Viktor Dörfler

Performance Measurement: Challenges for Tomorrow

This paper demonstrates that the context within which performance measurement is used is changing. The key questions posed are: Is performance measurement ready for the emerging context? What are the gaps in our knowledge? and Which lines of enquiry do we need to pursue? A literature synthesis conducted by a team of multidisciplinary researchers charts the evolution of the performance-measurement literature and identifies that the literature largely follows the emerging business and global trends. The ensuing discussion introduces the currently emerging and predicted future trends and explores how current knowledge on performance measurement may deal with the emerging context. This results in identification of specific challenges for performance measurement within a holistic systems-based framework. The principle limitation of the paper is that it covers a broad literature base without in-depth analysis of a particular aspect of performance measurement. However, this weakness is also the strength of the paper. What is perhaps most significant is that there is a need for rethinking how we research the field of performance measurement by taking a holistic systems-based approach, recognizing the integrated and concurrent nature of challenges that the practitioners, and consequently the field, face.

Understanding intuition: the case for two forms of intuition

Since the recent rejuvenation of intuition research within the management literature, significant work has been done on conceptualizing intuition. Whilst remarkable progress has been achieved in many areas of intuition, the role of intuition in creativity remains comparatively under-researched. Through an extensive review of intuition literature, we believe that a reason for this could be that intuition in the management literature is generally conceptualized as judgement. In this article we aim to extend our understanding of intuition in creativity by distinguishing between intuitive judgment and intuitive insight. Strengthening our case, this article builds on two previous research projects. The first focuses on literature-based features of intuition and the second project builds a conceptual model of knowledge types. Further informing the argument is Polanyi’s distinction of focal and subsidiary awareness. These considerations lead us to propose that there are two distinct kinds of intuition – intuitive judgement and intuitive insight.

Creativity and innovation in haute cuisine: towards a systemic model

The contribution of this study is an increased understanding of personal creativity and the innovation process in haute cuisine, a validation of the socio‐cultural systems view of creativity and a model that accounts for the socio‐cultural dimensions of haute cuisine. In this paper we discuss existing views that conceptualize creativity and innovation in this sector as a sequential developmental process following the principles of operations management. However, based on in‐depth interviews with world‐renowned chefs, we argue for a systemic rather than sequential developmental process view. The reason for this is that the chefs interviewed understand the ‘creativity part’ of the innovation process as an embodied experience often guided by intuition and the ‘innovation part’ as a process of social evaluation greatly dependent on the perception, knowledge and value judgement of the testers from the leading restaurant guides. The main implications of the findings go beyond the haute cuisine sector and open areas for future research on creativity and intuition more generally.

Reflecting on a phenomenological study of creativity and innovation in haute cuisine

Purpose – This paper aims to present and reflect on a phenomenological research process used to elucidate the nature of creativity and innovation in haute cuisine.Design/methodology/approach – In‐depth unstructured interviews and field notes capturing subjective experiences were employed to elucidate the experiences of 18 top chefs from the UK, Spain, France, Austria and Germany with regards to creativity and innovation.Findings – The findings are twofold: first, an empirical sample finding is presented in order to contextualize the type of findings obtained; second, key methodological findings are presented explaining the process of elucidating the nature of creativity and innovation through iterative learning from the descriptions of the interviewees and the subjective experiences gathered.Research limitations/implications – The underlying phenomenological study is limited to male haute cuisine chefs in five European countries. Future research is planned including female and male chefs from other countr...

Thinking together: What makes Communities of Practice work?

In this article, we develop the founding elements of the concept of Communities of Practice by elaborating on the learning processes happening at the heart of such communities. In particular, we provide a consistent perspective on the notions of knowledge, knowing and knowledge sharing that is compatible with the essence of this concept – that learning entails an investment of identity and a social formation of a person. We do so by drawing richly from the work of Michael Polanyi and his conception of personal knowledge, and thereby we clarify the scope of Communities of Practice and offer a number of new insights into how to make such social structures perform well in professional settings. The conceptual discussion is substantiated by findings of a qualitative empirical study in the UK National Health Service. As a result, the process of ‘thinking together’ is conceptualized as a key part of meaningful Communities of Practice where people mutually guide each other through their understandings of the same problems in their area of mutual interest, and this way indirectly share tacit knowledge. The collaborative learning process of ‘thinking together’, we argue, is what essentially brings Communities of Practice to life and not the other way round.

Learning capability: the effect of existing knowledge on learning

It has been observed that different people learn the same things in different ways – increasing their knowledge of the subject/domain uniquely. One plausible reason for this disparity in learning is the difference in the existing personal knowledge held in the particular area in which the knowledge increase happens. To understand this further, in this paper knowledge is modelled as a ‘system of cognitive schemata’, and knowledge increase as a process in this system; the effect of existing personal knowledge on knowledge increase is ‘the Learning Capability’. Learning Capability is obtained in form of a function, although it is merely a representation making use of mathematical symbolism, not a calculable entity. The examination of the function tells us about the nature of learning capability. However, existing knowledge is only one factor affecting knowledge increase and thus one component of a more general model, which might additionally include talent, learning willingness, and attention.

Changing the game : a case for gamifying knowledge management

Purpose This exploratory paper investigates gamification as a medium for knowledge workers to interact with each other. The purpose of this paper is to open the discussion around the sustaining impact that gamification might have on knowledge management (KM). Design/methodology/approach The paper employs an exploratory literature review investigating the current state of the art in relation to KM and gamification; this literature review serves as the starting point of subsequent theorizing. Findings Based on the literature review the authors theorize that the use of gamification in KM can go far beyond the motivational aspects. To name just a few uses of gamification, it can help in: supporting flexibility, facilitating transparency and therefore improving trust, visualizing skills and competences as well as generating requirements for new competences and promoting a collaborative environment among the knowledge workers. Research limitations/implications This paper opens the discussion around KM and gamification and suggests a wide range of areas for further research. Practical implications In this paper the authors argue that by looking at gamification as more than just a set of tools for improving motivation and engagement a company can address some pitfalls of a particular type of knowledge workers. Originality/value Gamification is a new, but increasingly popular approach, which has been shown to be powerful in many areas. This paper is novel in that it initiates a dialogue around the impact that gamification might have on KM.

Researching intuition in personal creativity

This chapter introduces Insider Explanatory Phenomenology (IEP) as viable approach to researching intuition in personal creativity. Drawing on a study elucidating experiences of personal creativity, the key contribution is to make explicit why IEP is particularly suitable for investigating context-dependent cognitive and nebulous phenomena such as intuition. IEP is distinct from such approaches like participant observation or ethnography more generally since it does not depend on cultivating personal relationships with research participants as a means of learning but rather starts from a relationship of shared inherited (occupational) background which allows the investigators to immediately enter in-depth expert-level discourse.

Thinking Together: Making Communities of Practice Work

This paper develops the founding elements of the concept of Communities of Practice (CoPs) by elaborating on the learning processes happening at the heart of such communities. In particular, it provides a consistent perspective on the notions of knowledge and of knowledge sharing that is compatible with the ‘DNA’ of this concept, i.e. learning entailing an investment of identity and a social formation of a person. It does so by drawing richly from the work of Michael Polanyi and his conception of Personal Knowledge, and thereby it clarifies the scope of CoP, it ‘brings knowledge back’ into CoPs as a technical term, and it offers a number of new insights into how to make such social structures ‘work’ in professional settings. The conceptual discussion is substantiated by the findings of a qualitative empirical study in the National Health Service (NHS) Scotland. As a result, the process of ‘thinking together’ is conceptualized as people mutually guiding each other through their understandings of the same problems in their area of mutual interest, and this way indirectly sharing tacit knowledge. This collaborative learning process, it is argued, is what specifically brings CoPs to life and not the other way round.

An essay concerning human decisions

Based on decades of combined experience in teaching, observing and working with decision makers, we realized that the praxis of decision making as well as our own approach has always been transdisciplinary. Therefore in this paper we offer a transdisciplinary model of decision making at three levels of reality, namely model, method and tool. We conduct our inquiry in the realm of human-social studies, and argue that in this realm we need to transcend the traditional hard sciences and include a soft approach. Along the way we examine the concept of transdisciplinarity within human-social studies, and introduce the concept of meta-knowledge. Examining the research and teaching of decision making on this basis, we suggest that ‘coffeehouse philosophers’ should teach about decision making, bringing in practicing decision makers whom they interview, while students will need to go through a process of ‘bootstrap learning’ figuring out their decision problems.