Successful Projects - What Makes Them Work? A Cross-National Analysis

[Excerpt] This cross national analysis is based on national studies made by research teams in India, Kenya, Romania and South Africa. It aims to draw out the lessons learnt from successful social development processes in these countries. In each country, studies have been made of projects identified as interesting, successful and/or outstanding in the way they have improved the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities. In national reports, the respective teams have made their own national conclusions. This comparative report briefly describes the national studies. It then continues with a cross national analysis attempting to identify circumstances or factors that are common to these successful projects. Finally, the report summarises the conclusions and their implications. We hope that the findings presented in the report will be used as inspiration in future planning, implementation and funding of projects aiming at improving life conditions of groups that are marginalised in society. Chapter 1 and 2, describing the research process and the national reports have been written by Annika and Lennart Nilsson. Anders Gustavsson and Johans Sandvin are responsible for the cross national analysis in chapter 3 to 7. The conclusions and implications in chapter 8 have been written jointly. The study has been commissioned by Inclusion International and financed by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida)

Autonomous agile teams: Challenges and future directions for research

According to the principles articulated in the agile manifesto, motivated and empowered software developers relying on technical excellence and simple designs, create business value by delivering working software to users at regular short intervals. These principles have spawned many practices. At the core of these practices is the idea of autonomous, self-managing, or self-organizing teams whose members work at a pace that sustains their creativity and productivity. This article summarizes the main challenges faced when implementing autonomous teams and the topics and research questions that future research should address

Transcending Knowledge Gaps in Virtual Teams: Social Processes of Rapid Problem-Solving Bounded by Terminology

Virtual and distributed collaboration are increasingly important for organizations. This paper presents episodes of negotiated term definitions used to complete tasks in a voluntary, ad hoc game forum of an Alternate Reality Game (ARG). Episodes analyzed focus on specialized language used during problem solving. Terminology analysis reveals that players do not explicate definitions and construct shared mental models or knowledge. Instead, they transcend knowledge gaps in order to achieve action-oriented objectives. By focusing social processes on negotiated terminology for the purpose of task completion, the team rapidly meets goals

Relevance of intercultural communication for human resources management

We live in a globalizing society. The development of communication and transportation technology has shrunk the world in which the global interdependence for people and cultures becomes a norm of life. Therefore, intercultural communication competence becomes a critical ability for adjusting people to the demands of the 21 st century. The aim of this article is to emphasize the necessity to develop intercultural/global communication competence, in order to function effectively and successfully in our everyday and particularly in our professional lives. The paper is divided into three parts. The first one offers a brief overview of the concepts of HC/LC cultures. The second part highlights the relevance of the HC/LC dimension for the Human Resource management. The fourth part presents instances from literature on the German and Romanian cultural models in an attempt to classify them as HC/LC cultures respectively. Finally the article provides instances from a research I conducted to identify cultural differences between Germans and Romanians, illustrated by excerpts on HC/LC communication from job interviews held with German and Romanian Human Resource Managers.intercultural communication, high context/low context cultures, globalization, human resource management, job interview.

What we talk about when we talk about "global mindset": managerial cognition in multinational corporations

Recent developments in the global economy and in multinational corporations have placed significant emphasis on the cognitive orientations of managers, giving rise to a number of concepts such as “global mindset” that are presumed to be associated with the effective management of multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper reviews the literature on global mindset and clarifies some of the conceptual confusion surrounding the construct. We identify common themes across writers, suggesting that the majority of studies fall into one of three research perspectives: cultural, strategic, and multidimensional. We also identify two constructs from the social sciences that underlie the perspectives found in the literature: cosmopolitanism and cognitive complexity and use these two constructs to develop an integrative theoretical framework of global mindset. We then provide a critical assessment of the field of global mindset and suggest directions for future theoretical and empirical research

Factors Affecting Knowledge Transfer in Project Environments

Most project teams consist of knowledge workers, and the issue of how to better transfer knowledge across individuals and groups becomes a central concern. The main purpose of this article is to study the factors affecting the knowledge transfer process and their importance for project’s success. The factors analyzed in this article are trust among individuals, members of the team, project culture, values and the beliefs of the individuals and motivation of those involved in the project, both intrinsic and extrinsic. In order to overcome the barriers affecting the knowledge transfer process, project managers must create an environment where knowledge workers must feel free to share and re-use their knowledge.barriers; knowledge transfer; motivation; trust; project management.

Contrasting The Effects of Leadership Styles On Different Workgroups – An Empirical Study On Employee Perceptions of Justice, Leader Credibility, and Group Commitment

This study examined the effects of contrasting leadership styles on the behavior of team members in different group settings. Two leadership styles (directive and transformational) and two types of teams (functional and cross-functional) were controlled in an experiment to assess their impact on perceptions of procedural and interpersonal justice. The subsequent impact of procedural and interpersonal justice perceptions on leadership credibility and group commitment were also examined. The results suggested that leadership style and group type have different effects on team member’s perceptions of procedural justice and interpersonal justice. Leadership credibility was found to fully mediate the effects of procedural justice and interpersonal justice perceptions on group commitment

Faculty Research in Progress, 2018-2019

The production of scholarly research continues to be one of the primary missions of the ILR School. During a typical academic year, ILR faculty members published or had accepted for publication over 25 books, edited volumes, and monographs, 170 articles and chapters in edited volumes, numerous book reviews. In addition, a large number of manuscripts were submitted for publication, presented at professional association meetings, or circulated in working paper form. Our faculty\u27s research continues to find its way into the very best industrial relations, social science and statistics journal

A dialogic perspective on managing knowledge differences: problem-solving while building a nuclear power plant safety system

To manage knowledge differences, existing research has documented two sets of practices: traversing and transcending knowledge boundaries. What research has yet to explore, however, is the dynamics through which traversing or transcending practices emerge in response to a particular problem situation. Using a qualitative, inductive study of the problem episodes encountered by groups of experts working on a large-scale project to build the safety system for a nuclear power plant, we observed that the emergence of traversing or transcending depended on how experts interpreted problems and initiated dialogues around specific problems. Our work provides insight into the condition through which knowledge integration trajectories may emerge

Information Technology and Change in Danish Organizations

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between organizational change and information technology (IT) in Danish manufacturing and service companies. The data material is a survey covering 1900 Danish companies. In the paper it is shown that there in a three-year period are major correlations between introductions of IT´s and movements towards more integrative organizations. These moves are evident in companies which in the three-year period both have introduced IT and changed their organizations. However in organizations which have introduced IT but reported that they have not changed their organizations, there also seem to be this movement compared to companies which have not done anything. Accordingly moves towards integrative organizations seem to a high degree to go hand in hand with introductions of IT. Three conclusions are deduced from these results. First, that Danish companies apparently have learned the lesson from the mideighties, to think in terms of organization instead of technology when implementing IT. Second, that the word IT apparently comprises powerful technical systems that, when faced, pushes companies towards organizational change. Third I consider if the organizational changes reflect a new learning paradigm or another paradigm labelled reliability.Information technology, organizational change, integration