Purpose-This study explores whether hierarchical position and organizational size affect perceptions of a learning organization during reform implementation. Design/methodology/approach-An electronic survey was distributed in four Norwegian police districts at an early stage of reform implementation. One of the objectives of the reform was to develop the police towards being more knowledge-based and there had been specific calls for the police to become a learning organization. The respondents were 753 top managers, middle managers and employees. Findings-Respondents rated their organizations lower than benchmark scores on supportive learning environment, learning processes and practices, and leadership that reinforces learning. The perceptions diverged across hierarchical levels: middle managers and top managers gave higher scores to the organization as a learning one than employees did. Respondents from large police districts gave higher scores to their organizational units as learning organizations than respondents from small police districts. Research limitations/implications-The study captures perceptions of characteristics of a learning organization at one point in reform implementation, and further studies are needed to fully understand explanations of diverging views within an organization as to whether it can be characterized as a learning organization. Practical implications-Actual differences in local learning practices or different assessments of learning practices within the organization should be considered when developing learning organizations. Originality/value-The study contributes to our knowledge of learning organizations by showing diverging views within the same organization in a context of reform implementation.
This article examines the role of the Norwegian resistance movement 'Hjemmefronten' (the Home Front, HF) as a political interest group during the exile government's formulation of provisional laws meant for the postwar reckoning with Norwegian collaborators and foreign war criminals. The article argues that the resistance through its judicial committee in Oslo had a decisive impact on the final versions of three decrees that, though constitutionally contested, formed most of the legal basis for the judicial settlement after 1945. It is shown how the intervention of the HF in the legislative process during 1944 and 1945 exacerbated the constitutional difficulties associated with the penal decrees passed in London. Compared to other Western European countries occupied by Nazi Germany the influence of the resistance over the wording of treason laws almost certainly is unique.
Using transition theory from political science, this paper analyses how the lives of children of Norwegians punished for collaboration with the German occupant were adversely influenced by transitional justice after the return to democracy in 1945. The paper highlights how the complexity and hectic character of such regime changes are associated with a high risk for unintended social outcomes, a risk that has received little attention in the study of transition processes. Findings indicate that in order to avoid harmful consequences for children, careful and long‐term thinking is essential when new democracies select a transitional justice strategy.
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