The Value of Learning and Competence Development in Network Organizations -- Minna Takala -- June 4, 2003, 11:00 a.m.

Symposium: "A New Base for Corporate Relations: From Strategic Deceit to Trustworthy Action", Nokia House, Espoo Finland, Tuesday, June 3, 2003.

This digest was created in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker's presentation(s) and comments from the audience. These should not be viewed as official transcripts of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. These notes have been contributed by David Ing (daviding@systemicbusiness.org) at the IBM Advanced Business Institute ( http://www.ibm.com/abi ).

Remind of models:

• Suppliers, might be abused
• Orchestrated value chain
• More intense collaborate, intimate sensitive model
• Transactional, Value-Added and Specialed and Unique relationships
• Emery & Trist:  5 types of environment

In which context is what type of relationship valid?

• 1. Placid, random environment
• Fish is there, hidden
• 2. Placid, clustered environment
• Resources clustered fish in schools
• 3. Disturbed, reactive environment
• Not only you fishing, but everyone else
• E.g. birds going after fish
• 4. Turbulent fields
• Great waves
• 5. Vortex environment:
• This was introduced later
• Tornado centers, plus other tornados
• Strategy:  play dead
• High uncertainty

In Emery & Trist: examples of societies

• 1. Placid / random: hunter, gatherers
• 2. Then tribes fighting each other
• 3. Cities fighting each other.
• 4. Industrial era
• 5. The next environment:  consequences of decision made in earlier phases.

Evolutionary game theory:  hawk-dove games

• Now used in business schools
• Survival strategies:
• Hawks fight until they die
• Doves are in flight, and never fight
• Which populations survive?
• Both are viable
• Actually, the chameleon survive.
• This is about survival of the species, i.e. inter-organizational - not individual

Behaviour depends on The Image:  Boulding (1965)

• Dove behaviour in a dove business in a dove society
• Hawk …
• Chameleon …

Is Finland closer to a dove society?  Low corruption.

• The challenge is that Finland is supposed to compete in business, which is not a dove environment.

Boulding's 10 views of image:

• Spatial image
• Ph.D. class in Nokia house, not at HUT
• Temporal image:
• Life cycles
• Fast trust
• Relational image
• Personal image:  self roles
• Value image:  money, or something else?  Social capital
• Emotional image:
• Goleman on emotional intelligence, as if it's new
• Conscious image:
• Non-rational, hard to measure, hard to detect
• Consciousness image
• Certainty image
• Reality image
• Public and private issue

Have found this list helpful in discussing change - is there a change or not?

Trust:

• Can a frog trust?

Finite and infinite games

• In infinite games:
• Purpose to improve the game
• Improvement by the game evolving
• Winners teach losers better plays
• Winning is widely shared
• Aims are diverse
• Relatively complex
• Rules are changed by agreement
• Not debating
• Grow new markets, as opposed to zero-sum game
• Long-term
• Game is internally-defined

Relationships with who?

Portfolio of social affairs:  short term or long term?

Trust, in a frog boiling

Conditions of trust, by Axelrod

• Communicate clearly, what is valued and expected
• Create transparency for performances
• Enhance organizational memory
• Give quick responses, accurate feedback
• Create possibilities for continuous renegotiation

Trust and …

• Prisoner's dilemma
• Faustian dilemma
• Hawk and dove games - fight or flight
• Emperor's new clothes:  who dares to tell the truth.

Examples of chains or networks of trust

Enron:  speculated on everything

• Wrote futures contracts, but booked future revenues immediately.
• Created a spiral.