The impact of social networks on knowledge transfer in long-term care facilities: Protocol for a study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Social networks are theorized as significant influences in the innovation adoption and behavior change processes. Our understanding of how social networks operate within healthcare settings is limited. As a result, our ability to design optimal interventions that employ social networks as a method of fostering planned behavior change is also limited. Through this proposed project, we expect to contribute new knowledge about factors influencing uptake of knowledge translation interventions.</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>Our specific aims include: To collect social network data among staff in two long-term care (LTC) facilities; to characterize social networks in these units; and to describe how social networks influence uptake and use of feedback reports.</p> <p>Methods and design</p> <p>In this prospective study, we will collect data on social networks in nursing units in two LTC facilities, and use social network analysis techniques to characterize and describe the networks. These data will be combined with data from a funded project to explore the impact of social networks on uptake and use of feedback reports. In this parent study, feedback reports using standardized resident assessment data are distributed on a monthly basis. Surveys are administered to assess report uptake. In the proposed project, we will collect data on social networks, analyzing the data using graphical and quantitative techniques. We will combine the social network data with survey data to assess the influence of social networks on uptake of feedback reports.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This study will contribute to understanding mechanisms for knowledge sharing among staff on units to permit more efficient and effective intervention design. A growing number of studies in the social network literature suggest that social networks can be studied not only as influences on knowledge translation, but also as possible mechanisms for fostering knowledge translation. This study will contribute to building theory to design such interventions.</p

Industria 4.0 e lavoro: Lo sviluppo di competenze per la trasformazione digitale

\u201cThe changes are so profound that, from the perspective of human history, there has never been a time of greater promise or potential peril.\u201d Con queste parole Klaus Schwab, fondatore e Chairman del Word Economic Forum, descrive l\u2019epocale cambiamento che la quarta rivoluzione industriale, da cui Industria 4.0, promette al mondo dell\u2019industria. Il termine Industrie 4.0 \ue8 stato originariamente introdotto nel 2011 durante l\u2019Hannover Messe, una fiera internazionale sulle tecnologie industriali, ed \ue8 stato utilizzato dal Governo Federale Tedesco per lanciare un progetto di crescita industriale e tecnologica del Paese che ha coinvolto diversi stakeholder (imprese, istituti di credito, Ministero per gli Affari Economici e l\u2019Energia e il Ministero dell\u2019Istruzione e della Ricerca) e ha garantito alla nazione un ruolo da protagonista in un processo di cambiamento che si sta estendendo alle principali economie industriali a livello mondiale. Comprendere la natura di questa trasformazione \ue8 vitale per non rimanere arretrati in una corsa che sta facendo evolvere in maniera radicale il modo di concepire l\u2019impresa, ma la vera sfida \ue8 riuscire contemplare attentamente i potenziali rischi e delineare una prospettiva di crescita che consenta di superare le difficolt\ue0 che attendono le aziende e gli individui. In questo capitolo vengono analizzate le principali caratteristiche di Industria 4.0, discutendone opportunit\ue0 e rischi indotti. In particolare, \ue8 esaminato l\u2019impatto della quarta rivoluzione industriale sulle competenze professionali e sull\u2019occupazione, riportando dati e tendenze rilevati in ricerche internazionali, con riferimento alla situazione italiana. Infine, viene introdotto il caso Emilia-Romagna come esempio di riferimento di una visione strategica d\u2019insieme capace di coinvolgere vari stakeholder nel processo di innovazione, preservando le peculiarit\ue0 del territorio

A grounded theory for resistance to change in a small organization

This paper focuses on the process that generates resistance to change in a small organization. We build a grounded theory that interprets resistance to change in terms of interdependencies between the characteristics of the economic environment and of the industry, the dispositions of individuals, and the patterning of their actions within the social network. These three levels of analysis are mainly investigated separately from one another in empirical studies. An Italian small manufacturing firm was the object of our field study. Observations, ethnographic interviews and analysis of documents were the techniques employed

How the social network can boycott a technological change: a grounded theory for innovation failure in a small organization

A technological change can be partially or totally boycotted during its implementation. The initial sponsors of an innovation can end up causing its failure. It is only within a social network that the implications of an innovation become visible to the actors thus creating a misfit between their professed and performed attitudes. A study of the introduction of a new Information System in an Italian small firm has been carried out

Sociometric location and innovation: how the social network intervenes between the structural position of early adopters and changes the power map

The introduction and development of innovation in small and medium firms has most often been considered as driven by the entrepreneur-owner who is supposed to conceive the innovation and then consistently to sponsor and pursue its implementation within the organization. However, when the innovation turns from abstract idea into a change embedded within a social network, fear of modifying the power map within the network can lead to inconsistent behaviors on the part of the owner, who may even try to make the innovation process fail.An ethnographic study was carried out in a small Italian firm that manufactures staircases, observing from start finish the process by which a new Information System was implemented. From the field notes, clear pro- and anti- innovation coalitions emerged. The findings of the study noted that the entrepreneur-owner, although unanimously acknowledged to have argued in favor of the innovation, withdrew his support from its implementation when he realized that, contrary to his expectations, it increased the power of a few core actors defined, in this instance, as those actors with greater and more sought- after technical know-how and skills