Projects as Knowledge Swirls in the Technological Innovation: Romania's Situation

The present paper uses as research basis a new way of thinking regarding the relation between innovation and knowledge - the Knowledge Flow Percolation Model (KFPM). In this model’s center, human beings are seen as thinking electrons, both consuming and generating knowledge flows. Through the interdependent actions of individuals, knowledge circulates inside organizations, allowing them to innovate in order to obtain competitive advantages. But there is a wide range of barriers which impede the creation and movement of flows in the model grid and consequently, hinder their change into innovation. The solution proposed by this paper as one of the most adequate instruments to make KFPM more spreadable is the project. On this basis, in an empirical study, we try to demonstrate the hypothesis of the positive influence of projects, as knowledge swirls, on the development of innovative skills which will help solving problems in the organization, creating and widening of knowledge and reducing the barriers in knowledge transfer.This work was supported by the project “Post-Doctoral Studies in Economics: training program for elite researchers – SPODE” co-funded from the European Social Fund through the Development of Human Resources Operational Programme 2007-2013, contract no. POSDRU/89/1.5/S/61755

Stronger Than the Sum of Its Parts? The Performance Implications of Peer Control Combinations in Teams

Integrating theorizing on situational strength and complementarity with control theory, we investigate the mediating processes that transmit peer control combination effects to team performance. We argue that two critical peer control mechanisms-norm strength and peer pressure-complement each other such that their joint impact on team members becomes stronger than the sum of their parts. In a multiple mediator model, we identify effort and trust as two distinct mediating processes that explain the relationship between peer control combinations and team performance. Multisource, multiwave data from 41 self-managing healthcare teams largely support our model. The pattern of mediation was more complex than we anticipated, revealing an indirect effect of peer controls on effort via trust. Together, our findings offer insight into how controls complement each other and the processes through which they do so

Understanding the Role of Information Technology for Organizational Control Design: Risk Control as New Control Mechanism

Organizational control is one of the fundamental functions of management. Although controls come along with performance constraints, organizations rely on control mechanisms to direct attention, motivate, and encourage organizational members to act according to organizational goals and objectives. Managers build their decision on control design on the degree of knowledge about the value creation process and the predictability of the outcome. In this paper, we enhance a popular theoretical framework for organizational control design by enclosing IT-enabled controls. We explore the framework empirically in a multiple case study on Governance, Risk management, and Compliance information systems (GRC IS), a popular new trend in organizational control design. Our findings provide evidence that IT-enabled controls enable a new control mechanism, risk control, for situations with perfect knowledge about the transformation process and high ability to measure output. As research implication, we recommend an extension of organizational control theory to incorporate the effects of information technology on control design. As practical implication, we provide decision support for the selection of GRC controls, depending on situational factors and the expected value proposition. In sum, this research enhances the body of knowledge on organizational control design with a risk-based perspective