Management and professional business education is central to developing human talent that can help organizations be competitive in today’s complex business environment. So the question for management ...educators is how do we know that graduates have the talent that business needs? Learning outcome assessment has been the process used by colleges of business to answer this question. Good progress has been made in integrating assessment into the culture of business colleges, yet transformative challenges remain. This article presents a preliminary overview of how the spaces of design thinking may be used to enrich the story management programs and colleges of business tell about student learning. The article is not prescriptive nor does it tell the story of how private and not-for-profit organizations use design thinking. Instead, the article considers how focusing on questions, ideas, and integration of stakeholder requirements—a central component of design thinking—can foster creativity and innovation that strengthens how assessment processes are developed so the resulting decisions support substantive change. To assist the reader, the appendix contains an overview of assessment and design thinking terminology.
Abstract
Neo-institutional theory has been criticized for equating the macrolevel with the realm of unconsciously constraining institutions and the microlevel with the realm of actors’ reflexive ...agency and the origin of change. Considering the co-constitution of the macro and micro, the authors propose that change can be explained through reflexivity at the microlevel and through unconscious processes that affect the macrolevel. This chapter contributes to neo-institutional theory’s microfoundation by distinguishing four types of institutional changes. It will help institutionalists to become more explicit about what cognitive processes and what field conditions are related to what kinds of agency and change.
In this rejoinder to "Let's Burn Them All: Reflections on the Learning-Inhibitory Nature of Introduction to Management and Introduction to Organizational Behavior Textbooks," by Robert A. Snyder (see ...EJ1039748), Lisa Burke-Smalley touches upon a number of Snyder's claims and explores questions sparked by his essay. She argues that publishers, authors, and instructors should invoke established theory and evidence in order to keep their message for students current, concise, clear, coherent, and coordinated (Mayer et al., 1996). Put simply, publishers, authors, and management faculty should pursue evidence-based teaching and education (see Davies, 1999). Burke-Smalley goes on to suggest that there's a possibility that certain learning support alternatives perform better than textbooks for particular courses and fields of study; such empirical investigations would contribute to the management education literature. She also points out that before burning all introductory management and organizational behavior textbooks, it's important to realize how a textbook can serve a positive role for students and teachers, at least in certain learning contexts. As a learning support resource, books should help students integrate text information with their existing knowledge so as to construct new knowledge and understanding (Shepardson & Pizzini, 1991). Burke-Smalley concludes her rejoinder by noting it appears that Snyder's essay sparks even larger questions about the role of textbook publishers in higher education and in management education more specifically.
Building on Scott's (1995) institutional theory framework, this article uses a micro institutional approach to develop a model of the institutionalization of mind-sets in a differentiated ...institutional field. This model is grounded in textual data involving the 1992 explosion at Westray Mines, illustrating how regulative, normative and cognitive elements contributed to the institutionalization of a harmful mindset of invulnerability that clouded individual perceptions of the inherent risks in daily work practices. This process culminates in organizational crisis.
Cooperation across private ownership boundaries is a potential pathway to realization of socioeconomic and ecological benefits from a large segment of U.S. forestland. Departing from the dominant ...tradition of focusing on private forest landowners' willingness to cooperate, we analyze resource dependency among actors in the institutional field of forest landowner collaboratives (FLC). Based on an empirical accounting of flows of three critical developmental resources-money, information, and legitimacy-we evaluate interorganizational structures supporting emergence and persistence of FLCs in Wisconsin and Minnesota, a center of relevant activity. We find that external organizational networks provide substantial developmental support to FLCs. Further, we identify important reciprocal flows of resources from FLCs to development organizations. Analysis of resource dependency highlights complementarities in roles of government agencies, philanthropies, commercial firms, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in processes of innovation, specifically in a context where public goods such as ecological integrity and rural economic dynamism are at stake.
Abstract
Kostova, Roth and Dacin called in 2008 for the advancement of a theoretical conception of the multinational corporation (MNC) that takes into account both power relationships among actors ...and the structure of its internal institutional field. While micro-political scholars of MNCs have started to answer the former part of the call regarding power, the second part has not been thoroughly addressed yet. Furthermore, the agentic aspects typical of power games and the structural aspects characterizing institutional fields have not been fully combined in a multi-level perspective of MNCs so far. Leaning on Bourdieu, we suggest an answer to the pending call. We theorize the MNC as a playing field of power emerging around the issue of finding a meta-rate of conversion of the actors’ capitals constituted in national fields. We conceive such issue field in a dynamic state due to the constant entry and exit of new players (e.g. through mergers, acquisitions or divestitures). This results in the need to continuously test the validity of exchange rates. The role of the metainstitutional field level of the MNC as a global category is also discussed.
The notion of Mode 2, as a shift from Mode 1 science-as-we-know-it, depicts science as practically relevant, socially distributed and democratic. Debates remain over the empirical substantiation of ...Mode 2. In particular, our understanding has been impeded by the mutually exclusive framing of Mode 1/Mode 2. Looking at how academic science is justified to diverse institutional interests – a situation associated with Mode 2 – it is asked, “What happens to Mode 1 where Mode 2 is in demand?” This study comprises two sequential phases. It combines interviews with 18 university spinout founders as micro-level Mode 2 exemplars, and macro-level policy narratives from 72 expert witnesses examined by select committees. An interpretive scheme (Greenwood and Hinings, 1988) is applied to capture the internal means-ends structure of each mode, where the end is to satisfy demand constituents, both in academia (Mode 1) and beyond (Mode 2). Results indicate Mode 1’s enduring influence even where non-academic demands are concerned, thus refuting that means and ends necessarily operate together as a stable mode. The causal ambiguity inherent in scientific advances necessitates (i) Mode 1 peer review as the only quality control regime systematically applicable ex ante, and (ii) Mode 1 means of knowledge production as essential for the health and diversity of the science base. Modifications to performance criteria are proposed to create a synergy between modes and justify public investment, especially in the absence of immediate outcomes. The study presents a framework of Mode1/Mode 2 coexistence that eases the problem with the either/or perception and renders Mode 2 more amenable to empirical research. It is crucial to note, though, that this is contingent on given vested interests. In this study, Mode 1’s fate is seen through academic scientists whose imperative is unique from those of other constituents, thereby potentially entailing further struggles and negotiation.
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