Transformational Leadership: Industrial, Military, and Educational Impact

ion of experience associated with a specific activity or task. We conceptualize codification in the alliance learning process in a similar manner. Codification involves creating and using knowledge objects or resources such as alliance guidelines, checklists, or manuals to assist action or decision making in future alliance situations. We also see it as being distinct from the aspect of articulation described earlier. Articulation primarily emphasizes externalizing the content residing within individuals. Codification, on the other hand, focuses on providing the content (know-what), the methodology (knowhow ), and even the rationale (know-why) for executing and managing various alliance-related tasks. Its ‘people-to-documents’ approach emphasizes ‘reuse economics,’ by which a firm reuses the alliance management knowledge that exists within the firm itself, or that resides with firms or people outside the firm (Hansen et al., 1999), to manage future alliances. Although the principal benefits of codification arise from the use of the codified alliance management manuals or tools, it also potentially provides more subtle benefits to managers in a firm. By involving themselves in the effort to codify alliance management knowledge, managers emerge with a crisper understanding of what works, or what does not work and why, in the context of managing certain tasks in alliances. Hence codification not only helps firms replicate and transfer alliance best practices, but also identify or select what those best practices are. In our fieldwork, we observed firms adopt several practices of codifying alliance management know-how. One company has created ‘35 rules of thumb’ for managing alliances. Another company has developed an in-house ‘power of partnerships’ program that provides its managers with detailed guidelines and frameworks for managing alliances. HewlettPackard has developed ‘40 decision-making templates’ to help managers understand and manage key activities at every stage of the life cycle of any alliances (Harbison and Pekar, 1998; Dyer et al., 2001). Eli Lilly, which is considered a ‘premier partner’ in the pharmaceutical industry, also has developed several such codified tools and templates to improve its managers’ partnering skills (Draulans et al., 2003). Overall, such codification is expected to enhance a firm’s decision making and actions in its alliances, and consequently lead to greater alliance success over time. Sharing of alliance know-how According to the knowledge-based view of the firm, the development of organizational skills to manage any particular task also rests upon a firm’s ability to share knowledge associated with managing or executing that task with all relevant parts within the organization (Grant, 1996). This is not only true for knowledge that is articulated and codified, but also for ‘tacit’ knowledge that is less amenable to easy articulation or codification (Winter, 1987). Knowledge sharing plays an important role in this regard. In the context of the alliance learning process, knowledge sharing involves exchanging and disseminating individually and organizationally held alliance management knowledge, which is both tacit and/or codified, through interpersonal interaction within the organization. ‘Communities of personal interaction’ are a central element of such knowledge sharing within firms (Seely Brown and Duguid, 1991; March, Sproull, and Tamuz, 1991). They provide a means for regularly and systematically sharing alliance management knowledge that has already been articulated or codified by the firm. More important, however, they provide a forum to share individually held tacit knowledge through direct person-to-person interaction between managers since tacit knowledge is more easily shared through dialogue between individuals than through knowledge objects (Hansen et al., 1999). Third, they also play a role in helping managers better conceptualize the alliance knowledge that is being shared or disseminated throughout the firm. Dialogue in the form of face-toface communication between managers provides them an opportunity to test their hypotheses and assumptions regarding best practices to carry out Copyright  2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Strat. Mgmt. J., 28: 981–1000 (2007)

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Building firm capabilities through learning: the role of the alliance learning process in alliance capability and firm-level alliance success

Older people, assistive technologies, and the barriers to adoption: a systematic review

Normalization Process Theory (NPT) identifies, characterises and explains key mechanisms that promote and inhibit the implementation, embedding and integration of new health techniques, technologies and other complex interventions. A large body of literature that employs NPT to inform feasibility studies and process evaluations of complex healthcare interventions has now emerged. The aims of this review were to review this literature; to identify and characterise the uses and limits of NPT in research on the implementation and integration of healthcare interventions; and to explore NPT’s contribution to understanding the dynamics of these processes. A qualitative systematic review was conducted. We searched Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar for articles with empirical data in peer-reviewed journals that cited either key papers presenting and developing NPT, or the NPT Online Toolkit (
 www.normalizationprocess.org
 ). We included in the review only articles that used NPT as the primary approach to collection, analysis or reporting of data in studies of the implementation of healthcare techniques, technologies or other interventions. A structured data extraction instrument was used, and data were analysed qualitatively. Searches revealed 3322 citations. We show that after eliminating 2337 duplicates and broken or junk URLs, 985 were screened as titles and abstracts. Of these, 101 were excluded because they did not fit the inclusion criteria for the review. This left 884 articles for full-text screening. Of these, 754 did not fit the inclusion criteria for the review. This left 130 papers presenting results from 108 identifiable studies to be included in the review. NPT appears to provide researchers and practitioners with a conceptual vocabulary for rigorous studies of implementation processes. It identifies, characterises and explains empirically identifiable mechanisms that motivate and shape implementation processes. Taken together, these mean that analyses using NPT can effectively assist in the explanation of the success or failure of specific implementation projects. Ten percent of papers included critiques of some aspect of NPT, with those that did mainly focusing on its terminology. However, two studies critiqued NPT emphasis on agency, and one study critiqued NPT for its normative focus. This review demonstrates that researchers found NPT useful and applied it across a wide range of interventions. It has been effectively used to aid intervention development and implementation planning as well as evaluating and understanding implementation processes themselves. In particular, NPT appears to have offered a valuable set of conceptual tools to aid understanding of implementation as a dynamic process.

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Using Normalization Process Theory in feasibility studies and process evaluations of complex healthcare interventions: a systematic review

Background and Objectives:
Social robots may promote the health of older adults by increasing their perceived emotional support and social interaction. This review aims to summarize the effectiveness of social robots on outcomes (psychological, physiological, quality of life, or medications) of older adults from randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Research Design and Methods:
A mixed-method systematic review of RCTs meeting the study inclusion criteria was undertaken. Eight databases were electronically searched up to September 2017. Participants’ characteristics, intervention features, and outcome data were retrieved. The mean difference and standardized mean difference with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were synthesized to pool the effect size.

Results:
A total of 13 articles from 11 RCTs were identified from 2,204 articles, of which 9 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Risk of bias was relatively high in allocation concealment and blinding. Social robots appeared to have positive impacts on agitation, anxiety, and quality of life for older adults but no statistical significance was found in the meta-analysis. However, results from a narrative review indicated that social robot interactions could improve engagement, interaction, and stress indicators, as well as reduce loneliness and the use of medications for older adults.

Discussion and Implications:
Social robots appear to have the potential to improve the well-being of older adults, but conclusions are limited due to the lack of high-quality studies. More RCTs are recommended with larger sample sizes and rigorous study designs.

The Effectiveness of Social Robots for Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Studies.

The impact of technology on older adults' social isolation

Investigating the effectiveness of technologies applied to assist seniors: A systematic literature review.

Research indicates that social isolation and loneliness have a negative effect on health and wellbeing among older people. Various technology-based interventions have been offered to reduce social isolation; however, research demonstrating the role of various types of technologies and their effectiveness in dealing with social isolation among seniors is scarce. This study undertakes a systematic literature review of empirical studies on various types of technologies and their effectiveness in alleviating social isolation among seniors. Relevant electronic databases were searched and through 6886 initial set of studies published from 2000 to 2015 we have found eight different technologies that have been applied to alleviate social isolation, namely, general ICT, video game, robotics, personal reminder information and social management system, asynchronous peer support chat room, social network sites, Telecare and 3D virtual environment. We further evaluated the effectiveness of the technologies with social isolation among seniors. Findings show that technologies can be used to reduce social isolation among seniors. However, more studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of new technologies.

Pouria Khosravi

Papers

The impact of technology on older adults' social isolation

Investigating the effectiveness of technologies applied to assist seniors: A systematic literature review.

The impact of technology on older adults' social isolation

Management innovation: A systematic review and meta-analysis of past decades of research

Motivating users toward continued usage of information systems: Self-determination theory perspective