Benefits realisation management: panacea or false dawn?

Benefits Realisation Management (BRM) is becoming an increasingly important aspect of project and programme management. However, commentators have observed that the practice of BRM is often flawed, and have made suggestions as to how practice might be improved. This paper is concerned with the reasons why the implementation of BRM might not be straightforward, by focusing on the underlying assumptions. It will approach the issue by drawing on the author's experience from the 1990s and 2000s in working in the management of government-funded regeneration programmes in the UK. In this field there was a rigid benefits management framework, although it precedes the development of BRM. The paper will argue that there are important underlying conceptual issues in benefits management which have practical implications and need to be recognised in the development of theory for BRM

Change management - practising what we teach: successfully engaging international students in the teaching, learning & assessment process

In this article we review processes of change in a module whose subject matter is change management. The module attracts mainly international students, and has suffered from uneven student engagement and performance. We will recount how a Teaching Enhancement and Student Success (TESS) project was used to inform our attempts to improve engagement and performance. Bearing in mind the origins of action research as part of Kurt Lewin‟s approach to planned change, we will use the four different elements of Lewin‟s work to reflect on the challenges we have been grappling with. The article will highlight different approaches to action research, which are linked to different aspirations as to the scope of change

Theorising organisational resilience for sport management research and practice

Purpose/Rationale Helping individuals and teams achieve their goals by being resilient is an established research field in sport. How sport organisations can be resilient in adversity is comparatively neglected, so the purpose is to provide firm foundations for conceptualising organisational resilience in sport management. Research question “How can organisational resilience best be theorised for sport management research and practice?” Design/Methodology/Approach From a critique of the resilience literature, a new Framework for Organisational Resilience Management (FfORM) is developed, based on the theory of organisational resource conversion and the separation of normative and descriptive levels. The FfORM is applied to sport management contexts, including the resilience of National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) to reductions in UK Sport funding. Results and Findings Organisational resilience is conceptualised as a means to an end, to achieve externally generated goals, emphasising its dynamic, temporal nature. The FfORM illuminates the challenges for NGBs in developing organisational resilience because of trade-offs in the actions they take. Practical implications As well as being an evaluation tool, the FfORM will be of utility to sport organisations addressing the unprecedented challenges arising from COVID-19. Research contribution Development of theory on organisational resilience, for use in both sport and other contexts

The influence of government upon multinational company manufacturing location decisions

With the rapid changes taking place in international manufacturing, there is a need for new theories linking the drivers for manufacturing location decisions to the influence of government. A Delphi study in 2017 of senior industrialists in Europe from capital intensive, complex technology manufacturing sectors provided evidence on the importance of government‐specific factors for final location decisions. This was because of the influence of government policies as an exogenous factor on the drivers for international manufacturing, including cost effective, flexible supply chains and the use of the new technologies of Industry 4.0, in an uncertain global political climate. The findings are used to develop a new theoretical framework comprising the decision onion and the government policy matrix for multinational company manufacturing location decisions. This systematic approach to the influence of government will assist in the development of policy in the post‐Covid 19 era of transformational change in industrial location strategies

Impact on Management Practice after Completing the DBA

The contribution of DBA research to management practice after the researcher has completed their thesis requires further investigation. The evidence so far is based on small scale studies, often in the wider field of professional doctorates, rather than being specifically focused on the DBA as a management qualification. A pilot study of five DBA alumni from Sheffield Business School revealed a wide range of different impacts in the workplace, covering changes to their own practice, wider applications in their organisations/work with clients, producing materials for professional bodies/networks, publishing findings for a wider audience and use in teaching at universities or other education bodies. This suggests promising avenues for further research on the impact on management practice after completing the DBA. A large scale, international study does not seem to have been undertaken so far, and would enable a more detailed understanding of the role of the DBA in relation to changes in management practice to be obtained than has been hitherto achieved

Benefits management : lost or found in translation

It is now about 25 years since the emergence of Benefits Management (BM), but hitherto it has had limited impact on project management and even less on general management practices. This is despite evidence that a focus on benefits improves the success rate of projects and programmes. One of the areas for research to explain the limited uptake concerns the spread of knowledge on BM and its adoption by organisations. The theoretical lens of translation is used to examine this issue, which focuses on the processes through which management ideas spread and influence management practice. The global development of BM is traced to identify the changes in translation processes over time and the current geographical patterns of usage. This analysis is used in conjunction with the limited evidence available on translation processes at the level of the organisation to identify key factors for the impact of BM in the future

Decision-making in English Clinical Commissioning groups: A mixed methods study

My research primarily investigated the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in the English National Health Service (NHS) to identify factors influencing effective decision-making as perceived by General Practitioners (GPs) with formal roles in CCGs. A study by the British Medical Association (BMA) (2014) revealed that GPs at practice level felt that CCGs were developing policies that restrict efficient delivery of health care. As such, I developed a hypothesised conceptual model demonstrating factors at play in the decision-making process, which I tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Alongside, informed by the conceptual model, was the qualitative strand, with the data that I analysed under interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously through a survey using a questionnaire in a convergent parallel mixed methods design, underpinned by a philosophical position of pragmatism. Data was collected in 2017. Usable responses comprised of 73 GPs in England. The study results, which contribute to theory and practice, discovered that; for practice, autonomy only was not enough to ensure efficiency of the CCGs. Other aspects like Finance and GP Proportion came to the fore. For example, many concerns about CCG policies perceived as adverse were attributed to Finance, while GP Proportion was found to have a significant effect on the perceived decision-making process effectiveness. For theory, the intention behind the setting up of the CCGs, to move, effectively, from a bureaucratic model of organisational structure to a professional model (Mintzberg 1979) was found to be threatened

Doctoral research and policy change: factors influencing impact potential

The study reviewed the literature for a key theme for achieving change in management practice through doctoral research – the influence of that research upon policy. The study investigated the longer-term impact of doctoral research in influencing public policy, broadly defined to include the policies of regulatory and professional bodies. The analysis of the literature included a focus on four specific policy areas: • Children, Young People & Families • Climate Emergency & Just Transitions • Wellbeing • Inequalities. The extant literature covers a diverse range of topics, but little was found which addresses the factors which lead to doctoral research subsequently having an impact on policy. Therefore, the latter part of the paper develops a theoretical framework to address this gap, covering the background of the researcher, the topic chosen, the method used, the participants in the research and institutional support. This framework can be used to analyse specific examples of doctoral research which include policy change in their objectives or where policy change might be a longer- term aspiration. The factors which determine the extent to which doctoral studies are successful in achieving these objectives could influence the content of doctoral training programmes to enhance the impact of engaged management scholarship