Browsing by Author "Young, Malcolm"

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    Configuring in high velocity error sensitive circumstances: A grounded study
    (Cranfield University, 2005-12) Young, Malcolm; Partington, David
    The operational reliability of organizations that deal on a routine basis with very dynamic circumstances has been a rich domain of study for organizational scholars for many years. Increasing reliance on the application of complex technologies and human processes in a range of social endeavour provokes our need to understand the attributes of such processes. Traditional contingency theoretic perspectives tend to produce archetypal resolutions that identify in rather specific terms what organizational forms can be matched with particular environmental characteristics. But as the organizational environment becomes more dynamic this approach seems less credible. This research therefore moves beyond the search for archetypes to investigate the processes by which resources are configured in order to deal with dynamic circumstances. Further, with self-managed teams increasingly acknowledged to be central to performance, contributing to fast, flexible and creative action and therefore used as the fundamental work group, this study focuses on the meso-level of the team. This helps to limit the scope of the research task while still offering opportunities for good theoretical and practical contribution. Adopting a grounded, qualitative methodology it triangulates evidence from three dissimilar domains (accident and emergency, air traffic control and fire service) that share a common context of unpredictability, high velocity and error sensitivity. The findings identify a specific type of situated behaviour, termed agile configuration, by which team members configure remarkably flexible and reliable behaviours in very dynamic situations, suggesting an almost limitless range of potential configuring behaviours that avoid the limitations of configurational archetypes. The adduced models and explanations provide theoretical insights that increase understanding of behaviour in extreme contingencies and therefore advance traditional contingency theoretic perspectives, with particular relevance for concepts of dynamic capability. These outcomes also have practical potential for the development of agile configuration competence in self managed teams and larger organizational groupings.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Configuring in high velocity error sensitive circumstances: A grounded study
    (Cranfield University, 2005-12) Young, Malcolm; Partington, David
    The operational reliability of organizations that deal on a routine basis with very dynamic circumstances has been a rich domain of study for organizational scholars for many years. Increasing reliance on the application of complex technologies and human processes in a range of social endeavour provokes our need to understand the attributes of such processes. Traditional contingency theoretic perspectives tend to produce archetypal resolutions that identify in rather specific terms what organizational forms can be matched with particular environmental characteristics. But as the organizational environment becomes more dynamic this approach seems less credible. This research therefore moves beyond the search for archetypes to investigate the processes by which resources are configured in order to deal with dynamic circumstances. Further, with self-managed teams increasingly acknowledged to be central to performance, contributing to fast, flexible and creative action and therefore used as the fundamental work group, this study focuses on the meso-level of the team. This helps to limit the scope of the research task while still offering opportunities for good theoretical and practical contribution. Adopting a grounded, qualitative methodology it triangulates evidence from three dissimilar domains (accident and emergency, air traffic control and fire service) that share a common context of unpredictability, high velocity and error sensitivity. The findings identify a specific type of situated behaviour, termed agile configuration, by which team members configure remarkably flexible and reliable behaviours in very dynamic situations, suggesting an almost limitless range of potential configuring behaviours that avoid the limitations of configurational archetypes. The adduced models and explanations provide theoretical insights that increase understanding of behaviour in extreme contingencies and therefore advance traditional contingency theoretic perspectives, with particular relevance for concepts of dynamic capability. These outcomes also have practical potential for the development of agile configuration competence in self managed teams and larger organizational groupings.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Configuring knowledge in practice-grounded research networks: a Contemporary Example
    (2002-08) Partington, David; Young, Malcolm
    Management scholars have an opportunity to play two important roles in helping to address the practice-grounded management research agenda. First, they are wellplaced to act as cross-sector integrators of management knowledge within networks of organizations which are faced with similar management problems but which are otherwise dissimilar and unconnected. Second, they potentially have access to a wide range of advanced or specialized research skills, in particular the development and application of innovative quantitative and qualitative methods to new problems. In this paper we describe a research initiative that aims to combine these two roles in the pursuit of knowledge about the characteristics of competent strategy implementers. Taking the perspective of strategic programs, we highlight important theoretical differences between programs and rationalistic, reductionist, generic approaches to project management which, for many management professionals, are the principal source of program management knowledge. We argue that a variant of the interpretive research approach known as phenomenography may be combined with traditional, rigorous grounded theorizing to answer important practically-oriented questions about program management competence, with the ultimate aim of generating useful knowledge about the selection and development of strategic program managers in contrasting contexts.
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    Teamworking and Knowledge Management: A Review of Converging Themes.
    (Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2002-03) Sapsed, Jonathan; Bessant, John; Partington, David; Tranfield, David; Young, Malcolm
    The teamworking and knowledge management fields are increasingly converging. Teamworking is turned to with a growing disillusion with knowledge management approaches that are seen as excessively `hard', `objectified', or `information technology dominated'. This paper is a critical review, the purpose of which is to survey the literature across several fields that provide insights into teamworking aspects of knowledge management, and the reverse. This approach is chosen as disciplines tend to sustain presumptions and preoccupations that may be contradicted by other fields, as is shown. In particular, the review challenges what is referred to as the `organizational behaviour textbook theory of teamworking' and refers to research and theory from several disciplines that qualify what is still an influential orthodoxy. The paper attempts to draw together some principles from current themes such as collective mind, modularity, cross-functional teams and communities of practice.