paper seeks to show how organizational learning may be modeled and implemented in developing countries within large and small firms in the 21st century. In conclusions drawn and recommendations for further research emphasis is laid on the need to link organizational learning to performance as a grey area to be explored

Project Risk Management Strategies for IT Project Managers

Utilizing information technology (IT) to enable new organizational capabilities to achieve near-term objectives and long-term sustainability is a top priority for many business leaders seeking to maintain or increase market share. However, organizational leaders face significant challenges to their strategy execution because the percentage of challenged IT projects has remained relatively static for decades. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore risk management strategies used by 7 purposely selected IT project managers (PMs) from a pharmaceutical company located in the northeastern United States who have effectively managed IT project performance by using risk management strategies, leading to the successful delivery of an IT project. The conceptual framework that guided the research was actor-network theory. The data collection included semistructured interviews and the collection of internal organizational risk registers and other project risk management documentation. An inductive content analysis followed the procedures outlined in Malterud\u27s systematic text condensation strategy, yielding the following major strategies to increase IT project performance: performing knowledge management, promoting a positive risk culture, utilizing an existing risk management framework, and performing risk-related communication. The implications for positive social change include the potential to help IT PMs deliver the expected business value on time and within budget, which, in turn, may enable pharmaceutical companies to improve the quality of life of afflicted individuals and populations in need of safe, economical, and innovative therapies

Organizational Project Management (OPM): Exploring Its Need in Organizations

Organizational Project Management (OPM) is not a thing or a procedure rather, it can almost be described as a state of being or harmony in the alignment of what an organization does and how it gets there. OPM has the responsibility to enhance and improve how an organization achieves its strategic goals. It provides organizations with an intelligent approach to deal effectively with the various projects and programs required by the market, its organizational stakeholders, and regulatory agencies, all within the organization\u27s limited resources. OPM has the responsibility to support the alignment between the organization\u27s business strategy and its projects to achieve the organization\u27s goals. It is also responsible for managing risks and dealing with the uncertainty that may prevent the organization from achieving its objectives. In addition, it enables the organization to measure its capabilities, then plan and implement improvements to seek the systematic achievement of best practices. Moreover, it ensures organizational learnings from both knowledge management and lessons learned. The purpose of the research is to illustrate the important role that OPM must or needs to play within the organization. This research utilizes the current knowledge base in the project management environment to answer the question of Why does an organization need to establish OPM? In addition to describing OPM\u27s responsibility in the organization, the paper will briefly explore four categories, Portfolio Management, Project Sponsor, Effective Programs and Projects Management, and Strategic Project Management Office (PMO) for establishing OPM in an organization

Organizational Network Analysis

The integrated meta-model for organizational resource audit is a consistent and comprehensive instrument for auditing intangible resources and their relations and associations from the network perspective. This book undertakes a critically important problem of management sciences, poorly recognized in literature although determining the current and future competitiveness of enterprises, sectors and economies. The author notes the need to introduce a theoretical input, which is manifested by the meta-model. An expression of this treatment is the inclusion of the network as a structure of activities, further knowledge as an activity, and intangible assets as intellectual capital characterized by a structure of connections. The case study presented is an illustration of the use of network analysis tools and other instruments to identify not only the most important resources, tasks or actors, as well as their effectiveness, but also to connect the identified networks with each other. The author opens the field for applying her methodology, revealing the structural and dynamic features of the intangible resources of the organization. The novelty of the proposed meta-model shows the way to in-depth applications of network analysis techniques in an intra-organizational environment. Organizational Network Analysis makes a significant contribution to the development of management sciences, in terms of strategic management and more strictly resource approach to the company through structural definition of knowledge; application of the concept of improvement-oriented audit abandoning a narrow understanding of this technique in terms of compliance; reliable presentation of audits available in the literature; rigorous reasoning leading to the development of a meta-model; close linking of knowledge and resources with the strategy at the design stage of the developed audit model, including the analysis of link dynamics and networks together with an extensive metrics proposal; an interesting illustration of the application with the use of metrics, tables and charts. It will be of value to researchers, academics, managers, and students in the fields of strategic management, organizational studies, social network analysis in management, knowledge management, and auditing knowledge resources in organizations

Organizational Network Analysis

The integrated meta-model for organizational resource audit is a consistent and comprehensive instrument for auditing intangible resources and their relations and associations from the network perspective. This book undertakes a critically important problem of management sciences, poorly recognized in literature although determining the current and future competitiveness of enterprises, sectors and economies. The author notes the need to introduce a theoretical input, which is manifested by the meta-model. An expression of this treatment is the inclusion of the network as a structure of activities, further knowledge as an activity, and intangible assets as intellectual capital characterized by a structure of connections. The case study presented is an illustration of the use of network analysis tools and other instruments to identify not only the most important resources, tasks or actors, as well as their effectiveness, but also to connect the identified networks with each other. The author opens the field for applying her methodology, revealing the structural and dynamic features of the intangible resources of the organization. The novelty of the proposed meta-model shows the way to in-depth applications of network analysis techniques in an intra-organizational environment. Organizational Network Analysis makes a significant contribution to the development of management sciences, in terms of strategic management and more strictly resource approach to the company through structural definition of knowledge; application of the concept of improvement-oriented audit abandoning a narrow understanding of this technique in terms of compliance; reliable presentation of audits available in the literature; rigorous reasoning leading to the development of a meta-model; close linking of knowledge and resources with the strategy at the design stage of the developed audit model, including the analysis of link dynamics and networks together with an extensive metrics proposal; an interesting illustration of the application with the use of metrics, tables and charts. It will be of value to researchers, academics, managers, and students in the fields of strategic management, organizational studies, social network analysis in management, knowledge management, and auditing knowledge resources in organizations

Guarding Against the Erosion of Competitive Advantage: A Knowledge Leakage Mitigation Model

A critical objective of knowledge-intensive organizations is to prevent erosion of their competitive knowledge base through leakage. Our review of the literature highlights the need for a more refined conceptualization of perceived leakage risk. We propose a Knowledge Leakage Mitigation (KLM) model to explain the incongruity between perceived high-risk of leakage and lack of protective actions. We argue that an organization’s perceived risk of leakage increases if competitors can benefit from leakage incidents. Further, perceived leakage risk decreases if the organization is shielded from impact due to their diversity of knowledge assets and their ability to reconfigure knowledge resources to refresh their competitive knowledge base. We describe our approach to the design of a large-scale survey instrument that has been tested and refined in two stakeholder communities: 1) knowledge managers responsible for organizational strategy, and 2) Information security management consultants

An integrated framework to classify healthcare virtual communities

Healthcare (HC) strives to improve service quality through its cost-effective social computing strategy. However, sudden rise in the count of virtual community of practices (VCoPs) introduced many choices for physicians; As a result, it is not surprising to observe current literature reporting lack of study to investigate ideas integration within and between VCoPs. VCoPs need to be categorized for HC physicians so they will be able to pin-point effective a VC to attain assistance from. This paper is one of the first investigative studies, in HC sector, that proposed a framework to classify and pin-point appropriate VCoPs, for physicians, after it reviewed and analyzed traditional and up-to-date theoretical, empirical and case study literature in the area of social computing, knowledge management (KM) and VCoPs. The implementation of this framework pinpointed professional VCoPs as most appropriate for physicians based on strict requirements, i.e. closed physician communities holding many participants, which are older than 5 years with high boundary crossing. This framework is also a “one-size-fit-all” formula to build an organizational VCoP, utilizable by other business sectors

Production and Operating Strategies with Focus on the Efficiency of the Public Service

This study focuses on the strategy for efficiency in production and operation in the services of a people management sector in a public judicial organization. Identified the need to innovate practices to achieve excellence, the U and Contingency Theories were used to reach proposed objectives. The general objective was to study the strategy for efficiency in production and operation in the Department of Personnel Management, and as specific objectives characterize the strategy of efficiency in production and operation, perform the SWOT analysis on the practices of the process operation and suggest innovation for efficiency of the productive process. The question asked was: What is the strategy for efficiency in the results of the production and operation of the services provided? To achieve the objectives and answer the question asked was qualitative research. Data collection was obtained through exploratory research in loco, followed by a descriptive phase through field research, using open interviews and application of query forms. Consequently, SWOT analysis and the DMAIC model were applied to finally suggest innovation. The proposed objectives were reached, where the contingency approach with a behavioral focus and guided leadership was envisaged. The question was answered and the motivation for suggestion of innovations was firmly established in the process of presencing and knowledge management of Theory U. It was concluded that the strategy for efficiency in results should focus on the dynamic organizational complexity, acting in an integrated way, developing abilities of employees until then unincorporated, allowing the evolution of the flow of knowledge management, empowering skills

Health care decision-makers and knowledge management in the context of a regionalized health care system

Knowledge management is considered a necessary precursor to organizational success. This view is increasingly prevalent in the case of the health care sector. Two main knowledge management strategies are recognized: codification and personalization strategies. An organization’s choice of knowledge management strategy depends on its objectives and the dominant form of knowledge informing its decision-making processes.Health care decision-makers have access to a wealth of knowledge with which to inform their decisions. Little is known, however, about how the various types of knowledge are managed to optimize their use in decision-making. This study examines the knowledge management strategies of health care decision-makers working in the context of a regionalized health care system. The potential of communities of practice as a conceptual means for understanding health care knowledge management is also explored.Members of Regional health authorities (RHAs) in the province of Saskatchewan constitute the unit of analysis for the study, which is guided by a qualitative research design. Interviews were used as the main data collection technique. For data analysis, “open and axial” coding methods based on the inductive and deductive approaches were adopted.The study concludes that regional health authority (RHA) members utilize more fully explicit rather than tacit forms of knowledge. One of the main knowledge management practices adopted by the RHA members is the use of professional reports. This indicates that RHA members pursue a codification strategy more strongly than a personalization strategy. Moreover, it was found that the practices and strategies associated with managing knowledge were in place, despite the absence of a stated knowledge management policy. Finally, RHAs cannot be regarded as communities of practice, even though they exhibit many of their features.Recommendations include the following: (1) the need for RHAs to institutionalize a knowledge management policy to guide their knowledge management processes and strategies, and (2) the cultivation of online communities of practice to marshal the tacit knowledge of RHA members, and that of the public, as an intervention to complement the use of explicit knowledge