After the successful Ashridge AIRC4 conference now your opportunity to write and submit your paper for a Special Issue we are Guest editing for the International Journal of HRM:
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Call for Papers for a Special Issue
Leadership in global knowledge intensive firms
Deadline for the submission of full papers: 15th November 2015
Guest editors:
Carla Millar, Ashridge Fellow and Professor of International Management, Univ of Twente, NL
Stephen Chen, Professor of International Business, University of Newcastle, Australia
Lee Waller, Director, Ashridge Centre for Research in Executive Development, UK
Knowledge intensive organisations (KIOs) include: universities, management consulting, the Civil Service / public administration, information and communication services, human resource management and employment services, legal services, accountancy, financial services (including banking and insurance services), architecture, hospitals and medical services, marketing and advertising services, creative businesses, and cultural organisations. The global nature of much knowledge, of knowledge services and of knowledge networks and the ambitions of knowledge intensive 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 increased competition for the best talent. Growth of KIOs depends crucially on management's ability to give leadership to their major assets, people, in a way that supports knowledge-intensive teamwork. The leadership and management challenges are also mirrored in Civil Service bodies, creative industries and R&D organisations, and success depends on leading and managing them so that their knowledge – both explicit and tacit (Polanyi, 1966) - is fully exploited for the benefit of the organisation.
The topic of this Special Issue is overdue for more attention; much has been published about "knowledge management" but this rarely addresses issues of leadership or management of people in KIOs; to date research on leadership and management of such organisations has not kept pace with research on management of manufacturing organisations.
Many historic KIOs (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 (Von Nordenflycht, 2010).
The aim of this Special Issue is to explore bringing together three strands of research: international HRM, leadership, and the knowledge intensive firm/organisation, in order to better understand how to manage the challenges in KIOs, ideally in global KIOs. We welcome conceptual and empirical analyses, including illustrative examples of both successes and failures. Issues that might be explored include but are not limited to:
Leading and leadership in a global KIO context
· Integrity in global knowledge intensive organisations
· Gender and diversity management in KIOs
· Exploiting the knowledge generated in a team
· The impact of the asymmetric provider – buyer relationship in knowledge transfer
· The interaction of (information) technology, knowledge management and leadership
HRM in KIOs
· The role of HR in KIOs in the context of globalisation and technology developments
· (Global) HR models for e.g. creative industries, financial services, professional knowledge firms, public services
· HR interventions for managing knowledge corruption, obsolescence and degradation
· Managing intergenerational differences in knowledge including tacit knowledge
· Managing intercultural differences in KIOs, including tacit knowledge transfer
· Global talent management in KIOs
· Recruiting, rewarding and inspiring knowledge and creative staff in (global) KIOs
· Career management in (global) KIOs including training and mentoring
· Succession planning and management in KIOs
- Ensuring capacity and motivation for organisational learning in KIOs
- Giving perennial inspiration and recognition to professional / creative staff not seeking or not eligible for promotion
- Education for KI functions, and challenges for management development in KIOs
'Herding Cats': organizing people, in (global) KIOs
· The organisational form of the KIO and the effects on leadership/management.
· The master craftsman - apprentice relationship as an analogy for relationships in KIOs
· Supervising and intelligent monitoring functions in KIOs
· Challenges for ensuring continuing development and updating of established professionals, knowledge and creative workers in KIOs
· Planning and implementation roles in KIOs
· Career management in global KIOs
· .
Deadlines and review process
We welcome both empirical and conceptual papers on topics related to the theme of the special issue. We are looking for a sound theoretical or practical motivation, building on a solid body of literature, setting the agenda for future research, as well as proven examples of 'what works'. .
For any queries contact either of the editors: Carla Millar (c.millar@utwente.nl), Stephen Chen (stephen.chen@newcastle.edu.au), Lee Waller (Lee.Waller@ashridge.org.uk).
All proposals will be double blind reviewed by the guest editors and a panel of qualified
reviewers and judged on quality as well as their ability to enhance IJHRM's reputation.
Deadline for the submission of full papers: 15th November 2015
Submission
· Papers are submitted with the understanding
o that they are original, unpublished works, max 7000 words
o that they are not being submitted elsewhere
· For author guidelines please see http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rijh20/current
· Please submit to aircsi@ashridge.org.uk with IJHRM in the email heading.
· Submissions should be made as email attachment (Word), NOT to ScholarOne.
References
Polanyi, Michael. 1966. The Tacit Dimension. University of Chicago Press. Von Nordenflycht, Andrew. 2010 What is a professional service firm? Toward a theory and taxonomy of knowledge-intensive firms. Academy of Management Review 35(1): 155-174.
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,
carla.millar@ashridge.org.uk
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
c.millar@utwente.nl