Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence on how smart manufacturing (SM) affects work organization at both micro-level – i.e. work design, described in terms of operator job breadth and autonomy, cognitive demand and social interaction – and at macro-level – i.e. organizational structure, described in terms of centralization of decision making and number of hierarchical levels in the plant. Design/methodology/approach The paper reports on a multiple-case study of 19 companies implementing SM. Findings Results present four main configurations differing in terms of technological complexity, and micro and macro work organization. Research limitations/implications The paper contributes to the academic debate about the interplay between technology and work organization in the context of SM, specifically the authors find that the level of technology complexity relates to different characteristics of micro and macro work organization in the plant. Practical implications Findings offer valuable insights for practice, with implications for the design of operator jobs, skills and plant organizational structure, in light of the challenges generated by the implementation of SM technology. Guidelines on how policymakers can foster the implementation of SM technology to enhance social sustainability are proposed. Originality/value This study advances a novel focus in studying SM, i.e. work organization implications of this new manufacturing paradigm instead of its mere technological implications.

a b s t r a c tBuyer-supplier relationships in purchasing and supply chain management practice are instrumental and often "messy". Indeed, the buyer and the supplier generally interact while pursuing their own interest, which are often subject to change over time. The action research method can help address the complexity of buyer-supplier relationships, generating important theoretical insights and relevant managerial implications. First, action research helps the researcher to better understand the problem by integrating diverse perspectives. Second, it allows the researcher to influence the buyer-supplier relationship directly, providing mutually beneficial solutions. This study proposes action research as a suitable interactive method that could complement other methodologies in the field of purchasing and supply chain management, as well as in other fields. An expanded action research framework -the "action research cycle reloaded" -is proposed and the role of the action researcher in the buyer-supplier context is discussed. The framework is applied to study the design and implementation of a supplier performance measurement system in the banking industry.

This paper investigates the relationship between different types of organizational learning mechanisms and creative climate. In the context of an action research study, this paper focuses on insights from a survey that was administered to all the employees of the Product Design and Development unit of the company. The results indicate that the three different types of organizational learning mechanisms considered in the study (cognitive, structural and procedural mechanisms) are associated with creative climate. The results generate new scientific knowledge about the understanding of the role of organizational learning mechanisms and provide specific recommendations for organizations that aim to enhance creative climate.Keywords -organizational learning mechanisms, creativity, creative climate. 2 IntroductionCreativity is crucial for sustaining competitiveness (e.g. Epstein et al., 2013;Caniëls et al., 2014). The intensity of today's global economy requires an increased pace of creativity carried out in short time-cycles (Cirella and Shani, 2012;Sundgren and Styhre, 2003). To what extent creativity can be conceived as an organizational attribute is still under debate and, in particular, organizational scholars argue that analysing creativity at an individual level does not address either the nature or the complexity of creativity within organizations (Amabile, 1983). Most creative ideas within organizations are the outcome of exchange in a collective space, when interaction triggers ideas through collaboration, dialogue and debate (Catmull, 2008). Under the organizational creativity perspective (Woodman et al., 1993), creativity in organizations relies on a creative climate (Styhre and Sundgren, 2005).Learning and creative climate are crucial for the establishment of mental models of creativity (Lozano, 2014) and creative climate can be enhanced by organizational learning mechanisms (Cirella and Shani, 2012). Moreover, the relationship between organizational learning mechanisms and creative climate seems relevant to innovation, considering that both learning and creative climate in organizations contributed to 58.5% of the explanation of the observed variances in the innovation construct (Ismail, 2005). As such, different types of organizational learning mechanisms (Popper and Lipshitz, 1998) need to be tested to investigate their potential impact on creative climate. Such new insights can also guide managerial actions around the design of organizational learning mechanisms (Mitki et al., 2008) to foster creativity.The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between different types of organizational learning mechanisms and creative climate. Despite the increased attention given to this focus and challenge (e.g. Catmull, 2008), scientific literature has yet to demonstrate the empirical link between organizational learning mechanisms and creative 3 climate. Building on literature relating to organizational learning mechanisms and creative climate, this study analyses the effect of different or...

Leading change is an enduring managerial challenge that encompasses individual and collective efforts within an organization. Among the levers that managers can use to foster change, mobilizing activities are considered particularly relevant since they enable leaders to activate the resources and processes necessary for change to actually occur. This study investigates whether individual person-and task-centred orientations to leadership relate to an emphasis on mobilizing change through their effect on distributed leadership. These hypotheses are tested using an international survey involving 459 middle managers from different firms, countries and industries who had implemented a planned organizational change project. The findings reveal that both person-centred and task-centred orientations to leadership relate positively to mobilizing change, and that distributed leadership may explain the relationship between orientations to leadership and mobilizing activities.

The practice of action research has been an integral element of organization development research since the beginning. Collaborative management research (CMR) is viewed as a modality within the broad family of action research approaches. By design, CMR aims to facilitate collaboration between researchers and practitioners in the investigation of an organizational issue while generating outcomes that are both relevant to practice and scholarly rigorous. This article reports on the nature and outcome of a CMR effort that centers on a complex organizational change-the merger process of two real-estate investment companies. The discussion identifies and explores some of the characteristics of CMR that could enable mergers and acquisitions. Contribution to theory, methodology and practice are then presented, proposing CMR as a managerial tool for framing and leading mergers and acquisitions.