Maria Rita Tagliaventi

The role of networks of practice, value sharing, and operational proximity in knowledge flows between professional groups

This article investigates the process of knowledge sharing between individuals in different professional groups. Through an ethnographic study in a hospital unit, we examine the individuals’ involvement in networks of practice, their sharing of organizational values, and their operational proximity. Recent attention to networks of practice has led to a view of organizations as crossroads of networks; accordingly, boundary relations between different networks of practice are of core relevance to ensure knowledge diffusion in organizations, but empirical evidence is still lacking. Our grounded theory supports the idea that working side-by-side and having common organizational values are important bases for knowledge transfer between professional groups which belong to different networks of practice. Boundary knowledge transfer evokes new kinds of organizational citizenship behaviours. Professionals who initiate the transfer exhibit extra-role behaviours which, in turn, require the recipient to perform extra-role behaviours as well. Implications of knowledge sharing between professional groups are discussed together with recommendations for managerial action.

A Grounded Theory for Resistance to Change in a Small Organization

This paper focuses on the process that generates resistance to change in a small organization. We build a grounded theory that interprets resistance to change in terms of interdependencies between the characteristics of the economic environment and of the industry, the dispositions of individuals, and the patterning of their actions within the social network. These three levels of analysis are mainly investigated separately from one another in empirical studies. An Italian small manufacturing firm was the object of our field study. Observations, ethnographic interviews and analysis of documents were the techniques employed.

Sociometric location and innovation: how the social network intervenes between the structural position of early adopters and changes in the power map

Abstract The introduction and development of innovation in small and medium-sized firms has most often been considered as being driven by the entrepreneur-owner who is supposed to conceive the innovation and then consistently sponsor and pursue its implementation within the organization. However, when the innovation turns from an abstract idea into a change embedded within a social network, fear of modifying the power map within the network can lead to inconsistent behaviors on the part of the owner, who may even try to make the innovation process fail. An ethnographic study was carried out in a small Italian firm that manufactures staircases, observing from start to finish the process by which a new Information System was implemented. From the field notes, clear pro- and anti-innovation coalitions emerged. The findings of the study noted that the entrepreneur-owner, although unanimously acknowledged to have argued in favor of the innovation, withdrew his support from its implementation when he realized that, contrary to his expectations, it increased the power of a few core actors defined, in this instance, as those actors with greater and more sought-after technical know-how and skills.

Discovering complex interdependencies in organizational settings

Purpose – The papers aim is twofold: to display how the application of social network analysis techniques to observational data provides researchers with a unique set of data to make sense of the dynamics of organizational settings; to contribute to knowledge on group design, self‐managing teams, and processes of technology diffusion.Design/methodology/approach – The paper focuses on the findings of qualitative research, recently published, that were conducted in a major Italian clothing company producing garments for the top‐end market. Observation, ethnographic interviews and analysis of documents for data collection were employed. Coding procedures and social network analysis techniques were used to analyse data.Findings – The long presence in the field allowed for the building of two grounded theories. One deals with the process of Computer Aided Design technology diffusion into a small group and it connects a number of variables usually studied separately in the literature. The second accounts for t...

Spontaneous Self-Managing Practices in Groups: Evidence from the Field

This study, based on qualitative research, accounts for a process of collective and spontaneous self-managing practices in a group formally structured as a manager-led team. It explains the group members’ reactions to different types of work arrangements and their coordination in terms of their need to affirm their professional identity. The characteristics of the organizational context, of the labor market, and of the technology involved favor the emergence of self-management, too. The authors employed observation, ethnographic interviews, and analysis of documents in conducting this research.

One size does not fit all: the influence of individual and contextual factors on research excellence in academia

ABSTRACT Research excellence has been the main thrust of higher education reforms in several countries, but its translation into coherent policies has proved to be controversial. Literature has delved into the role exerted by contextual factors and individual characteristics in the adoption of behaviours inspired by social values. Our study aims at investigating the effect of individual and contextual features and their interplay in the quest for research excellence. We formulate and test hypotheses on a dataset collecting the publication records of the population of 4510 Italian academics in business and management and in architecture in the 2004–2013 period. Findings disclose that, alongside previous achievements, research-oriented settings favour research excellence. In addition, we show that a research-oriented context enhances the publication record of academics without highly ranked publications, whereas it slightly reduces the productivity of outstanding academics. Implications for public policy, especially in terms of performance measurement systems, are presented.

How to Model the Adoption and Perception of Precision Agriculture Technologies

The adoption of precision agriculture has shown to positively affect the performance of farms, even though its benefits vary according to the size of farms and their location. In light of the promising avenue that precision agriculture opens up, it is essential to understand which factors may facilitate its diffusion, and through which processes. This chapter focuses on the models proposed to explain technology adoption: Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Motivational Model, Technology Acceptance Model, TAM2 and TAM3, Combined TAM and TPB, Model of PC Utilization, Innovation Diffusion Theory, Social Cognitive Theory and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. We analyse contributions targeting specifically the agricultural domain. Remarkably, most models and papers share the perspective that individual factors account for the willingness of individuals to engage in technology adoption, and there is a progressive commonality of factors between models based on different theories. In addition to individual-level features, some models analyse the relevance of environmental and social factors in prompting technology diffusion, thus depicting a more comprehensive framework to aid understanding of the dynamics linked to the adoption of precision agriculture. Eventually, some reflection on how to expand knowledge of precision agriculture along this line of reasoning aimed at integrating personal and social characteristics is offered. The importance of social network patterns and of social support in entrepreneurial initiatives that sustain adoption of precision agriculture is stressed in this chapter.

Aligning consultants' routines and organizational identity to foster exploration and exploitation

Although hard to be preserved, a balance between exploration and exploitation becomes pivotal for competing in changing environments. As some theoretical speculations suggest, consultants as ‘innovators’, given their cognitive distance, favor the development of exploration, and, consultants as ‘legitimators’, having lower cognitive distance, stimulate exploitation. We investigate how organizations can pursue exploration and exploitation leveraging their relation with consultants. In our three cases studies, companies ensuing exploration and exploitation are investigated with semi-structured interviews and content analysis. Through a three-step coding of interviews and documents, we built a grounded model which explains how new routines from consultants become the object of a process of alignment in companies. We found that managers and employees assess the alignment of new routines with what their organization is. Surprisingly, what is affected by the introduction of new routines is organizational identity: while some existing attributes of identity are reinforced through legitimation, others are introduced through innovation. We contribute to the understanding of the role of external knowledge in the development of exploration and exploitation capabilities in consulting projects showing how capabilities can originate from an alignment process of new routines with very intimate attributes of organizational identity, which routines from consultants are attained to match.

Doing what you are or becoming what you do: the interplay between identity and dynamic capabilities

We surprisingly know little about the process through which dynamic capabilities are generated and developed within organizations. When organizations cope with changes, they need to challenge the very essence and reflect upon the core attributes that make their employees respond to the question of ‘who are we as an organization?’, i.e. organizational identity. In this study we investigate the interplay between organizational identity and the development of dynamic capabilities. Our two qualitative case studies of Italian companies show that the search for coherence between the new routines introduced from outside (i.e. consultants) and organizational identity engenders the development of dynamic capabilities. In the first case, the introduction of new routines triggered the definition of a new organizational identity coherent with the underlying practices, and turned into the development of replication dynamic capabilities. In the second case, an enduring identity inspired the redefinition of the routines and contributed to the development of adaptation dynamic capabilities. The paper discusses contributions to the literatures about dynamic capabilities and organizational identity, as well as practical implications.

Social Networks and Group Effectiveness: The Role of External Network Ties

This research explores the relationship between group effectiveness and social networks. Through a 5-month ethnographic observation within three work groups employed in one of the major Italian fashion firm, we recorded all interactions occurring within the groups and outside the groups’ boundaries, thereby deriving the enacted communication network. Then, by means of structured interviews, we collected evaluations of group effectiveness. The evaluations given to the three groups differ and such difference cannot be traced back to the amount of communication network activated nor to the level of group members’ competencies, nor to their internal network structure. The field evidence suggests that the better evaluation received by one group relates to the quality of the relationships it sets up with external actors. This group assumes a coordinating role in the whole product development process: in particular, it spontaneously triggers, through reciprocal interactions, modalities of collaborative design, not formally required, which are rewarded by organizational members’ higher evaluations. The study has implications for social networks research by pointing to the importance to grasp the actual content of network relationships, thus going beyond the assessment of their presence and/or strength, in order to fully comprehend how network ties really influence organizational members’ perceptions and actions.