Kathleen Dechant

Teams as Learners A Research-Based Model of Team Learning

Organizational literature heralds the value of team learning but does not provide a research-based description of it. This article describes a model of team learning that was derived empirically from case studies in two companies, one with a cross section of employees in a petrochemical company and the second in a data-processing unit that had been reorganized into self-managed teams in a manufacturing company. The authors draw conclusions about changes in learning processes, conditions, and perceptions of time and explore research implications regarding human dynamics.

Towards modelling the effects of national culture on IT implementation and acceptance

Two of the most significant forces shaping organizations are globalization and the continued, rapid and, some would say, radical changes taking place in information technology (IT). To date, the extant literature has centred on the technology acceptance model (TAM) because it is arguably one of the most widely cited and influential models used for explaining the acceptance of IT. However, this literature has remained relatively silent with respect to the role that differences in national culture might play in IT acceptance as globalization continues. In order to begin to address this deficit, this paper offers a series of research propositions that explore the potential impact of differences in national culture on IT implementation and acceptance. Specifically, the paper explores the effects of culturally induced beliefs – including individualism–collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, long-/short-term orientation and power distance – on the implementation processes that impact on key variables in the TAM. The paper then discusses the potential importance of the revisions it has made for both researchers interested in employing the model for predicting IT acceptance in cross-cultural contexts and for managers faced with introducing new IT in a global organization.

TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF ARAB WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN BAHRAIN AND OMAN

Entrepreneurship has become a defining business trend in many countries throughout the world. The ranks of entrepreneurs contain a sizable contingent of women. As a result, research into the pathways of entrepreneurship as a general phenomenon as well as a career option for women has flourished in recent years. However, very little of this research has focused on women entrepreneurs in Arab countries, particularly those around the Gulf of Arabia, where private enterprise is viewed as a way for these nations to reduce their reliance on oil and their dependence on expatriate (foreign) workers. This study of the business start-up experiences of ten Arab women from Bahrain and Oman can serve as a starting point for such research. Although based on a non-representative sample, it suggests that the experiences of the Arab women entrepreneurs studied generally parallel those of their counterparts from other parts of the world with a few distinct differences. These differences relate to securing start-up capital and other resources, networking, and work/family balance. Infused with Arab and Islamic values, the unique cultural milieu played a major role in shaping the entrepreneurial experiences of the Bahraini and Omani business owners studied.

Towards a model of team learning

Team learning is not a well researched or examined phenomenon. This paper describes a team learning model that grew out of case study research in one company. The model is derived in part by drawing on the literatures of both group dynamics and adult learning. Team learning processes and phases are described and illustrated. The paper concludes with implications for adult educators who work with teams in organisations.

Knowing How to Learn: The ″Neglected″ Management Ability

Managers are, whether they realise it or not, the architects of their own development: this is often overlooked or avoided in many executive development programmes. Self‐directed learning, the primary learning strategy employed by managers during periods of non‐formal learning, is discussed.

Contextualizing Team Learning: Implications for Research and Practice

The problem and the solution. Cultural dimensions such as power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity, and cohesiveness all influence team learning processes, conditions, and outcomes. This creates unique and diverse challenges for human resource development professionals working with teams. These challenges require mindful and creative approaches to interventions to facilitating team learning through the use of metaphors and methods of providing for equivocality and anonymity.

Team learning: A model for effectiveness in high performing teams

Team learning — what does it look like and why is it important? Peter Senge (1990) made the statement in The Fifth Discipline that teams are the fundamental units of learning in organizations. In order for the organization to learn, teams must learn. The literature, however, has not yet provided much in the way of a research-based description of either team learning processes or the conditions that foster them. This discussion presents the results of a seminal study on team learning conducted by the authors, which produced a model of team learning. It also relates highlights from two dissertation studies that affirm the model and provide additional insight into the nature of team learning in corporate settings.

Making the Most of Job Assignments: An Exercise in Planning for Learning

This article contains an exercise in planning to learn from job assignments derived from a recent study and the literature on self-directed learning. It proposes a frame-work and a process intended to help students who are managers and professionals view, plan, and analyze their job assignments using the lens of learning. As such, it enables them to become architects of their own development in a conscious, proac-tive way.

How Managers Learn in the Knowledge Era

The Problem and the Solution. Self-directed learning ought to be natural, but questions have been raised about peoples capacity to carry it out and about the support organizations can and should provide for it By comparing self- directed learning by managers in two studies conducted approximately a decade apart, the author shows that such learning is not easy and has been made even more complex by the changing nature of managerial work The author describes an effective way to look at planning, implementing, and evaluating self-directed learning, using an open-systems framework She also explores challenges to self- directed learning from technology, the increasing speed of decision making in organizations, and the need to manage a decentralized workforce

Using systems theory to conceptualize the implementation of undergraduate online education in a university setting

As participants in the process of exploring how to formalize and develop undergraduate online education at the University of Connecticut, the authors share their experiences relative to the challenges of identifying and addressing the diverse factors involved in such an endeavor. Recognizing the importance of multi-level organizational change in building, integrating, and sustaining an online learning environment, they utilize systems theory as a unifying framework to better analyze the nature and impact of the changes required to create an environment to support online education within a university.