Record Details

A Developmental Work Research (DWR) Study of Team and Organisational Learning at DHL Worldwide Express

Research in Economics and Management

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Field Value
 
Title A Developmental Work Research (DWR) Study of Team and Organisational Learning at DHL Worldwide Express
 
Creator Hill, Roberta
Capper, Phillip
Hawes, Kathryn
Wilson, Ken
 
Subject developmental work research, organisational learning, business process improvements, management rapid change, team problem solving
 
Description The environment in which New Zealand businesses and public agencies operate is volatile, complex and uncertain. Organisations face a wide and competing range of demands. Managers and employees need to collaborate across functions, business units and teams. Practical research approaches are needed to help support them.This paper illustrates how a developmental work research (DWR) approach can support business process improvements and organisational/earning in continuously-changing, complex environments. We present findings from a PGSF study of cross-functional team problem-solving and learning at DHL Worldwide Express in Christchurch between April1997 and June 1998. The study used DWR methods, including analysis of videotaped meetings, developed at the University of Helsinki and the University of California San Diego by Engestrom and his colleagues (1996b).We describe how DWR was used to: analyse a process improvement initiative, or 'problem-trajectory', and how disturbances and tensions within this work activity reveal the underlying contradictions in DHL's operational and training systems; and identify opportunities for comprehensive system innovations that have a marked impact on productivity, efficiency and customer service.
 
Publisher Victoria University of Wellington
 
Date 1998-11-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/LEW/article/view/1015
10.26686/lew.v0i0.1015
 
Source Labour, Employment and Work in New Zealand; 1998: Labour, Employment and Work in New Zealand
2463-2600
 
Language eng
 
Relation https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/LEW/article/view/1015/826