Corporate sustainability confronts managers with tensions between complex economic, environmental, and social issues. Drawing on the literature on managerial cognition, corporate sustainability, and strategic paradoxes, we develop a cognitive framing perspective on corporate sustainability. We propose two cognitive frames—a business case frame and a paradoxical frame—and explore how differences between them in cognitive content and structure influence the three stages of the sensemaking process—that is, managerial scanning, interpreting, and responding with regard to sustainability issues. We explain how the two frames lead to differences in the breadth and depth of scanning, differences in issue interpretations in terms of sense of control and issue valence, and different types of responses that managers consider with regard to sustainability issues. By considering alternative cognitive frames, our argument contributes to a better understanding of managerial decision making regarding ambiguous sustainability issues, and it develops the underlying cognitive determinants of the stance that managers adopt on sustainability issues. This argument offers a cognitive explanation for why managers rarely push for radical change when faced with complex and ambiguous issues, such as sustainability, that are characterized by conflicting yet interrelated aspects.

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Cognitive Frames in Corporate Sustainability: Managerial Sensemaking with Paradoxical and Business Case Frames

サイアート, マーチの「A Behavioral Theory of the Firm」

Abstract : A study is reported of the variations in organizational commitment and job satisfaction, as related to subsequent turnover in a sample of recently-employed psychiatric technician trainees. A longitudinal study was made across a 10 1/2 month period, with attitude measures collected at four points in time. For this sample, job satisfaction measures appeared better able to differentiate future stayers from leavers in the earliest phase of the study. With the passage of time, organizational commitment measures proved to be a better predictor of turnover, and job satisfaction failed to predict turnover. The findings are discussed in the light of other related studies, and possible explanations are examined. (Modified author abstract)

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Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction and Turnover Among Psychiatric Technicians. Technical Report No. 16.

Powershift: Knowledge, wealth and violence at the edge of the 21st century

Knowledge sharing in public services has not yet received much attention in the research literature. This paper investigates knowledge sharing in one public service context and identifies factors that influence the readiness of an organization to share knowledge effectively. Using participant observation, document analysis, interviews n=30 and a survey n=132, data are presented to highlight antecedents to effective knowledge sharing in healthcare service delivery. Through factor analysis and regression modeling, we have isolated six factors that are significant predictors of effective knowledge sharing. Our research is broadly consistent with previous findings that an innovative culture, a capacity to learn from failure and good information quality are strong predictors of successful knowledge sharing. However, we also identify factors associated with change management, and a predisposition to confront performance indicators, that significantly influence the knowledge sharing process. While we argue that our six-factor model may be equally relevant to private sector firms, we suggest that the peculiar nature of the public sector environment poses unique challenges for healthcare managers who seek to develop a knowledge sharing capability.

Organizational Readiness for Successful Knowledge Sharing: Challenges for Public Sector Managers

Introduction 1. Competing 2. Deciding 3. Learning 4. Connecting 5. Relating 6. Monitoring 7. Integrating

Understanding the knowledgeable organization: nurturing knowledge competence

Purpose – Decisions are integral to daily business practice. Sound and agile decision making is argued to be a core strategic capability. Knowledge helps avoid the consequences of ill‐informed decisions. Facts and expertise provide content; know‐how about the pitfalls and requirements of thinking through problems in different contexts contributes to sound process. This paper seeks to offer a staged framework to guide organisational discussions about how knowledge management (KM) can contribute to better decision‐making capability.Design/methodology/approach – Consistent with a maturity model approach, the study used an interactive multi‐method design to explore knowledge and decision making with experienced practitioners. Guided by the literature the authors collected input via three focus groups and eight interviews with KM practitioners plus 19 interviews with senior decision makers chosen for their good track record. From the combination of input five stages of capability building in five key areas of ...

Developing organisational decision‐making capability: a knowledge manager's guide

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to challenge an over‐reliance on past experience as the cognitive underpinning for strategic decisions It seeks to argue that, in complex and unknowable conditions, effective leaders use three distinct and complementary thinking capacities, which go beyond those normally learned during their rise to the topDesign/methodology/approach – A conceptual model of thinking capacities is justified through a review of the psychology literature; the face validity of the proposed model is supported through six in‐depth interviews with successful CEOsFindings – A model of non‐conventional thinking capacities describes how strategic decision‐makers make choices that are better adapted to the conditions of uncertainty, ambiguity and contradiction, which prevail in complex situations These capacities are complementary to the more conventional approaches generally used in thinking about decisionsPractical implications – The paper aims to stimulate awareness of the limitations o

Cognition in strategic decision making: A model of non‐conventional thinking capacities for complex situations

Building commitment to the principles and practices of knowledge management is the goal of many organisations today. This is proving not to be a straightforward process and even when commitment is evident, it is fragile and easily shattered by inconsistencies in management actions and behaviour. We have identified key aspects of winning commitment that need to be recognised and managed at an organisational level, and the level of groups and individuals. Commitment is both an intellectual and an emotional process, and it is achieved through both internal motivation and external incentives. It is maintained through providing positive feedback on the outcomes of knowledge management activities and learning from mistakes. We have created a comprehensive checklist based on research carried out within an industry forum of more than forty companies to help practitioners monitor their progress in winning lasting commitment.

Winning commitment for knowledge management initiatives

Purpose – This paper seeks to identify how leadership can positively influence knowledge work and to explore which leadership practices need to be developed to support organisational learning and agility in the face of continuous change.Design/methodology/approach – The thinking combines a long history of leadership and change management advice and 12 years of knowledge management research with the insights from a collaborative research project involving 14 large organisations that are members of the Henley KM Forum.Findings – The result is a framework of 12 leadership agility practices specifically focused on creating conducive conditions for knowledge sharing, learning, engagement and collaboration.Practical implications – Those responsible for leadership development in the knowledgeable organisation could use this as a well‐grounded starting point for designing learning programs. Leaders in key roles can use it as a gauge for self‐assessment to identify development needs or reflect on how to change the...

Jane McKenzie

Papers

Understanding the knowledgeable organization: nurturing knowledge competence

Developing organisational decision‐making capability: a knowledge manager's guide

Cognition in strategic decision making: A model of non‐conventional thinking capacities for complex situations

Winning commitment for knowledge management initiatives

Learning to lead the knowledgeable organization: developing leadership agility