Since 1973 technological, political, regulatory, and economic forces have been changing the worldwide economy in a fashion comparable to the changes experienced during the nineteenth century Industrial Revolution. As in the nineteenth century, we are experiencing declining costs, increaing average (but decreasing marginal) productivity of labor, reduced growth rates of labor income, excess capacity, and the requirement for downsizing and exit. The last two decades indicate corporate internal control systems have failed to deal effectively with these changes, especially slow growth and the requirement for exit. The next several decades pose a major challenge for Western firms and political systems as these forces continue to work their way through the worldwide economy. © M. C. Jensen, 1993

Institute of Business Administration has pioneered a new approach to teach subjects such as change management, innovation and diffusion dynamics which has been already successfully adopted by universities such as Stanford, MIT, or Wharton, as well as by a number of large corporations. The key to this eLearning approach is the use of Information Technology to model the dynamics of social contexts (including individual behaviors, group dynamics and cultural factors) to stimulate learning in complex domains such as the one illustrated in this article: change management. Adopting a ‘learning by doing ’ philosophy, experiences conducted over the last years have demonstrated that it is possible to stimulate learning by enabling groups of managers to experience the challenge (and the frustration- let's not forget that more than 70 % of large change/innovation projects fail!) of being responsible for the implementation of major change projects in realistically simulated organizational contexts. The resulting advanced simulations have shown to provide a powerful alternative approach to complement, substitute and extend traditional teaching approaches in a critical field such as change and innovation management, offering an opportunity to apply models from social and organizational dynamics to design advanced 'Experiential Adventures ' with significant pedagogical effectiveness. This article first provides the motivation for applying new educational approaches to address critical

Abstract: The key to the approach illustrated in this paper is the use of Information Technology to model the dynamics of social contexts (including individual behaviors, group dynamics and cultural factors) to stimulate learning in complex domains such as innovation and change management. Adopting a ‘learning by doing ’ philosophy, experiences conducted over the last years have demonstrated that it is possible to stimulate learning by enabling groups of managers to experience the challenge (and the frustration- let's not forget that more than 70 % of large change/innovation projects fail!) of being responsible for the implementation of major change projects in realistically simulated organizational contexts. The resulting advanced simulations have shown to provide a powerful alternative approach to complement, substitute and extend traditional teaching approaches in a critical field such as change and innovation management, offering an opportunity to apply models from social and organizational dynamics to design advanced 'Experiential Adventures' with significant pedagogical effectiveness, to the extent that such simulations have been successfully adopted by universities such as Stanford, MIT, or Wharton to replace or complement their traditional approach to teach change to management students and executives. This article first provides the motivation for applying new educational approaches to address critical subjects such as change management. It then illustrates the concept of social simulations through an extensively validated example, the

Many people are suspicious of self-interest and incentives and oppose motivating humans through incentives. I analyze the meaning of incentives in the logic of choice and argue that it is inconceivable that purposeful actions are anything other than responses to incentives. Money is not always the best way to motivate people. But where money incentives are required, they are required precisely because people are motivated by things other than money.

Abstract: Changing the way people think and act when it comes to sharing their knowledge, integrating and using that of others, as well as creating it collaboratively, is not an easy task. It involves considering psychological factors, personal attitudes and competencies as well as the history and the dynamics of the social, emotional and organizational context in which people operate. Nevertheless, organizations worldwide have engaged over the last decade in extensive ‘Knowledge Management ’ (KM) projects, i.e. initiatives aimed at better leveraging latent, explicit as well as tacit knowledge sources, creating synergies and collaborations, increasing transparency, fostering innovation across different boundaries (geographical, functional, structural, cultural, etc.) and ultimately increasing the quality and performance of their value creation processes. The context of an international project sponsored by the research division of the European Community provided the opportunity to capitalize on the insights gained from Knowledge Management experiences in organizations to explore how a number of approaches, concepts and systems could be applied in the social context of urban communities, in which the potential for creating value by achieving the objectives listed above is present too, particularly given the ‘intangible ’ knowledge exchange barriers existing between people living in the same town, in the same area, in the same street, or even on the same level in a large

Provided that organizational learning (OL) is a self-organizing process, a key lever to foster it is to supply organizations with occasions for learning by stressing events which induce it. This presumes knowledge about the causes of OL. Our paper attempts to contribute to a consolidated understanding about the causes of OL by reinterpreting respective assumptions of OL-concepts from a constructivist perspective on information: Applying Bateson’s (1981) definition of information, we show that assumptions of OLconcepts can be transformed into ‘differences which make differences’. Referring to Spencer Brown (1969), we then argue that ‘differences ’ do not represent objective degrees of unlikeness, but result from ‘drawing distinctions’. In the end, this implies that the causes of OL are self-made, that OL is an entirely- from causes to results- intrasystemic process, that whether or how an organization learns lies in its own hands, as it depends upon the distinctions it draws.

Abstract. This issue of Advances in Developing Human Resources has discussed scenario planning as a contemporary business approach to support the strategic roles of human resource departments in organizations. Scenario planning is usually situated in the domain of strategic and business planning, yet it is increasingly considered a major organizational intervention approach to overcome organizational defensive routines and bring about learning and change in organizations.The articles in this issue bring together academics and practitioners discussing a wide range of issues concerning the theory, research, and practice of scenario planning, illuminating different applications of the method as well as some pitfalls that need to be acknowledged and considered by those wishing to use it in their organizations.

Abstract. The use of risk management as a response to ‘strategic ’ organizational uncertainties is investigated. The deconstruction of uncertainties to rationalized probabilities is argued to be symptomatic of a specific conceptualization of problems as ‘tame’, a narrow epistemology that fails to account fully for organizational experience. By introducing ‘messes’ and ‘wicked problems’, a new mode of rhetorical, allegorical risk management is argued for. Insights from Machiavelli and psychoanalysis provide frameworks by which this can be achieved. Key words. Freud; psychoanalysis; risk management; virtu According to some theorists of late modernity (Beck, 2000, 1992; Habermas, 1987), post-industrial society is bedevilled with the production and management of risk. Where once there were material scarcity and need met by technological progress, there is now the social and psychological anxiety characterized by a perpetual concern for the containment of self-producing uncertainty. The example of drug production is a case in point. New diseases can be created by the use of new drugs; advances in drug development can reveal the existence of previously unknown diseases; drugs can repress the symptoms of disease, giving the illusion of cure; they can allay symptoms and have sideeffects; and catalyse the expectation of cure (Dingwall, 1999). This creation of plural possibilities, starting points and questions means risk is an emblem of the late-productive mode itself, not a consequence of a specific type of production. It is an acknowledgement both of the limits

Every business day the phrase Òthe learning organizationÓ flows into countless

This paper provides a theoretical and practical approach to incorporating cultural inquiry into programs for organization change. A definition of culture is offered, and a way of understanding how culture is created and maintained is examined. Patterns of organizational thought and action are viewed as systemic structures driven by values that are usually tacit. A new pattern, driven by new values more consistent with values-based initiatives, such as TQM, is proposed. Finally, a model of change management is sketched that can help integrate cultural and structural inquiry within a broad strategy for intervention. Page 2