Human resource practices and individual knowledge-sharing behavior – an empirical study for Taiwanese R&D professionals

Knowledge sharing is of central importance for the research and development (R&D) process. Because the process is extremely complicated and an employee possesses expertise only in a specific area, knowledge will not be available to others until the owner makes the objects of the knowledge available. It is, therefore, valuable to investigate how R&D professionals share knowledge with one another. This study explores the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and individual knowledge sharing in Taiwan's high-tech industries. The cross-sectional dataset comes from a sample of 368 R&D professionals from nine different high-tech companies. The findings indicate that the factor representing the perceived self-efficacy of knowledge sharing plays a very important role in the integrated knowledge-sharing model we developed. R&D professionals who believe that sharing will influence their performance will be more willing to share knowledge, and thus an effective sharing of knowledge will be more likely to take place. The results also show that HR practices, incentive compensation plans, performance appraisal systems, and face-to-face communication foster knowledge sharing among R&D professionals through the mediation of perceived self-efficacy and the willingness of knowledge sharing.     

Relationship of internal institutions,knowledge sharing,and technological innovation in characteristic cultural enterprises: Evidence from China

The paper empirically studies the relationship between internal institutions, knowledge sharing, and technological innovation based on the data of investigating 163 China's characteristic culture enterprises by applying structural equation model. The study shows that the internal institution of characteristic cultural enterprises can significantly enhance the knowledge sharing of employees in characteristic cultural enterprises; the knowledge sharing of employees will significantly enhance the technical innovation level of characteristic cultural enterprises; the internal institution of characteristic cultural enterprises does not directly and significantly improve the technical innovation level, but indirectly through enhancing the knowledge sharing of enterprise employees.     

The influence of human resource management on knowledge sharing and innovation in Spain: the mediating role of affective commitment

The aim of this paper is to explain and to test empirically how human resource management (HRM) practices contribute to knowledge sharing and innovation through employees' affective commitment. Results show that HRM practices do not influence knowledge sharing in a direct way, but they do have a positive effect when affective commitment mediates the relationship. We also find a positive relationship between knowledge sharing and innovation performance. That is, HRM practices contribute to knowledge creation and innovation through the generation of the affective commitment necessary for employees to be willing to share their knowledge. The relationships identified have been tested by applying structural equation models to a sample of 87 R&D departments of Spanish innovative companies.     

Metaphors of virtuality: shaping an emergent reality

In this paper, we explore the contemporary discourse associated with the new phenomenon of virtual organizing, and identify a number of metaphors used in this discourse to characterize various aspects of virtuality. We believe paying attention to such metaphors is important because in the absence of experiences (direct or vicarious) to guide practice, the images and ideals promoted in the discourse will shape people's views of and actions towards this new way of organizing. As such, metaphors play a powerful role in structuring the reality of virtuality. To understand the kind of reality being imagined and incited, we examine the various metaphors being proposed in the practitioner-directed literature on virtual organizing. We find that this discourse contains a multiplicity of different metaphors, each highlighting and hiding distinct aspects of virtual organizing. We identify five overarching metaphors in this discourse. These metaphors (re)present virtual organizing as a platform, as existing in space, as composed of bits, as operating as a community, and as engaging in a network of relationships. We analyze these metaphors in terms of their assumptions and presumptions about how to organize work, as well as their affordances and challenges. We conclude by considering what the consequences might be for people acting on the basis of such different, and often contradictory, metaphors in practice.     

Eric Voegelin,Reflexive Distance,and Harnessing the Benefits of Metaxy: The Leader's Imperative to Participate in History and Becoming

The capacity to lead consciously is connected to the leader's knowledge of the self and one's environment. Eric Voegelin stipulated that gaining reflexive distance through comparative historical knowledge allowed for a deeper understanding of an individual's place in society. Citing his works, the current article explains the utility to leaders in understanding historiography, confronting narratives of the past, and criticizing previous normative structures. Leaders come to understand their place in the process of “becoming” by confronting the past. Harnessing the capacity to reflect, leaders can use history as a mirror to demand more of themselves and followers. Moreover, as leaders come to comprehend symbols of mankind's attempt to make sense of the universe and to establish some degree of order, disruptions to the “order” can paradoxically manifest growth. Conscious leaders thus become adaptive rather than reactive.     

Revisiting the role of modular innovation in technological radicalness and architectural change of products: The case of Tesla X and Roomba

The management literature defines modular innovation as a way to make technological changes in product modules that does not necessarily change the product architecture. However, engineering science shows that new product modules not only change the product architecture, but they can also be used for technologically radical next generation products. Therefore, there seems to be a misalignment in how the role of modular innovation is seen as an innovation management phenomenon and the actual practice of product design and engineering. We revisit the role of modular innovation by combining management and engineering approaches. We demonstrate the applicability of this approach through two cases that utilize patent data of two recent technologically innovative products: Tesla's Model X and iRobot's Roomba automated vacuum cleaner. The examples show, in detail, how the changes in product modules and functions have led to broader changes at the system architecture level, leading to new functionalities. The findings contribute to the innovation management literature by identifying a more nuanced role of modular innovation by embedding it in the product architecture, thus broadening the discussion on architectural innovation and technological radicalness.     

Absorptive capacity—one size fits all? A firm‐level analysis of absorptive capacity for different kinds of knowledge

This paper empirically analyzes the effect of R&D activities, human resource and knowledge management, and the organization of knowledge sharing within a firm on the absorptive capacity of innovative firms for three different types of knowledge, namely absorptive capacity to use knowledge from a firm's own industry, knowledge from other industries and knowledge from research institutions. Using data from the German innovation survey, we investigate how firms are able to exploit knowledge from external partners for successful innovation activities. The estimation results show that the determinants of absorptive capacity differ with respect to the type of knowledge absorbed for innovation activities. In particular, we find that the R&D intensity does not significantly influence absorptive capacity for intra‐ and inter‐industry knowledge. Additionally, our results suggest that absorptive capacity is path dependent and firms can influence their ability to exploit external knowledge by encouraging individuals' involvement in a firm's innovation projects. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Orchestrating distributed data governance in open social innovation

Open Social Innovation (OSI) involves the collaboration of multiple stakeholders to generate ideas, and develop and scale solutions to make progress on societal challenges. In an OSI project, stakeholders share data and information, utilize it to better understand a problem, and combine data with digital technologies to create digitally-enabled solutions. Consequently, data governance is essential for orchestrating an OSI project to facilitate the coordination of innovation. Because OSI brings multiple stakeholders together, and each stakeholder participates voluntarily, data governance in OSI has a distributed nature. In this essay we put forward a framework consisting of three dimensions allowing an inquiry into the effectiveness of such distributed data governance: (1) openness (i.e., freely sharing data and information), (2) accountability (i.e., willingness to be held responsible and provide justifications for one's conduct) and (3) power (i.e., resourceful actors' ability to impact other stakeholder's actions). We apply this framework to reflect on the OSI project #WirVsVirus (“We versus virus” in English), to illustrate the challenges in organizing effective distributed data governance, and derive implications for research and practice.     

Human Resource Management and the ability,motivation and opportunity to continue working: A review of quantitative studies

Organisations are challenged to retain older workers, however knowledge on how this should be done is scattered. The aim of this paper is to integrate knowledge on the actions organisations can take to facilitate the extension of working lives by identifying and examining the effectiveness of Human Resource Management activities directed at the extension of working lives. To this end a systematic review was conducted, which identified 110 peer-reviewed and unpublished empirical articles concerning the influence of job demands, job resources and Human Resource practices on the ability, motivation and opportunity to work(ing). The results indicate that offering job resources has a positive effect on the ability, motivation and opportunity to continue working. Furthermore, work ability was found to be most negatively related with job demands whereas employability was most positively related with developmental practices. The paper concludes by suggesting directions for future research and practical implications to encourage evidence-based practice.     

Reinforcing collectiveness in entrepreneurial interactions within start-up teams: a multiple-case study

ABSTRACT

Using a qualitative multiple-case study approach and data from four high-technology team startups, we elaborate a theory on organizing entrepreneurial actions as team efforts and the kinds of interactions that reinforce collectiveness amongst entrepreneurial teams. Through systematic thematic analysis, we find that entrepreneurial action reinforces collectiveness through and during (a) the joint analysis and planning of entrepreneurial opportunities and strategies, (b) the joint decision-making and realization of opportunities and (c) the evaluation, feedback and sanction of entrepreneurial action. We analyse the dimensions through Giddens’s ideas on the duality of structures and agencies. We identify interactions that reflect a joint elaboration of opportunities, open and continuous sharing of knowledge and feelings, equality and democracy, joint effort and credit, informality and lack of bureaucracy, and feedback and helping. Our insights could be applied to create collectively entrepreneurial teams and to design education and training activities at a macro level to enable regional development.     

To be or not to be unionized? A social dilemma perspective on worker decisions to support union organizing

A worker's decision whether or not to support union organizing remains a critical and timely issue for American workers. We draw on the union organizing, organizational psychology, and social dilemma literatures to offer new insight into a worker's decision whether or not to support union organizing efforts. In particular, we highlight three specific conditions – social uncertainty, environmental uncertainty, and exposure – that make the decision whether or not to support union organizing a social dilemma, and describe how these should be expected to vary by union organizing stage. We also examine the effects of key contingencies: management opposition that exacerbates, and strategic union efforts that counteract, the effects of social dilemmas. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of viewing union organizing from a social dilemma perspective.     

Strategy as Simulacra? A Radical Reflexive Look at the Discipline and Practice of Strategy*

ABSTRACT Over the past three decades strategic management has become a crucial aspect of business education and practice. At the core of strategic management – linking technique to worldview – is modelling (e.g. value chain, SWOT analysis) whereby the complex elements of strategic thinking are simplified. This accounts in large part for the apparent popularity of strategic management as complex interrelationships are pursued through relatively simple models. Yet has the field of strategic management realized the third order of simulacra? Is strategic management a model of simulation whereby reality has been replaced by hyperreality? A review of the extant literature on strategy explores the study and practice of strategy as a discourse, engulfed by its own truth effects. An examination of the concepts of reflexivity demonstrates the value of a postmodern radical reflexive account through the application of Baudrillard's (1983 , 1988 , 1991 , 1994 ) simulation and simulacra. It is through the development of a radical reflexive discourse of strategy as simulacra, this paper critically examines the study and practice of strategy and the lessons we can take from this perspective.     

Social capital as a facilitator of successful buyer-supplier performance management

Performance management in supply chains is an increasingly important, rapidly developing but challenging area. It may benefit from sufficient levels of social capital, such as frequent interactions between buyers and suppliers. However, social capital has not yet been studied as a facilitator of performance management. To bridge this knowledge gap, we examine buyer-supplier performance management and social relationship characteristics as perceived by suppliers. We analyze empirical data gathered through a survey of 482 suppliers by employing PLS-SEM and PLS-MGA. The findings elaborate on the role of cognitive, relational, and structural capital in performance management activities within a buyer-supplier relationship. Moreover, the results demonstrate how a supplier's positive perception, in the form of preferred customer status, can be facilitated through performance management activities. The findings reveal that there is a difference in the role of structural and relational capital between key and non-key supplier groups in performance management activities. We conclude that successful performance management in buyer-supplier relationships requires more than simply a system for sharing information. The mature use of performance measurement is also essential, with cognitive capital being especially beneficial in this endeavor.     

Knowledge sharing in supply chain networks: Effects of collaborative innovation activities and capability on innovation performance

Building on knowledge management and innovation capability theories, this paper aims to reveal the mechanisms of collaborative innovation processes by investigating the complex relationships among critical factors influencing firm's innovation performance in supply chain networks. Using hierarchical Multiple Regression (MR) and Moderated Multiple Regression (MMR) methods, results from a survey of 236 firms in China indicated that there are significant positive relationships between collaborative innovation activities, knowledge sharing, collaborative innovation capability, and firm's innovation performance. Moreover, it is expected that knowledge sharing plays a partial mediating role in the relationships between collaborative innovation activities and firm's innovation performance. Collaborative innovation capability exhibited a moderating effect on collaborative innovation activities - innovation performance relationship. These results contribute to collaborative innovation process management by offering a nuanced conceptualization of the collaborative innovation - performance relationship in supply chain networks.     

Affordances for practice

This paper argues that Gibson's concept of affordance inserts a powerful conceptual lens for the study of sociomateriality as enacted in contemporary organizational practices. Our objective in this paper is to develop a comprehensive view of affordances that builds upon the existing conceptualizations in the psychology, human–computer interaction, sociology and information systems literatures and extend them in three important ways. First, we show that taking an integrative interpretation of affordance as dispositional and relational, rather than the standard unidimensional interpretation, provides a theoretical articulation of how the material and the social influence each other. Second, we propose to broaden the focus from the affordances of technology to the affordances for practice provided jointly by technology and organizing. This means considering social affordances alongside technological affordances. Finally, we argue that the best way to integrate the study of social and technological affordances is not to stretch Gibson's original concept to include the social but rather to complement it with a sociological concept that fits it neatly: Bourdieu's idea of habitus. Our claim is that the concepts of affordance and habitus complement and complete each other. Affordance offers a useful way of thinking about how practice is patterned by the social and physical construction of technology and the material environment and habitus offers a useful way of thinking about how practice is patterned by social and symbolic structures. We describe how affordances and habitus may be used together to provide a theoretical apparatus to study practice as a sociomaterial entanglement, thus adding to the methodological toolkit of scholars embracing a sociomaterial perspectives.     

Developing dynamic capabilities through resource accretion: expanding the entrepreneurial solution space

We report our findings from the analysis of crisis episodes that resulted in the development of new capabilities in eight small firms. When dealing with resource constraints in periods of crisis, entrepreneurs engaged in a number of actions to develop their firms' capabilities. By accreting resources such as knowledge, skills and other assets, entrepreneurs were able to expand their repertoire of potential solutions and change the firm's learning trajectory. Our contribution is to describe the process of resource accretion (the gradual accumulation and integration of resources) through grafting and bonding of capabilities into the firm's ambit, which is dependent on the proximities, salience and relationships of resources. We observe three patterns within the accretion pathways of the eight firms in the study, namely the combination of coping mechanisms, the extension of networks, and the reprisal of previously successful solutions. These activities support resource accretion and the subsequent expanded solution space where entrepreneurs begin the process of embedding new capabilities. Such coping routines are necessary antecedents for the development of nascent dynamic capabilities in small firms.     

Reflecting on Reflexivity: Reflexive Textual Practices in Organization and Management Theory

abstract    This paper identifies four sets of textual practices that researchers in the field of organization and management theory (OMT) have used in their attempts to be reflexive. We characterize them as multi-perspective, multi-voicing, positioning and destabilizing. We show how each set of practices can help to produce reflexive research, but also how each embodies limitations and paradoxes. Finally, we consider the interplay among these sets of practices to develop ideas for new avenues for reflexive practice by OMT researchers.     

The process of embedding new information technology artifacts into innovative design practices

The design and creation of anything innovative requires knowledge creation, which in turn often depends upon the introduction of innovative information technology (IT). Since design-related practices are deeply integrated with particular IT artifacts, it is no trivial task to migrate practice-based knowledge to unfamiliar IT artifacts. To explore the challenges associated with such migration, we develop the concept of embeddedness of IT artifacts by drawing on research that highlights the critical role of representational artifacts in knowledge, design, and distributed cognition. We then inductively analyze interview data from an in-depth case study of Frank Gehry, a world-renowned and radically innovative architect known for his use of sophisticated 3D computer-aided design (CAD) technology. By studying construction firms' transition from 2D CAD to 3D CAD, we identify four relevant themes associated with embedding new artifacts into knowledge-creating practice: (1) motivating the new artifact; (2) anchoring the new artifact in the old; (3) experimenting with the new artifact; and (4) confidence in using the new artifact. Through the generation of a process theory of embedding, we elaborate on how this perspective complements and extends research on IT adaptation and assimilation, and discuss the relevance of continuing to develop the IT embeddedness perspective given the continuing need for increased levels of IT-enabled innovation.     

基于模糊数学方法的员工知识共享能力的评估

在当今知识社会中,知识管理受到越来越多企业的关注,是企业能否保持和创造竞争优势的关键,而作为知识管理最核心的内容——知识共享更是重中之重。现今关于知识共享的研究大都局限在从组织和个人两方面来促进知识共享顺利进行,但没有一个较好的评价体系。如何对员工知识共享能力进行正确的评估关系到企业知识共享乃至知识管理的成败。