Moira Fischbacher-Smith

Barriers to organizational learning

Over the past century, educational psychologists and researchers have posited many theories to explain how individuals learn, i.e. how they acquire, organize and deploy knowledge and skills. The 20th century can be considered the century of psychology on learning and related fields of interest (such as motivation, cognition, metacognition etc.) and it is fascinating to see the various mainstreams of learning, remembered and forgotten over the 20th century and note that basic assumptions of early theories survived several paradigm shifts of psychology and epistemology. Beyond folk psychology and its naive theories of learning, psychological learning theories can be grouped into some basic categories, such as behaviorist learning theories, connectionist learning theories, cognitive learning theories, constructivist learning theories, and social learning theories.Learning theories are not limited to psychology and related fields of interest but rather we can find the topic of learning in various disciplines, such as philosophy and epistemology, education, information science, biology, and – as a result of the emergence of computer technologies – especially also in the field of computer sciences and artificial intelligence. As a consequence, machine learning struck a chord in the 1980s and became an important field of the learning sciences in general. As the learning sciences became more specialized and complex, the various fields of interest were widely spread and separated from each other; as a consequence, even presently, there is no comprehensive overview of the sciences of learning or the central theoretical concepts and vocabulary on which researchers rely. The Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning provides an up-to-date, broad and authoritative coverage of the specific terms mostly used in the sciences of learning and its related fields, including relevant areas of instruction, pedagogy, cognitive sciences, and especially machine learning and knowledge engineering. This modern compendium will be an indispensable source of information for scientists, educators, engineers, and technical staff active in all fields of learning. More specifically, the Encyclopedia provides fast access to the most relevant theoretical terms provides up-to-date, broad and authoritative coverage of the most important theories within the various fields of the learning sciences and adjacent sciences and communication technologies; supplies clear and precise explanations of the theoretical terms, cross-references to related entries and up-to-date references to important research and publications. The Encyclopedia also contains biographical entries of individuals who have substantially contributed to the sciences of learning; the entries are written by a distinguished panel of researchers in the various fields of the learning sciences.Definition Within constructivist theories the sensorimotor schema is held to be the principal unit of knowledge in use during infancy. A sensorimotor schema is a psychological construct which gathers together the perceptions and associated actions involved in the performance of one of the habitual behaviors in the infant’s repertoire. The schema represents knowledge generalized from all the experiences of that behavior. It includes knowledge about the context in which the behavior was performed as well as expectations about the effects. Sensorimotor schemas are central to Jean Piaget’s explanation of infant development.Definition Barriers to organizational learning are seen as those systems and behaviors that prevent or inhibit organizations from adapting to the main decision-making challenges that they face. They can also arise from the processes of identifying and adopting new behaviors and practices in light of successes and failures. These barriers can occur at multiple levels within and between organizations, and involve both individual and group processes and behaviors.

Purchaser Provider Relationships and Innovation: A Case Study of GP Purchasing in Glasgow

In1990,theUKGovernmentembarkedonafundamentalreformoftheNHS.Working for Patients (Department of Health, 1989) introduced a splitbetween purchasers and providers of health care, and heralded theintroductionofanewbreedofeconomicactors,GPfundholders(GPFH).One aspect of the Government’s vision was that GPFHs would contractwith their providers for the health care of their practice population. WhereGPFHs became dissatisfied with the hospital care their patients werereceiving,theywouldswitchprovider.Competitionwasintendedto:

We May Remember But What Did We Learn? Dealing with Errors, Crimes and Misdemeanours Around Adverse Events in Healthcare

This paper seeks to provide both a retrospective and prospective view on the issues surrounding the generation of adverse events within healthcare. It aims to deal with a range of issues around the individual as a means of making mistakes or violating the rules within the organisation. It sets the issue of patient safety into its historical context before highlighting the shift in thinking that accompanied the publication of an Organisation with a Memory (OWAM) by the Department of Health. The paper considers the challenges that surround the shift away from a person-centric approach to adverse events to one that recognises the importance of latent factors in shaping the conditions in which people can make mistakes and violate. The paper concludes by setting out several propositions for further research and the changes in managerial practice that are needed within healthcare in order to begin to achieve the core aim of OWAM which is to ensure that organisations remember and learn from adverse events.

Tales of the Unexpected Issues Around the Development of a Crisis Management Module for the MBA Program

Crisis Management teaching has not featured within business schools to the extent that we might expect given the crises witnessed in a range of business sectors over recent years. One of the criticisms voiced against the MBA degree is that it has too great a focus on the rational and positivistic approaches to dealing with managerial problems. Organizational crises provide a challenge to that paradigm and suggest that a more critical approach to dealing with the management curriculum is required. This article provides an account of a stand-alone course in crisis management that has been delivered over a 20-year period in a number of institutions worldwide. The authors set out how the course is designed and delivered to bridge the gap between academia and business practice, how it makes use of evidence-based management, and how a critical approach is embedded throughout. The authors also discuss some of the challenges associated with designing and delivering a course that is multidisciplinary and technically demanding.

What Lies Beneath? The Role of Informal and Hidden Networks in the Management of Crises

Crisis management research traditionally focuses on the role of formal communication networks in the escalation and management of organisational crises. Here, we consider instead informal and unobservable networks. The paper explores how hidden informal exchanges can impact upon organisational decision-making and performance, particularly around inter-agency working, as knowledge distributed across organisations and shared between organisations is often shared through informal means and not captured effectively through the formal decision-making processes. Early warnings and weak signals about potential risks and crises are therefore often missed. We consider the implications of these dynamics in terms of crisis avoidance and crisis management.

The Vulnerability of Public Spaces: Challenges for UK hospitals under the ‘new’ terrorist threat

This article considers the challenges for hospitals in the United Kingdom that arise from the threats of mass-casualty terrorism. Whilst much has been written about the role of health care as a rescuer in terrorist attacks and other mass-casualty crises, little has been written about health care as a victim within a mass-emergency setting. Yet, health care is a key component of any nations contingency planning and an erosion of its capabilities would have a significant impact on the generation of a wider crisis following a mass-casualty event. This article seeks to highlight the nature of the challenges facing elements of UK health care, with a focus on hospitals both as essential contingency responders under the United Kingdoms civil contingencies legislation and as potential victims of terrorism. It seeks to explore the potential gaps that exist between the task demands facing hospitals and the vulnerabilities that exist within them.

Health risks from environmental degradation in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Local communities within oil producing countries in Africa often face formidable environmental challenges that generate conflicts and concerns around exploitation, environmental impact, and health risks. A key feature of these concerns has been the paucity of effective risk communication mechanisms and the impact this has on the public understanding of risk. Risk communication has been identified as a significant factor in explaining why the health consequences of environmental degradation remain unabated in oil producing communities. This paper evaluates health risk communication in the oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The study is based on 69 interviews conducted in the Niger Delta region. The paper argues that the health of the local population is being impaired by risk incidences relating to oil and gas exploration activities, the effects of which are amplified by inadequate communication of health risks to the public. The study argues for and suggests ways in which health risk communication processes can be improved in the Niger Delta. A multi-dimensional framework for public health risk communication is developed as a means of advancing understanding, practice, and policy.

Crisis management as a critical perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to draw the authors experience of teaching a crisis management module within a range of MBA programmes in the UK, EU and USA. A key characteristic of the module was its development as a means of critiquing conventional approaches to management education. The paper details that experience. Design/methodology/approach – It reviews the literature on management education that has been critical of prescriptive and “toolkit-based” approaches to MBA education. Findings – An approach to a crisis management course is shown to provide a means of challenging dominant theoretical and practical approaches to management. Practical implications – The paper identifies challenges and personal and academic benefits for educators and students when engaging with critical perspectives and critical pedagogies. Originality/value – Through introducing the notion of crisis management, the paper discusses the importance of challenging theory and practice and creating within students, an appet...

Mind the gaps: managing difference in partnership working

Community health partnerships in Scotland were given a renewed centrality in health policy during 2014. They have, however, experienced mixed success in their 10-year history. Drawing on interviews with senior managers in a large community health partnership, this paper highlights the challenges of leading and managing change and integration across organizational boundaries, seeks to learn from the failures that occurred, and considers the implications for policy implementation in the future.

Light me up: power and expertise in risk communication and policy-making in the e-cigarette health debates

Abstract This paper presents a detailed account of policy-making in a contemporary risk communication arena, where strong power dynamics are at play that have hitherto lacked theoretical analysis and empirical validation. Specifically, it expands on the understanding of how public health policy decisions are made when there is a weak evidential base and where multiple interpretations, power dynamics and values are brought to bear on issues of risk and uncertainty. The aim of the paper is to understand the role that power and expertise play in shaping public health risk communication within policy-related debates. By drawing on insight from a range of literatures, the paper argues that there several interacting factors that shape how a particular narrative gains prominence within a wider set of perspectives and how the arguments and findings associated with that perspective become amplified within the context of policy choices. These findings are conceptualised into a new model – a policy evaluation risk communication (PERC) framework – and are then tested using the Electronic cigarette debate as a case study.