Improving Graduate Skills through an Innovative Industry-Collaboration Pedagogy:Going beyond the traditional unit-delivery

This paper presents a descriptive case study of a unit embedding an innovative pedagogical approach that incorporates industry-collaboration interventions of different extent to work towards the goal of improving graduate skills and creating industry-ready graduates at the University of Canberra. In collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the largest Cloud providers, the Enterprise and Cloud Computing unit experimented with embedding industry-developed content in one of the units. The approach demonstrates that incorporating education, industry-relevant active learning, and certification will help enhancing student learning experience, improving graduate skills, preparing our students for success in the job market, and increasing employability. It is an example for higher education academics of a transferable approach for designing effective programs for other popular Information Technology (IT) specialisations such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science, and disciplines collaborating with industry.</p

A Framework for Evaluating and Improving University-Industry Collaboration

University-Industry Collaboration (UIC) has been a topic of interest for decades and has gained additional attention in recent times as the educational, research, industry, economic, and social benefits of such collaboration are increasingly recognized. While there are continuing efforts both globally and locally within Australia to encourage such collaboration, establishing successful UIC remains a challenge. The poor ranking of Australia against Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) comparators in most business-to-research collaboration indicators confirms that collaboration is an ongoing concern and that there is a lot more work to be done to improve collaborations, particularly in Australia. The research presented in this thesis addresses this problem by developing a framework for evaluation and improvement of UIC. This was achieved using a Design Science Research (DSR) approach. The proposed UIC Framework comprises a set of newly developed tools based on a literature review and initial qualitative research. These tools can be used in conjunction with the Cynefin sense-making framework to understand, evaluate and improve UIC of various types and complexity. The first tool is a UIC Systems Model, which will help users to analyse and gain a better understanding of a UIC. The second tool is a comprehensive UIC Practices Framework that can be used to improve the effectiveness of a UIC. The final tool is a UIC Maturity Model (UICMM), which can be used to assess the UIC maturity of an organisation, and guide improvements. By using this Systems Model, Practices Framework, and Maturity Model in conjunction with the Cynefin sense-making framework, stakeholders will be able to better understand their UIC activities, make improvements through informed decision-making, and evaluate the impact of such improvements. The developed UIC Framework has been evaluated using descriptive and expert evaluations. These evaluations demonstrate the utility and applicability of the framework. A strategy for continuous real-world evaluation and improvement of the framework has also been developed and documented in this thesis. This strategy is being piloted with two industry partners and will be used for future improvement of the UIC Framework

Do Non-work Practices in MNCs Operating in India Impact Organizational Commitment?

The present paper establishes the concept of Non-work Practices and explores its impact on organizational commitment. Drawing upon research conducted in four multinational corporations operating in India, the paper examines the degree to which non-work practices are accepted by Indian employees and their relationship with organizational commitment.&nbsp; Concurrent mixed methodology was adopted in which both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Template analysis was carried out to interpret employees’ feelings and experiences, and to identify the emerging trends. Factor analysis was carried out to find factors of non-work practices, and regression analysis was carried out to study relationship between organizational commitment and non-work practices. The article discusses the findings related to non-work practices: how these practices are experienced and perceived by Indian employees and what is their impact on the commitment of employees, which would in turn affect the effectiveness of the organization. It was found that since most of the non-work practices were transplanted from the parent company, they were perceived as alien (except in the Anglo-American MNC).&nbsp; Host country employees showed little enthusiasm in carrying out those practices and hence these had no positive impact on their organizational commitment

Professional Service Firms as LO: A Case of an Indian Rural Management Consultancy Firm

This case study aims at unravelling the characteristics and the challenges faced by a small professional service firm (PSF) in becoming a learning organization (LO). For case study, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected independently and simultaneously. The Watkins and Marsick (1996) framework of LO was followed in conjunction with the interviews and observations to achieve the study objective. Overall, the status of learning orientation in the consultancy firm is fairly high. The findings reflect that an organization is in a process of expansion and with changing times, there is a need for change in some important areas. Unique Indian cultural aspects are found to be significant in enhancing learning orientation in the studied PSF. Nurturant task (NT) of leadership and a familial culture have been instrumental in creating tacit knowledge in the organization. Study on LO in small PSFs is an under-researched domain. Empirical material offers insights into learning orientation in Indian firms, with a focus on the unique Indian culture. </jats:p

IMR – 7th INDAM CONFERENCE PAPER Lokasamgraha: An indigenous construct for social entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT: This study aims to investigate the role of the indigenous construct lokasamgraha in the context of social entrepreneurship. We identified lokasamgraha through content analysis of the Bhagavad Gita, employing the methodological approaches proposed by Bhawuk (2010). Using the lens of paradox theory, we investigated commonly accepted tensions in social enterprises. We developed a framework to explain how lokasamgraha can assist social enterprises in managing tensions and achieving the triple bottom-line. Furthermore, we validated this framework by citing a lokasamgraha-based social enterprise in India. Finally, before concluding, we discussed the implications and future research directions