Susan C. Morton

Managing Relationships to Improve Performance: A case study in the global aerospace industry

Organizations wishing to succeed in the competitive climate of the contemporary marketplace will need to differentiate themselves from competitors. World-class product development is considered the key to competitive advantage and, to compete effectively in global markets, organizations need to be proficient at this core activity. The knowledge-intensive process of product development will benefit from strategic alliances with customers based on trust and mutual benefit. This paper reports on research which developed a managerial tool that allows manufacturing organizations to understand the impacts of relationships at the boundaries of their internal and external activities. It focuses upon the importance of collaboration to forming and maintaining productive relationships within and between organizations. Such an approach will help organizations, and the individuals within them, to identify appropriate internal and inter-organizational network development strategies. An important assumption that underlies its development is that the model will improve project and product development performance by improving communication flows through enhanced networked relationships between team members, and hence improve the overall performance of the organization. This paper sets the research context and presents results of action research with a team of engineers from a large organization in the aerospace industry. It reveals the crucial importance of trust in underpinning successful internal and inter-organizational relationships. It is suggested that the tool provides a convenient methodology for measuring and benchmarking relational network performance.

Collaboration networks and collaboration tools: a match for SMEs?

Global patterns of industrial production have resulted in relocation of industrial operations groups in an effort to create new markets for mass and customised mass production. The collaborative effort between these dispersed teams increases the likelihood of combining ideas and knowledge in novel ways. Internet technologies enable these virtual collaboration networks to seamlessly engage in discussions that demonstrate a richness of perspectives when it comes to problem-solving and innovative idea-exchange. Indeed, knowledge creation and harnessing collective knowledge are salient features of collaborative networks (CNs) and this is witnessed by a new interest in these entities. However, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) display a difficulty in partnering and collaborating in global networks, especially since their technological infrastructure may be lacking. Given the widespread adoption of collaborative technologies in social contexts, this research seeks to examine how such informal interactions are facilitated in SMEs through Web 2.0 tools. Specifically, this paper seeks to contribute to existing literature by examining how Web 2.0 affects the collaborative effort in two SME CNs; this study demonstrated that the collaboration effort is amplified when Web 2.0 tools are available. Other parameters such as trust in other members’ ability; perception of usefulness; and enhancement of collective knowledge are seen as supporting the CN mutuality. In addition, it brings together the three diverse research areas of collaborative networks, internet collaborative tools and psychological barriers and enablers.

Managing the informal organisation: conceptual model

Management thinking has seen organisations group product development activities in a number of ways in the quest to improve performance. The implementation of multi‐disciplinary teams has been recognised as a means of rapidly improving the way product development activities are managed. However, such an approach is not without its ills. Moreover, Hendersons research (Henderson, R., “Managing innovation in the information age”, Harvard Business Review, January, 1994, Reprint no. 94105) indicates that what governs product development success is the ability of the company to overcome the boundaries of any organisational grouping, rather than the type of organisation structure adopted. This research seeks to corroborate Hendersons propositions in a number of different industrial settings. Social network analysis helped embody the theory into a specification for a model to visualise and manipulate the informal organisation and the on‐going research activities further developed the specification into a working model that has been trialed in a number of different industrial settings. This paper sets the research context and presents the results thus far, both in the context of knowledge from academic research and practical application of the model. The working model has been able to manipulate the informal organisation by enabling visualisation of “core knowledge communities”, generating discussion, and supplying focus for individuals and teams to manage relationships more effectively and hence improve product development performance. Implications for further use of the model are reported, together with its potential for improving performance in organisational areas external to product development.

Path dependent constraints on innovation programmes in production and operations management

Innovation has been categorised into levels, ranging from incremental to radical, each of which has the potential to impact on the workforce and the organisation of a company, influenced by contextual factors. This paper investigates the barriers to innovation diffusion in companies working at these two ends of the innovation scale, in order to identify similarities and differences in how levels of innovation affect an organisation and how culture affects success. It also considers these factors in light of the path dependency concept. Investigations were conducted on a case study basis, using semi-structured interviews. This led to the creation of force field analysis diagrams to portray the findings, which show the radical innovation implementation has experienced greater resistance than the incremental programme. Conclusions show that there were many similarities between the radical and incremental innovation projects. Differences were primarily based on project specific forces and those that occur as a result of path dependant forces that have shaped the current working environment. Organisational culture was found to be a significant influence, as all innovation programmes require the involvement of people. Findings of this study will contribute to theory on the differential and similar forces which shape incremental and radical innovations.

A framework for evaluating the benefits of collaborative technologies in engineering innovation networks

In times of rapid economic change, the decrease in knowledge value becomes inversely proportional to its speed of obsolescence, with successful organisations seeking to connect more rapidly and more effectively with others in the creation of new knowledge. The past decade has seen a growing interest in communities of practice as a method for transferring and generating knowledge within product development, rooted as they are in the nature of knowledge creation as a socially embedded process. Given the widespread adoption of collaborative technologies as facilitative platforms for innovation in the interactions of contemporary communities of practice, the objective of this research is to develop an evaluation paradigm and employ it to examine how such interaction is facilitated through the medium of Web 2.0 technologies. The contribution of this research to theory and innovation technology practice will be to further the understanding of collaborative technologies by examining the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on engineering innovation networks. Furthermore, it brings together the three diverse research areas of technology innovation, internet collaborative tools and psychological barriers and enablers.

The Role of Social Relationships in Improving Product Development Decision Making

Abstract The quality of decision making in product development (PD) is dependent upon the designers ability to optimize conflicting needs. However, optimization is unlikely to succeed when based on inaccurate or erroneous information. Given that provision of accurate information frequently lies beyond the designer, decision making is dependent upon effective optimization and a timely flow of accurate information. The present paper explores informal organizational approaches to improving information flow for decision making. It presents an empirical study of relationships in two UK engineering companies and finds significant correlation between the effectiveness of these relationships and the trust, respect, and loyalty that they exhibit during PD. It further identifies the impact of relationship longevity, commonalty in background, and the wider social context of relationships. It concludes by examining the potential extendibility of the findings and the potential for further research to identify interventions that can assist management to enhance the relationships of product developers.

Managing innovation through virtual global communities: Challenges and benefits

Virtual communities facilitate effortless exchange of information between remote users irrespective of time, location and remit. The technologies utilized enable organizations to build strong, cost-effective connections within the organization and externally with customers to further the innovation process. VCs act as bridges between organizations and customer bases by fostering product awareness; providing forums for questions; and serving as conduits for continuous innovation and improvement. This paper reviews challenges of VCs highlighted within extant literature, together with suggestions for problem resolution. It provides a summary of the findings and proposes solutions to additional challenges within the context of human/technology interaction and behaviour related to innovation, with particular reference to the barriers and enablers associated with the implementation and uptake of VCs.

Online Communities of Practice for innovation and knowledge transfer: A case study in the U.K.

Although the concept of online CoPs using Web 2.0-enabled applications has been very successful within a social context, it is not yet prevalent amongst organisations or universities specialising in knowledge transfer. Indeed, both concepts (i.e. Web 2.0 and knowledge flow) are still emergent in nature. This paper details the successful implementation of an online Community of Practice (CoP) for an innovation and knowledge transfer (KT) application. Using a case study online CoP from the UK, the paper details how the online CoP was developed, the functionality and user types offered by the online CoP, the governance methods used, the technology selected and finally the benefits it brings to its members.

Stimulating employee ambidexterity and employee engagement in SMEs

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the emerging theory of ambidexterity by developing measures to assess employee ambidexterity. Specifically, it identifies and tests the importance of the relationship between the organisational context and employee ambidexterity within small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach The research used a survey method to investigate SMEs in Nigeria. Two hundred SMEs were selected from across Nigeria to participate in the study and 72 companies responded, representing a 36 per cent response rate. The study sample comprised 398 shop-floor employees from 72 small and medium-sized manufacturing and service organisations. Findings The paper tests a model that sheds insight into the linkages between the organisational context, employee ambidexterity and employee engagement. Specifically, the model portrays significant relationships that exist between organisational context, employee ambidexterity and employee engagement. The results show that understanding the appropriate organisational contexts improves employee ambidexterity. Therefore, SMEs with the appropriate organisational contexts for employee ambidexterity and employee engagement will increase their potential for growth and survival. Originality/value The paper develops a conceptual model of the organisational context that improves employee ambidexterity and employee engagement.

Collaboration networks for innovation and Web 2.0: Perfect match?

Global patterns of industrial production benefited from Internet technologies as they enable relocation and control of distant industrial operations and workgroups and the creation of new markets for mass production. In such teams, the amount and diversity of information available is amplified thus enabling a richness of perspectives to problems, ideas, products. Indeed knowledge creation and harnessing collective knowledge are salient features of collaborative innovation. Given the widespread adoption of collaborative technologies as facilitative platforms for informal interactions of contemporary networks, the objective of this research is to examine how such interaction is facilitated through Web 2.0. This research contributes to existing literature by examining how collaborative tools affect the relationships between user contribution and knowledge flow in collaborative networks.