Patricia Wolf


Last Name

Wolf

First Name

Patricia

ORCID

0000-0002-1242-6514

Organisational unit

01359 - Lehre Management, Technologie u. Ök.

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2006 - 200922010 - 20112
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Publications 1 - 4 of 4
  • Virtual Collaboration in the Brazilian Mould and Die Making Industry
    Item type: Book Chapter
    Vargas Vallejos, Rolando; Wolf, Patricia (2006)
    Real-Life Knowledge Management: Lessons from the Field
    In Brazil, several SMEs in the mould and die making industry recognised that they could learn trough collaboration with competitors applying the Virtual Enterprise concept. Competitors decided to join efforts and competencies and tried to establish stable relationships through the creation of a Virtual Organisation Breeding Environment. One of the most important reasons for these efforts was the insight that the collaborative dynamic of co-operation networks generates valuable innovation. This paper describes the journey of a successful establishment of a Brazilian mould and die Virtual Organisation Breeding Environment.
  • Participation in intra‐firm communities of practice: a case study from the automotive industry
    Item type: Journal Article
    Wolf, Patricia; Späth, Sebastian; Haefliger, Stefan (2011)
    Journal of Knowledge Management
    Purpose Communities of practice (CoPs) have been found to support knowledge creation by enabling knowledge sharing among experts in firms. However, some perform better than others. This paper seeks to explore what incentivizes employees to share knowledge in intra‐firm CoPs. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents a longitudinal case study in a large automotive company that introduced 82 cross‐functional CoPs into its engineering department. Using extensive qualitative data, two sets of communities: best and worst performing were analyzed. Findings It was found that perceived benefits and the employees' willingness to invest individual efforts into community work are stronger in better performing communities. Members of the better performing CoPs drew most benefits from participating in organizational decision processes, as they were able to influence the agenda and create relevant standards. The patterns observed relate to the efforts, benefits, and barriers of community work. Research limitations/implications The single case study design limits the generalizability of the results beyond the company studied. Furthermore, some of the data employed were perceptional and relied partly on self‐reporting of the community members. Practical implications The paper argues that management support for CoPs should aim at influencing the individual cost‐benefit calculus of community members. Respecting and implementing results from the communities' work is likely to provide the very basis for innovations to emerge at all. Originality/value Other than extant studies on CoP performance that focus on company benefits from deploying CoPs, this paper offers a new perspective by exploring the benefits and incentives available to community members.
  • Communities of Practice - A Case Study from the Automotive Industry
    Item type: Book Chapter
    Wolf, Patricia; Kazi, Abdul Samad (2006)
    Real-life Knowledge Management: Lessons from the Field
    Traditional vertical organisational structures can be an impediment to the sharing and co-creation of knowledge across functional units. This was realised by a large automotive firm when upon its merger with another automotive firm, it observed the power of cross-functional linkages across different car platform divisions. A project was set-in motion to harness over one hundred communities of practice (CoPs) across the functional units of the merged organisation. This case study provides an overview of the conception, implementation, and optimisation of the project. It provides reflections and key lessons learned on how cross-functional CoPs can be developed, nurtured, sustained, and as to what radical changes they may bring into existing organisational decision making processes.
  • Unconferencing as method to initiate organisational change: A case study on reducing CO2 emissions of a university
    Item type: Journal Article
    Wolf, Patricia; Hansmann, Ralf; Troxler, Peter (2011)
    Journal of organizational change management
    Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the potential of available event formats for facilitating the initiation of organizational change processes. It presents unconferencing, a relatively new event format, which seems to provide unique opportunities for this purpose. It reports and analyzes the case of a large Swiss university which initiated its pro‐sustainability transformation by organizing an unconference. Design/methodology/approach Researchers studied the effects of unconferencing and the mechanisms, which brought them about in a case study. In the empirical setting of a large Swiss university, a qualitative study triangulating participatory observation, narrative and problem‐centered interviews, participant survey and documentary analysis was carried out. Data were collected and analyzed at different points in time. Findings Empirical findings suggest that unconferencing is an appropriate event format for facilitating the initiation of the pro‐sustainability organizational change process of a university. In our case, unconferencing achieved systems connectivity, enabled mutual learning and generated excellent outputs in form of project proposals. Social implications The paper raises the awareness of other universities and organizations of an event format they might wish to apply in their organizational change processes. Originality/value So far, research has not provided satisfactory answers to the question, how to best initiate organizational change. This paper provides a systematic investigation of available methodological approaches. It furthermore explains unconferencing, which is increasingly applied by practitioners but so far has stimulated only little discourse in the scientific community.
Publications 1 - 4 of 4