Johtamisen merkitys luovuudelle informaatioteknologian organisaatioissa

[Lukijalle] Ammatillinen toimijuus, luovuus ja johtaminen – onko näillä asioilla tekemistä toistensa kanssa? Kyllä on ja pitää olla. Elämme yhteiskunnallisesti ja taloudellisesti mielenkiintoista aikaa, joka on lukuisten uhkien, jännitteiden ja epävarmuuden sävyttämä. Nyt ratkotaan työelämän haasteita tehokkuusvaateineen ja neuvotellaan työelämän pelisäännöistä. Julkisessa keskustelussa on parjattu huonoa johtamista sekä työpaikkojen huonoa ilmapiiriä. Ratkaisuksi on usein tarjottu innovaatioita ja luovuuden lisäämistä, työhyvinvointia unohtamatta. Ratkaisuehdotuksissa on varmasti perää. Ongelmallista tuntuu kuitenkin olevan se, että yhtä yleispätevää ratkaisua etsitään ja pyritään tarjoama…

Professional Agency and Creativity in Information Technology Work

The meaning of professional agency in the context of professional learning, as well as in the development of working practices and work organisations, is pivotal. The role of creativity is also crucial for long-term economic growth in the current global environment, which is characterised by rapid changes in both technology and economy. Hence, it is important to study the relationship between professional agency and creativity. In this chapter, we explore professional agency and creativity within two Finnish information technology organisations. This study’s data include interviews with staff members and open-ended questionnaire responses to the question ‘What is creativity in your work?’. …

Teaching and learning business ethics in a multicultural group

Building on a constructivist learning theory and a case teaching method, this article suggests a mixed learning approach for teaching business ethics in a multicultural group. The purpose is to present the objectives and implementation of the mixed learning approach in a case course with a multicultural group. Based on the students' feedback, we also analyse and discuss the effects of the mixed learning approach on students' learning experiences. The article contributes to the growing stream of literature on business ethics teaching in higher education by presenting an approach that allows teachers and students to join in constructive knowledge creation in a multicultural group. In so doing…

Learning teamwork through a computer game: for the sake of performance or collaborative learning?

AbstractOur study examined using a computer-based learning game as a tool to facilitate teaching and learning teamwork skills. The game was applied to an undergraduate level human resource management course at a business school in Finland. We focused on students’ experiences and key learning outcomes of collaborative learning of teamwork skills through the game, and our analysis highlighted two key features of learning outcomes. First, the computer-based learning game promoted students’ self-reflection and evaluation of their individual team roles. Second, although the game taught students the importance of continuous information sharing in teamwork, their evaluation of team outcomes was pe…

HR scenario game : Learning human resource management in a virtual environment

This paper introduces a computer-based online scenario game that was developed to enhance the learning of human resource management (HRM) in an undergraduate course at a business school in Finland. What makes this game unique is that students played an important and active role in developing the game in collaboration with lecturers. Our findings show that the game enhances learning, interaction, and collaboration among students. We discuss how computer-based games and their development in collaboration with students can be used as a means for learning and improving working-life skills in higher education.

Servant Leadership in a Nordic Healthcare Organization

The aim of this chapter is to deepen the understanding of employees’ perceptions of servant leadership (SL) in the context of healthcare organizations. The empirical findings are based on the analysis of qualitative data collected in a Nordic healthcare organization that supports SL. Based on theory-driven content analysis, perceptions of SL were evaluated based on Spears’ definition of SL, which this chapter supports and develops. The findings show that SL seems to be a suitable approach for leadership in a healthcare organization. Its ethical and human-centered values especially seem to fit the context of healthcare. peerReviewed

From the Editors: Varied Perspectives on Social Sustainability

Virtues for innovativeness : a mixed methods study of ethical organisational culture and organisational innovativeness

Artikkeliväitöskirja. Sisältää yhteenveto-osan ja neljä artikkelia. Article dissertation. Contains an introduction part and five articles. This study examined ethical organisational culture, consisting of ethical organisational virtues, and organisational innovativeness. More specifically, the study explored the relationship between the phenomena. Ethical organisational culture was studied using Corporate Ethical Virtues (CEV) model, which is based on the virtue theory of business ethics. This research makes a contribution to prior research on ethical organisational culture by linking the concept of organisational innovativeness (OIN) to it. The overall goal of this study was to increase th…

The ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the ethical culture of organisations and organisational innovativeness.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative empirical analysis was conducted on the basis of a survey of 147 respondents within the public sector in Finland. A multivariate linear regression analysis was done to examine how the ethical culture of organisations is related to organisational innovativeness.FindingsA positive link was found in the ethical culture of an organisation and organisational innovativeness: ethical culture was important to behavioural, strategic and process innovativeness. Within the ethical culture of an organisation, the dimensi…

Does it Pay to Be Ethical? Examining the Relationship Between Organisations’ Ethical Culture and Innovativeness

In this article, we examine the relationship between ethical organisational culture and organisational innovativeness. A quantitative empirical analysis is based on a survey of a total of 719 respondents from all levels of three Finnish organisations, both general staff and managers. The organisations belong to both the private and public sectors. The results of this study show that organisations’ ethical culture is associated with their organisational innovativeness, and that different dimensions of ethical culture are associated with different dimensions of organisational innovativeness. The ethical culture of the organisation had a specific role in process and behavioural innovativeness.…

Organizational Ethical Virtues of Innovativeness

This study participates in the discussion of the ethical culture of organizations by deepening the knowledge and understanding of the meaning of organizational ethical virtues in organizational innovativeness. The aim in this study was to explore how an organization’s ethical culture and, more specifically, organization’s ethical virtues support organizational innovativeness. The ethical culture of an organization is defined as the virtuousness of an organization. Organizational innovativeness is conceptualized as an organization’s behavioral propensity to produce innovative products and services. The empirical data consisted of a total of 39 interviews from specialist organizations. Qualit…

Virtuousness in Sports Organizations: Examination of Ethical Organizational Culture and Its Virtues

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ethical organizational culture of top sports organizations in Finland. We were especially interested in how employees of sports organizations evaluate perceptions of ethical organizational culture and perceive specific ethical organizational virtues. We applied a mixed methods approach. We gathered the empirical material through questionnaires and interviews with representatives from Finland’s top sports organizations. The findings show that the questionnaire participants evaluated the perceptions of ethical organizational culture of the Finnish top sports organizations as being quite ethical. The findings also show that the ethical organizational…

Company stakeholder responsibility : an empirical investigation of top managers’ attitudinal change

Purpose Company stakeholder responsibility considers stakeholder engagement and management as key to long-term firm success. The purpose of this paper is to examine how top managers’ stakeholder responsibility attitudes change and how they balance stakeholder responsibilities and economic interests. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted empirical research using the company stakeholder responsibility framework by conducting a repeated cross-sectional survey in Finland in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. Findings The study shows how development in the business context influences managers’ attitudes towards stakeholder responsibility. Simultaneously with the expansion of free comp…

University as a workplace: searching for meaningful work

Work in academia is changing, and research suggests that not all the changes are desirable. Higher education is developing in a direction heavily criticized, especially in relation to the concepts of neoliberal and academic capitalism. In this article, we explore meaningful work in a university context. Our focus lies on individual lecturers’ positive opportunities to make work meaningful and the university a better place to work for both students and faculty. We examine meaningful work as a relational phenomenon: how meaningfulness is constructed through features such as dialogue, expertise, interaction and sharing of ideas. Our empirical findings are based on analysis of qualitative and q…

Leadership as an enabler of professional agency and creativity : case studies from the Finnish information technology sector

This paper summarizes and elaborates the findings of a research project on leadership as an enabler of professional agency and creativity in information technology organizations. The synthesis in this paper is based on a summary of three primary studies. Each of the studies approached leadership, creativity and/or professional agency with a specific focus. Leaning on a mixed‐methods and ethnographic approach, including various empirical data collection and analytical tools, the project investigated the relationship between professional agency and creativity; issues that frame professional agency and creativity; and the meaning of leadership practices for the enhancement of agency and creati…

Mielekkyyttä työhön : esimerkki korkeakoulukontekstista

Supporting Creativity and Learning at Work : Practices and Structures from Growth Companies

The constant change embedded in contemporary working life requires employees and organisations alike to continuously learn and, simultaneously, adapt and be creative. The potential to attract, manage and engage creative people, as well as support learning, has become increasingly important in organisational contexts. It is essential to recognise what the underlying learning theories are and how they connect with the current understanding of creativity. It is also important to study different manifestations of creativity and learning and reactively and proactively discover ways of supporting and developing both aspects in contemporary organisations. In this chapter, we first present our appr…

Self-organised structures in the field of ICT : challenges for employees’ workplace learning

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the challenges of low hierarchy and self-organised structures for employees’ learning and competency development at work. In the past decade, interest in employees’ and organisations’ self-directedness has increased. Self-organised structures are perceived as better able to answer to the quickly changing requirements of clients and business environments. Within these structures, employees are expected to take on more responsibility and maintain more control over their workplace learning, which means they must be self-directed and autonomous. An important question for this approach is how can workplace learning and employee competence developme…

Human resource development practices supporting creativity in Finnish growth organizations

Creativity can be enhanced through appropriate Human Resource Development (HRD) practices that support employees’ learning and competence development. The aim of this study is to increase our understanding of HRD practices that enhance creativity in Finnish growth companies. To achieve this aim, we searched for creativity requirements based on employees’ experiences expressed in interviews, and we studied HRD practices used in organizations that respond to the requirements of creativity. We gathered 98 interviews from personnel in technology, industrial and artistic design organizations and utilized them for a theory‐driven content analysis to identify the variety of requirements for creati…

Henkilöstöjohtamisen opetuksen kehityspolku JSBE:ssä : salista peliin

The Relationship Between Ethical Organisational Culture and Organisational Innovativeness : Comparison of Findings from Finland and Lithuania

The paper explores the interrelations between ethical organisational culture and organisational innovativeness in two different socio-cultural contexts, Finland and Lithuania. According to the Global Innovation Index 2013, Finland ranked 6th and Lithuania 40th in terms of the national capacity to produce innovations. Prior research by Riivari and Lamsa (J Business Ethics 124:1–17, 2014) and Riivari et al. (Eur J Innov Manag 15:310–331, 2012) argues the importance of the ethical dimension of organisational culture in fostering the organisational capacity to innovate. In this paper, a different context is taken to test hypothesised differences between the two multidimensional phenomena. The p…