Managing construction workers and their tacit knowledge in a knowledge environment: A conceptual framework

Within the construction industry, it is increasingly being acknowledged that knowledge management can bring about the much needed innovation and improved performance the industry requires. Nevertheless, sufficient attention is still to be received for the concept of the knowledge worker and their tacit knowledge within construction industry. Yet, proper understanding and management of this resource is of immense importance for the achievement of better organisational performance. Hence, this paper aims to devise a theoretical framework for managing construction knowledge worker and their tacit knowledge based on review and synthesis of literature. Paper stresses the importance of construction knowledge worker and tacit knowledge through review of literature and highlights prevailing gap due to lack of attention and recognition given to the tacit knowledge in the construction industry. Based on identified gap research aim, objectives and hypotheses are devised. As the specific research methodology, the social constructionism stance in terms of epistemological undertakings and idealistic approach under the ontological assumptions with value laden purposes are suggested. Further, it recommends the deployment of multiple exploratory case studies approach with triangulation techniques

El capital social como enfoque teórico en Dirección Estratégica

[EN] The objective of this research paper is to investigate, from a theoretical point of view, the strategic relevance of social capital. In recent years, academic literature in this field has witnessed remarkable growth, recognizing social capital as a key element for companies, due to its contribution to the creation of competitive advantages. However, it might be said that its development is still emerging, given the number of discrepancies among researchers regarding its definition, measurement, and its positive or negative impact on other variables. For this reason, a set of empirical studies that show the social capital effect on diverse types of organizational results have been reviewed, taking as a reference the definition and dimensions proposed by Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998). Additionally, different theoretical links between social capital and four related Strategic Management approaches are presented, such as the Intellectual Capital-Based View, the Knowledge-Based View, the Resource-Based View and the Dynamic Resource-Based View. A main conclusion drawn from this review is that social capital, being a knowledge-based resource, enables access to both internal and external resources and thus a firm’s competitive advantage and, consequently, its value creation can be generated from the combination of both areas. Going in depth and clarifying this strategic linkage are thus a challenge to address in future studies.[ES] El principal objetivo de este trabajo es mostrar la relevancia estratégica del capital social organizacional desde un punto de vista teórico. En los últimos años, la literatura académica relacionada con este concepto ha experimentado un notable crecimiento, reconociendo que el capital social es un elemento fundamental para que las empresas generen ventajas competitivas. Sin embargo, se podría afirmar que su desarrollo es todavía incipiente al existir multitud de discrepaciancias entre los investigadores acerca de su conceptuación, la medición de sus dimensiones o los efectos positivos o negativos que podría tener sobre otras variables. Por este motivo, tomando como referencia la definición y dimensiones propuestas por Nahapiet y Ghoshal (1998), se ha realizado una revisión de las investigaciones que, de manera empírica, han estudiado las relaciones entre el capital social y distintos tipos de resultados organizacionales. Igualmente, se exponen diferentes nexos teóricos encontrados entre el capital social y los principales enfoques en Dirección Estratégica como son Enfoque Basado en el Capital Intelectual, el Enfoque Basado en el Conocimiento, el Enfoque Basado en los Recursos y el Enfoque Basado en las Capacidades dinámicas. Se concluye que el capital social, como recurso basado en el conocimiento, podría permitir el acceso a otros recursos internos o externos, y que la creación de valor y la generación de ventajas competitivas de una empresa puede provenir de la combinación de ambos ámbitos. Así, futuros estudios deben encaminarse hacia la profundización y clarificación de este nexo estratégico

Organizational knowledge creation

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the state-ofthe- art in organizational knowledge creation, a field of research that is expanding almost exponentially. Knowledge creation is a dynamic capability that enables firms to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage on the market. Our purpose is to critically analyze the most significant ideas published in this field, and especially to present the most important models elaborated for organizational knowledge creation: Nonaka’s model, Nissen’s model, Boisot’s model, and the EO_SECI model. Also, we would like to identify the main determinants of the knowledge creation process.Ba, competitive advantage, knowledge, knowledge creation, SECI.

Creative methodologies for understanding a creative industry

The chapter presents a conceptual framework for the identification and analysis of value creating and value capture systems within creative industry contexts based on theoretical and empirical studies. It provides a ‘digital economy’ perspective of the creative industries as a micro-level example of a wider analytical problem, which is how society changes itself. The increasing level of innovation and creativity produces greater levels of instability in social structures (habits, norms etc.) Completely new industries can arise (and ‘creatively’ destroy old ones) as new stabilised patterns form, particularly where entry costs are tumbling, such as digital milieu. Observations of workshops over several days with creative groups, interviews with creative enterprises, literature reviews on creative industries, business models and value systems have informed the analysis and conceptualisation. As a result we present a conceptual framework that we suggest can capture how novelty arises as emergent order over time. We have extended previous work that investigates the significance of emergence in theorising entrepreneurship into an exploration of how to articulate the creation and flow of value and effective ontology in a creative landscape. In the digital economy, the creative industries revolve around dynamic, innovative and often unorthodox collaborations, whereby numerous large, small and micro-businesses come together for the duration of a project, then disband and form new partnerships for the next project. Research designs must therefore address multiple contexts and levels presenting an analytical challenge to researchers. Methodologically, we suggest that the framework has analytical potential to support the collection of data: ordering and categorising empirical observations concerning how different phenomena emerge over time across multiple levels of analysis and contexts. Conceptually, the work broadens the notions of ‘business model’ to consider value creating systems and particular states reached by those systems in their evolution. The work contributes new concepts for researchers in this field and a wider framework for practitioners and policy makers

Rethinking higher education and its relationship with social inequalities: Past knowledge, present state and future potential

The purposes and impact of higher education on the economy and the broader society have been transformed through time in various ways. Higher education institutional and policy dynamics differ across time, but also between countries and political regimes and therefore context cannot be neglected. This article reviews the purpose of higher education and its institutional characteristics juxtaposing two, allegedly rival, conceptual frameworks; the instrumental and the intrinsic one. Various pedagogical traditions are critically reviewed and used as examples, which can potentially inform today’s policy making. Since, higher education cannot be seen as detached from all other lower levels of education appropriate conceptual links are offered throughout this article. Its significance lies on the organic synthesis of literature across social science, suggesting ways of going forward based on the traditions that already exist but seem underutilized so far because of overdependence in market-driven practices. This offers a new insight on how theories can inform policy making, through conceptual “bridging” and reconciliation. The debate on the purpose of higher education is placed under the context of the most recent developments of increasing social inequalities in the western world and its relation to the mass model of higher education and the relevant policy decisions for a continuous increase in participation. This article suggests that the current policy focus on labor market driven policies in higher education have led to an ever growing competition transforming this social institution to an ordinary market-place, where attainment and degrees are seen as a currency that can be converted to a labour market value. Education has become an instrument for economic progress moving away from its original role to provide context for human development. As a result, higher education becomes very expensive and even if policies are directed towards openness, in practice, just a few have the money to afford it. A shift toward a hybrid model, where the intrinsic purpose of higher education is equally acknowledged along with its instrumental purpose should be seen by policy makers as the way forward to create educational systems that are more inclusive and societies that are more knowledgeable and just

Integrated Reporting in practice: Insights on Intellectual Capital and Big Data

Integrated reporting is gaining momentum as a paradigm that redefines the traditional reporting boundary. Promoted by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), it is tracing a new path for corporate reporting due to its combination of financial and non-financial information in a single document, the integrated report (IR). Such report aims to convey how the company\u2019s strategy, governance, performance and prospects lead to the creation of value in the short, medium and long term. IR is prepared in accordance with the principle-based guidance of the International Integrated Reporting Framework, which provides impetus for an interconnected approach to corporate reporting and includes six forms of capitals in portraying the value creation process: financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural capitals. Integrated reporting and IR provide new scope for researches on both intellectual capital (IC) and Big Data. More specifically, IR entangles three intangible, non-financial capitals in its value creation story that have been traditionally named IC. Further, its preparation requires a huge amount of strategic, operational, and performance information to be gathered and processed. In this regard, the IIRC has urged companies to adopt Big Data as a single, combined information architecture that assists in implementing integrated reporting. In 2018, it has also launched an initiative aimed at collecting early experiences about Big Data by companies that issue IR. The overall purpose of this thesis is to unveil how subjects involved in the IR preparation (i.e. IR preparers) deal with IC and Big Data while engaging in integrated reporting. In particular, this thesis inspects integrated reporting in practice from three different, but interrelated perspectives to gain insights on IC and Big Data. It is a collection of three papers that respectively address: 1) the ontology of IC (first paper); 2) the performativity of IC (second paper); and 3) the epistemic authority of Big Data (third paper). By assuming an insider viewpoint, this thesis benefits from in-depth interviews with the companies\u2019 members to explore the process of IR preparation. It adopts a critical/interpretative methodological approach that allows to reach the IR preparers\u2019 ideas and experiences. Such approach also allows to gain knowledge and understanding about the flourishing integrated reporting process, by unpacking the underlying procedures concerned with it. The first paper sheds new light on the subjective nature of IC ontology. Such ontology emerges in the function that IR preparers assign to IC in the process of IR preparation. The study shows that integrated thinking helps develop a unique idea on how IC exists in the process of value creation. It is the first study to empirically investigate IC ontology in the integrated reporting context. The second paper reveals that IC definition, classification and valuation stimulate ongoing interaction among various actors. Some sketches, matrixes and maps inspired by the International Integrated Reporting Framework are pivotal in defining concepts and categories of IC and its connection to value creation. The paper enriches the scant research that examines the performativity of IC in the context of corporate external reporting. Finally, the third paper offers exploratory insights on the extent to which corporate members might rely on Big Data while preparing their IR. It suggests that the epistemic authority of Big Data might stem from both the energy that the company devotes to exploiting Big Data and the identification of prospective information. The study contributes to the infant literature on Big Data in corporate reporting by focusing on the process of IR preparation

Entrepreneurs Trinity and its manifestation under conditions of cognitive capitalism

The major function of an entrepreneur gradually commences to be cooperation of owners of unique mental capabilities and creation of sustainable ensembles of the latter instead of a conventional combination of physical resources. Entrepreneur's mental capabilities are simultaneously an intrinsic part of these ensembles and an external force in relation to them. Ascending of entrepreneurial subjectivity as compared to the entrepreneur's status and role as the other two integrants of the triune image of this actor becomes the most salient feature of cognitive capitalism. This paper is intended to determine the source of activity of entrepreneurial subjectivity in intellect-based enterprises. The study is based on the concept of sense-making by K. Weik and the radical subjectivist Austrian economic theory. The authors identify the source of activity of entrepreneurial subjectivity as an ontological oscillation at the level of an abstract individual and as an "interpretive loop" effect - at the level of interactions within the enterprise. Team entrepreneurship is suggested as a way out of the "interpretive loop"

In the eyes of Janus:the intellectual structure of HRM-performance debate and its future prospects

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer a perspective on the future of the human resource management (HRM)-performance debate and its prospects for interaction with practice by evaluating the debate's intellectual structure. Design/methodology/approach With co-citation analysis the paper examines the intellectual structure that informed the HRM-performance debate. The findings were presented to a group of academics, who have been influential in the development of the debate. In several rounds of a quasi-Delphi interaction they discussed the state of the art, future development of the debate, upcoming theoretical sources of inspiration and topics on which they (dis)agreed. Findings The dominant knowledge domain is built upon resource-based view, social exchange theory, human capital theory, institutional theory and critical perspective. It became well established in the mid 1990s, when the strategic HRM domain merged with the high performance work systems domain, thus forming the conceptual backbone of the debate. More recently the debate has been informed by review studies, meta-analyses and critical reflections on the current methodological paradigms, which is aligned with the debate's life cycle stage. Originality/value The paper highlights the theoretical foundations of the HRM-performance debate and gives valuable suggestions on how to take the field forward along with important implications for researchers and their relationship with the business community. Keywords: High performance work systems, HR strategy, Organization effectivenes