Browsing Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy (MPP/LPF) by Title
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Studier i den biopolitiske ambivalensCarnera, Alexander (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This rather substantial summary will encapsulate what is the meaning of Performance Society. This work consists of three thesis elements touching on politics, economy and art that confront the question of biopolitics. The work describes a power over life (biopower) and will follow a twofold logic: the first is expressed through state administration and management technologies; the second is expressed as localized in life itself as subject [zoe] in new modes of production of work through the power of imagination, self‐creation, and affectproduction within Art and Culture. The summary is organized around three different themes. Each of these themes constitutes my contribution to the field of biopolitics..... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8019 Files in this item: 1
Alexander_Carnera.pdf (7.796Mb) -
En revitalisering af Luhmann & Foucaults magtanalytikRennison, Betina Wolfgang (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Magt er et pudsigt fænomen. Det er et fænomen, vi alle umiddelbart kender til, et fænomen vi alle lader til at genkende, når vi støder på det. Et fænomen, vi laver undersøgelser af, som vi søger at ’udrede’ og ’indfange’ for derved at kunne kontrollere det, der kontrollerer os. Men magt er også et fænomen, vi ikke synes at kunne begribe. Ikke alene er magt ofte et tabu i kommunikationen, noget vi undlader at tale om – et sprængfarligt fænomen, vi ikke tør nærme os. Men magten er også i sig selv et svært tilnærmeligt fænomen. Det er ikke til at hitte rede i, hvori magten egentlig består. Det er ikke så ligetil at udrede magten. Dette paper tilbyder en måde at iagttage magt på. Det præsenterer en analytik, hvormed det bliver muligt at begribe dette ubegribelige fænomen. Paperet lancerer en teoretisk udfoldelse af magtbegrebet, men antager først og fremmest en analysestrategisk karakter, hvor bidraget er at levere en strategi til, hvordan magt kan iagttages og analyseres. Dens sigte er at fungere som fundament for konkrete magtanalyser af organisationer og ledelsesrelationer. Paperet stiller skarpt på spørgsmålet om, hvordan man kan iagttage socialiteten og kommunikationen med et magtblik. Hvad får man øje på, når man anretter et magtens blik, hvori består et sådant magtblik og hvilken grundproblematik og genstand kaster det af sig? URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6393 Files in this item: 1
wp18-2005.pdf (241.9Kb) -
How special groups organize for collaborative creativity in conditions of spatial variability and distanceO’Donnell, Shannon (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The enormous challenges and opportunities impacting the world community today increasingly require people to practice collaborative innovation effectively both in person and across geographic boundaries. Simultaneously, advances in technology such as social networking tools, digital 3-D representations, virtual worlds, and open source practices are inspiring generations of users to develop new kinds of adaptive collaborative networks and capabilities. But when people work across organizational and geographic boundaries, new challenges arise that make it difficult for groups to achieve the levels of excellence they are capable of achieving together in close proximity. Practitioners need help determining how best to perform collaborative creativity given unique and dynamic work conditions. Meanwhile, as new forms of creative group work emerge at an accelerating pace, researchers struggle to keep up with and develop nuanced understanding of the variations in collaborative processes we increasingly see performed. With this PhD research, I aim to increase our understanding of a particular, specialized form of collaborative creativity called “ensembling.” I investigate this phenomenon by studying it in diverse—including “stretched”—conditions. By stretched, I mean that, literally, groups are stretched apart in space as membership size and spatial distance between members increase and work configurations vary. The groups I study are those both capable of achieving and driven to achieve a peak-performance state of ensemble, and do so via the enactment of an interdependent set of methods that call ensemble into being, a process I call ensembling. In their ideal form, these work methods support the emergence of ensemble and result in the creation of aesthetically coherent and novel outcomes that are particularly responsive to the contexts in which they are made. To investigate the phenomenon of ensemble, I first develop a construct of ensemble based on informant descriptions, and use theory and data to develop a detailed description of how ensembling is performed in natural conditions (i.e., in close physical proximity). Then I look at an extreme example in which a set of expert groups’ ability to ensemble was put under stress by an unprecedented work task. In 2009, multiple string quartets (many considered world class) organized to perform a new musical composition. The composition challenged four quartets at a time to perform as an integrated ensemble while sitting apart, in various configurations, and at spatial distances of up to 70 feet. To help them address the difficulties produced by increased membership and distance, the musicians integrated a simple coordinating technology into their process. To learn how participants made ensemble possible given these new conditions, I engaged multiple qualitative methods for generating data and multiple perspectives for interpretation. I first considered their process as an iterative approach to exploring strategies for addressing constraints, in order to show how the methods of ensembling interacted with conditions of increased group size, increased spatial distance and configurational variability, and to elicit their evolving beliefs about what methods made ensemble more likely to occur given these conditions. Then I performed an alternative interpretation, disrupting this logic and exploring the ways in which participants used methods of ensembling—particularly openness to uncertainty and reconceiving—to create unanticipated potentialities for ensemble to emerge despite constraints. I show how they worked with a coordinating technology called a “click-track” in important new ways that went beyond “merely” achieving synchronous coordination to increasing their autonomy, relatedness, and ability to demonstrate artistic virtuosity, enabling them to engage equally in leadership and participation and to play. Finally, performing a comparative analysis across sub-units of the case, including examples of breakdown in the process, I generated additional insights into what conditions, beliefs, methods and behaviors enable or inhibit processes of ensembling. Integrating learning from analysis and interpretation, I propose a new range of conditions in which ensembling is possible, and a revised and expanded description of the methods by which groups ensemble. Conditions can expand to include larger groups with limited-tenure consisting of enduring-tenure sub-groups, multiple task interdependencies at group and sub-group levels, balanced tenure at sub-group level, a balance between proximity and distance, opportunities to work with and without technological mediation, and self-determined configuration variability. I show that the emergence of ensemble depends on, for instance, a shared purpose to ensemble, and methods such as a “struggle” phase, episodes of close physical proximity, collective leadership, “dueting” in different configurations, reconceiving constraints, living with the paradox of one-and-four, opening the process to uncertainty and to the emergence of consent, and subliminal technology engagement. Ultimately, these groups demonstrated an increasing ability to adapt to new conditions faster and more creatively, making new configurations possible, and suggesting ways in which ensemble might be performed in other kinds of group settings. I summarize findings in the form of a “framework of ensembling” that is meant to serve as a tool to further enrich our yet nascent understanding of this complex phenomenon and to aid in the exploration of ensembling in contexts outside the usual places we expect it to occur. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8653 Files in this item: 1
Shannon_O'Donnell.pdf (7.529Mb) -
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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) -
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) -
A Sociological Approach to Managerial TechnoloyThygesen, Niels Thyge; Tangkjær, Christian (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The relevance of technologies in management and organizational analysis is well accepted in theory, if not by managers themselves. But the way technologies allow us to observe has not yet been explored. This is because many accounts of technologies neglect, if not the constitutive nature of technologies, then at least their observational potential. In particular, this article argues, technologies work by setting the scene of observation for the manager. In order to handle that challenge, management must be a matter of `managination`, that is, second order observation. Keywords: management, observation, reproduction, steering, technology. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6354 Files in this item: 1
wp20-2005.pdf (294.0Kb) -
a refection of corporate strategyJørgensen, Heidi; Vintergaard, Christian (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Logically it seems that companies pursuing different business strategies would also manage their relationships with other firms accordingly. Nevertheless, due to the lack of research in the field of network strategies, this link still remains inadequately examined. Based on the well-known framework of organisational behaviour developed by Miles and Snow (1978), this paper argues that the patterns of network behaviour practiced by firms greatly depend on the business typology of the company. That is, a company’s business typology will to a certain degree dictate the network identity of the company. In this paper evidence is provided, that the relation between a company’s strategy, structure and processes in fact have a considerable influence on its pattern of network behaviour. Three case studies from the Danish biotech industry exemplify and illustrate how a company’s strategy is directly correlated with how it manages its strategic network relations, which consequently affects its network identity (Eisenhardt 1999). It is argued in this paper that the level of relational embeddedness, incentives for establishing strategic relations and the relation between the number of non-redundant and redundant relations are the most dominant elements distinguishing the types of network behaviour in relation to the business typology. The paper thus strives to argue how different business typologies develop a network identity on the basis of their network behaviour. Due to the correlation between a company’s strategy, structure and processes and its pattern of network behaviour, knowing how to manage this relation becomes essential, especially during the development of new strategies. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6368 Files in this item: 1
wp 2 2004.pdf (265.2Kb) -
a research AgendaMichailova, Snejina; Husted, Kenneth (København, 2002)[More information][Less information]
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Ernø-Kjølhede, Erik; Husted, Kenneth; Mønsted, Mette; Wenneberg, Søren Barlebo (København, 2000)[More information][Less information]
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Pedersen, Ove K.; Kjær, Peter; Åkerstrøm Andersen, Niels (København, 2001)[More information][Less information]
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Hansson, Finn (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Det er vanskeligt i dagens samfund ikke at betragte udtrykket ”den uhyre vareophobning” som Marx i Kapitalens første kapitel (1970 1.1: 128/49)i bruger som det mest sigende udtryk for den samfundsmæssige rigdom, som en endog meget beskeden forudsigelse af en eksplosiv udvikling, som vi ser her fuldt udfoldet godt 150 år senere. Kapitalforholdets eksplosive dynamik, som Marx analyserede i sin vorden, har nu vist sig i sin fuldt udfoldede globale dynamisk, hvor dagens kapitalisme har bredt sig til alle områder i samfundet og alle dele af kloden. Debatten herom har dog i lang tid været præget af en række summariske og empirisk ufuldstændige antagelser om, hvad der er det unikt nye i dagens kapitalisme, ofte efterfulgt af en nærmest apriorisk afvisning af Marx' kritik som relevant for en kritisk forståelse af dagens kapitalisme. I modsætning til dette vil denne artikel undersøge om de modsætninger og problemer, som den nye kapitalisme skaber for lønarbejderne og se nærmere på om de med fordel kan analyseres ved at gå tilbage og videreudvikle de bidrag til analyse af det moderne lønarbejde under kapitalismen, som vi finder hos Marx og hermed bidrage til en systematisk samfundskritik af vilkårene for det moderne lønarbejde. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6433 Files in this item: 1
wp2-2008.pdf (85.05Kb) -
Åkerstrøm Andersen, Niels (København, 2002)[More information][Less information]
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branding af nationer, regioner og byerBuhl Pedersen, Søren; Tangkjær, Christian; Linde-Lauersen, Anders (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: De seneste årtier har brand management og branding strategier fået større og større prioritet for organisationer i deres bestræbelser på at positionere sig på markedet. Det gælder først og fremmest kommercielt drevne organisationer, men i stadig større grad er også politisk styrede organisationer blevet opmærksomme på vigtigheden af at have et stærkt brand. De seneste år har branding imidlertid bevæget sig ind i andre politiske felter, nemlig branding af steder, som byen, regionen og nationen – ja, selv en supranational størrelser som EU bliver brandet. Byer, regioner og nationer indretter sig i stigende grad efter markedets krav om på den ene side konkret organisering af for eksempel arbejdskraft og økonomi, og på den anden side fortællinger om oplevelser, værdier og erfaringer som knytter sig til disse steder. Derfor er disse territoriale enheder begyndt at formulere sig selv som attraktive brands, der profilerer stedernes særlige kvaliteter. Nærværende paper forsøger at analysere profileringen af steder som en praksis der balancerer mellem bordering og branding som to parallelle logikker. Det er hypotesen, at forholdet mellem disse logikker kan aflæses i den måde, som forskellige brands fremstiller steder med både sentimentalitet og ironi. Anvendelsen af dette perspektiv indbærer, at der tænkes en direkte sammenhæng mellem de former for organisering, som præger nationer, byer og regioner, og den måde som disse steder symboliseres gennem brands. Paperet falder i to sektioner: én om vilkårene for branding som symbolsk praksis under det globale, og én om den reelle organisering, som de bestemte symbolske former er udtryk for. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6326 Files in this item: 1
wp4-2003sbpctall.pdf (1.804Mb) -
Flexibility, performance and commitment in work-life managementRaastrup Kristensen, Anders (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis offers a critical contribution to the theories of work-life balance. Within the contemporary theoretical perspectives on work and life the individuals are constructed as being responsible for work-life balance by turning it into a problem of the personal behaviour, decisions, psychological traits and family condition of the human subject. In this sense the everyday problem of balancing between work and home is reduced to be primarily an individual problem and decision. When the problem of work-life balance is raised in this way, it is difficult for companies to offer managerial and organizational solutions that do not automatically exclude this as an individual problem. It might be possible for managers and organizations to help the employees in achieving work-life balance, but it is fundamentally a challenge that the individual employees must solve. The thesis offers a different perspective on the relation between work and life. This perspective is not based upon the individual employees’ perception and hence constitution of work-life balance. Instead, it is argued that the constitution of the relation of work and life is to be found in its effects. These effects are not established in the constitution of the boundary between work and home, but are rather recognized by how the employees determine and define activities and tasks as work. For example, is it work to send email in the evening? Is it work to read an article at the weekend? Is it work to update a profile on Facebook? The question is therefore ‘what is work?’ and not ‘what is the boundary between work and home?’ URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7973 Files in this item: 1
Anders_Raastrup_Kristensen.pdf (4.374Mb) -
Raffnsøe, Sverre; Gudmand-Høyer, Marius T. (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
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Thyssen, Ole (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7722 Files in this item: 1
ole20thyssen20modernitetens20familie.pdf (173.8Kb) -
Kampagnestyring i Velfærdsstaten: En diskussion af trafikkampagners styringspotentialeSpeiermann, Sabrina (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
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Competencies for doing research in/with(in), for and in-between organizationsNielsen, Rikke Kristine (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper addresses the research practice of practicable research by drawing a map of methodological in-roads to doing research with a view to bridging the practitioner-research gap and producing what has been termed as ‘actionable research’ by engaging closely with practitioners in the research process. The map includes three territories and methodological in-roads for doing research in close collaboration with practitioners with a view to mutual value creation and co-construction: Doing research, in/with(in), for and in-between organizations. The methodological reflections in the map are illustrated and discussed against the backdrop of a concrete instance of academia-practitioner collaboration, the industrial Ph.D. research project of Group Mindset-Development in Solar A/S. The industrial Ph.D. researcher is seen as a front-runner vis-a-vis a political climate of increasing demands from governments to universities with regards to the ability of research groups to demonstrate co-operation with external stakeholder groups and an illustration of the privileges and pitfalls of doing research in close engagement with practice called for by the increasing academic interest for actionable research. Using empirical data from an on-going practitioner-academia research project, a literature review and inputs from a professional development workshop organized by the author at the British Academy Management’s annual meeting 20121, a position for doing research in/with(in), for and in-between practice is carved out. Based on the challenges and potential pitfalls inherent in this research position, researcher competencies for successfully handling the research management of the in-between and bridging the academia-practitioner gap in research practice are discussed. Further, competency requirements of both academia and practice as main stakeholders in an industrial Ph.D. project or other projects with the ambition to create value in both camps simultaneously are debated based on the methodological map presented. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8887 Files in this item: 1
Rikke_Kristine_Nielsen.pdf (474.8Kb)