http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8274 2013-05-23T07:15:12Z 2013-05-23T07:15:12Z Sundtoft Hald, Kim Sigurbjornsson, Tomas http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8681 2013-04-29T11:32:55Z 2013-04-29T00:00:00Z

How Do Category Managers Manage? Sundtoft Hald, Kim; Sigurbjornsson, Tomas The aim of this research is to explore the managerial role of category managers in purchasing. A network management perspective is adopted. A case based research methodology is applied, and three category managers managing a diverse set of component and service categories in a global production firm is observed while providing accounts of their progress and results in meetings. We conclude that the network management classification scheme originally developed by Harland and Knight (2001) and Knight and Harland (2005) is a valuable and fertile theoretical framework for the analysis of the role of the category manager in purchasing.

2013-04-29T00:00:00Z Obed Madsen, Søren http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8591 2012-12-05T07:48:07Z 2012-12-05T00:00:00Z

The flipsides of strategy Obed Madsen, Søren Although a strategy, in theory, should help the organization to move in the same direction by showing a direction for the organization, in practice the strategy increases the number of possible paths, as managers translate the strategy into their own context. This increases the number of strategies in the organization, and it becomes difficult to get an overview of the interaction and relationships between the translated strategies. The managers distinguish between the different parts of the strategy, such as the abstract words or intention, and the concrete as targets and projects. Managers use the various parts of the strategy in different contexts, but still speak about "strategy" even if they have changed dimension like the words and KPIs. Another dimension is that the managers also perceive the strategy as correct, but irrelevant, which is linked to their distinction between the abstract and the concrete in the strategy. The abstract dimension is perceived as being true, while the effet of the strategy may be irrelevant for certain managers. The strategy is also used as documentation for senior management intentions. This allows other players to gain insight into top management's thinking, take 2 countermeasures, resist in an elegant way, or just prepare to argue his case within the logic of the strategy.

2012-12-05T00:00:00Z Plotnikof, Mie http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8556 2012-11-08T10:51:27Z 2012-11-08T00:00:00Z

Unpacking the complexities of managerial subjectivity Plotnikof, Mie In this paper an analytic scope is elaborated in order to unpack the complexities of constitutive dynamics co-producing managerial subjects in discursive practices of public management work (my empirical field). Such framing is proposed in order to grasp the dynamic complexity of multi-modal, power-infused processes of subject formations, that is, the significant discursive practices through which different enacting forces constitute selves, actions, procedures and/or materials as managerial matters with specific normative effects. In this view managerial subjectivity becomes a question of analysing power-infused processes of active and passive performing subject formations that manage meanings of managerial matter, selves, affect conditions of actions and ways of organizing. Public management work is an interesting field to such; with the rapid changes seen in many OECD-countries, embedded managerial subjects and relating phenomena become in fluxes of binary tensions between shifting modernization discourses (e.g. in terms of ‘New Public Management’ or ‘New Public Governance’). With such the significance of formal managers are often stressed to changing ways of organizing (Bislev et al. 2002, Pedersen & Hartley 2008). But how do certain ‘selves’, ‘doings’, ‘things’ come to matter managerially in everyday management work, managing meanings and conditions of selves, others and actions? By analysing the socially embedded co-productions of managerial work, we can nuance research accounts on the performance of manageability in organizing processes. But grasping such complexity calls for discourse analytics sensitive to social-psychological aspects of constitutive dynamics, a need this paper contributes to.

2012-11-08T00:00:00Z Ingerslev, Karen Bjørn, Kasper Johansen, Jørgen http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8647 2013-01-30T10:37:55Z 2013-01-30T00:00:00Z

Innovating the capacity to innovate Ingerslev, Karen; Bjørn, Kasper; Johansen, Jørgen This paper addresses the potential clash between the “non-failure” culture of the hospital and the “fail-fast-forward” approach of innovation by sharing and analysing narratives from a field study of innovation processes. The case is a large university hospital in Scandinavia and the health care sector in general is outlined as context of the challenges addressed by the innovation processes. The narratives fall into three overlapping categories; the product, the process and the culture of innovation. Regarding the product of innovation, we outline the lessons learned about tensions created by ambitions of radical innovation in a public sector context, challenged by the idea of small-scale experiments and the participant’s feelings of inferiority. As for the process of innovation: we share the lessons learned about how linear and non-linear thinking affects the process of innovation. Addressing the culture of innovation, we discuss the lessons learned from working with a prototype testing approach in a system characterized by an evidence-based non-failure culture. Finally we summarize the lessons learned and share concluding perspectives.

2013-01-30T00:00:00Z