Prof. P.H.J. Hendriks (Paul)

My research focuses on the infrastructural and social conditions affecting whether and how organisations as goal-oriented social collaboration systems do or do not learn. I approach learning processes by trying to combine conceptions developed in assorted learning literatures with those developed around the knowledge processes of knowledge development, retention, sharing and application. With respect to learning about organisational goals, my special interest concerns how organisations do or do not redefine themselves in light of the actual and aspired societal impact they generate, particularly defined via concepts of social and ecological sustainability, beyond but connected to their output (products, services) and outcome (effects on their customers’ and other stakeholders’ lives). With respect to conditions for learning and in line with the tradition of Business Administration in Nijmegen, I pay particular attention to (1) the crucial but often not systematically addressed role of organisational structures as core infrastructural conditions and (2) the productive (or not) interaction between social and infrastructural conditions for learning.
In recent years, related to my duties as dean, supervision of PhD projects has become even more central in my active involvement in research. Two of the PhD candidates I supervise focus on social conditions for learning using theories of social capital (Sabine Bakker) and unwritten rules (Michiel van Heusden). Two projects focus on characteristics of specific knowledge processes and their social and infrastructural conditions, the combination of knowledge retention with knowledge transfer (Max Herold) and the relationship between knowledge creation and knowledge sharing (Rob Scharff). A fifth project focuses on both social and infrastructural conditions for a specific type of knowledge application (evidence-based staffing) in the knowledge-intensive environment of hospitals (Carmen van der Mark).