Self-Organised Schools

Self-Organised Schools: Educational Leadership and Innovative Learning Environments describes the results of the research we carried out at fourteen Italian schools that highlight how there is a positive correlation between the capabilities of school self-organization and the innovativeness of learning environments: in other words, the more self-organized schools are, the more innovative learning environments are. The results of this work are part of the strand of research of bottom-up emergency and self-organization, an extremely fruitful trend as shown by Sugata Mitra, the founder of the Self-Organized Learning Environments, according to whom, "education is a self-organized system where learning is an emerging phenomenon". This book gives new insights on self-organization studies, and most of all, to the idea that change - organizational and educational innovation - sparks from the bottom. This book is aimed specifically at school principals of all levels, scholastic reformers, educational scholars, organisation and management consultants who want to innovate learning and management of learning. These actors will benefit drawing useful examples from more than thirty different learning environments worldwide, fourteen examples of schools that self-organize, two frameworks - and two ready-to-use questionnaires - measuring the innovativeness of a learning environment, and the capability of a school to self-organize. Self-organization is the most fascinating future of innovative principal

How does complexity influence learning in projects? A multiple case study

This work aims to analyse the effects of complexity on decisions and learning in project-based organisations. Complexity is widely acknowledged as one of the main characteristics affecting project outcomes. We investigated factors giving rise to it and the subsequent organisational learning as new and codified knowledge to innovate project operations and we based our analysis on data collected from a sample of vessels projects in a leading company of shipbuilding. Results show that projects with a medium level of complexity (where factors such as variety of technologies and scale were limited but present) enabled learning and better subsequent operational decision-making

The nature and value of knowledge

Purpose: This paper aims to explain and discuss the complex nature and value of knowledge as an exploitable resource for business. Design/methodology/approach: The authors propose a conceptual explanation of knowledge based on three pillars: the plurality of its nature, understood to be conservative, multipliable and generative, its contextual value and the duality of carrier incorporating business knowledge, objects or processes. After conceptualizing the nature of knowledge, the authors offer a metaphor based on the classic transformation from \u201cpotential\u201d to \u201ckinetic\u201d energy in an inclined plane assuming that the conservative nature of knowledge makes it act as energy. Findings: The metaphor uses the concept of potential and kinetic energy: if energy is only potential, it has a potential value not yet effective, whereas if the potential energy (knowledge) becomes kinetic energy (products and/or services), it generates business value. In addition, business value is a function of the speed acquired and caused by the angle of inclined plan, namely, the company\u2019s business model. Knowledge is the source of the value and can be maintained and regenerated only through continuous investments. Several years later the value extraction reaches a null value of the company (potential energy) which will cease to act (kinetic energy) for triggering both the value generated and the value extracted. Originality/value: The paper proposes an initial attempt to explain the meaning of the transformation of knowledge using a metaphor derived from physics. The metaphor of the energy of knowledge clearly depicts the managerial dilemma of balancing a company\u2019s resources for both the generating and extracting value. Similarly, future study should try to associate other knowledge peculiarities to physical phenomena

Organizational Paradoxes and Metamorphosis in Collective Action

This paper addresses the subject of organizational paradoxes through the lens of complexity theory. The first part of the study focuses on the formalization of the key elements in order to better understand the concept of organizational tension through the presentation of related constructs, i.e., dilemmas, dialectics and paradoxes. The second part of the paper introduces the key to interpreting complexity theory, highlighting how the characteristic of emergence in complex systems makes it possible to identify two different levels: that of organizational elements and that of organizational forms, both of which are impacted by tension. That reflection leads the authors to postulate that metamorphosis is the process by which organizations, constantly crossed by tension, regenerate the organizational forms’ level on the basis of evolving tensions between organizational elements

Comparative Analysis of Energy Demand and CO2 Emissions on Different Typologies of Residential Buildings in Europe

The building sector accounts for one third of the global energy consumption and it is expected to grow in the next decades. This evidence leads researchers, engineers and architects to develop innovative technologies based on renewable energies and to enhance the thermal performance of building envelopes. In this context, the potential applicability and further energy performance analysis of these technologies when implemented into different building typologies and climate conditions are not easily comparable. Although massive information is available in data sources, the lack of standardized methods for data gathering and the non-public availability makes the comparative analyses more diffcult. These facts limit the benchmarking of different building energy demand parameters such as space heating, cooling, air conditioning, domestic hot water, lighting and electric appliances. Therefore, the first objective of this study consists in providing a review about the common typologies of residential buildings in Europe from the main data sources. This study contains specific details on their architecture, building envelope, floor space and insulation properties. The second objective consists in performing a cross-country comparison in terms of energy demand for the applications with higher energy requirements in the residential building sector (heating and domestic hot water), as well as their related CO2 emissions. The approach of this comparative analysis is based on the residential building typology developed in TABULA/EPISCOPE projects. This comparative study provides a reference scenario in terms of energy demand and CO2 emissions for residential buildings and allows to evaluate the potential implementation of new supply energy technologies in hot, temperate and cold climate regions. From this study it was also concluded that there is a necessity of a free access database which could gather and classify reliable energy data in buildings.This study has received funding from European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº723596 (Innova MicroSolar). The work is partially funded by the Spanish government (RTI2018-093849-B-C31). Julià Coma would like to thank Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España for Grant Juan de la Cierva, FJCI-2016-30345. José Miguel Maldonado would like to thank the Spanish Government for his research fellowship (BES-2016-076554). This work is partially supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme

Framing open innovation in start-ups' incubators: A complexity theory perspective

Recently, concepts and principles from the Complexity Theory (or, generally speaking, the complexity sciences) have been applied as a perspective for capturing the influence of the context, interaction, and adaption in the innovation processes, such as the ones enabled in the business incubators. The purpose of this paper is to implement a frame of reference for understanding the start-ups’ incubator as a complex system where innovation, learning, and self-organization take place. We build on the interfaces between the Complexity Theory (i.e., complexity sciences) and Open Innovation literature to identify principles, patterns, and conditions that frame the incubation practices as simple rules aimed to sustain the innovation process towards the creation of new ventures. Results from the multiple case studies conducted in five incubators show that the features of variety, nonlinear interaction, interdependence, autonomy, and emergence of the incubation process framed as a complex system are enabled in different ways by the combination of the open innovation practices and services provided by the start-ups’ incubators, including the provision of physical infrastructure, access to funding streams, experts/entrepreneurs networking, education/workshops, mentorship, and advice

Managing the Lean–Agile Paradox in Complex Environments

The decision to incrementally improve existing processes and products or introduce breakthrough innovations depends on the context a company is facing. In situations where problems are known, it is better to incrementally improve, while in complex situations where problems are not known, a probe-sense-respond approach based on experimentation and the exploration of new solutions is preferable. Lean management adapts well to the first type of context, while agile management fits the second type of context. However, organizations must increasingly consider both approaches and become ambidextrous by introducing incremental improvements and breakthrough innovations simultaneously. This requires embracing the paradox between exploiting and exploring, adopting a new leadership mindset, and dual strategic, organizational, and behavioral models. This paper proposed a framework to implement lean and agile approaches simultaneously using the paradox theory to justify and manage this co-existence. This framework is threefold. First, managers need to differentiate between lean and agile, finding ways of keeping the two approaches separated. Second, lean and agile should be integrated so that synergies between the two approaches can be generated. Finally, managers need to achieve a dynamic equilibrium over time between lean and agile. Contributions to the theory and practice of this approach were discussed

The impact of implementation process on the perception of enterprise resource planning success

Purpose \u2013 The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the implementation process on the ERP\u2019s success in the post-adoption stage, measured as system\u2019s acceptance, reliability and utility perceived by users, inside the organizations. Design/methodology/approach \u2013 The authors adopted a multiple case study research design. The data collected, provided by IT managers and 120 key-users from four companies, has been used to investigate the impact of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation phases on selected constructs of the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The empirical evidences highlight a direct relation between the effectiveness of the implementation phases and the ERP\u2019s success. Findings \u2013 The research results emphasize the importance of the quality of the software, but especially the importance of the implementation phases\u2019 management, which require technical and managerial ability of the team made up of people from the system integrator and the company\u2019s key-users. Evidences suggest that the higher will be the organizational diffusion of an ERP implemented during a successful implementation project, the higher will be the perception of ERP success in the post-adoption stage. Moreover, the users\u2019 perception of ERP quality will be maintained over time. Research limitations/implications \u2013 The research has some limits due to its exploratory nature and to the chosen research approach, so the results may lack generalizability; consequently future research will concern with enlargement of the sample that will allow a better generalization of the results. Practical implications \u2013 This exploratory study suggest that companies\u2019 managers should be aware that a correct methodology of implementation, strongly influenced by the team, impacts on the technology consistency and therefore, on the ERP system success. So an appropriate choice is to invest more in the creation and development of internal and external project team than in the ERP\u2019s brand. Originality/value \u2013 This paper fulfils an identified need to clarify the explicit relationship between the quality of implementation phases and the subsequent ERP success in the post-adoption stage measured in terms of users\u2019 perception of information system qualit

Multiview video representations for quality-scalable navigation

Interactive multiview video (IMV) applications offer to users the freedom of selecting their preferred viewpoint. Usually, in these systems texture and depth maps of captured views are available at the user side, as they permit the rendering of intermediate virtual views. However, the virtual views' quality depends on the distance to the available views used as references and on their quality, which is generally constrained by the heterogeneous capabilities of the users. In this context, this work proposes an IMV scalable system, where views are optimally organized in layers, each one offering an incremental improvement in the interactive navigation quality. We propose a distortion model for the rendered virtual views and an algorithm that selects the optimal views' subset per layer. Simulation results show the efficiency of the proposed distortion model, and that the careful choice of reference cameras permits to have a graceful quality degradation for clients with limited capabilities