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An ethnographic study of accountants who become managersBévort, Frans (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Management in a professional service firm such as Deloitte is suspended between a range of different fundamental concerns and ways of thinking. There is a market in which client needs are to be met, competitors matched and outperformed. There is the general public in which accounting firms such as Deloitte increasingly have become the object of critical scrutiny in their role as guardians of the common rules of accountability and legislation on accounting. There is a very strong professional culture and ethics, stemming from being a part of the professional community of a profession which creates unique ways of organizing and managing. And there is a growing concern about how to run the continually growing accounting-based advisory organizations (or professional service firms) in a way that efficiently utilizes the aggregated resources, which again creates a focus on management as a distinct issue. It is primarily the contradiction and dynamics of the latter two ‘internal’ concerns that the study of the dissertation is about - seen as institutional logics of professionalism and, or versus, bureaucracy. While the focus of most research into professional service firms has been on how general structural changes affect this unique species of organization, this study investigates how these contradictions affect the way accountants live and work performing roles as managers; how do accountants who become managers make sense of these contradictory logics? The dissertation treats this question theoretically by applying extant literature dealing with institutional change and logics with a special emphasis on recent research that focuses on the micro-processes which are the foundations of institutions and concretizes how institutional logics affect the action and sensemaking of actors. The dissertation contributes to this research by applying sensemaking theory and symbolic interactionism. The study is based on a 3-year ethnographic study in which managers at all levels have been interviewed and observed. Actual management processes and management training have been observed, via shadowing and participant observation. Relevant archival material has been included in the analysis. All these sources have been recorded and systematized in order to create a point of departure for the analyses of the dissertation. The main findings of the study point to: The institutional changes described by the Professional Service Firms research can be identified at the micro- or actor level in terms of ideals, systems, way organizing and structures which use a logic of bureaucracy and among which the development of a new middle-management role is a critical feature. These changes seem to have important consequences for the basic psychological contract between the professional and the organization in professional service firms. The changes, as they are found in the case, are more complex and laden with conflicts than otherwise described in the literature about professional service firms. This is based on the way the actors ‘draw on the existing logics’ and the conditions they have for doing this locally. This points to the importance of investigating the interaction of actors in order to understand how the new management practices are institutionalized/structurated. The changes towards a new model of management, found in the study, are based on the ability (and will) of the managers to navigate the contradictory logics in such a way that they can establish a meaningful identity as managers, and that they can mobilize other actors who support a new way of understanding management and that they are able to create space for the conversational reflection upon their behavior as managers and management. The ability (and will) of the managers is in its turn dependent on local conditions and interaction enabling these steps of sensemaking. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8448 Files in this item: 1
Frans_ Bévort.pdf (2.294Mb) -
An empirical study of enacted sensemaking in everyday conflict at workNaima Mikkelsen, Elisabeth (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This study is about everyday conflicts that occur at work; how meaning and action interact in processes of conflict handling in organisational conflicts that arise naturally in every arena of daily life when people meet in social interactions. I approach the phenomenon of conflict by exploring those social processes of organisational sensemaking that arise when conflict occurs in a nonprofit organisation, my own processes of sensemaking of the research process about conflict, and conflict research literature’s sensemaking of the concept of conflict. Weick argues that “[t]he basic idea of sensemaking is that reality is an ongoing accomplishment that emerges from efforts to create order and make retrospective sense of what occurs” (1993, p. 653). Accordingly, sensemaking is conceptualised as a process of social construction where individuals attempt to interpret and explain sets of cues, or signals from their environments. The term can also be applied to the craft of research as sensemaking, in which researchers as sensemakers actively analyse the empirical material and generate representations of how reality is (Weick, 1989). Accordingly, in this study, I basically aim to understand conflict at work and understand research about conflict at work; that is, how conflict, as a social phenomenon, plays out in organisational cultures and group dynamics, and how conflict is conceptualised in conflict research literature. The study examines the following research questions from a sensemaking perspective: 1) How is conflict conceptualized in conflict research literature? 2) How do staff and management experience and act out conflicts in the nonprofit organisation of NGO Plus and how does changing conflict sensemaking affect conflicts at work? 3) What is my process of theorizing in conflict research? URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8609 Files in this item: 1
Elisabeth_Naima_Mikkelsen.pdf (1.476Mb) -
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Abstract: This PhD thesis is an ethnographic exploration of strategy work in practice. The academic contribution of the thesis is positioned in the overlap between Critical Approaches to Strategy and Strategy as Practice. This implies a critical position that does not take strategy for granted and which emphasizes a philosophical understanding of the practice concept. Other studies have adopted a similar Critical Strategy as Practice position, but very few ethnographic studies of strategy work have been conducted from this point of departure. Thus, the thesis aims to contribute two-fold to the existing Critical Strategy as Practice literature: One, to strengthen the tradition theoretically through the development and mobilization of a conceptual braid of practice, narrative, and performativity; and two, to provide an extensive empirical analysis of strategy work from this perspective. The case for the thesis is strategy work in the Stakeholder Department of a multinational biotech corporation, which is here called Bioforte. The thesis explores the dual aspects of the title as “making strategy-work”—the specific doings of crafting strategy; and “making Strategy work”—finding ways for strategy, as a concept, to function in the context of an organization. Building on the double entendre of the title, the guiding research question for this exploration is quite simply: What does strategy work do? The answer to this question is, however, not simple, because as the ethnographic exploration demonstrates, strategy work in the Stakeholder Engagement Department at Bioforte has a range of performative effects. Through narratives of everyday practice, the thesis demonstrates how strategy work contributes to organizing the organization by shaping The Strategy Working Group, the department, the work, and the selves of the people working with strategy. The organizing force of strategy work is partly achieved through the continual collective creation and maintenance of distinctions such as strategic/operational and left brain/right brain. In this sense, the thesis argues that the organizing forces of strategy is to be found in the performative nature of strategy work. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8663 Files in this item: 1
Marie_Mathiesen.pdf (5.342Mb) -
Et simulationsstudieKai Olsen, Jørgen (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6653 Files in this item: 1
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Abstract: The paper addresses the importance of network trade between Malaysia and China and assesses the extent of product upgrading in components traded. The study brings to the fore the following. First, China is emerging as an important market for component imports relative to component exports. As such the increase in two-way flows of parts and components for further processing and development, implying a shift away from assembly-end operations, remains insignificant. Second, network trade appears to have improved the quality of exports (reflecting the ‘moving up of the value chain’) destined to China, but the gaps between the unit values of export and imports have narrowed in the recent past, implying less product development. network trade, two-way trade, unit values, relative unit values, product upgrading URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7403 Files in this item: 1
devadason_clean.pdf (157.4Kb) -
Transnationalism and the 'Chineseness' of Enterprise DevelopementGomez, Edmund Terence (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The concept of transnationalism is characterised by an important contradiction. While it makes an important contribution to the literature on identity by focussing on the themes of hybridity and pluralism, when it discusses the issue of transnational capital, it falls into the trap of essentialising ethnicity. Transnational theorist argue that there exists a pan-ethnic unity among the Chinese diaspora that would enable this community to emerge as a new economic force globally. The case studies in this essay reveal, however, that transnational networks do not influence the way ethnic groups do business with co-ethnics in other countries. This study argues that there is significant competition among Chinese-owned enterprises, which explains the dynamism of these firms. There is also much evidence of inter-ethnic corporate ties involving Chinese firms. These findings bring into question the importance of common ethnic identity in transnational business transactions undertaken by the Chinese companies. Keywords: Transnationalism, Chinese Identity, Networks, Enterprise Development. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7404 Files in this item: 1
cdp 2006-007.pdf (198.0Kb) -
Chandran, V G R; Rasiah, Rajah; Wad, Peter (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The study of innovation and technological upgrading experienced a significant interest in the academic literature, especially within the developing countries (Lall, 1998, 2001; Kim and Nelson, 2000; Ariffin and Figueiredo, 2004). The lack of involvement by developing countries in radical innovative capabilities (Rasiah, 1994; Hobday, 2005) and the interest of scholars in learning technological capability building and technological catch up processes has directed researchers to analyze various mechanisms or drivers that contribute to technological upgrading, especially in developing countries, more so in the manufacturing sector. This study aims to investigate the R&D activities and the internationalization of these activities undertaken by foreign firms within the Malaysian manufacturing sector. The study aims to provide answers to the following questions: 1. What is the status of the systems of innovation within the Malaysian manufacturing sector? 2. What is the role played by the agents of innovation, in particular TNCs or MNCs, in relation to R&D activities and its internationalization? and, 3. How is the Malaysian manufacturing (local and foreign) technological and R&D progress to date? This study confirms that the Malaysian manufacturing systems of innovation is weakly positioned but shows limited evidence of process innovation and not product innovation. However, evidence of innovation differs among states and sectors owing to differences in the systems of innovation. Although, Malaysia has not been chosen as a site for offshoring or outsorcing of R&D activities to a significant degree, it is found that one very important driver of innovation is the central role that multinational enterprises play in the Malaysian manufacturing systems of innovation. Process innovation is conducted by foreign subsidiaries and is on the rise in key the electronics industry. It is also found that technological learning by local firms is mainly through linkages, sub-contracting and technological transfer. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7972 Files in this item: 1
MSI_and_internationalization_of_R&D.pdf (282.8Kb) -
Borum, Finn (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Abstract: This paper describes the current state of the management academia as a naked carnival, namely, most of the management researches have no such a clothes called practical relevance. It is intended to provide an explanation why management research has become irrelevant to the real management practice. It argues there are three factors behind the irrelevance problem: first, the ‘scientific model’ of management studies generates an initial and internal force which pushes the management research away from practice management studies supposed to serve; second, paradigm maintenance effort of the mainstream management scholars prevents the irrelevant management academia moving back towards management practice; third, the surrounding environment provides the management academia anything but a strong counter force to change the irrelevance reality. This paper also argues any solutions under the ‘scientific model’ are doomed to failure; and the only way out is to completely abandon the ‘scientific model’ and adopt a ‘professional model’ of management studies. Unfortunately, this paper argues such a radical change from within is highly unlikely to happen. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7826 Files in this item: 1
wp1-2009-xl.pdf (264.4Kb) -
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Abstract: The roles of accounting in shaping the economy are currently being rediscovered by sociologists (Callon, 1998; Fligstein, 1990; Granovetter, 1985). This recent revival of interest in accounting marks a further stage in a curious pattern of alternate attention and neglect on the part of sociologists towards the practices that make the economy visible and measurable qua economy. This paper reviews the different ways in which accounting has been given a wider sociological significance across the twentieth century. It argues for a focus on how new calculative practices emerge within historically specific assemblages, and how they alter the capacities of agents and organisations, and the interrelations among them. Investment appraisal practices are used to illustrate. The paper is in five sections. Section one introduces the paper. Section two considers briefly the work of Max Weber in the early 20th century, and the link established in his writings between accounting and rationalisation. Section three considers a subsequent stage, with a markedly different focus, namely the emergence in the 1950s and 1960s of a substantial literature on budgeting. Heavily influenced by theories of group dynamics, this literature focussed primarily on management accounting in an intra-organisational setting. Section four examines a further stage, characterised by the elaboration of a range of methodologies from approximately 1980 onwards that had as their concern to analyse the social and organisational aspects of accounting. The methodologies developed and applied here included those that focus on the institutional environments of accounting, the political economy of accounting, ethnographic approaches, and a concern with the networks within which accounting is embedded. Section five considers one particular strand of the recent economic sociology literature, that which concerns the calculative capacities of agents and their embeddedness in social networks. While endorsing the revival of interest in economic sociology, this paper argues that rather than focus on the enduring and transhistorical attributes of agents and networks, emphasis be placed on the roles of accounting within historically localised and temporarily stabilised assemblages of practices. Also, in place of an emphasis on the role of economics and economic theory in formatting the real economy, attention is directed to the more prosaic practices of management accounting which make it possible to act upon persons and processes within and between organisations. These arguments in favour of focussing on the calculative practices of accounting are illustrated briefly through consideration of a relatively neglected topic in management accounting - investment appraisal. The practice of "investment bundling" as elaborated at Caterpillar Inc in the early 1990s is considered. An investment bundle was defined there as a multi-period capital spending program based on the diverse yet mutually reinforcing assets needed to manufacture a core product module in a specified area on the factory floor. It is argued that the practice of investment bundling as developed at Caterpillar helped operationalise a world-wide transformation of production regimes within a particular corporate setting, and in a manner compatible with the broader problematising of the competitiveness of North American industry which can be termed a "politics of the product". Investment bundling provided a device for intervening within the firm, and in consonance with a broader transformation of concepts of competitiveness and economic citizenship. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6319 Files in this item: 1
wp8-2003pm.pdf (250.5Kb) -
How to exploit the potential for management accounting of information technologyRom, Anders (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: A lag seems to exist between management accounting techniques and management accounting practices of organisations (Bjørnenak, 1997a). The accounting lag exists in spite of the interaction taking place between academia and practice in terms of researchers conducting field studies and management accountants attending research-based courses before and during their careers in practice. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7717 Files in this item: 1
anders_rom.pdf (2.648Mb) -
Mønsted, Mette (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Collaborations are formed as inter-organisational relations, which are special forms of networks creating and spanning boundaries of organisations. This chapter is focusing on social networking mechanisms for organising, and managing networks. This is one of the features for understanding collaboration and management of collaborations. Networking is a new understanding of management in an economy in which uncertainty and turbulence are the norms rather than the exception. Network management in an entrepreneurial turbulent environment is seen as enacting power in a ‘negotiated management’ process involving partners much more than an established position in a hierarchy where power is exercised. The focus is on obtaining control and power, but also to keep all the actors active even when they are formally out of control of the manager. The question is how to create and maintain the role as project manager on joint projects with other firms. Networking is one way of mobilising resources, through which resources for establishing research and innovation are explored and exploited. In all research and innovation projects, the legitimacy of both technologies, firms and research teams are important. Legitimate partners, such as: recognised peers and research environments as well as international research funding may be exploited as a viable strategy for establishing a good reputation, and thus a strategy to create legitimacy of own innovation and research. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6344 Files in this item: 1
wpx4-2008.pdf (92.95Kb) -
Value creation and ambiguity in client-consultant relationsSmith, Irene Skovgaard (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Et godt og effektivt samarbejde mellem kunde og konsulent fremhæves generelt som en afgørende betingelse for at få succes med brug af eksterne konsulenter. Dansk Industri har sammen med Dansk Management Råd (DMR) og Copenhagen Business School (CBS) etableret et udviklingsprojekt, der under overskriften 'Vækst i Vidensamfundet' har til formål at udvikle det afgørende samarbejde mellem kundevirksomheder og konsulentvirksomheder. Nærværende ErhvervsPh.d.-afhandling er en del af dette udviklingsprojekt og sætter fokus på, hvad der sker i kunde-konsulent samspillet i konteksten af konsulentopgaver, hvor det handler om at implementere forandring. På sådanne forandringsprojekter forventes konsulenterne at bidrage med viden, værktøjer og løsninger samtidig med, at de fungerer som forandringsagenter i kundeorganisationen og involverer og arbejder med ledere og medarbejdere på forskellige niveauer. Det gør kunde-konsulent samspillet til en kompleks størrelse, der ikke bare handler om den personlige relation og godt samarbejde mellem konsulent og opdragsgiver/projektsponsor. Når vi har at gøre med ydelser, hvor konsulenterne går i clinch med organisationen for at implementere forandring, må kunde-konsulent relationer ses i et bredere perspektiv end fokus på personlige relationer mellem enkeltindivider tillader. Kunden er en organisation; en kompleks social konstellation af mennesker med forskellige positioner og interesser. Det afgørende er, hvilken rolle konsulenterne får, når de bevæger sig ind i denne sociale sammenhæng, og hvilke muligheder og begrænsninger det indebærer for at være med til at skabe forandring som ekstern part i processen. Afhandlingen stiller skarpt på disse sociale aspekter af samspillet mellem konsulenter og interne aktører i konteksten af kundeorganisation. Forskningen, der ligger til grund for afhandlingen, er udført som antropologisk feltarbejde på to forandringsprojekter; den ene i en industrivirksomhed og det andet på et hospital. Dette indebar både observation af konkrete situationer, hvor konsulenter og interne aktører arbejdede sammen, og efterfølgende interviews med både konsulenter og de relevante ledere og medarbejdere om deres oplevelse af samspillet. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7127 Files in this item: 1
irene_skovgaard_smith.pdf (1.890Mb) -
Interactions and Convergence in Product Development NetworksBerhausen, Nico Peter (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Many studies have focused on the topic of product innovation. As a key element of how industrial organisations work, of how competition is shaped and how economic growth is realised, innovation provides an interesting research field, which will never be fully explored. Industrial organisations explore these grounds through strategic processes in which objectives should guide product development processes. Ideas, alternatives or decisions form these processes in which heterogeneous actors need to be aligned and coordinated towards the final product innovation. Heterogeneity is a key aspect here; different, new technologies, conflicting objectives, different opinions and different management practices for example, are part of this process. Although these elements have been studied extensively in extant research, I identify several gaps in the existing literature, which I in turn strive to fill with this thesis. First, a perspective of the interactions in innovation processes is needed with a focus on control mechanisms and the mobilisation of strategic objectives. Secondly, focusing on control, the way calculative boundaries are created and explored and how these may be overcome needs more development and empirical insights. Thirdly, the interaction of control mechanisms and the coordination of product development networks through these interactions lack empirical insights and build an interesting research ground. I do not provide a holistic framework or a contingent perspective of how organisations should manage innovation. Rather I discuss the many ways in which product development networks become convergent through the interaction of control mechanisms, which may act as a vehicle or translator of strategic objectives... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8588 Files in this item: 1
Nico_Peter_Berhausen.pdf (2.056Mb) -
policy and practice viewed from the perspective of managersLeth, Camilla; Hjalager, Anne-Mette; Holt Larsten, Henrik (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This report contains the major results from a study of management development in Danish organizations. The study is part of a European research project with participation of Denmark, the U.K, France, Norway, Rumania, Spain, and Germany. The project is part of the so-called Leonardo program the purpose of which is to further cross-country competence development and collaboration within the European educational sector. The first phase of the project is a quantitative interview study of one hundred organizations in each of the participating countries. The second phase consists in qualitative case studies in selected organizations in each of the countries. In Denmark one hundred and one organizations have participated in the study. Identical questionnaires and interviews are conducted in all of the mentioned countries and the huge amount of data is analyzed in each country and across countries. The findings will be published in books, journals and newspaper articles. Hopefully the findings of the large European project will thus affect the way in which educational institutions and organizations manage the "Europeanization" of management development. The present report solely describes significant findings from the questionnaire study conducted in Denmark. Two hundred and two managers have participated, that is two from each organization. We thank the contributing organizations without which it would not have been possible to generate this picture of management development in Danish organizations. The Department of Organization and Industrial Sociology at the Copenhagen Business School is the Danish partner in the project. The project has been conducted by Camilla Leth in collaboration with Ilse Kristensen, Mette Gundersen and Lea Green under the supervision of Henrik Holt Larsen. Anne-Mette Hjalager has contributed to the preparation of the report. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6722 Files in this item: 1
dokument 30.pdf (215.2Kb) -
A Typology and Propositions for Management Innovation ResearchHarder, Mie (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Management innovation is the implementation of a new management practice, process, technique or structure that significantly alters the way the work of management is performed. This paper presents a typology categorizing management innovation along two dimensions; radicalness and complexity. Then, the paper introduces the concept of management innovation capabilities which refers to the ability of a firm to purposefully create, extend and modify its managerial resource base to address rapidly changing environments. Drawing upon behavioral theory of the firm and the dynamic capabilities framework, the paper proposes a model of the foundations of management innovation. Propositions and implications for future research are discussed. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8245 Files in this item: 1
SMG_WP_2_2011.pdf (471.6Kb) -
How risk management frames the possible actions for managing risksChristiansen, Ulrik (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Using a systematic review of the last 55 years of research within risk management this paper explores how risk management as a management technology (methodologies, tools and frameworks to mitigate or manage risks) singles out risks as an object for management in order to make action possible. The paper synthesise by developing a framework of how different views on risk management enable and constrain the knowledge about risk and thus frame the possibilities to measure, analyse and calculate uncertainty and risk. Inspired by social studies of finance and accounting, the paper finally develops three propositions that illustrate how the framing of risk establishes a boundary for how managers might understand value creation and the possible future and how this impacts the possible responses to risk. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8743 Files in this item: 1
Ulrik_Christiansen.pdf (168.2Kb) -
Gasparin, Marta (Frederiksberg, 2014)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This dissertation proposes a new perspective on management of design by regarding it as a translation process, using a framework based on Actor- Network Theory. Within the field of management of design, design has been defined as a problem-solving activity, a tool for either improving the decisionmaking process or for fostering radical innovation by making sense of things. Designers have generally been considered individuals with a different sensibility, able to make a difference by producing interesting and intriguing products which can deliver value to the customers and create value for the firm. Actor-Network Theory is a methodology for the socio-technical analysis that treats the actors as enacted and relational, and explores the network creation through an analysis based on a flat ontology, in which there is symmetry between human- and non-human actors. There is no a priori size, power or complexity of the actors, as these elements are built through the relations and understood by following them. The study is based on an ethnographic investigation of three design objects: the Serie7, the Egg (designed respectively in 1955 and 1958) and the Ice (designed in 2002), manufactured by Fritz Hansen. Based on the analysis, a new interpretation of the design, the design process, the role of the managers and designers, the value creation process, and the role of technologies of managing is presented. Design is defined as an outcome of the construction process of things made by mobilising and enrolling actors through the translations of goals. The design process is the process of enrolling, mobilising, and translating goals, creating the design in a heterogeneous network of allies. It is a chaotic practice, muddled and contingent, with the inevitable risk of unintended consequences. This process is guided by the managers, who act as spokespersons, while the designers are macro-actors, representing all the actors involved in the creation process, in the multitude making or agreeing on the final decisions concerning the design and its development during the life cycle of the object. The individual qualities of insight, intuition, vision, and creativity are reinterpreted and assembled in the language of the design. These qualities are no longer the properties of an individual, but collective virtues in relation to which governing and managing have a fundamental role. The managers are spokespersons, actors who translate the needs, the expectations, the demands and the desires from different actors. They work towards sharing the goals by encouraging the other actors to adhere to the programme of actions. The value is constituted and forged through the relationships, it is not something that is proper or embedded in the product, but is adopted and adapted by the allies in the network. The technologies of managing are not simple tools for fostering creativity, as described in the previous literature, they are actors mediating the process and conveying information that managers can use to make decisions. The technologies of managing are identified as black boxes and leaky black boxes. A black box is totally closed, a leaky black box is something the managers are working and acting on, stimulating the translations and actions that are shaping the network, including or cutting off the network actors and features, as well as mobilising actors. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8943 Files in this item: 1
Marta Gasparin.pdf (3.889Mb) -
Obling, Anne Roelsgaard (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis is the result of an ethnographic fieldwork at a major university hospital in Denmark that I undertook between June 2009 and January 2011. I was an ‘embedded’ observer in a cancer clinic and entirely dependent on the staff – administrative and clinical – for access to facilities, people and diseases. That said, I was never asked to modify my writings in any way or to show the content of my field notes or tape recordings. Neither does the hospital have any formal share in the overall thesis. The responsibility for the final outcome is on my shoulders alone. As an embedded observer I was to handle personally sensitive data, such as specific details in patient records, with confidentiality. There is no information in my writings which can be traced – directly or indirectly – back to individual patients or relatives at the hospital and hence disclose their identity. My observations lasted anywhere from 20 minutes (the length of a typical staff meeting) to five working days in a row. During a day of observation, I followed doctors from they arrived in the early mornings; when they attended the morning conferences, until they left the hospital in the late afternoon after hours of clinical work in the outpatient clinic. I also followed them in their offices and in the operation theatres. Many tableaux from the thesis you are reading now were recorded in my notebook and then reconstructed in the later writing. Wherever possible, I have used my free access to the hospital to check the accuracy of my writing, for example by procuring typical situations more than once or by going through precarious details with involved staff members. Statements that appear in quotation marks (‘…’) were recorded directly on my tape recorder or in my notebook while the person was speaking, or immediately hereafter. Through the process I have shared my ideas with the staff members involved to make sure that they understood the purpose of my work and also in order for them to have a chance to feel comfortable with my presence. Throughout the thesis, I have shortened quotes from documents and interviews in order to make the text more readable. In addition to my fieldwork at the hospital, I have worked with the sociologist Nanna Mik-Meyer. In her work, Mik-Meyer has focused on general practitioners and their preoccupation with patients who attend the consultancy with medically unexplained symptoms. Parts of the raw data material from some of her previous studies became the basis of a co-authored article, which is included in this thesis. Utterances from individuals described in this article are directly quoted from a larger quantity of interviews with general practitioners in primary care medicine. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8419 Files in this item: 1
Anne_Obling.pdf (1.338Mb) -
Lessons from the Entertainment IndustriesLorenzen, Mark; Frederiksen, Lars (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The paper analyses management of product innovation in project-based industries, offering a view on management not only of firms, but also of markets. It first argues that projects are prominent in industries where the nature of consumer demand means that product innovation takes place as experimentation. Then, the paper argues that if skills needed for projects are very diverse and projects are complex, there are few internal managerial economies of projects, and the scope for management then transcends the boundaries of firms. In these cases, markets become organized in combinations of people, contracts, and other institutions, in order to facilitate the coordination of market-based projects. While contracts play a role, a continuous, active role of knowledgeable managers (leaders and boundary spanners) is also often necessary. Such managers --- and thus (core parts of) whole industries --- are embedded in project ecologies at particular places, which is why we see geographical clusters in many project-based industries. The paper is mainly conceptual, but develops its argument by drawing examples from the Entertainment industries throughout. Keywords: Project organization, product innovation, portfolio management of projects, entertainment industries JEL Classification: L22, O31, L82 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7264 Files in this item: 1
wp_2005_01_maindoc.pdf (199.2Kb)