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The COVID-19 pandemic has entailed a critical situation for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since restrictions on business activity have been imposed by authorities to reduce infections. The result is that SME managers must manage their firms through a crisis under very challenging conditions. The purpose of the present paper is to address how SME managers respond in the second “wave” of COVID-19 based on their perceived uncertainty as well as eventual learning from the first “wave” in early 2020.

Four hypotheses are presented, resulting in a theoretical model relating crisis impact, uncertainty, learning from crisis experience and effectuation behaviour. The theoretical model is tested through an empirical questionnaire-based quantitative study of Norwegian SMEs in the bar and restaurant sector, applying structural equation modelling as the analytical technique.

The results show that impact from COVID-19 leads to both uncertainty and learning and further that uncertainty primarily leads to a focus on affordable loss while learning leads to experimentation behaviour.

The present paper is novel in several ways. First, it empirically studies a unique situation where a crisis encompasses two “waves” of significant impact on the firms in focus. This provides the opportunity to address managers' learning through a crisis for application in a very similar situation later. Second, the present paper provides an empirically supported model of how uncertainty or learning leads to different dimensions of effectuation behaviour in a crisis situation.

The purpose of this study is to examine how formal contracts affect alliance innovation performance. To understand the mechanism underlying the impact, this study tests whether relationship learning mediates the impact of formal contracts on alliance innovation performance and how guanxi moderates the mediating effect.

This study is conducted with a sample of 225 manufacturers in China. This paper used hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses and used the PROCESS method to test the mediating effect of relationship learning.

Formal contracts positively affect relationship learning, which facilitates alliance innovation performance. Guanxi positively moderates the effect of formal contracts on alliance innovation performance. Relationship learning mediates the relationship between formal contracts and alliance innovation performance. Moreover, guanxi positively moderates the mediating effect.

Future research could investigate factors moderating the effect of guanxi on alliance innovation performance and moderating the effect of relationship learning on alliance innovation performance. Future research can also use secondary data to measure alliance innovation performance. Future researchers can examine how guanxi as a relational mechanism governance affects relationship learning.

Managers should conduct relationship learning in the process of alliance innovation and realize that reducing opportunism does not mean improving innovation performance. Moreover, managers should know that guanxi could contribute to alliance innovation performance with the help of formal contracts.

Prior studies have mainly focused on the fundamental requirement of governing knowledge exchange in alliances. Little is known about the mediating effect of relationship learning on the relationship between formal contracts and outcomes of innovation alliances. This study contributes to the literature by filling the gap.

It is increasingly recognised that managers play a central role in organisational ambidexterity. While some scholars have recently begun to explain the nature and antecedents of ambidextrous behaviour among managers, much remains to be learned about the micro-foundations of this behaviour. Adopting a people–situation interaction approach, this paper investigates the antecedents to managerial ambidexterity from both situational and individual difference considerations.

This study adopts a quantitative approach using a combination of survey and archival data from 305 managers.

The results indicate that learning goal orientation is positively related with managerial ambidexterity, whereas there is no significant relationship between functional experience breadth and managerial ambidexterity. In testing moderation effects, discretionary slack is found to positively moderate the association between learning goal orientation and ambidexterity and between functional experiences and ambidexterity.

This paper provides suggestions on employees selection and training, along with organisational support, in enacting managerial ambidexterity.

Guided by individual difference theory, this paper adds value to one’s understanding of the antecedents to managerial ambidexterity. It contributes to the ambidexterity literature from the micro-foundation perspective.

The relationship between buyers and suppliers over the years – social practices – facilitate the development of social capital (SC), and it contributes to the relationship performance (RP) for both parties. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mechanisms that transform SC into RP. By exercising the relationship learning (joint sense-making, information sharing, and knowledge integration), this paper proposes that SC will transform into RP.

Quantitative study was employed in this study. Questionnaires were distributed to first-tier supplier of Astra Group (Astra International) in Indonesia. In total, 211 questionnaires were used for data analysis in this study.

The results exhibit that cognitive and structural SC contribute to the development of relational SC. Further, relational SC was positively associated with joint sense-making, which then goes through information sharing, knowledge integration, and finally RP.

The cross-sectional data in a specific context (a firm) in Indonesia serve as a major limitation of this study. The development of SC and learning as a social process might not be captured well by using the current method – surveys. Furthermore, a major problem is caused by a one-sided survey that depends on the suppliers’ perceptions and judgments of relationship learning and performance.

The results suggest that managers and other relationship actors would benefit from the competency to develop practices and activities with suppliers regarding developing trust. The trust development is facilitated by having common understanding and interactions regularly, either by participating in formal and/or informal activities with suppliers. Building consensus – joint sense-making, between buyers and suppliers are crucial practices in relationship learning before knowledge sharing and knowledge integration practices are in place. And finally, managers should actively integrate this knowledge in order to increase their RP.

This study empirically tests the supply chain practice view as a new theoretical perspective in the supply chain management literature. It also extends the utilization of social practices – SC – since it is crucial in a buyer-supplier relationship. It also presents that relationship learning is a mechanism that could transform SC into RP, and thus bridge the SC and collaborative learning theory. Finally, this study indicates that inside relational learning, there are sequences of joint sense-making-information sharing-knowledge integration, before it moves on to RP.

This monograph derives from a two‐part project undertaken for the Manpower Services Commission in 1984 and 1985. The first part of the project involved surveying the literature in order to establish the extent to which the subject of Learning to Learn had been covered and how much practical guidance was available to anyone wishing to help managers.

Over the years there have been numerous attempts in social psychology to examine the process of influence between change agents (e.g. parents, teachers, clinicians) and objects of their influence (children, students, patients). There has not been a concomitant effort to do the same in the field of management education, that is to explore the learning mechanisms between a management educationalist (e.g., teacher, trainer) and manager, although the parallels with social psychological theory are obviously there. It was felt that we might briefly examine a number of these theories here with a view to extracting concepts that may be useful in helping us to develop a working model of a learning theory applicable to the management education process.

This study aims to explore the competencies needed by performance consultants, a particular role identified for training and development professionals. The role was formally named and promoted nearly two decades ago. Two ongoing discussions in the field are the competencies needed by training and development professionals and the role of consulting within the field.

This study identifies the general competencies needed by a performance consultant as reflected in job descriptions for the position. It accomplished this goal by collecting job descriptions for the position from organizations in Canada (the result of a practical arrangement with an organization that would collect the descriptions and remove identifying information before the research team analyzed them), systematically analyzing them using qualitative content analysis techniques and generating a profile of the position, which can be used as a basis for further analysis of the position.

The job title and competencies sought in the job descriptions differ from those proposed in the literature. Specific areas of difference include the title (none of the job descriptions analyzed explicitly used the title performance consultant), role in needs analysis and client relationships, technology competence (the job descriptions sought little, if any, while the literature suggests broad conceptual knowledge) and qualifications (most job descriptions only require a bachelor’s degree; many training and development professionals have more education).

The profile presented in this paper only represents that used in job descriptions (typically an idealized version) and in a particular national context. But if the results are validated with other methodologies and in other contexts, they suggest that the actual consulting role significantly differs from the one conceptualized in the literature.

The findings suggest that the consultant role conceived in the literature differs from the actual job expected by employers, at least as reflected in job descriptions. Research with incumbents in the job is needed to assess whether the inconsistencies are also reflected in the day-to-day work.

Social implications validate the broad concern that trainers have skills and talents to offer organizations that those organizations do not fully utilize.

The paper provides one of the few empirical studies of the job responsibilities of a performance consultant.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Full Range Leadership Development Program (FR-LDP) of middle managers of a furniture company in Thailand and explore how they experience the leadership development phenomenon. It addresses the fundamental question of how effective leadership behaviors occur and are sustained.

In total, 31 middle managers completed a six-month multi-methods development program of three alternating training sessions and on-the-job practice. A 360-degree feedback survey of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5X Short, comprising 284 questionnaires of “leaders” and “raters,” was used to measure the change in effective leadership behaviors and the overall leadership outcome. A sub-sample of 20 participants from these managers was selected for in-depth interviews at the end of the intervention. Semi-structured interviews and critical incident analysis was applied to understand the leadership experience of these managers.

The study revealed that leadership behavior and overall outcome performance had improved over the course of the FR-LDP. The program did contribute positively to individual learning. Sustained effectiveness was not due solely to the development or intervention process, but also on individual objectives and action, together with supervisor interest and support.

The study provides a valid, in-depth insight into leadership in Thailand, which has practical application. However, the size of the sample may not be sufficient for broad generalizations in other cultural contexts or environments.

The study extends the understanding of how middle managers develop transformational leadership in Thailand. The study contributes to how middle managers learn what they need to know, how they get to know it and factors that influence their practice of transformational leadership in their workplace. The findings provide to organizations options on resources, talent retention and sustaining organizational performance.

The topic of informal learning at work has received increasing attention in the past years. The purpose of this study is to explore in which informal learning activities employees engage and what are the drivers for informal learning.

Semi-structured interviews were taken from ten human resources (HR) and ten marketing employees working at a German machinery manufacturer.

Employees mostly learn informally by talking or collaborating with others, searching information online, feedback giving and seeking from colleagues and supervisors and reading. Next, it was found that organizational drivers, task and job drivers, personal drivers and formal learning influenced employees’ informal learning. Background characteristics on the contrary were not found to influence informal learning. Overall, within these categories, the following drivers had the greatest influence on informal learning: commitment to learning and development, feedback as well as interactions with and support from colleagues and supervisors.

The design of this exploratory qualitative study brings some limitations. Based on the findings, suggestions for future quantitative and intervention studies are done.

The results show how human resources development (HRD) professionals could better support employees’ engagement in informal learning and gives an overview of the determinants that could be influenced and in turn have a positive effect on employees’ informal learning.

This study is one of the first studies unraveling informal learning as perceived by employees. It develops a comprehensive framework for categorizing drivers for informal learning.

Knowledge about competitive environments is a determinant factor for the success of a firm, as it may allow it to anticipate threats and opportunities in its market. This study aims to explore variables that enable or prevent an employee’s intrinsic motivation to share knowledge. It studies the collection and sharing of information that may be a signal of future competitive moves in competitive intelligence (CI) processes.

Canonical correlation was used by utilizing survey data from a company. The study was based on the self-determination theory relating intrinsic motivation to behavior.

The study confirms the importance of different aspects motivating knowledge sharing behavior, such as information system’s support, top management support and information feed-back.

The study is limited to one company, respecting the limitations of a case study, but external validation was impossible to test. Findings showed a strong correlation of some variables with intrinsic motivation and are coherent with other studies in the knowledge sharing field.

Firms introducing knowledge sharing processes should pay attention to the importance of information system support. The relationship with people involved is also important, as in supporting their collaborations and giving feed-back to contributions. Sustaining intrinsic motivation seems a fundamental aspect to the process’ success.

The study indicates the relation of different variables of motivation with motivation. It explores knowledge sharing in a CI process, an important process in firms nowadays. It shows important aspects that ensure continuity of knowledge sharing as informational feed-back and top management support. Canonical correlation was also used, a technique not frequently explored and useful to study correlation among groups of variables.