Published Master Thesis
Madina Olomi: Lund University
Supervisor: Moira Nelson
The research employs Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory of development to understand We Love Reading (WLR) father ambassadors’ perceptions of and their involvement in reading with their young children in Jordan, and how this has affected other aspects within their homes, extended families, neighborhoods, and communities. Findings show that a majority of participants felt reading was the responsibility of the mother and were not involved before attending a WLR training. After the training, all participants continue to read with their children. Many read to children other than their own and encourage others in their communities and families to read with children, creating a ripple effect starting within homes and extending to other aspects of participants’ surroundings.
Knowledge management in the development of ‘We Love Reading’ (Master Thesis) 2019.
Diyar Kashlook: Copenhagen business school
This paper investigates the role knowledge management played in the development of the organization ‘We Love Reading’. The paper utilizes on the theory of social entrepreneurship, leadership, and knowledge management in order to understand the knowledge sharing and replication process of ‘We Love Reading’. It encompasses the theories to create a parallel between the knowledge management process of We Love Reading and its leadership style, when being a social enterprise.
The methodology of this paper is based on the interpretivist paradigm and applies semi-structured interviews and observations, as a method to understanding how ‘We Love Reading’ manages their knowledge. Moreover, what knowledge management challenges they have encountered and how they overcame them. Especially, the paper analyses the influence that the leader of the organization had in overcoming the knowledge management challenges. The paper’s findings indicate that the organization uses both principles and templates in their knowledge management process. They have encountered knowledge management challenges based on the lack of knowledge management systems. Hence, the leader of the organization played an important role in identifying and supporting the people responsible for technological innovation in the organization. Moreover, the organization had a challenge when the workforce resisted the implementation of knowledge management systems. The organization was able to overcome this challenge by the transformational leader motivating the employees and creating trust, which is essential for the organizational communication and knowledge sharing process.
The conclusion emerges from the role knowledge management had in the development of the social entrepreneurial venture, WLR. It ought to understand how knowledge is managed and has evolved in the venture. Furthermore, how it has improved WLR’s ability to exploit and replicate what they already know. It was important to create a link to the transformational leader as knowledge is created in the communication process between people. Furthermore, the transformational leader has the ability to motivate employees to share knowledge. The main knowledge challenges WLR encountered were the lack of knowledge management systems and the employees’ resistance to knowledge management systems. The findings reveal that WLR manages its knowledge via technological platforms, such as their apps and website, and utilizes on the combination of principles, templates, and background knowledge when aiming to replicate knowledge. The paper’s finding suggests that Dajani played a vital role as a learning architect. The transformational leader hired a CEO, who is specialized in quality and knowledge management systems, to manage the knowledge and establish systems and technologies to support organizational learning.
Julie Boatright Wilson: :Harvard Kennedy School
Mariana Reina: Harvard Kennedy School
Using a combination of qualitative approaches, this research looks at the impact of the We Love Reading model and whether it can be replicated, and identifies viable paths to increase the reach of the program. The final recommendation is to execute two different strategies that complement each other. The first focuses on taking advantage of existing efforts to include more ICT in training and follow-up to create more targeted strategies of engagement for international actors interested in the program to lower financial barriers. The second emphasizes the importance of focusing on a particular region and identifying international actors with existing infrastructure and partners locally and collaborate to create a shared value.
Taghyeer’s work is incredibly important. In order to make literate environments available in every community, they create social capital within them to have local community members take charge through the establishment of an informal library where children will have access to books and to entertaining read-aloud sessions. Through this method, they instill intrinsic motivation, or better said a love of reading in children, and promote their cognitive development (Sullivan & Brown, 2013) which allows them to reach their full potential as learners (Marinak & Gambrell, 2008). This is very powerful as it empowers communities to take action towards their children’s future. Reaching children all over the world will entail a very strong and pro-active effort – especially in maintaining the quality of the elements of the model in order to ensure the highest positive impact on communities. As of now, the organization is already doing a lot for building up their capacity. Nonetheless these efforts can have exponential value if they are focused on a clear long-term plan. This document focuses on giving a third party analysis of:
The most important strengths and areas of opportunity of the model in order to inform capacity building and growth strategies.
– Understanding the current capacity of the organization and offering a menu of action items available for the organization to strengthen existing efforts.
– Identifying and evaluating four viable strategy options for the organization to begin to think about a targeted growth effort.
Taghyeer has many pathways which it could follow to reach their goal, ultimately the most important aspect for them to succeed is to focus on selecting a pathway and identifying measurable goals upon which to evaluate their efforts. The strategy may be continually adapted based on progress, circumstances, feedback and best practices as they already have experience in doing with the model. The path to scale will be challenging but Taghyeer’s motivating purpose is sure to keep efforts on track. Hopefully this document will be a useful contribution in the form of insight on how to strengthen the model, the organization and ultimately inform the creation of a detailed growth strategy in order to increase the reach and impact of the WLR Model.