Journal ArticleDOI
A complex adaptive perspective on learning within innovation projects
TLDR
It will be argued that most learning theories rest on a sender‐receiver model of knowledge transmission and this affects how people learn within innovation projects and a complex adaptive approach offers an alternative perspective from which one can evaluate and analyze learning and innovation processes.Abstract:
Innovation is the lifeblood of companies, while simultaneously being one of the most difficult and elusive processes to manage. Failure rates are high – varying between six out of ten to nine out of ten – while the need to innovate is high. Departing from a real‐life case of a company, Sara Lee/Douwe Egberts, that has set learning within and from innovation projects high on the agenda, the main ideas about learning and innovation will be unfolded in the course of this article. It will be argued that most learning theories rest on a sender‐receiver model of knowledge transmission and this affects how people learn within innovation projects. A complex adaptive approach offers an alternative perspective from which one can evaluate and analyze learning and innovation processes. The most important characteristics of complex adaptive systems are non‐linearity, dynamic behavior, emergence and self‐organization. The implications of these phenomena for learning in innovation projects will be explained. The article finalizes with the preliminary findings of a multi‐agent simulation model, which explores what the underlying forces are beneath learning in innovation projects.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
The role of knowledge management in innovation
TL;DR: The role of knowledge management in innovation is clarified as an aid to addressing this complexity of innovation, which has been increased by growth in the amount of knowledge available to organizations.
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From Projectification to Programmification
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider two key themes from the Rethinking Project Management Network activities: projectification and managing multiple projects, and discuss the development of the concept of projectification over the past decade.
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Managerial Complexity in Project- Based Operations: A Grounded Model and Its Implications for Practice
TL;DR: In this paper, the MODeST model was used to investigate project managers' perceptions of managerial complexity, and the authors found that project managers are embedded in this complexity and that these elements had both structural and dynamic qualities and that the elements are interdependent.
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Translating the impact of knowledge management processes into knowledge-based innovation: The neglected and mediating role of knowledge-worker productivity
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a novel research model to investigate the pivotal mediating role of knowledge worker productivity between knowledge management processes (knowledge generation, knowledge sharing, and knowledge application) and innovation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Crisis management or crisis response system?: A complexity science approach to organizational crises
TL;DR: In this article, a crisis response in a hotel chain facing a major food poisoning outbreak, seen from a complexity theory perspective, is described, where the authors identify weaknesses in the chain's crisis response and complexity theory provided a good theoretical foundation to overcome them.
References
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Book
Culture′s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values
TL;DR: In his book Culture's Consequences, Geert Hofstede proposed four dimensions on which the differences among national cultures can be understood: Individualism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance and Masculinity as mentioned in this paper.
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A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a paradigm for managing the dynamic aspects of organizational knowledge creating processes, arguing that organizational knowledge is created through a continuous dialogue between tacit and explicit knowledge.
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