Talking about living in a turbulent times… there are some serious changes in ‘the hierarchy’ of scientific management journals measured with Thomson Reuters (formerly ISI) impact factors. More here.

A three week long summer school Take the best from East and West has just started at Faculty of Economics, Ljubljana, Slovenia. I am proud to say that my course Learning and knowledge in organizations is the number one in terms of students enrolled. Out of 157 participants alltogether, 38 of them chose the course. They come from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Portugal, Serbia, and Slovenia.

We have just published a new SSCI ranked article – Zagoršek, H., Dimovski, V. Škerlavaj, M. (2009): Transactional and Transformational Leadership Impacts on Organizational Learning, Journal of East European Management Studies, 14(2): 144-165. Here is the abstract:

This study empirically relates two important areas of management research: the full-range theory of leadership and the organizational learning process. Specifically, this contribution addresses three issues: (1) the impact of transformational leadership and (2) transactional leadership on the organizational learning process, and (3) whether the influence of transformational leadership is stronger than the influence of a transactional type of leadership. For measurement purposes, the article combines the Multi-Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) with the Organizational Learning and Information Management Processes (OLIMP) measurement instrument. Building upon data from 753 employees in Slovenia at the organizational-unit level and applying a structural equation modelling methodological framework, the results indicate that transformational leadership has a strong impact on all four constructs of organizational learning: information acquisition; information distribution; information interpretation; and behavioural and cognitive changes. A direct impact is evident only regarding information acquisition and behavioural and cognitive changes, while leadership styles have an indirect effect on information distribution and information interpretation. The magnitude of the total effect ranges from .61 to .79. Interestingly, contingent reward leadership has an equally strong and positive impact on organizational learning, with effect magnitudes similar to those for transformational leadership. This finding provides empirical confirmation of the contingent perspective on leadership and learning (Vera/Crossan 2006) which claims that the most effective strategic leaders will be those best able to function in both transformational and transactional modes, depending upon the situation.

In memoriam: We would like to dedicate this article to Hugo Zagoršek (1977-2008), who tragically passed away shortly after the completion of this work.

Just got back from a 10-day business trip over UK. It started with EURAM 2009 in Liverpool, where we hosted a most succesful track on Knowledge renewal in social networks. It was followed by ‘research seminar Organizational learning: Why and how?’ at Cardiff University and University of Bath, which are home of two of the top five UK business schools.

Student from around the globe, kindly invited to take part in Ljubljana Summer School 2009 – Take the Best from East and West, which will take place at my school Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, 6-24 July 2009.  It is a traditional event, with lots of good courses (e.g. mine on Learning and Knowledge in Organizations ), visits to the companies, social activities, and networking opportunities.  Wellcome! Details available here …

V reviji MQ Združenja Manager je v aprilski številki 10/2009 objavljen moj članek z naslovom Uporabite socialni kapital vaše organizacije. Prispevek v bistvenih poudarkih predstavlja možnosti analize in managementa organizacijskih omrežij kot sodobnega managerskega orodja. Njegov namen je tudi populariziranje inovativne rešitve v časih, ko raziskovalci, managerji in celotna družba iščemo odgovore kako naprej in kako na bolje.

Pomemben del odgovora na to vprašanje se skriva v ustreznem strukturiranju odnosov med člani organizacij. Le ustrezno aktiviran socialni kapital lahko poveže človeški kapital (znanja in zmožnosti) posameznikov v konkurenčno prednost podjetja osnovano na intelektualnem kapitalu. Tekst članka je na voljo na tej povezavi.

San Diego … here we are. Today, the major conference in the field social network analysis (Sunbelt 2009) is commencing. Given the importance and vivacity of the field, it has become ‘a must’ in my annual schedule. This year I’ll be presenting a paper on Introduction of technological innovations through organizational social networks (together with Peter Baloh, FELU). Below is the abstract:

Innovation is one of the main drivers of firm performance in modern volatile business environments. This contribution relates incremental technological innovations and social network analysis. The research questions we ask, (1) what is typical for the central members in innovation advice networks and, (2) whether these people change with technological innovations introduced. By the term innovation advice networks we use name generators about the organizational members that coworkers turn to when in need of advice related to functioning of certain software. We explore the case of migration from Office 2003 to Office 2007 within a manufacturing company whose main business is engineering and production of prefabricated buildings. We will measure complete inter-personal innovation advice networks on two occasions. First, previous to introduction of new software and related training workshops and second, one month after the introduction. Through comparison of central members in first and second observation we will determine the rate of change in innovation advice network caused by technological innovation introduced. The methodology used is Exponential random graph modeling. Besides network data we will also collect demographic data on industry experience, educational level, tenure within the company, gender, age, hierarchical level, and decision-making role in order to determine some common traits of most central people. A set of in-depth interviews with key players in innovation advice networks will also be conducted in order to gain deeper insights about the nature of introduction of technological innovation.

Tokrat me je pot zanesla v Velenje, kjer sem predaval mladim perspektivnim kadrom Skupine Premogovnik Velenje na temo organiziranja lastnega dela (obvladovanja časa) in vodenja sprememb. V diskusijah z in med udeleženci se je utrnilo veliko zanimivih idej za izvedbo v praksi!

Skupina Telekom Slovenije je v sodelovanju z Ekonomsko fakulteto v Ljubljani (CISEF) pričela z izvajanjem Poslovne akademije za svoje talentirane kadre z namenom spodbujanja notranjega podjetništva.

Tokrat sodelujem tako v vlogi predavatelja s področij organizacije lastnega časa in dela, teambuildinga in poslovnega raziskovanja kot tudi mentor pri projektnih nalogah. Na uvodnem vikendu 8-mesečnega programa so udeleženci izkazali veliko mero ustvarjalnosti, motiviranosti in zavzetosti, tako menim, da se lahko upravičeno veselim prihodnjih korakov. Tukaj pa je povezava na nekaj fotografij z uvodnega dogodka.

Ta vikend sem imel čast preživeti z vodstvom Skupine Premogovnik Velenje in kolegico dr. Sandro Penger v prelepi Logarski dolini. Čudovito naravno okolje za izvajanje aktivnosti teambuildinga in interaktivnih delavnic na temo timskega dela, organiziranja lastnega dela in časa, organiziranja dela sodelavcev in vodenja sprememb.

Gre za eno izmed delavnic v sklopu Poslovne akademije Premogovnik Velenje, ki jo izvajamo sodelavci Ekonomske fakultete v Ljubljani (oziroma CISEFa). Tukaj pa je še povezava na nekaj fotografij.