Standard Operating Procedures and Organizational Learning

We report results of a study on processes of Organizational Learning (OL). Changes and suspensions of organizational rules are taken as indicators for OL. The empiric analysis is performed with personnel rules of a German bank. The aim of our study is to identify factors that have an impact on rule changes and suspensions and thereby on OL. These influence factors are, on the one hand, variables that reflect experiences of organizational members with rules and, on the other, variables which capture organizational and environmental shifts. An important finding of this study is that the processes of rule change and rule suspension follow quite different patterns. The changing of a rule is mainly influenced by experience variables. Two basic modes of experiential influences could be shown: habitualization and working one's way out of a failure trap. Experience variables also play a role in the process of rule suspension. The negative influence of rule age on the suspension process suggests that the habitualization of rules over time increases reluctance to abolish a rule. It could also be shown that the positive version age effect on the suspension rate, which indicated an obsolescence process during the existence of a rule version when no additional variables are controlled, is explained by ecological shifts. Organizational and environmental shifts hardly display any significant effects on the rate of rule change. On the other hand, these shifts represent distinct influences on rule suspension. When the environment of a rule changes the need for an abolishment of this rule rises. The attention towards rules which are no longer appropriate seems to be stimulated by these environmental and organizational shifts. These findings suggest that OL can consist of a type of learning which is rather independent of certain ecological triggers and it can also consist of a type of learning which is maintained in order to adapt to certain changes within and outside the o

Limited Rationality, Formal Organizational Rules, and Organizational Learning (OL)

In spite of a broad agreement among researchers in organizational theory on the importance of rules for the functioning of organizations, most theories of OL neglect or tend to underestimate the role of organizational rules in processes of OL. However, there is one important exception: James G. March, his cooperators and his students. He and Richard Cyert (1963) developed a theory of OL long before this concept became a management fashion. And since that then he and his group have continuously revised and developed this theory. These theories provide fundamental insights into processes of OL, although, so far, they have not yet received adequate recognition in the more popular management literature. These theories assume that complex organizations learn by the ways in which individuals experiment, form inferences and code the lessons of history into rules. OL is based on routines. It is history-dependent and target-oriented. To a large extent OL depends on the relation between observed organizational outcomes and the aspirations set for these outcomes (Levitt and March, 1988: 320). In this article we try to give an introduction into the theories on learning in the March school and link it with our own conceptual and empirical work.

Choosing new ways to chew

No abstract availabl

Eine bisher unbekannte Doline im Bereich des Sattels von Holte bei Osnabrück

Ein bisher nicht bekannt gewordener Erdfall im Gebiet östlich Holte ist auf unterirdische Ablaugung von Gips im Mittleren Muschelkalk zurückzuführen. Er befindet sich da. wo ein stärkeres Abtauchen der Schichten festzustellen ist. was seine Entstehung an dieser Stelle begünstigt haben dürfte

Die Bibliotheken der Landesdenkmalämter : Bemerkungen aus Anlaß eines Arbeitstreffens in Berlin

Der Autor stellt die Struktur der Denkmalpflege in Deutschland vor und beschreibt die Situation und Probleme der Bibliotheken der Landesdenkmalämter, die meist als One-Person-Library (OPL) geführt werden

Evaluation Of Yeast Postbiotic in Sow Diets on Sow and Offspring Performance and Microbial Succession

Litter size and the resulting nutritional demand on the sow continue to increase while sow mortality and culling rate are also increasing. Non-nutritive feed additives may enhance sow health and thereby improve offspring growth and productivity after weaning. Development of the gut microbiome in piglets via microbial succession is critical for maximizing their productivity and providing stability for overcoming weaning stress. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of yeast-based postbiotic supplementation in gestation and lactation diets on offspring performance through the nursery period and on whether a yeast postbiotic could impact the sow fecal microbiome as well as affect microbial succession in piglets. Fifty-three gestating sows (parity 0 to 5; BW=242.7 ± 7.1 kg) in 2 breeding groups were blocked by parity and assigned to either a control (CON) diet or a diet supplemented with a yeast-based postbiotic (SUP) at 0.5% in gestation from d80 to 113 of gestation and 0.2% in lactation (d114 of gestation to weaning at 20 ± 2 d). Sow reproductive performance and offspring growth from birth to 65 d of age were monitored. At weaning, pigs were allotted to pens within maternal dietary treatment (10 pigs/pen; 31 to 32 pens/maternal treatment; 630 total pigs; BW=6.18 ± 0.86 kg) and all piglets received common nursery diets in a 4-phase program. Pigs were weighed at week 1, 2, 4, and 6 after weaning. Fecal bacterial composition was determined for 12 sows/treatment at d85 gestation, d1 lactation, and weaning and 1 piglet/sow at weaning and d7, 14, and 28 post-wean using Illumina MiSeq 2X300 sequencing of PCR-amplicons generated from the V1-V3 regions of the 16S rRNA gene. A comparative analysis of the most highly represented Operational Taxonomic Units (OTU) was performed using the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis sum-rank test and Wilcoxon pairwise test. Sow body weight and reproductive performance (piglets born alive/litter, 14.4 vs 14.1; piglet birth weight, 1.45 vs 1.48 kg; piglets weaned/litter, 13.0 vs 12.9; lactation sow feed intake, 6.4 vs 6.8 kg/d) was similar in CON and SUP sows, respectively. In the first week after weaning, pigs from SUP sows had a reduced tendency to lose weight (5.6 vs 11.0%). The numerically improved feed intake in the first week after weaning may explain the lower fallback rate in pigs from SUP sows. Across both sow groups, by 65 d of age, body weight (21.53 vs 21.76 kg), average daily gain (0.36 vs 0.37 kg/day), average daily feed intake (0.54 vs 0.53 kg/day), gain efficiency (0.67 vs 0.69 kg), and mortality (1.26 vs 1.60%) was similar in piglets from CON and SUP sows, respectively. In the initial fecal microbiome comparative analysis, no significant differences between sows which received CON or SUP diets or piglets were observed (P \u3e 0.05), although, fluctuations in the abundance of specific OTUs were found over time in both sows and piglets. For instance, the abundance of OTU JK_30-00008, predicted to be a strain of Lactobacillus amylovorous, was elevated in sows at d85 (CON: 9.01%; SUP: 12.04%), dramatically reduced at d1 of lactation (CON: 1.00%; SUP: 3.03%), then recovered by weaning (CON: 9.41%; SUP: 9.74%). In contrast, the abundance of OTU JK_16-00021, predicted to be an uncultured Peptostreptococcaceae, remained elevated in sow fecal samples from both treatment groups at d85, d1 lactation, and weaning (CON: 10.6%, 15.05%, and 15.61%; SUP: 8.98%, 13.65%, and 14.47% respectively). In piglet fecal samples, the most abundant OTUs at weaning, d7, d14, and d28 were: JK_45-00042 (CON: 27.26%; SUP: 20.05%; no affiliation to any currently defined phylum), JK_137-00038 (CON: 11.04%; SUP: 5.76%; unclassified Yersiniaceae), JK_30-00008 (CON: 13.64%; SUP: 14.11%; Lactobacillus amylovorous), and JK_51-00117 (CON: 7.66%; SUP: 5.32%; Prevotella copri), respectively. In piglets, the number of OTUs representing 50% of total sequence relative abundance increased with time (n = 5 OTUs at weaning, n = 18 at d7, n = 17 at d14, and n = 43 at d28) suggesting an increase in diversity with age. Yeast postbiotic in sow diet had limited impact on relative proportions of sow fecal microbiome and offspring microbial succession after weaning with greater piglet diversity expected due to dietary changes. In addition, several of the OTUs in greatest relative abundance in piglets, including JK_45-00042, JK_137-00038, JK_-42, and JK_-49 did not correspond to valid bacterial species. Together, these results underscore the need to identify prevalent unknown bacterial species in microbial community compositional shifts in the period around weaning