Organizational Persistence in Highly Institutionalized Environments: Unpacking the Relation Between Identity and Resilience

Despite growing academic interest in understanding the conditions under which resilient organizations adapt to challenging circumstances, little attention to date has been paid to the role played by ‘soft’ factors such as identity as an enabler or property of resilient behaviour. In this chapter, we propose that different forms of legitimacy contribute to the framing of acceptable identities affecting the endurance of central elements over time, thus shaping resilience. By splitting up forms of legitimacy and by analysing elements of organizational identity separately, we provide a novel framework that enables a deeper understanding of identity formation processes in complex environments on the one hand and their links with resilience on the other. Through a historically based analysis of a Nordic university over a 40-year period, we demonstrate the complex, dynamic relationship between external legitimacy, identity adaptation and resilience in the context of organizational transformation. By establishing a link between identity, legitimacy and resilience, the study provides critical insights into the conditions affecting organizational persistence within highly institutionalized organizational fields, such as higher education.

Quality 4.0: literature review analysis, definition and impacts of the digital transformation process on quality

PurposeThe changes brought forth by the Digital Transformation have an impact on the way we think, assess and manage Quality. While the concept of Quality 4.0 has resulted from these changes, there is still limited understanding and unclear definitions in this new era of Quality Management.Design/methodology/approachThere is a clear opportunity to review and analyze the state-of-the-art of Quality 4.0, its main research efforts, topics and directions. To do so, a bibliometric analysis and descriptive/mapping literature review were performed.FindingsThere is a clear focus on the implications of technology for Quality, but other relevant topics include business management and strategy models and systems, as well as human or soft factors. Results reveal an increasing interest in Quality 4.0 as well as a link between topics.Originality/valueTogether with the review, analysis and digest of the literature, we offer our own contribution to a commonly accepted definition Quality 4.0.

Celestial IR divergences and the effective action of supertranslation modes

Infrared divergences in perturbative gravitational scattering amplitudes have been recently argued to be governed by the two-point function of the supertranslation Goldstone mode on the celestial sphere. We show that the form of this celestial two-point function simply derives from an effective action that also controls infrared divergences in the symplectic structure of General Relativity with asymptotically flat boundary conditions. This effective action finds its natural place in a path integral formulation of a celestial conformal field theory, as we illustrate by re-deriving the infrared soft factors in terms of celestial correlators. Our analysis relies on a well-posed action principle close to spatial infinity introduced by Compère and Dehouck.

Soft photon theorem in the small negative cosmological constant limit

We study the effect of electromagnetic interactions on the classical soft theorems on an asymptotically AdS background in 4 spacetime dimensions, in the limit of a small cosmological constant or equivalently a large AdS radius l. This identifies 1/l2 perturbative corrections to the known asymptotically flat spacetime leading and subleading soft factors. Our analysis is only valid to leading order in 1/l2. The leading soft factor can be expected to be universal and holds beyond tree level. This allows us to derive a 1/l2 corrected Ward identity, following the known equivalence between large gauge Ward identities and soft theorems in asymptotically flat spacetimes.

Exploring the landscape for soft theorems of nonlinear sigma models

We generalize soft theorems of the nonlinear sigma model beyond the $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (p2) amplitudes and the coset of SU(N) × SU(N)/SU(N). We first discuss the universal flavor ordering of the amplitudes for the Nambu-Goldstone bosons, so that we can reinterpret the known $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (p2) single soft theorem for SU(N) × SU(N)/SU(N) in the context of a general symmetry group representation. We then investigate the special case of the fundamental representation of SO(N), where a special flavor ordering of the “pair basis” is available. We provide novel amplitude relations and a Cachazo-He-Yuan formula for such a basis, and derive the corresponding single soft theorem. Next, we extend the single soft theorem for a general group representation to $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (p4), where for at least two specific choices of the $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (p4) operators, the leading non-vanishing pieces can be interpreted as new extended theory amplitudes involving bi-adjoint scalars, and the corresponding soft factors are the same as at $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (p2). Finally, we compute the general formula for the double soft theorem, valid to all derivative orders, where the leading part in the soft momenta is fixed by the $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (p2) Lagrangian, while any possible corrections to the subleading part are determined by the $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (p4) Lagrangian alone. Higher order terms in the derivative expansion do not contribute any new corrections to the double soft theorem.

Soft matters, or the recursions with massive spinors

We discuss recursion relations for scattering amplitudes with massive particles of any spin. They are derived via a two-parameter shift of momenta, combining a BCFW-type spinor shift with the soft limit of a massless particle involved in the process. The technical innovation is that spinors corresponding to massive momenta are also shifted. Our recursions lead to a reformulation of the soft theorems. The well-known Weinberg’s soft factors are recovered and, in addition, the subleading factors appear reshaped such that they are directly applicable to massive amplitudes in the modern on-shell language. Moreover, we obtain new results in the context of non-minimal interactions of massive matter with photons and gravitons. These soft theorems are employed for practical calculations of Compton and higher-point scattering. As a by-product, we introduce a convenient representation of the Compton scattering amplitude for any mass and spin.

Double soft theorem for generalised biadjoint scalar amplitudes

We study double soft theorem for the generalised biadjoint scalar field theory whose amplitudes are computed in terms of punctures on \mathbb{CP}^{k-1}ℂℙk−1. We find that whenever the double soft limit does not decouple into a product of single soft factors, the leading contributions to the double soft theorems come from the degenerate solutions, otherwise the non-degenerate solutions dominate. Our analysis uses the regular solutions to the scattering equations. Most of the results are presented for k=3k=3 but we show how they generalise to arbitrary kk. We have explicit analytic results, for any kk, in the case when soft external states are adjacent.

Exploring the dark side of Lean: a systematic review of the lean factors that influence social outcomes

PurposeLean has shifted over the years from a set of tools to implement to a human-centric approach concerning both hard and soft factors. However, there is a limited research on these soft factors and how they influence companies performance and social outcomes on the one hand and how they enable the hard factors on the other hand. Taking this as a valuable opportunity, the purpose of this paper is to present the key motivating factors and key gaps in the literature as an agenda for future research.Design/methodology/approachA systematic methodology to identifying the literature on social outcomes and factors in Lean is presented. Web of Science, EBSCO, Emerald, Science Direct, Google Scholar and the top journals were searched, and 158 papers were identified.FindingsThe systematic review helped the authors to identify the evolution, current trends, research gaps and an agenda for future research for exploring social outcomes in Lean and the factors mediating them. These factors are grouped and presented.Practical implicationsThe implications of this work include understanding for managers and professionals how both soft and hard factors in Lean are related and that for a sustainable implementation, the whole system must be observed. This work could serve as a valuable resource that depending on the execution of Lean, either positive outcomes will emerge or even negative outcomes, referred to as “The Dark Side”.Originality/valueThis paper presents an extended survey on the factors in Lean mediating both companies’ performance and social outcomes. The authors also believe that this is possibly the most comprehensive systematic literature review on the topic and will set the foundation for various research avenues based on the key findings of this study.

The Role of Storytelling for Communication in Risk Management

Risk management is confronted with a changing risk environment as both more complex and new risk factors, so-called unknown-unknowns, are arising. To address these developments effectively and to have an impact on critical decision-making processes in companies, this discipline needs to advance. Soft factors—such as communication—are seen as effective levers in this context. This book deals with the potential offered by the communication form storytelling for risk management. In a conceptual study, the author outlines different ways of applying storytelling in risk management. In an experimental study, she analyses and elaborates the advantages of storytelling over purely numerical forms of communication in the same field.

Checks and Balances: The Concept and Its Implications for Corruption

It is often assumed that checks and balances are effective in curbing corruption, in part because checks and balances are so often assumed to be synonymous with the separation of powers. We argue that checks and balances are only one of several potential manifestations of the separation of powers. We suggest that the apparent correlation between checks and balances and control of corruption is driven by a variety of conditions antecedent to both. Using examples from Western democracies, we demonstrate that the concept of checks and balances is by itself an empty vessel, made effective only by “hard” factors such as the balance of political forces and “soft” factors such as the adherence of elites to particular behavioral norms. This does not mean that checks and balances cannot be useful, but rather that our assumptions about their precise utility may be misinformed: the relationship between checks and balances and curbing corruption is at best indirect.