Introducing the Cluster Level

This paper explores interrelationships between organizational routines and their effect on routine dynamics. We introduce a more aggregate perspective on routines, the cluster level, and develop a theoretical framework that helps understanding the dynamics of routine clusters. The framework combines thoughts on the division of labor, modularity, and the consequences of complementarities. It explains why single routines are grouped into clusters and how complementarities between the specialized routines of a cluster will affect its evolution. It is the main argument of this paper that, in contrast to the expanding dynamics of single routines, which continuously bring about variations, the dynamics of clusters are restricting, amounting to a selection mechanism in organizational practice. To illustrate and substantiate our argument, we use a historical case study on CEWE, the European market leader in photofinishing. We analyze how the cluster for 35mm photofinishing—the core routines of the analog years—reacted to the upcoming digital revolution in the 1990s. Our paper offers three contributions: First, we theorize on the interrelationship between routines and the anatomy of clusters. Second, we provide a conceptual framework for analyzing the dynamics of routine clusters that builds on complementarities and the related misfit costs. Third, by elaborating on these dynamics, our findings contribute to a multilevel theory of organizational routines by adding the meso level of the routine cluster to the micro level of single routine dynamics

Der Weg zur Gesundheitsfördernden Schule

Bei der Umsetzung des WHO-Konzeptes der "Gesundheitsfördernden Schule" treten immer wieder Probleme auf. Evaluationsstudien liefern aber kaum brauchbare Hinweise darauf, warum das der Fall ist. Eine mögliche Ursache könnte in den spezifischen Charakteristika des Systems Schule liegen. Dieser Arbeit geht im Rahmen einer qualitativen Einzelfallstudie an einer Wiener Volksschule der Frage nach, wie die Übersetzung von Interventionskonzepten der Gesundheitsförderung in tatsächlich stattfindende Interventionen durch die Organisation Schule beeinflusst wird. Die verwendeten Daten wurden im Laufe des Schuljahres 2008/09 erhoben. Es handelt sich um offene und teilstrukturierte Interviews mit Schulleitung, Lehrerinnen, Eltern und Schüler/innen. Offene Beobachtungen wurden während der Umsetzung von Gesundheitsförderungsmaßnahmen und während Konferenzen gemacht. Die Analyse der Organisationsstrukturen erfolgte mittels hermeneutischer Methoden, die Analyse der praktischen Umsetzung der Maßnahmen erfolgte mittels Grounded Theory. Beide Analyseebenen wurden in einen systemtheoretischen Rahmen integriert. Das grundlegende Ergebnis der Studie war die Entwicklung eines theoretischen Konzeptes, welches den Interventionsprozess beschreiben kann. Es basiert auf einem systemtheoretischen Verständnis von Intervention und definiert Interventionsprozesse als Beobachtungen mit der Intention der Veränderung. Ein analytisches Schema zur Beschreibung von Interventionsprozessen wurde entwickelt. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass der gesamte Implementierungsprozess in vier Interventionsphasen eingeteilt werden kann. In jeder dieser Interventionsphasen wurde das Interventionskonzept der „Gesundheitsfördernden Schule“ von der Schule an bestehende Strukturen angepasst und dadurch zum Teil sehr stark verändert. Insgesamt kann gesagt werden, dass das Konzept der „Gesundheitsfördernden Schule“ in einigen Punkten so gestaltet ist, dass es mit einigen charakteristischen Merkmalen von Schulen nur schwer vereinbar ist. Vorschläge für Anpassungen des Konzeptes werden diskutiert.The broad implementation of the WHO-concept ‘Health Promoting School’ is often problematic. Existing evaluation studies do not provide much useful information that would help to solve this problem. Concerning this, one possible direction of investigation is the influence of the specific characteristics of schools on the implementation process. In line with that, this study wants to answer the question how the ‘translation’ from intervention concept to the intervention that actually takes place, is affected by the school as an organisation. This single case study was carried out in a primary school in Vienna, Austria during the first year of implementation of the HPS-concept. Data come from interviews (principal, teachers, parents, students) and observations (HP-projects, faculty meetings, lessons). Analysis of data was twofold: Organisational structures of the school were identified by hermeneutical methods. Observations during HP-projects were analysed with Grounded Theory. The main result is a theoretical model of the intervention process which is based on systems theory and defines intervention processes as observations with the intention to change. An analytic scheme for the description of interventions has been developed. It is shown that the whole implementation process can be divided into four intervention phases. In each phase the intervention concept “Health Promoting School” was adapted to existing structures by the school and thereby changed considerably. The whole analysis showed that the concept of the “Health Promoting School” is – to some extent – not compatible with everyday life in schools. Recommendations for the adaption of the concept are being discussed

A Communication Perspective on Open Strategy and Open Innovation

This paper presents a systematic analysis of the similarities and differences between the fields of open innovation and open strategy. In particular, we examine the concept of openness from a communication-centered perspective and compare processes of open innovation and open strategy with regard to the openness they exhibit. By distinguishing between openness in terms of sociality, factuality and temporality, we find that cases of open strategy tend to exhibit lower degrees of openness in the social dimension and higher degrees in the other two when compared to open innovation. Notwithstanding variation within and between the fields of open innovation and open strategy, opening up in one dimension of communication will generally result in pressures to decrease openness with regards to the other dimensions - unless particular tools are employed that help cope with the additional degrees of communicative complexity.(VLID)2757064Version of recor

Capacity Building für die Implementierung von Gesundheitsförderung an österreichischen Schulen

"Dieser Artikel untersucht, welche Möglichkeiten Schulen sehen, Ressourcen für die Implementierung von Gesundheitsförderung zu entwickeln sowie welche Unterstützung Gesundheitsförderungs-AkteurInnen auf der Ebene der Bundesländer für Schulen bereitstellen. Es wurden elf qualitative Interviews mit SchulleiterInnen und 18 Interviews mit AkteurInnen in den Bundesländern geführt. Als Ergebnis wurden sieben Handlungsfelder von Seiten der Schulen und fünf Handlungsfelder von Seiten der regionalen AkteurInnen identifiziert, in denen es für die jeweiligen HauptakteurInnen sinnvoll erscheint, Maßnahmen zu setzen, die die Implementierung von Gesundheitsförderung unterstützen. Beide Ebenen - Schulen und Bundesländer - können als soziale Systeme verstanden werden, die verschiedene Logiken und Ziele verfolgen. Stellt man die Handlungsfelder von Seiten der Schulen und von Seiten der Bundesländer gegenüber, wird ersichtlich, dass die Logiken von Schulen und Bundesländern teilweise voneinander abweichen." (Autorenreferat)"This article examines the possibilities for schools to develop relevant resources needed for the implementation of health promotion as well as the support provided by key actors on the provincial school level. Eleven qualitative interviews were conducted with school representatives and eighteen qualitative interviews with health promotion actors were undertaken in the respective provinces. As a result, the schools identified seven spheres of activity and five activity spheres could be traced back to the health promotion actors, in which the key actors stressed the importance of the required measures needed to implement health promotion. Both levels - school and provincial - can be understood as social systems that work logically and follow their own set of aims. However, when the spheres of activity of both the school and provincial levels are compared, a slight deviation in the logic of both systems becomes evident." (author's abstract

Digital Twins of Organizations: A Socio-Technical View on Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research

Digital twins of organizations are software models that leverage operational and other data streams in order to dynamically monitor, analyze and improve organizational activities over time. Despite surging interest in practice, there is little research about this emerging topic. In this report, we draw from a panel discussion that has taken place at the International Conference on Business Process Management in 2021. Panelists and discussants included scholars from the information systems field, organization science and computer science. Summarizing and integrating the variety of involved perspectives, we present a socio-technical view on this emerging phenomenon. We point to several implications for future research

The Dynamics of Drift in Digitized Processes

This paper uses a simulation to build new theory about complexity and phase change in processes that are supported by digital technologies. We know that digitized processes can drift (change incrementally over time). We simulate this phenomenon by incrementally adding and removing edges from a network that represents the process. The simulation demonstrates that incremental change can lead to a state of self-organized criticality. As the process approaches this state, further incremental change can precipitate nonlinear bursts in process complexity and significant changes in process structure. Digital technology can be designed and used to influence the likelihood and severity of these transformative phase changes. For example, the simulation predicts that systems with adaptive programming are prone to phase changes, while systems with deterministic programming are not. We use the simulation to generate a set of theoretical propositions about the effects of digitization that will be testable in empirical research

Keeping pace with the digital age: Envisioning information systems research as a platform

In this paper, we respond to Grover and Lyytinen (2022). We agree with them that the advent of the digital age is calling for a reconsideration of the role of theory and theorizing. We also think their proposal does not go far enough. The time is ripe to question the role of theory in our field more fundamentally. We propose to instead focus on establishing IS research as a platform through which we can collect, organize, and provide access to digital trace data from various sources to analyze contemporary socio-technical phenomena. We believe that such a move allows us to more fully unleash the unique socio-technical competences of our field in the digital age

Managing Process Dynamics in a Digital World: Integrating Business Process Management and Routine Dynamics in IS Curricula

Information systems students need to be prepared to understand and manage unfolding dynamics in businesses operating in a digital world. We present a university course that systematically integrates knowledge from two streams of research that deal with dynamics: business process management and routine dynamics. Both streams of research study processes, dynamics, and change, but from different perspectives and with different methods and approaches. Our course synthesizes concepts, methods, and theories from routine dynamics with traditional business process management education, to provide students with competences to not only design business processes but also recognize, explain, and react to process dynamics. We present two variants of our course design, which we implemented and delivered at two European universities to students who had different levels of prior knowledge about business process management. We report on evaluations, provide recommendations for teaching and point to implications for research. All course materials are freely available at www.bpm-and-routines.com

N-Chlorotaurine, a Long-Lived Oxidant Produced by Human Leukocytes, Inactivates Shiga Toxin of Enterohemorrhagic <em>Escherichia coli</em>

<div><p><em>N</em>-chlorotaurine (NCT), the main representative of long-lived oxidants produced by granulocytes and monocytes, is known to exert broad-spectrum microbicidal activity. Here we show that NCT directly inactivates Shiga toxin 2 (Stx2), used as a model toxin secreted by enterohemorrhagic <em>Escherichia coli</em> (EHEC). Bacterial growth and Stx2 production were both inhibited by 2 mM NCT. The cytotoxic effect of Stx2 on Vero cells was removed by ≥5.5 mM NCT. Confocal microscopy and FACS analyses showed that the binding of Stx2 to human kidney glomerular endothelial cells was inhibited, and no NCT-treated Stx2 entered the cytosol. Mass spectrometry displayed oxidation of thio groups and aromatic amino acids of Stx2 by NCT. Therefore, long-lived oxidants may act as powerful tools of innate immunity against soluble virulence factors of pathogens. Moreover, inactivation of virulence factors may contribute to therapeutic success of NCT and novel analogs, which are in development as topical antiinfectives.</p> </div

Decrease of oxidation capacity of NCT and NVC-422 in EHEC Direct Medium.

<p>Stock solutions of NCT (A) or NVC-422 (B) were 10-fold diluted in this medium to final concentrations of 55 mM, 5.5 mM, 2.75 mM and 1.375 mM. The oxidation capacity was measured with redox potentiometry after indicated time-points. Results with NVC-612 resembled those of NCT. Mean values ± SD from three independent experiments are shown.</p