Network Updating and Exploratory Learning Environment*

abstract This paper examines how the current relevance of social capital derived from a task‐advice network affects an actor's exploratory learning environment. Building on Burt's (1992 ) structural holes hypothesis that a large, sparse task advice network enhances an actor's exploratory learning environment, I propose that such effects hold only when the direct and indirect network ties are composed of current network contacts (ones that have been updated since the last change in positions of an actor). Analyses of data from a sample of 230 salaried employees of a high‐technology manufacturing corporation support my arguments. In addition to the focus of social capital research on network structure, therefore, this study emphasizes the time‐contingent value of social capital.     

Regional competence and economic recovery: divergent growth paths in Boston's high technology economy

Since the 1960s, the growth of high technology industries in Boston's Route 128 region has attracted the attention of academics, planners and politicians. What was especially remarkable about the region was the capability of its economic base to recover from major structural crises. Owing to this ability, the region is often looked at as being an American example of an industrial district. In contrast to Silicon Valley, however, Boston does not readily fit into the definition of an industrial district because of the dominance of large, vertically-integrated producers and the proprietary nature of high technology production. In the late 1980s, Boston was hit by an additional structural crisis when the minicomputer industry lost its competitive basis and defence expenditures were drastically reduced. As a result, almost 50000 high technology manufacturing jobs were cut between 1987 and 1997. This paper aims to identify the forces behind the region's economic recovery in the mid-1990s and relate these findings to the discussion of the importance of collective learning processes in industrial production and the development of localized competencies. In the literature, it is argued that firm-specific competencies and learning processes can lead to a regional competitive advantage if they are based on localized capabilities (e.g. specialized resources, skills, conventions and institutions). The author will demonstrate in an explorative way that the economic recovery of the Boston region is related to a number of specific forces that differ greatly between the subsectors of the high technology economy. I will also provide tentative evidence of how the willingness to co-operate and engage in interactive learning processes has encouraged economic recovery.     

Market conditions and worker training: How does it affect and whom?

This paper analyses the impact of labor market conditions on a firm's incentive to train its workers. In an equilibrium model of the labor market in which firms use both untrained and in-house-trained workers, we show that the incidence of training increases with the tightness of the labor market. In a multi-sector framework, the usual threat of hold-up by a trained worker is more severe for workers who change their sector of work; during downturns, this serves to bias firms' incentives in imparting training away from such workers and towards workers already in the firm and those new workers coming from the same sector. Evidence from the NLSY confirms both predictions—the incidence and duration of company-sponsored training is adversely affected by higher unemployment rates; furthermore, this negative effect is much stronger for workers who change industries as compared to those who do not.     

Mediating ambiguity: Narrative identity and knowledge workers

Drawing on Paul Ricoeur's approach to narrative identity and a longitudinal case study of a graphic design firm, this paper explores identity work provoked by organisational changes for one group of knowledge workers, graphic designers. The approach to identity work developed in this paper illuminates how these knowledge workers use narrative to mediate between social and personal identities during a period of significant organisational change. The narrative identity approach, derived from Ricoeur, embraces the multiplicity, complexity and potential contradictions encountered by knowledge workers facing threats to their personal identity. In addition to developing Ricoeur's thinking to understand identity work in an organisational context, the impact of organisational change for knowledge workers is highlighted for practitioners.     

Options‐based HRM,intellectual capital,and exploratory and exploitative learning in law firms' practice groups

The current study intends to uncover the strategic contribution of human resource management by introducing a unique construct of options‐based (vis‐à‐vis project‐based) HRM and examining its links to intellectual capital and exploratory and exploitative learning in the context of law firms' practice groups. Empirical results show that options‐based HRM is positively related to the practice group's explorative and exploitative learning. The intellectual capital mediates the relationships between options‐based HRM and the practice group's learning for exploration and exploitation. This study makes a valuable contribution to the HRM literature by establishing the mechanisms by which HRM enables organizational learning and extending the scope of HRM research to professional service firms. Our findings also provide valuable implications for the literature of organizational learning. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Employer learning and the returns to schooling

Theoretical models of employer learning suggest that an employee's education is an important signal to the employer initially. Over time, however, the returns to schooling should decrease with labor market experience and increase with initially unobserved ability, since the employer gradually obtains better information on the productivity of an employee. Replicating US studies using a large German panel data set (GSOEP), we find no evidence for the employer learning hypothesis. Differentiating blue-collar and white-collar workers and estimating quantile regressions, however, leads to the conclusion that employer learning takes place for blue-collar workers at the lower end of the wage distribution.     

Narrative pedagogy,technology, and curriculum transformation in nursing education

More than 100 years ago, John Dewey, a major influence in American education, argued for the need to “stimulate the spirit of inquiry into actual fact” (Dewey, 2002, p. 118). The debate among politicians and educators about the structure, purpose, and goals of education and inquiry continues. Yet the world has changed, largely because of widely accessible and versatile technologies. We are unclear how Dewey's spirit of inquiry will grow, die, or reinvent itself through boundaryless tools of inquiry such as the Internet, but the technology is here and will not disappear while educators debate best methods. Twenty‐first‐century society demands new ways to learn and understand, and these new ways of learning require new ways of teaching (McPheeters, 2009/2010). For many students, especially the younger generations, technology intertwines with almost all daily activities, including social contact. Many educators lag behind the technological curve and express frustration at the challenge to shift their educational paradigms toward increasingly technological means of communication and interaction, or entertain “virtual realities” as legitimate educational forums. The purpose of this symposium is to examine the role of technology in transforming higher education. The goal is to seek best methods of using technology more effectively to educate learners for the 21st century. The shifts in society's focus and the characteristics of learners going into the future are also critical, and part of this discussion.     

Sisters organising in Japan and Korea: the development of women‐only unions

In this article, I explore the development of women‐only unions in Japan and Korea. Women‐only unions, which organise women workers across enterprises and employment status boundaries in both countries, have appeared only recently and are new areas of research. While the strategy to form autonomous women‐only unions in Japan and Korea is a recent phenomenon, women workers in both countries are continuing a tradition of women's activism that has challenged both management and the male domination of the union movement. By taking a broad scope and by organising the growing non‐full‐time workforce and women employed in small workplaces, the formation of women‐only unions in Japan and Korea is a positive development for both non‐unionised women workers and for the broader workers' movement in general.     

Transformative educational technologies: An interview with Chris Dede

More than 100 years ago, John Dewey, a major influence in American education, argued for the need to “stimulate the spirit of inquiry into actual fact” (Dewey, 2002, p. 118). The debate among politicians and educators about the structure, purpose, and goals of education and inquiry continues. Yet the world has changed, largely because of widely accessible and versatile technologies. We are unclear how Dewey's spirit of inquiry will grow, die, or reinvent itself through boundaryless tools of inquiry such as the Internet, but the technology is here and will not disappear while educators debate best methods. Twenty‐first‐century society demands new ways to learn and understand, and these new ways of learning require new ways of teaching (McPheeters, 2009/2010). For many students, especially the younger generations, technology intertwines with almost all daily activities, including social contact. Many educators lag behind the technological curve and express frustration at the challenge to shift their educational paradigms toward increasingly technological means of communication and interaction, or entertain “virtual realities” as legitimate educational forums. The purpose of this symposium is to examine the role of technology in transforming higher education. The goal is to seek best methods of using technology more effectively to educate learners for the 21st century. The shifts in society's focus and the characteristics of learners going into the future are also critical, and part of this discussion.     

The role of technology in transforming higher education

More than 100 years ago, John Dewey, a major influence in American education, argued for the need to “stimulate the spirit of inquiry into actual fact” (Dewey, 2002, p. 118). The debate among politicians and educators about the structure, purpose, and goals of education and inquiry continues. Yet the world has changed, largely because of widely accessible and versatile technologies. We are unclear how Dewey's spirit of inquiry will grow, die, or reinvent itself through boundaryless tools of inquiry such as the Internet, but the technology is here and will not disappear while educators debate best methods. Twenty‐first‐century society demands new ways to learn and understand, and these new ways of learning require new ways of teaching (McPheeters, 2009/2010). For many students, especially the younger generations, technology intertwines with almost all daily activities, including social contact. Many educators lag behind the technological curve and express frustration at the challenge to shift their educational paradigms toward increasingly technological means of communication and interaction, or entertain “virtual realities” as legitimate educational forums. The purpose of this symposium is to examine the role of technology in transforming higher education. The goal is to seek best methods of using technology more effectively to educate learners for the 21st century. The shifts in society's focus and the characteristics of learners going into the future are also critical, and part of this discussion.     

Leadership in educational technology: Insights from the corporate world

More than 100 years ago, John Dewey, a major influence in American education, argued for the need to “stimulate the spirit of inquiry into actual fact” (Dewey, 2002, p. 118). The debate among politicians and educators about the structure, purpose, and goals of education and inquiry continues. Yet the world has changed, largely because of widely accessible and versatile technologies. We are unclear how Dewey's spirit of inquiry will grow, die, or reinvent itself through boundaryless tools of inquiry such as the Internet, but the technology is here and will not disappear while educators debate best methods. Twenty‐first‐century society demands new ways to learn and understand, and these new ways of learning require new ways of teaching (McPheeters, 2009/2010). For many students, especially the younger generations, technology intertwines with almost all daily activities, including social contact. Many educators lag behind the technological curve and express frustration at the challenge to shift their educational paradigms toward increasingly technological means of communication and interaction, or entertain “virtual realities” as legitimate educational forums. The purpose of this symposium is to examine the role of technology in transforming higher education. The goal is to seek best methods of using technology more effectively to educate learners for the 21st century. The shifts in society's focus and the characteristics of learners going into the future are also critical, and part of this discussion.     

New technologies,new pedagogies: Finding the grail in higher education

More than 100 years ago, John Dewey, a major influence in American education, argued for the need to “stimulate the spirit of inquiry into actual fact” (Dewey, 2002, p. 118). The debate among politicians and educators about the structure, purpose, and goals of education and inquiry continues. Yet the world has changed, largely because of widely accessible and versatile technologies. We are unclear how Dewey's spirit of inquiry will grow, die, or reinvent itself through boundaryless tools of inquiry such as the Internet, but the technology is here and will not disappear while educators debate best methods. Twenty‐first‐century society demands new ways to learn and understand, and these new ways of learning require new ways of teaching (McPheeters, 2009/2010). For many students, especially the younger generations, technology intertwines with almost all daily activities, including social contact. Many educators lag behind the technological curve and express frustration at the challenge to shift their educational paradigms toward increasingly technological means of communication and interaction, or entertain “virtual realities” as legitimate educational forums. The purpose of this symposium is to examine the role of technology in transforming higher education. The goal is to seek best methods of using technology more effectively to educate learners for the 21st century. The shifts in society's focus and the characteristics of learners going into the future are also critical, and part of this discussion.     

Unemployment insurance and job turnover in Spain

The aim of this paper is to shed some light on the potential relationships between the unemployment insurance system and labour market turnover. This study assumes the incentives embedded in the unemployment insurance system have a heterogeneous impact, depending on the type of labour market transition (quits versus layoffs and recalls versus new job entrances) and on a worker's attachment to the labour market (gender and type of contract). The layoff hazard rate increases as workers qualify for unemployment benefits, whilst the quit hazard rate remains stable. Similarly, employment inflow increases sharply after the exhaustion of unemployment benefits. The timing and importance of the exit differ between recalls and new job entry and depend on a worker's attachment to the labour market. The results show that unemployment benefits appear to favour job turnover and both firms' and workers' decisions seem to matter.     

Young workers, learning, and agglomerations

Since the 90s densely populated locations, such as urban areas, have attracted a disproportionate share of young college-educated workers. We explain this stylized fact as a result of colocation due to learning externalities among educated workers. Workers learn from each other when young, increasing their skills and their productivity. Once they grow mature and their learning decreases, some of them choose to move out of densely populated areas. As skills grew more transferable thanks to computerization and flexibility in the 80s and 90s, urban areas became learning grounds for educated young workers.     

Learning in a competitive field: MBA students' improvised case studies of IHRM

Recent management research on improvisation has sought to identify ways that unplanned change and structure are linked when novel solutions appear and develop during action. This article examines an improvised learning approach to the traditional case study method, in which Master of Business Administration (MBA) students learn through preparing and delivering their own case studies. The process of improvised learning is explained within the context of teaching international human resource management/organizational behaviour and analysed by applying Bourdieu's theory of practice which understands the participants' learning to be situated within a competitive social field.

It is concluded that MBA students learn from this improvised approach provided that the professor's role accommodates being a case study expert with the roles of teaching and learning consultant. The concept of competitive field is recommended as a tool for management educators' reflection upon enabling MBA students to develop their capabilities in designing and delivering management learning sessions.     

The impact of creativity on performance in non-profits

• This article examines how creative climate affects learning orientation and its relationship to organizational performance. The study also assesses creativity's link with market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and organizational flexibility. Past research on creativity climate has explored areas such as the arts, high-tech, information technology, media, and the sciences. The focus of this study is to assess creativity's role in managerial decision-making in the non-profit sector. Sound use of creativity can improve planning, implementation, and control by non-profit organization executives.

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Theoretical foundations for the study of sociomateriality

This paper compares two alternative theoretical foundations upon which the study of sociomateriality can be built: agential realism and critical realism. It begins by providing a brief overview of the sociomaterial perspective on organizational practices and considers why this perspective holds great appeal at this point in time. I then engage with Mutch's (2013) critique of the agential realist foundation upon which most current discussions of sociomateriality are constructed to highlight what practical problems are generated when authors attempt to map agential realism's philosophical discussion onto empirical phenomena. Next, I attempt to make explicit what Mutch leaves implicit in his paper: how building studies of sociomateriality on the theoretical foundation offered by critical realism can, potentially, overcome some of the practical problems created by a footing on agential realism. Finally, I push Mutch's arguments one step further to compare what practical consequences arise when researchers attempt to construct studies of sociomateriality on either of these two theoretical foundations. I suggest that there are important implications for what one can study, how one can study it, and how scholars can contribute to theory on technology and organizing based on the theoretical foundation they choose to build upon.     

Unemployed Chinese workers: the survivors,the worried young and the discouraged old

The forces of globalization and the wave of economic reform in the People's Republic of China have led to government policies to downsize state-owned enterprises and support a competitive labour market. Chinese workers who have been laid off ( xiagang ) are leaving the 'iron rice-bowl' security of the socialist state. Unemployment produces personal challenges for laid-off workers and human resource policy challenges for the government. For workers, xiagang and unemployment status mean they must cope with the unfamiliar challenges of job search and the threat of economic hardship. But how unemployment influences workers' lives is strikingly diverse in its impacts. Distinctly different patterns emerge for workers depending on: 1) their position in the social structure and stage of life, 2) their available skills and coping resources, and 3) their experience of economic and psychological distress. The present study reports survey responses of a sample of 2,412 laid-off Chinese workers in seven cities in China and identifies three distinct sub-groups of unemployed workers: 1) 'Survivors': more confident and better educated workers, 2) 'The Worried Young': distressed younger workers with few coping resources, and 3) 'The Discouraged Old': older workers with less education looking towards retirement. Each of these groups of workers views their circumstances and life prospects in quite different ways. Our results are examined in the context of the literature on social change and the life course. Our findings also suggest different human resource policies for each of these groups of workers.     

US firms' evaluation of employee credentials in international business

This paper updates a 1991 survey of salaries and careers among US-based international business professionals and managers. These employees typically offer a high level of both international and functional qualifications, implying that aspiring workers need substantial credentials to compete in this market. International credentials directly increase salaries only modestly, suggesting a rough balance of supply and demand for these qualifications. Larger salary premiums are commanded by functional specialties utilizing new information technology. Comparisons of the 1999 and 1991 surveys document partial convergence in employers' treatment of men and women but remaining 'glass ceiling' barriers to women's advancement.     

Complexity, Identity and the Value of Knowledge-intensive Exchanges

ABSTRACT Researchers studying the structural embeddedness of firms in networks have focused on its effects on economic behaviour, strategic action and competitive behaviour, but network embeddedness as a source of firm value per se has been largely overlooked. I argue that neglecting the network context in which firms are embedded leads to an incomplete understanding of the value of the firm. I seek to understand how a focal firm's structural embeddedness network characteristics function as mechanisms that elucidate the value of its knowledge‐intensive exchanges. This paper presents a framework that identifies two processes of knowing exchange value, namely knowing through a learning bandwagon and knowing through a fad bandwagon. I argue that knowing value as a learning bandwagon is enabled by the normative and cognitive proximity of exchange partners, and that this is facilitated by the embeddedness of the focal firm in dense network structures. Knowing value as a fad bandwagon is based on a positional construction of the focal firm's status, which is determined by the centrality of the focal firm's network partners in their corresponding networks. This is a ranking system based on positional network data, whose efficacy stems from the inability of firms to manipulate their network positions.