Geoffrey R Chapman

Organisational change: communicating to Schein's operator, engineer and executive occupational subcultures

There has been substantial academic interest surrounding innovation, change management and the individual attributes that permit and promote learning, organisational change and innovative behaviour. This research uses a psychometric tool known as the Instinctive Drives System® to measure preferred working styles in 3943 employees from a range of international companies. These employees were then classified into three groups (engineers, operators and executives) following Scheins classification of occupational subcultures. This study reveals significant differences between the occupational subcultures, suggesting that executives are more inclined towards variety, flexibility and change rather than routine and structure. In contrast, operators and engineers demonstrated preferences for logic and certainty. These results have a range of implications, for researchers and practitioners. Researchers can extend the results of this study, and further explore the differences found between executives and managers from different subcultures. Practitioners may use the results to initiate change to integrate preferred working styles.

The Ageing Population in Australia: Implications for the Workforce

The ageing population creates ongoing opportunities and challenges to engage an older workforce in Australia. This chapter discusses some of these opportunities and challenges by providing a demographic overview of the ageing population and ageing workforce before discussing generational differences, and age diversity practices that may be implemented to respond to this social challenge. Following this, the chapter then discusses strategies that could be used to attract and retain an age-diverse workforce before concluding that a multitude of approaches is needed to respond more effectively to population ageing and to capture the full benefits of a diverse workforce.

Best Practices in Knowledge Management: A Review of Contemporary Approaches in a Globalised World

In the contemporary business environment, organisations are often required to cope with, respond to and often instigate rapid and significant changes. Due to this highly volatile context, it has become increasingly difficult to meaningfully identify and report best practices in any given field. Knowledge management (KM), and its associated practices and policies, is no different; if anything, it is even more impacted by this constant state of flux. Despite this challenge, however, it does remain possible to identify a range of ideas and activities in recent years that have resulted in substantial benefits for the organisations that have adopted them. This chapter considers KM both as competency and as an organisational process, and presents a review of what the KM literature currently considers to be the key ideas, practices and initiatives, including specific tools used to enhance KM within firms. The chapter then concludes by showcasing a range of successful KM activities from companies around the world.