Cyber-security incidents show how difficult it is to make optimal strategic decisions in such a complex environment. Given that it is hard for researchers to observe organisations’ decision-making processes driving cyber-security strategy, we developed a board game that mimics this real-life environment and shows the challenges of decision-making. We observed cyber-security experts participating in the game. The results showed that decision-makers who performed poorly tended to employ heuristics, leading to fallacious decision approaches (overreaction strategies in place of proactive ones), and were not always aware of their poor performances. We advocate the need for decision support tools that capture this complex dynamic nature.

Purpose – The co-orientation model is used as a vehicle for framing the perceptions of different stakeholder groups. This study aims to operationalize the principles of sustainable development in the chain-of-custody and measure two selected stakeholder groups' perceptions of their importance. Design/methodology/approach – The co-orientation model provides guidance for improving communications and stakeholder relationships by identifying different co-orientation states of the communicating parties. The implications for the development of effective sustainability communication strategies for organizations are discussed. Findings – Sustainability communications requires a systematic approach in which all the communication activities are directed toward achieving increased understanding between the organization and its relevant stakeholders about the issues. The co-orientation model enables the identification of unique initiatives to overcome the communication problems caused by the different co-orientation states. This insight can be utilized by communication managers to fine-tune their organization's communication strategy to be more sensitive to the specific requirements of the communication situation. Some of the recommendations to manage the communication process include assumption surfacing, orgainzational reflection, improved stakeholder management and dialogue. Originality/value – The co-orientation model is a quite complex concept. This study tries to use the model in a concret case and develops different approaches for improving communications and stakeholder relationships by identifying different co-orientation states of the communicating parties.

Researchers in the fields of learning and social network theory have emphasized the importance of social relationships for acquiring information. However, little inquiry has been made into the influence that the structure of social relationships within an organization has on enhancing learning capability. Organizational learning and social network theory and methods are employed to develop a conceptual framework that links network structural attributes with learning characteristics in order to identify potential barriers to organizational learning. The results from case studies support the proposition that specific social network structures are associated with different barriers to organizational learning