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AIRC4

Ashridge International Research Conference 2015

2pm June 12th – 2pm June 14th 2015

 

 

Leadership, Management, Innovation in Professional &

Knowledge Intensive Organisations: 

People and process challenges in the global knowledge economy

 

 

Call for Papers

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: April 10th 2015

Information on acceptance for conference papers by May 1st  2015

Early Bird Fee: payment to be received by May 21st 2015

Special Issues of peer reviewed journals - tba

 

    Conference Chairs:

Professor Carla Millar, Fellow, Ashridge & Professor International Management, Univ of Twente, NL

Professor Stephen Chen, Professor of International Business, University of Newcastle, Australia

Alex Davda, Business Psychologist and Consultant, Ashridge Business School, Dubai, UAE

Lee Waller, Director, Ashridge Centre for Research in Executive Development, UK

 

Keynote Speakers

Professor John Mahon, University of Maine, USA on Knowledge Corruption

Professor Giovanni Schiuma, University of the Arts, London, UK and Universitá della

Basilicata, Italy on Creating Value in Knowledge Intensive Organisations

 

Changes in technological, social and economic environments pose significant challenges for leadership and management of organisations, departments and administrations in knowledge-intensive, creative or professional industries, activities and services (in short, “KI” services / organisations). In knowledge intensive activities and services people are the organisation’s primary assets. Increasingly, people’s knowledge, experience and creativity form the backbone of the organisation’s success and leading and managing them to achieve their potential is of key importance, as is the retention of developed knowledge employees over time.

 

Growth of KI organisations (KIOs) also depends crucially on management's ability to give leadership in a way that supports knowledge-intensive teamwork. The global nature of much knowledge and of knowledge networks and the ambitions of KI firms to expand globally add to the leadership challenge, bringing into focus both cultural differences and other international business issues such as the protection of intellectual property rights and retaining your best talent. The leadership and management challenges of knowledge asset value creation are also mirrored in public sector organisations, creative industries and R&D organisations.

 

In this conference we will address the challenges of leading and managing knowledge intensive services and organisations, departments and administrations and building effective leadership and management skills. We aim to frame this in the context of the strategic importance of value creation leadership in KIOs, both traditional and innovative ones, both locally and internationally, and to lay the groundwork for the development of theory, as well as for tangible practical approaches.

 

The topic of this conference is overdue for more attention; to date research on leadership and management of such organisations has not kept pace with research on management of manufacturing organisations. KIS organisations face a number of new developments in their competitive environment including a global shortage of talent (Schuler et al., 2011), information technologies that are reshaping the competitive landscape in KIOs (Federoff, 2012), the development of new business models such as offshoring of knowledge-intensive services (Lewin et al, 2009) and global open innovation models (Chesbrough, 2010).

In delineating the scope of knowledge intensive services to be considered, we look to definitions such as “organisations / firms whose primary value-added activities consist of the accumulation, creation, or dissemination of knowledge for the purpose of developing a customised service” (Bettencourt et al. 2002), also Caniëls & Romijn (2005), Simmie and Strambach (2006), Strambach (2008), Kam and Singh (2004), as “companies / organisations which rely heavily on professional knowledge, i.e. knowledge or expertise related to a specific (technical) discipline or functional domain, to supply products and services that are knowledge based” (Den Hartog 2000), or are defined as services where ‘knowledge is the main production factor and the good they offer’ (European Commission, 2012).

 

We pay attention to international public administrations, e.g. those pursuing reform agendas whether applying “new public management” or later approaches (Hood, 1991; Willem & Buelens, 2007; Pollitt, 2014), or models for how in the UK the Civil Service can implement The UK Civil Service Reform Plan 2012, and respond to David Cameron’s call for a Civil Service that is pacier, more flexible, focused on outcomes and results rather than process, encourages innovation and challenges the status quo.

 

The types of knowledge and the types of organisational form are varied. As well as technical knowledge and factual/data knowledge, attention needs to be given to particularly intangible knowledge assets such as tacit knowledge (e.g. Polanyi, 1966). Research in this area has not progressed strongly and major gaps are observable.

 

Organisational forms also span a wide range from dedicated R&D, creative or professional services firms to Civil Service departments and in-house centres of excellence or expertise in multinationals. While these are very specific organisations, firms, departments with specific leadership, management, career structure challenges, they share the common factor that people are their major assets and success depends on leading and managing them so that their knowledge – both explicit and tacit is fully exploited for the benefit of the organisation.

 

Many historic KI organisations (e.g. law, accountancy, consultancy) are characterised by partnerships without external ownership, informal management, up-or-out promotion, and an emphasis on professionalization, which tends to manage quality by the use of control mechanisms not necessarily suitable to the demands of the knowledge intensive operating environment. As professions, many also thrive on a monopoly on the use of the knowledge for their profession, autonomous (self-) regulation, rules and practices that exclude non-professionals and mitigate competition amongst professionals; this can lead to a club-like environment with distinctive behaviour and even its own code of ethics. Attempts to apply leadership and management skills from elsewhere to such an environment regularly end in failure (see also Von Nordenflycht, 2010).

 

By contrast a more recent wave of KI organisations is characterised by emphasis on the search for innovative and self-starting individuals, giving them freedom to deploy their talents creatively, and basing revenue generation and growth on the value of the input given to clients together with the star quality of staff or teams.  Employee bargaining power and preference for autonomy make authority problematic (Anand et al., 2007) and lead to organisational responses in the form of alternative compensation mechanisms and autonomy and informality in organisational structure. While leadership and management in such organisations may often be “light touch” at the same time it needs to pay particular constant attention to inspiring and retaining staff.

 

It can also be observed that an individual‘s professional knowledge is becoming outdated at a faster rate than ever before. Rapid changes in the job market and work-related technologies are necessitating continuous education. In some sectors, AI and other forms of automation may eliminate 50-80% of the work currently undertaken by professionals and skilled workers.

The following either consist of knowledge-intensive activities or require substantial management of them to maintain viability:

n  research and development (R&D),

n  universities,

n  management consulting,

n  the public administration, the Civil Service,

n  information and communication services,

n  human resource management and employment services.

n  legal services (including those related to Intellectual Property rights), 

n  accountancy,

n  financial services (including banking and insurance services),

n  architecture,

n  hospitals and medical services

n  marketing and advertising services,

n  creative businesses,

n  cultural organisations

 

Within the framework of our title:

Leadership, Management, Innovation in Professional & Knowledge Intensive Organisations:  People and process challenges in the global knowledge economy

the issues below are some of those the conference may cover, and on which we will be happy to accept submissions - but of course acceptance of submissions is not limited to these:

 

Leading and leadership

·         Challenges of leading and managing knowledge workers as a type (not just managing the knowledge or content of their work)

·         Integrity in knowledge intensive organisations

·         New theories of both motivation and leadership as they apply to knowledge-intensive organisational environments

·         Leadership and incentivising trouble shooters

·         Leadership style differences among types of KIS (e.g. think tanks, ICT pioneers, traditional professional practices)

·         Women in KIS

·         Exploiting the combined knowledge of the team

·         Exploiting the institution’s cumulative IP

·         Asymmetric dependencies, e.g. the asymmetric seller – buyer relationship

·         Talent, creativity, innovation, tacit knowledge as sources of competitive advantage

 

Knowledge intensive activities in the global environment

·         The role of globalisation and technology developments in KIOs

·         Knowledge Cities

·         The interaction of (information) technology, knowledge management techniques and KIS leadership in a global KI context

·         Knowledge based capital as source of innovation and value creation

·         Managing KIOs across cultures and the role of cultural differences

·         International business, knowledge and Human resource management

·         KIS in emerging markets

·         Globally distributed work

·         Risks and opportunities in automation and offshoring of knowledge intensive work

·         Cross-cultural cultural industries

·         Maintaining and enhancing organisational reputation in global KIOs

·         Entrepreneurship and innovation management in global KIOs

 

Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation in Knowledge environments

·         Talent, creativity, innovation, tacit knowledge as sources of competitive advantage

·         Knowledge Cities

·         Entrepreneurship and innovation management in global KIOs

·         Managing knowledge corruption

·         Giving perennial inspiration and recognition to creative staff not seeking or not eligible for promotion

·         The tension between cultural and economic value

 

Challenges in professional knowledge intensive industries

·         New theories of both motivation and leadership as they apply to knowledge-intensive organisational environments

·         Leadership style differences among types of KIS (e.g. think tanks, ICT pioneers, traditional professional practices)

·         Culture in the organisation, e.g. in banking

·         Asymmetric dependencies, e.g. the asymmetric seller – buyer relationship

·         Models for how public administrations, the Civil Service can be more flexible, focused on outcomes and results rather than process

·         Models for creative industries, financial services, professional knowledge firms

·         The master craftsman - apprentice relationship as an analogy for relationships in KIS

·         Measurement and objectivity of performance assessment for KIS workers, e.g. linked to tacit knowledge and intangibility

·         The autonomy of KI workers vs organisational deliverables

·         Challenges for ensuring continuing development and updating of established knowledge workers in KI organisations

·         Developing, cultivating and maintaining fundamental qualifications and “expert”ise

·         Career management in KI organisations and services

 

Management processes in KI organisations

·         Models for how public administrations, the Civil Service can be more flexible, focused on outcomes and results rather than process

·         Models for creative industries, financial services, professional knowledge firms

·         Managing knowledge-based processes in KIS when these are distributed

·         Managing in the context of automation of previously knowledge-intensive tasks and deskilling of prestige roles

·         Managing knowledge corruption

·         Managing intergenerational differences in knowledge including tacit knowledge

·         Providing meaningful work in the multi-generational knowledge intensive organisation

 

‘Herding Cats’: organizing people in KI organisations

·         The organisational form of KIS structures and the effects on leadership or management.

·         The master craftsman - apprentice relationship as an analogy for relationships in KI organisations

·         Are cultural industries different from other KIOs?

·         Measurement and objectivity of performance assessment for KIS workers, e.g. linked to tacit knowledge and intangibility

·         The autonomy of KI workers vs organisational deliverables

·         Supervising and intelligent monitoring functions in KIOs

·         Organisational impact of recruiting and advancing “star performers” in KIOs

·         Organisational impact of “recruit rather than develop” strategies in KIOs

·         Giving perennial inspiration and recognition to creative staff not seeking or not eligible for promotion

·         Education for knowledge intensive functions, and challenges for management development in KIOs

·         Challenges for ensuring continuing development and updating of established knowledge workers in KI organisations

·         Developing, cultivating and maintaining fundamental qualifications and “expert”ise

·         Career management in KIOs

 

AIRC4 offers dialogue among colleagues and timely feedback and peer review on your papers before the submission deadlines for the individual journal Special Issues.

 

We welcome the submission of original full papers, advanced work in progress, or policy papers, as well as research based proposals for specially themed sessions or for panels on the conference theme.

 

Deadlines and review process

·                Deadline for the submission of full papers, advanced work in progress,

    or panel proposals for the conference                               10th  April 2015

·                Decision on acceptance for the conference                         1st  May 2015

·                Deadline Early Bird fee: payment to be received by              21st May 2015

·                Deadline submission revised papers for

         Conference Proceedings                                                  1st June 2015

·                 Deadline for submission for Journal SIs [see SI websites]     15th  Oct 2015 or later

 

Submission

·         All manuscripts will be double-blind reviewed.

·         Papers are submitted with the understanding

o    that they are original, unpublished works 

o    that they are not being submitted elsewhere and

o    that [one of] the author[s] will attend the conference and present the paper

·         For submission details please see www.ashridge.org.uk/AIRC4/submissions

·         Submissions can be made electronically online or as email attachment (Word).

·         Submission details can be accessed at http://www.Ashridge.org.uk/AIRC4. Please

   follow the link ‘submissions’ and clearly indicate that your submission is for AIRC4.

·         Manuscripts should follow Harvard the style guidelines

·         Details:

·         First page: manuscript title and name of author[s], institutional affiliation, and contact    information for each of the authors.

·         Second page: manuscript title and brief (100 word maximum) biography of each of the authors.

·         Third page: manuscript title and brief (250 word maximum) abstract of the paper.

·         Fourth page and following: manuscript title followed by the text of paper.

·         Third, fourth, and pages following should have no reference to, or name(s) of, the author(s) of the paper.

·         The paper is between 4000 and 5000 words in length

·         Please submit to  [log in to unmask] with AIRC4 in the email heading.

 

 

Conference Details

For conference details and registration please see our website www.ashridge.org.uk/airc4

 

The conference will feature an Opening Panel of Experts, Keynote Speakers, and interactive dialogue between academics and practitioners.

 

 

AIRC4: 4th Ashridge International Research Conference

12-14 June 2015, Ashridge Business School, Berkhamsted (by London), UK

 

 

References

 

 

AIRC4 – An intimate multidisciplinary international conference linking select academics and professionals in a beautiful country mansion setting

 

 

 

 

 

Carla Millar

Prof. Carla C.J.M. Millar PhD

 

Fellow, Ashridge Business School, Berkhamsted, Herts HP4 1NS, UK, 0044 1442 84 1175, 0044 20 7402 4700,

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Professor, International Marketing & Management, University of Twente, School of Management & Governance.

   PO Box 217, 7500 AE  Enschede, The Netherlands, 0031 53 489 5355, 0031 33 462 7343

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Professor, Public Affairs, University of Chester, Parkgate Rd, Chester CH1 4BJ, UK, 0044 1244 511867,

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