Explore every episode of the podcast Research for Real

This deep-dive conversation discusses research by Hussain and Malik (2020) that compares the two paradigms of sustainability and circular supply chains.

Source: Hussain, M., & Malik, M. (2020). Organizational enablers for circular economy in the context of sustainable supply chain management. Journal of cleaner production, 256, 120375. avaiilable at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652620304224

This podcast discusses an academic paper that investigates how digital transformation influences supply chain learning within the Australian food industry. Through a multi-case study, the authors explore how technologies like Internet-of-Things and big data shift the responsibility for knowledge creation from a single leading company to a collaborative network of suppliers and retailers. The findings suggest that while digitalisation democratises learning by making it more participatory, the shared knowledge tends to remain restricted to the food sector rather than being exchanged with other industries. Consequently, the researchers conclude that extensive digital adoption transitions the supply chain from a captive learning model to a more integrated consortium approach. Ultimately, this study provides strategic insights for organisations seeking to gain a competitive advantage through expedited, technology-driven learning..

Reference: Tortorella, G. L., Malik, M., Trianni, A., Pepper, M., Vassolo, R., Garcia, F., ... & Norena-Chavez, D. (2026). Supply Chain Learning in the Australian food industry: the impact of digital transformation. International Journal of Production Economics, 110074. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2026.110074

This podcast discusses a recent research article that explores the mechanisms behind green innovation within the Pakistani manufacturing sector using knowledge-based dynamic capabilities theory. The authors examine how green knowledge sharing fosters eco-friendly advancements by enhancing a firm's innovation capability and its capacity for knowledge creation. A significant finding reveals that while internal knowledge processes drive sustainability, customer involvement unexpectedly weakens the link between knowledge sharing and the development of new capabilities. The study employs a multimethod design, combining moderated-mediation analysis with necessary condition analysis to identify the essential factors for environmental progress. Ultimately, the source provides strategic guidance for managers on balancing internal expertise with external input to meet escalating environmental regulations.

Full article available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/AQBI3SHRRQGQZQQKVFNH?target=10.1002/bse.70721

This podcast synthesizes findings from a study on the relationship between organizations' perceptions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the nature of Supply Chain Learning (SCL). Based on an online survey of 206 top and middle managers from various industry sectors in Brazil, the research reveals that perceptions of AI's usefulness and its ease of use are critical determinants of how knowledge is created, shared, and driven across a supply chain.

The central conclusion is that different combinations of Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) of AI correlate directly with four distinct types of SCL.

• When both PU and PEOU are low, a Captive SCL emerges, where a dominant focal company controls learning within a closed network.

• When PU is high but PEOU is low, a Selective SCL occurs, with a focal company leading learning across an open network of chosen partners.

• When PU is low but PEOU is high, a Consortium SCL prevails, driven by non-focal companies within a closed network.

• When both PU and PEOU are high, a Distributed SCL is fostered, characterized by democratized learning efforts led by diverse players across multiple supply chains.

These findings provide a strategic framework for managers, demonstrating that by prioritizing digitalization efforts and shaping perceptions of AI, they can actively influence the learning dynamics within their supply chains to enhance decision-making, problem-solving, and overall competitive advantage.

Source: Tortorella, G. L., Powell, D., Malik, M., Alfalla-Luque, R., Portioli-Staudacher, A., & Nascimento, D. (2025). Perceptions of AI adoption and their impact on supply chain learning. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13675567.2025.2547202

This podcast synthesizes the core arguments from the essay "Theorizing Temporary Organizing to Foster True Cross Fertilization," authored by Maude Brunet, Catriona Burke, Mohsin Malik, and Jörg Sydow. The central thesis is a call for stronger, more creative theorizing within project studies to achieve a "true cross-fertilization" with related disciplines, particularly organization studies. Currently, the exchange is predominantly a one-way flow, with organization theory enriching project studies.

The authors propose that advancing theory occurs on a spectrum, ranging from top-down approaches that leverage established reference theories to bottom-up approaches that develop "home-grown" theories from empirical phenomena. To illustrate this spectrum, the essay presents two distinct examples:

1. Top-Down Approach: The application of Practice-Driven Institutionalism (PDI) from organization theory to understand how macro-level institutional pressures are enacted through micro-level, everyday practices within temporary organizing contexts.

2. Bottom-Up Approach: A phenomenon-driven examination of crisis response, specifically how temporary organizations emerged, evolved, and stabilized during the COVID-19 pandemic, generating novel insights into emergent organizing.

By focusing on "temporary organizing" as a processual and practice-based phenomenon, rather than just a structural form, a common ground is established for a more robust, two-way dialogue between disciplines. This approach not only strengthens project studies as an academic field but also promises to generate insights with theoretical and practical implications for broader management and organization scholarship.

Source: Brunet, Maude, et al. "Theorizing temporary organizing to foster true cross fertilization: Focus on projects, processes and practices." International Journal of Project Management (2025): 102753. Complimentary copy on

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026378632500078X

This podcast synthesizes findings from a research study on the impact of Digital Leadership Capability (DLC) on the environmental performance of organizations. Drawing on Resource Orchestration Theory (ROT), the study investigates the mediating roles of Digital Technology Alignment (DTA) and Digital Innovation. Based on survey data from 183 Australian healthcare organizations, the research empirically demonstrates that DLC positively influences environmental performance through both direct and indirect pathways.

The core findings indicate that DTA and digital innovation are critical enhancing mechanisms. DTA, the fit between new and existing technologies, and digital innovation, the creation of new digital solutions, both independently and serially mediate the relationship between DLC and environmental performance. This establishes a clear sequence: effective digital leadership fosters technological alignment, which in turn enables digital innovation, ultimately leading to improved environmental outcomes. The study challenges the view that technology alone drives sustainability, highlighting instead that orchestrated leadership, alignment, and innovation are essential for translating digital potential into tangible environmental benefits.

Source: Chavez, Roberto, Mohsin Malik, and Amir Andargoli. "Digital Leadership Capability and Environmental Performance: The Role of Digital Technology Alignment and Digital Innovation." Business Strategy and the Environment (2025). Complementary download avauilable at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/9AUMSW5APBSDSQF9NZDB?target=10.1002/bse.70353

This podcast discusses the evolving concept of project governance, highlighting its ambiguity and varied definitions across the literature. Both sources examine distinct research streams: one viewing project governance as external to a specific project and another as internal. They reveal that while project governance literature draws significantly from established project research, it also extensively incorporates transaction cost economics. The texts underscore the fragmented nature of project governance discourse, emphasising a lack of a universally accepted definition and a tendency to conflate it with project management. Ultimately, they advocate for bridging the gap between academic and professional literature to foster a more coherent understanding and advance the field of project governance.

Source: Musawir, A., Abd-Karim, S., Mohd-Danuri, M. (2020) Project governance and its role in enabling organizational strategy implementation: A systematic literature review, International Journal of Project Management 38 (2020)1–16 & Ahola, T, Ruuska, I, Artto, K & Kujala, J 2014, 'What is project governance and what are its origins?', International Journal of Project Management, vol. 32, no. 8, pp. 1321-1332,

This systematic review by Khaleeq et al. (2025) evaluates various treatments for anxiety in children under 18 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), aiming to bridge a significant research gap compared to typically developing children. The authors analysed 33 studies published between 2014 and 2023, adhering to PRISMA guidelines to assess treatment effectiveness and potential adverse effects. Their findings indicate that Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), particularly adapted CBT, is the most evidence-based psychological intervention for managing anxiety in autistic children. In contrast, the review highlights a notable scarcity and inconclusive results for pharmacological treatments, with some reporting adverse effects. Alternative treatments yielded mixed results and often lacked robust methodologies. Ultimately, the review underscores the urgent need for further research, including the development of tailored anxiety measurement scales for children with ASD and studies with more diverse populations and longer follow-up periods.

Source: A systematic review of the treatments of anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorder Australasian Psychiatry Volume 33, Issue 4, August 2025, Pages 742-755 © The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2025, Article Reuse Guidelines https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562251346614

This academic paper explores the relationship between agile project management practices and project performance, specifically focusing on innovative outcomes. It introduces psychological empowerment as a crucial mediating mechanism, explaining how aspects like team autonomy and agile communication foster a sense of empowerment within teams, which in turn drives innovative behaviour. The study’s empirical findings suggest that psychological empowerment is essential for these agile practices to translate into innovative actions and ultimately enhance overall project success, challenging traditional project management's prescriptive focus. It also highlights the importance of social systems in innovation processes.

Source: Malik, Mohsin, Shagufta Sarwar, and Stuart Orr. "Agile practices and performance: Examining the role of psychological empowerment." International journal of project management 39.1 (2021): 10-20.

This research argues that Lean management is a complex sociotechnical phenomenon, but existing research has largely examined its social ("soft") and technical ("hard") subsystems in isolation. The authors address this gap by employing a sociotechnical system (STS) theoretical lens and process theorising to examine the dynamic interaction between these subsystems at individual, group, and organisational levels. The core argument is that a balanced interplay between the social and technical subsystems is crucial for effectively managing inherent tensions within Lean and achieving sustained performance gains.

Main Themes:

• The Underexplored Interaction between Social and Technical Subsystems: Existing literature has primarily focused on the technical aspects of Lean, neglecting the dynamic and mutually constitutive relationship between the social and technical subsystems.
• The Importance of a Balanced STS: The authors highlight that for Lean to maximise performance, neither the social nor the technical subsystem should dominate. Achieving a "balanced sociotechnical system" is essential.
• Paradoxical and Dialectical Tensions: The paper identifies inherent tensions within Lean systems, particularly arising from the technical subsystem. These include paradoxical tensions (opposing yet complementary features) and dialectical tensions (inherent contradictions).
• The Role of the Social Subsystem in Managing Tensions: The social subsystem, encompassing aspects like employee empowerment, training, work design, cross-functional collaboration, and management involvement, is presented as crucial for addressing and mitigating the paradoxical and dialectical tensions created by the technical subsystem.
• Synergistic Outcomes of Balanced Interaction: A key finding is that the symbiotic relationship between balanced social and technical subsystems fosters synergies that enhance operational performance, bolster dynamic capabilities, and drive process innovation.
• Lean, as a symbiotic STS, fosters synergies: The balanced and interacting subsystems lead to outcomes that are greater than the sum of their individual parts. This "symbiotic relationship... fosters synergies that enhance operational performance, bolster dynamic capabilities, and drive process innovation." (Proposition 3)
• Multilevel Performance: The impact of Lean's sociotechnical interaction is analysed at the individual, group, and organisational levels. Examples of positive outcomes include increased job satisfaction (individual), enhanced psychological safety in teams (group), and customer-centric innovation (organisational).
• Managerial Role: Managers play a "critical strategic role in shaping the adoption of social subsystems" and tailoring them to the specific context of their organisations. This includes fostering training, leadership engagement, and collaboration.

Source: Gamage, Isuru, Mohsin Malik, Amir Andargoli, and Roberto Chavez Clavijo. "Theorizing Lean as a Socio-Technical System: Examining the Reciprocal Interactions between Lean Social and Technical Subsystems." IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (2025). Available at https://figshare.swinburne.edu.au/articles/journal_contribution/Theorizing_Lean_as_a_Socio-Technical_System_Examining_the_Reciprocal_Interactions_between_Lean_Social_and_Technical_Subsystems/29115758

This research addresses a gap in the existing understanding of digital transformation by focusing on the impact of the human-technology dynamic on human agency, specifically employee cognitions and behaviours. Utilising socio-cognitive and role theories, the study investigates how employee cognitive trust and innovative behaviour influence digital transformation outcomes and how role conflict, arising from the evolving human-technology dynamic, moderates these relationships. Based on survey data from 256 participants involved in digital transformations in Australia, the study confirms that employee cognitive trust directly and indirectly (through innovative behaviour) contributes to successful digital transformation. Crucially, the research demonstrates that role conflict significantly weakens the positive relationships between cognitive trust and both innovative behaviour and digital transformation. These findings provide important theoretical insights into the social construction of digital transformation and offer practical guidance for managers seeking to foster trust and minimise conflicting demands on employees during digital initiatives.

Main Themes and Most Important Ideas/Facts:

1. Focus on Human Agency in Digital Transformation: The study highlights a gap in current theorising of digital transformation, which has often overlooked the "micro-level explanations" that focus on "employees’ behaviours and actions" and human agency. The authors define human agency as "the capacity to exert control over the progression of events and functions via actions."
2. Integration of Socio-Cognitive and Role Theories: To address the theoretical gap, the research integrates perspectives from socio-cognitive theory and role theory. Socio-cognitive theory provides a framework for understanding how employees' cognitions and behaviours influence digital transformations, while role theory helps to contextualise the social environment and potential conflicts arising from the human-technology dynamic.
3. Cognitive Trust as a Driving Mechanism: Employee cognitive trust is identified as a pivotal cognition influencing both employee innovative behaviour and organisational digital transformation. Cognitive trust is defined as "a psychological state characterised by several components, the most important of which is some sort of positive expectation regarding others’ behaviour."
4. Innovative Behaviour as a Mediator: Innovative behaviour, described as a "unique blend of ideating, experimenting, problem solving and searching skills," is proposed and found to mediate the relationship between cognitive trust and digital transformation. This means that cognitive trust influences digital transformation partly by fostering innovative behaviour among employees.
5. Role Conflict as a Moderator: Role conflict, arising from "competing or contradictory expectations and demands related to their role or position in an organisation or group," is identified as a crucial factor influencing the human-technology dynamic and the effectiveness of cognitive trust and innovative behaviour. This conflict is particularly relevant in digital transformation due to "role conflation, where individuals’ roles and responsibilities become blurred or overlapping because of the shifting human technology dynamic."

Excerpts from "Towards explaining the effects of the human-technology dynamic on human agency in digital transformations" by Mohsin Malik et al in International Journal of Information Management, Vol. 84, 2025 available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401225000477?via%3Dihub

This briefing document summarises the key themes and findings of a research paper that investigates the influence of employees' cognitions (specifically, psychological safety) and behaviours (employee-led process improvement) on data-driven digital transformation and ultimately, operational productivity.

• Socio-Cognitive Theory as a Framework: The study employs socio-cognitive theory, which posits a "triadic relationship between social environment, human cognitions (personal processes) and behaviours (outcomes)" to explain how employees' psychological safety (a cognition) influences their engagement in employee-led process improvement (a behaviour), leading to organisational attainments like data-driven digital transformation and improved operational productivity.
• Psychological Safety as a Key Driver: The research defines psychological safety as a "'shared belief held by employees that their work environment values their contributions and talent, and is safe to ask questions, ask for help, share views, knowledge and concerns, and admit making mistakes without the risk of being penalised'" . The authors argue that a psychologically safe environment encourages mutual respect, trust, and the willingness to share ideas, crucial for collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Employee-Led Process Improvement as a Behavioural Outcome: The study defines employee-led process improvement in a hospital setting as a "'set of social practices that encourage team-work, empowerment and process/quality improvement in a hospital environment'" (adapted from Narayanan et al., 2022).
• Data-Driven Digital Transformation as an Organisational Attainment: This is described as the "use of digital technologies and the data these digital technologies produce to introduce significant improvements and changes to operations, strategies, and customer experiences" (Papanagnou et al., 2022).
• Operational Productivity as the Outcome of Interest: Defined as the "ratio of the total output about the total input in any transformation process" (Ong et al., 2021), operational productivity in a hospital setting reflects "'operational capabilities that target the efficient use of resources and the input-output ratio'" (adapted from Shah and Ward, 2007).
• Managerial Implications: The findings underscore the importance of viewing employees as key stakeholders in digital transformation initiatives, shifting the focus beyond purely technological solutions.
• Management should prioritise creating a social environment that fosters psychological safety to encourage employee engagement, risk-taking, and open communication, which are vital for both process improvement and successful digital transformation.
• The identification of different pathways (individual and serial mediations) guides resource allocation and strategic interventions to enhance operational productivity. Implementing strategies to improve psychological safety can lead to operational benefits through fostering employee-led improvements and facilitating the adoption and effectiveness of data-driven digital transformation.
• The study suggests that a holistic approach, considering both employee-led initiatives and data-driven technologies within a psychologically safe environment, will maximise the positive impact on operational productivity.

Source: Excerpts from Malik et al. 2024 "A socio-cognitive theorisation of how data-driven digital transformation affects operational productivity?" Free version available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527324002603

Main Theme: This paper explores how organisations develop digital-enabled strategic agility through the lens of organisational sensemaking. It argues that existing dynamic capability perspectives are insufficient and proposes a novel framework based on intertwined "actions" and "meaning" to remove equivocality in responding to environmental dynamism.

Digital-Enabled Strategic Agility: This is defined as extending strategic agility by incorporating digital technologies essential for sensing and responding to environmental dynamism. It involves remaining flexible, adjusting strategic direction, and developing innovative ways to create value, all enhanced by a "digitally enabled backbone." "

Organisational Sensemaking: The research uses organisational sensemaking theory to explain how firms interpret and act upon environmental cues. This involves two key elements: external sensing and equivocality removal. Sensemaking is not simply about shared meaning but a "discourse" that shapes how people make sense of themselves and the world around them. The discourse then translates into routinized actions.

Digital Orientation: This is conceptualised as a high-level discourse representing organisational actors' collective cognitive framework for digital technologies. It's a strategic positioning to leverage digital opportunities, driving organizational plans, behaviour and performance. It represents the shared cognitive frameworks and interpretive structures that guide how organizational actors perceive and respond to environmental signals.

Information Governance: This is theorized as providing the organisational routines and structures required for action, structuring how organizations manage, process, and act upon information. It serves as a process facilitator, enabling sensemaking by managing information flows. Ineffective information governance can negatively impact digital agility.

Digital Transformation: Defined as a qualitative change in how an organisation operates, enabled by digital technologies (SMACIT: Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud, and Internet of Things). It's a focal point for operational meaning and action.

Theoretical Implications:

• Extends the literature on strategic agility by introducing a sensemaking-informed perspective.
• Highlights the importance of information governance in interpreting environmental cues.
• Provides an empirically supported framework explaining how digital transformation affects digitally enabled strategic agility.
• Demonstrates the collective impact of digital orientation, information governance, and digital transformation on digitally enabled strategic agility.
• Show that firms gain strategic agility either by investing in information governance or digital transformation.

Practical Implications:

• Provides managers with a blueprint for achieving digital-enabled strategic agility.
• Highlights the importance of fostering a digital-oriented mindset.
• Suggest a sequential approach: invest in digital orientation and information governance first, then digital transformation.
• Emphasizes the complementarity of the three pathways (H1, H2 and H3) in achieving digital-enabled strategic agility.

Source: Malik et al 2025 "An organisational sensemaking theorising of how firms construct digital-enabled strategic agility" at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378720625000333

Key Theme: The research investigates how social capital contributes to successful digital transformations in Australian healthcare organisations, specifically focusing on the development of dynamic capabilities.

Key Takeaways:

Successful digital transformations require organisations to look beyond their internal resources and leverage their social capital to access and integrate valuable external knowledge.

• Cultivating strong network relationships and strategically engaging in collaborative ecosystems are critical for acquiring non-generic complementarities.
• Focusing on developing dynamic capabilities such as absorptive capacity, integration effort, and big data analytics is crucial for achieving positive digital transformation outcomes.
• The findings offer a new perspective for practitioners in the healthcare sector, highlighting the importance of a digital business ecosystem view and a shift from inward-looking approaches.

Social Capital as the Source of External Complementarities: The research posits that social capital, defined as "the aggregate of resources embedded within, available through, and derived from the network of relationships possessed by an organisation", is crucial for accessing the non-generic and non-substitutable external complementarities necessary for digital transformation.

"Social capital refers to this ability of a firm to source such non-generic complementarities from network relationships."

Dynamic Capabilities as Mediators: The study argues that social capital facilitates the development of crucial dynamic capabilities including absorptive capacity, integration effort, and big data analytics. These capabilities, in turn, directly influence positive digital transformation outcomes.

"Dynamic capabilities provide the mechanisms to continually alter the ordinary capabilities of a firm to cope with digital disruptions, therefore, building dynamic capabilities is essential for effective digital transformation outcomes."

Focus on the Australian Healthcare Sector: The research focuses on the Australian healthcare sector as a context where digital transformation is both advanced and presents unique challenges, including regulatory constraints and data privacy concerns.

Detailed Breakdown of Key Mediators:

Absorptive Capacity: The ability to identify, acquire, assimilate, and apply external knowledge related to digital technologies is crucial. This allows organisations to internalise valuable knowledge from their network and translate it into practical applications for their transformation.

Integration Effort: Effective digital transformations require a strategic alignment of digital technologies with existing organisational resources and processes. This involves reshaping structures, managerial mindsets, and collaborative efforts to achieve synergy between transactional and digital aspects.

"Integration effort is one such attempt by the management to create synergies between digital technologies and transactional resources."

Big Data Analytics Capability: Leveraging the abundance of data available within and beyond the organisation's boundaries is vital. This requires developing strong big data analytics capabilities, encompassing both the technical infrastructure and the expertise to extract actionable insights and business value.

Sources: Excerpts from "A relational view of how social capital contributes to effective digital transformation outcomes": Malik et al. (2024). Journal of Strategic Information Systems 33 (2024) 101837

Briefing Document: Project Monitoring and Evaluation in International Development Projects

Document: Project monitoring and evaluation (M&E) to engage stakeholders of international development projects for community impact Authors: Humera Amin, Helana Scheepers, and Mohsin Malik Date: 2023

Key Takeaways:

• M&E is not merely a reporting requirement but a critical management tool for improving ID project outcomes.
• Engaging all stakeholders, especially the community, in M&E is vital for project success and impact.
• M&E can play a key role in aligning project objectives, improving information flow, and fostering shared responsibility.
• Agency theory is a useful lens for understanding stakeholder dynamics in ID projects.
• Further research is needed to understand the community perspective and to test these findings across different contexts.

Link to the free version of this published research https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=EjY2oaEAAAAJ&sortby=pubdate&citation_for_view=EjY2oaEAAAAJ:JV2RwH3_ST0C

Executive Summary: This briefing explores the crucial role of project monitoring and evaluation in achieving impactful outcomes in international development (ID) projects. Drawing on agency theory, the research examines how these supervisory mechanisms mitigate information asymmetry and goal incongruence between project funders (principals) and implementing partners (agents). Key findings highlight the significant influence of monitoring on both information asymmetry and goal congruence, directly and indirectly impacting ID project success. While evaluation demonstrates a strong effect on aligning goals, its impact on information asymmetry requires further investigation.

Main Themes:

• The Primacy of ID Project Impact: ID projects uniquely aim to alleviate poverty and generate positive, lasting impacts for target communities. Achieving this impact is the paramount measure of success, surpassing mere project management success (time, scope, and budget).

• Agency Theory in ID Projects: Agency theory provides a lens to understand the complex relationships between funders and IPs. Information asymmetry, arising from unequal access to project information, and goal incongruence, stemming from misaligned objectives, are key challenges addressed by monitoring and evaluation.

"The Multifaceted Role of Project Monitoring: Monitoring, as a continuous process of data collection and feedback, plays a crucial role in:

• Reducing information asymmetry: It provides funders with timely insights into project progress and IP activities, enhancing transparency and accountability.
• Resolving goal incongruence: By tracking activities and outputs, monitoring encourages IPs to collaborate and work towards shared goals, aligning their actions with funder objectives.
• Project Evaluation as a Goal Alignment Tool: Project evaluation, encompassing various forms and timings, contributes significantly to goal congruence by:
• Assessing relevance: Evaluations determine the alignment of project activities with beneficiary needs and priorities.
• Promoting learning and corrective action: Evaluations provide valuable feedback for adjusting project strategies and ensuring alignment with overall objectives.

Key Findings:

• Project monitoring demonstrates a statistically significant direct and indirect impact on ID project impact, mediating both information asymmetry and goal incongruence.
• Project evaluation significantly impacts ID project impact through full mediation of goal incongruence. However, its effect on information asymmetry was not statistically supported.

Practical Implications:

• Investing in robust monitoring and evaluation systems is essential for achieving impactful ID projects.
• Funders and IPs should prioritize continuous monitoring to ensure transparency, accountability, and goal alignment.
• Project evaluations should be strategically timed (ex-ante, interim, ex-post) and actively used to address goal incongruence and promote learning.

Sources: Amin, H., Malik, M., & Scheepers, H. (2024). An agency theory unpacking of how monitoring and evaluation affect international development project impact. International Journal of Project Management, 42, 102654. Available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263786324000966

Main Themes:

• Agile development as a sociotechnical system: The article explores the application of sociotechnical systems theory to agile development, demonstrating how agile teams operate through the interaction of social (actors and structures) and technical (technology and tasks) subsystems.
• Conjunctural causation and equifinality in agile development: The research highlights the complex interplay of agile components, arguing that specific configurations are necessary for successful outcomes while acknowledging multiple paths can lead to the same result.
• Asymmetry in agile development: The study investigates the asymmetrical relationship between agile components and work outcomes, recognizing that the absence of a particular component does not necessarily preclude success.

Key Ideas and Facts:

• Agile development, increasingly adopted for new product development and digital servitisation, faces inconsistent performance outcomes. This study investigates the underlying mechanisms influencing these variations.
• Sociotechnical systems theory, emphasizing the balance between social and technical subsystems, provides a framework for understanding the complex interactions within agile development.
• The study uses fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to examine data from 202 agile team members. This method enables the identification of complex, equifinal, and asymmetrical relationships within the data.
• The analysis reveals two configurations leading to successful work outcomes:
• Configuration 1: High task autonomy, high team diversity, and high incremental iterative development.
• Configuration 2: High task autonomy, high communication, and high incremental iterative development.
• Notably, successful outcomes are achievable even with the absence of one agile component, highlighting the compensatory nature of these configurations.
• Conversely, unsuccessful work outcomes are associated with the lack of either a social or technical subsystem component.

Important Quotes:

• "Agile teams may function as a sociotechnical system and these sociotechnical mechanisms may cause the performance variation."
• "The presence of both agile technical and agile social subsystems was required for successful work outcomes, indicating that agile does operate as a balanced sociotechnical system."
• "Individual agile components were also found to interact with and compensate for the absence of other agile components, confirming that the theory of constrained sociotechnical systems applies to agile development."
• "Multiple arrangements of social and technical subsystems' constituent agile components may provide the functional equivalence for similarly successful work outcomes."

Implications for Practice:

• Understanding the sociotechnical nature of agile development allows managers to better implement and manage agile teams.
• Recognizing the compensatory nature of agile components enables organizations to tailor their agile implementations based on specific contextual factors.
• Emphasizing both social and technical aspects is crucial for successful agile development, fostering collaboration, communication, and effective use of technology.

Source: Malik, M., & Orr, S. (2022). A configurational examination of agile development as a sociotechnical system. Industrial Marketing Management, 104, 325–339.

This podcast identified four prominent cultural dimensions within the Competing Values Framework (CVF) and their specific impacts on agile projects:

1. Hierarchical Culture:

Negative Impact: This dimension, characterised by rigid structures, formal communication, and resistance to change, was consistently found to hinder both social and technical aspects of agile projects.

Key Challenges: Formal communication with management, Resistance to change acceptance, Rigid and traditional organizational structure (17.2%)

Mitigating Strategies◦, Promote transparency in work environments, Encourage open communication with management. (Misra et al., 2009)

2. Group Culture:

Positive Impact: This dimension, emphasising teamwork, empowerment, and collaboration, was beneficial, particularly for the social aspects of agile projects.

Key Enablers: Employee empowerment, Importance of teamwork

Challenges: The cultural backgrounds of individuals may clash with agile collaboration principles.

Mitigating Strategies: Consider the personal characteristics of employees in decision-making, Develop team rules based on team behaviour patterns., Implement regular team socialising., Foster diversity acceptance.

3. Rational Culture:

Mixed Impact: This dimension, focusing on market knowledge, financial development, and business opportunities, displayed a positive influence on the technical stream but a less clear impact on the social stream.

Key Aspects: Developing market knowledge, Importance of financial development, Being oriented towards business opportunities, Importance of incremental improvement

Recommendations: Foster continuous customer interaction and embrace iterative and incremental development to align with market expectations.

4. Developmental Culture:

Positive Impact: This dimension, supporting customer collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation, benefited both the social and technical aspects of agile projects.

Key Enablers:; Self-organising people, Knowledge sharing, constant training, and learning, Effective customer collaboration, Openness to communication and suggestion, Openness to team development of new skills and technologies, Development in terms of innovation, creativity, and risk-taking activities,

Recommendations: Organisations should cultivate a developmental culture to facilitate agile project success.

Conclusion: Organisational culture significantly influences the success of agile projects. While hierarchical cultures present challenges, group, rational, and developmental cultures offer substantial benefits. Organisations should actively cultivate a supportive culture for agile implementation, focusing on mitigating the negative aspects and reinforcing positive behaviours aligned with agile principles

Source: Rizi, M.S et al (2024), "How does organisational culture affect agile projects? A competing values framework perspective", https://figshare.swinburne.edu.au/articles/journal_contribution/How_does_organisational_culture_affect_agile_projects_A_competing_values_framework_perspective/26768458

This briefing document reviews the main themes and key findings of the article "Towards a Critical Realism Synthesis of Configurational and Middle-Range Theorising" by Mohsin Malik and Imran Ali (2024). The article focuses on the application of configurational theorising and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) in developing middle-range theories within the context of supply chain management, specifically supply chain resilience.

Main Themes:

1. Bridging the Gap Between General and Contextualised Theories: The authors argue that while established theories from organisational studies, such as resource-based view and dynamic capabilities, provide insights into competitive advantage, they often lack the nuance to capture the intricate network dynamics inherent in supply chains. This calls for the development of middle-range theories specifically tailored to supply chain contexts.
2. The Synergy of Middle-Range and Configurational Theorising: The paper posits that a critical realist synthesis of middle-range and configurational theorising offers a powerful approach to studying complex phenomena like supply chain resilience. It allows for the identification of multiple, context-dependent configurations of factors leading to the desired outcome, while simultaneously enabling generalisability through the identification of common patterns across cases.
3. Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) as a Methodological Tool: The authors advocate for the use of QCA, particularly fuzzy-set QCA (fsQCA), in analysing qualitative data for configurational middle-range theorising. They provide a detailed five-phase roadmap for employing fsQCA, emphasising the importance of theoretical grounding, contextualised sampling, inductive-deductive within-case analysis, careful calibration of data, and rigorous cross-case analysis.
4. Critical Realism as an Ontological Foundation: The paper underscores the importance of adopting a critical realist ontology in configurational middle-range theorising. This involves acknowledging the existence of multiple layers of reality – real (causal mechanisms), actual (events or outcomes), and empirical (observations). This perspective guides the research process, particularly in interpreting empirical findings and inferring causal relationships.

Source: Towards a critical realism synthesis of configurational and middle-range theorising, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

https://figshare.swinburne.edu.au/articles/journal_contribution/Towards_a_critical_realism_synthesis_of_configurational_and_middle-range_theorising/26255093