Exploring the Fourth Order

Author(s):  
Barend KLITSIE ◽  
Rebecca PRICE ◽  
Christine DE LILLE

Companies are organised to fulfil two distinctive functions: efficient and resilient exploitation of current business and parallel exploration of new possibilities. For the latter, companies require strong organisational infrastructure such as team compositions and functional structures to ensure exploration remains effective. This paper explores the potential for designing organisational infrastructure to be part of fourth order subject matter. In particular, it explores how organisational infrastructure could be designed in the context of an exploratory unit, operating in a large heritage airline. This paper leverages insights from a long-term action research project and finds that building trust and shared frames are crucial to designing infrastructure that affords the greater explorative agenda of an organisation.

1969 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt W. Clausen ◽  
Dale R. Petruka

Recently, we had the privilege of conducting a year-long case study at an elementary school in Ontario which was carrying out a school-wide action research project. As the year progressed it became clear that, if a school wanted to feel the full benefits of this technique, its implementation could not be undertaken like ten solitary research endeavours with ten separate participants. Instead, we concluded that visible changes had to be made to the traditional school behaviour for this innovation to succeed in the long term. From a literature review and our experiences with the case study school, we identified ten “essentials” that needed to be addressed for a school-wide action research project to prosper, ultimately changing the culture of a school and improving both teacher and student learning. Our findings fall in line with recent literature arguing that a school should be seen as a “learning community”. As a way to bring meaning, motivation and accessibility to professional development, an entire school should engage in peer collaboration, action research projects and collegial dialogue in an effort to improve teaching practices (Peery, 2004; Rosenholtz, 1989; Darling-Hammond, 1996; Barkley & Schwartz, 1989).


2021 ◽  
pp. 096973302199079
Author(s):  
Finn Th Hansen ◽  
Lene Bastrup Jørgensen

Three forms of leadership are frequently identified as prerequisites to the re-humanization of the healthcare system: ‘authentic leadership’, ‘mindful leadership’ and ‘ethical leadership’. In different ways and to varying extents, these approaches all focus on person- or human-centred caring. In a phenomenological action research project at a Danish hospital, the nurses experienced and then described how developing a conscious sense of wonder enhanced their ability to hear, to get in resonance with the existential in their meetings with patients and relatives, and to respond ethically. This ability was fostered through so-called Wonder Labs in which the notion of ‘phenomenon-led care’ evolved, which called for ‘slow thinking’ and ‘slow wondrous listening’. For the 10 nurses involved, it proved challenging to find the necessary serenity and space for this slow and wonder-based practice. This article critiques and examines, from a theoretical perspective, the kind of leadership that is needed to encourage this wonder-based approach to nursing, and it suggests a new type of leadership that is itself inspired by wonder and is guided by 10 tangible elements.


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