Wikipolicy: the development of institutional policy using social software. In 2008, the University initiated a project entitled “Policy Workshop 2013” to deliver the “2009 - 2013 policy framework”. This new policy should encapsulate the insights, opinions and wishes of students, staff and stakeholders. It was decided alongside other methods to use a wiki as a policy instrument. Results: A wiki has power, participating in the wiki was very limited and the wiki was used for a topic that was not close to non-participants. In general, the attitude with respect to an open dialogue is not positive unambiguously. Does everybody have to co-decide everywhere? Does it have any bene-fits for the organisation?
Considering wider societal developments that reflect a demand for personalised services, this study aims to uncover the relationship between the perceived need for change by voluntary sports clubs (VSCs), their adoption of innovative services to promote flexibility of sports participation (also referred to as ‘light’ sports initiatives) and their organisational growth (in terms of membership evolution). Simultaneously, the impact of key organisational capacity (OC) determinants on each of the aforementioned variables is taken into account. In this study, VSCs in Flanders (Belgium) are examined utilising three (generalised) linear mixed model analyses on longitudinal panel data from 2012, 2015 and 2018. The results show a positive relationship between the need for change on the one hand and the adoption of ‘light’ sports initiatives and organisational growth on the other hand, whilst adopting ‘light’ sports initiatives as types of service innovations do not necessarily lead to organisational growth. The results of this study offer implications for the management and policy of VSCs to cater to shifting member demands. This study serves as a stepping-stone for further research to investigate other types of innovation on organisational change and growth.
This project researches risk perceptions about data, technology, and digital transformation in society and how to build trust between organisations and users to ensure sustainable data ecologies. The aim is to understand the user role in a tech-driven environment and her perception of the resulting relationships with organisations that offer data-driven services/products. The discourse on digital transformation is productive but does not truly address the user’s attitudes and awareness (Kitchin 2014). Companies are not aware enough of the potential accidents and resulting loss of trust that undermine data ecologies and, consequently, forfeit their beneficial potential. Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica-situation, for instance, led to 42% of US adults deleting their accounts and the company losing billions. Social, political, and economic interactions are increasingly digitalised, which comes with hands-on benefits but also challenges privacy, individual well-being and a fair society. User awareness of organisational practices is of heightened importance, as vulnerabilities for users equal vulnerabilities for data ecologies. Without transparency and a new “social contract” for a digital society, problems are inevitable. Recurring scandals about data leaks and biased algorithms are just two examples that illustrate the urgency of this research. Properly informing users about an organisation’s data policies makes a crucial difference (Accenture 2018) and for them to develop sustainable business models, organisations need to understand what users expect and how to communicate with them. This research project tackles this issue head-on. First, a deeper understanding of users’ risk perception is needed to formulate concrete policy recommendations aiming to educate and build trust. Second, insights about users’ perceptions will inform guidelines. Through empirical research on framing in the data discourse, user types, and trends in organisational practice, the project develops concrete advice - for users and practitioners alike - on building sustainable relationships in a resilient digital society.
