Browsing Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy (MPP/LPF) by Title
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Do the Codes of Conduct and Ethics reflect Reality in Management Consulting?Maula, Marjatta; Poulfelt, Flemming (København, 2000)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The management consulting firms’ competence and capacity to provide high quality services and thereby create, transfer and develop managerial knowledge have an important role for the client firms and the society. The international management consulting associations have formulated Codes of Conduct and Codes of Ethics that aim to regulate and provide guidelines for the management consulting firms’ activities. This paper investigates whether there is a fit between the Codes and (a) the current modes of management consulting, and (b) the needs of the consulting firms to learn and develop continually their knowledge base and competencies. The analysis indicates that the majority of the Codes tend to support one-directional, i.e., ‘directive’, ‘content-based’, and ‘transplantation-based’ type of consulting. In the cases where the Codes recommend interaction, they could emphasize two-directionality and mutual interaction between the consultant and the client more clearly and explicitly, in the spirit of ‘nondirective’, ‘process-based’, and ‘translation-based’ consulting models. As to the development of the consulting firms’ knowledge and competencies, the analysis reveals that the Codes emphasize necessary qualifications and the quality of advice. With two exceptions the Codes do not directly and explicitly indicate the dynamic aspect, i.e., that the consulting firms should develop their skills and knowledge continually. Also, there is variation concerning the methods to develop competencies. Therefore, there are several unutilized opportunities to develop the Codes to meet better the needs of the knowledge society. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6313 Files in this item: 1
wp92000.pdf (60.84Kb) -
En undersøgelse af det intense arbejdslivKirkegaard, Line (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Denne afhandling tilbyder et diagram over eksistensformen for en gruppe højt profilerede management konsulenter. Den tilbyder et diagram over et moderne selvforhold. Den tilbyder en fortegnelse over, hvordan en gruppe højt profilerede management konsulenter griber de kriterier, de bliver udsat for i sit deres liv og den eksistensmåde, der hermed muliggøres. Med dette ønsker jeg at bidrage til de eksisterende work-life balance teorier. Min vej ind i teorierne er nemlig, at logikken i mit empiriske materiale forekommer så forskelligt fra de traditionelle work-life balance teorier, at disse ikke lader sig forene. Jeg foretager derfor en analyse af den eksisterende litteratur, og rejser i den forbindelse en grundlæggende kritik af work-life balance teorierne, for at operere med falske problemstillinger på en måde, så svaret allerede indgår i de spørgsmål, der stilles... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8390 Files in this item: 1
Line_Kirkegaard.pdf (1.175Mb) -
Relasjonen mellom virksomhetsledelse og kontraktshåndtering, belyst via fire norske virksomheterSimilä, Jan Ole (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Why do we focus on the internal arrangements of the contractual process from a leadership perspective? Through empirical research where we have asked questions about the internal organizational arrangements, what kind of knowledge the organization need, and how institutional arrangements affect the contract process, we have tried to answer the main research question. We have also carried with us a question of if the organization's attachment to the public or private sector affects the arrangements. I have conducted a comparative case study where data has been generated from two public sector organizations, The National Road Administration, Helsebygg Midt-Norge, one private sector organization, Siemens, and one hybrid organization, NTE. Data was primarily generated from the governance system of the different organizations, and informant interviews. The analysis was carried out by two steps; first an empirical analysis, then a theoretical analysis, based on contractual theory, of the empirical findings. The empirical analysis shows that the organizations share the same thoughts on how to organize the contractual work; the division between the line and the project organization, the distribution of decision-making authority, and the institutionalization of a specific governance system. The organizational processes are formalized, and the governance system gives the clear recommendation on desired actions. The empirical data gives a clear understanding that the contract process is dominated by one profession — the engineers. Regarding the question on knowledge, I found the organizations to be interested foremost on problem solving competencies (engineering competencies). Other competencies, for example economic or legal competencies, where viewed as support competencies. We also found that personal skills in handling the complex and difficult processes and attitude toward ethics seemed to be of importance. On the question on how institutional elements in the organizational environment affected the contract process, we found that the overall interest of the organizations was stability and predictability. We also found that the market mechanisms cause the organizations some worry. In the end, the empirical findings did not give us any strong reasons to differentiate between public sector organizations and private sector organizations in how to deal with contractual work processes. The theoretical analysis has been carried out within classical and relational contract theory. The analysis shows that the empirical findings, to a great extend, can be explained through classical contract theory. It also gives us some ideas on what areas of the theory, especially relational contract theory that should be improved. Regarding the main research question, the conclusions indicate a need to establish a comprehensive approach to the contract process, to ensure a good balance between different partial processes. There also seem to be necessary to work on improvements on contract theory to increase the applicability of the theory, especially the relational contract theory. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8011 Files in this item: 1
Jan_Ole_Similä.pdf (2.216Mb) -
med udgangspunkt i forskernetværket Viden NetKnudsen, Line (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Abstract: Paris havde i 30’erne et sprudlende kulturelt miljø, hvor lokale intellektuelle og kunstnere blandedes med flygtninge fra kommunisme, nazisme og fascisme, hvor marxister, anarkister, dadaister, surrealister og alle mulige andre politiske og videnskabelige grupperinger inspirerede hinanden på kryds og tværs. I et surrealistisk hjørne af denne vrimmel mødtes gruppen Contre-Attaque , altså Mod-angreb i 1935 og underskrev et manifest rettet mod den nyetablerede franske folkefrontsregering. Manifestet kræver en ny politik, nemlig at regeringens passive anti-fascisme vendes til en aktiv anti-fascisme. Blandt underskriverne var digteren Léo Malet, og manifestet var sandsynligvis forfattet af Georges Bataille. Det er denne spinkle forbindelse, som jeg har benyttet som anledning til at præsentere det krimi-univers, som Malet udviklede i 40’erne og 50’erne. Bataille kender jeg nemlig særdeles godt, og hvis man inddrager Batailles filosofi fra samme periode i analysen af Malets tekst, så tyder meget på, at deres bekendtskab og fælles rødder i det nævnte miljø har haft stor betydning for de temaer, de senere kredser om litterært og filosofisk. Første afsnit handler om den særlige genre, krimi’en, hvor Malet imidlertid typisk overses. Andet afsnit introducerer Malet, og tredje præsenterer to fælles temaer med udgangspunkt i Malets og Batailles henvisninger til Sade og Baudelaire, nemlig død og erotik. Det vises, hvordan hvordan de for Bataille er tæt forbundne, og i Malets fremstilling af det erotiske forhold mellem mand og kvinde skabes en kvindefigur, der adskiller sig markant fra dem, man typisk møder i krimi-genren. Fjerde afsnit ser på den politiske ideologi, der viderebringes med de kulturelle normer, der gøres gældende i Malets krimi’er, nemlig småborgerskabets anarkisme, der stadig spiller en stor rolle for den post-moderne venstrefløjs forestillinger om det ideale samfund. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6325 Files in this item: 1
wp21-2005.pdf (118.7Kb) -
Horst, Maja (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to explore the associations made in mass mediated articulations of biotechnology. It serves as the basis for further analyses of mass mediated controversies and the purpose is to establish a map of the landscape of mass mediated articulation of biotechnology. Which kinds of genetic research and technology are articulated in what way? What can be associated to what in the mass mediation and when is it portrayed as controversial? In short this is a study of associations in the news production that serves as a way of establishing an empirical archive for further work. It is based on a relational ontology inspired by French philosopher Bruno Latour, supplemented with the method of content analysis developed within sociology of mass media. The aim is to study the production of networks of articulation in mass media by looking at the outcome (the articles), which they produce. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6366 Files in this item: 1
wp22-2003.pdf (447.4Kb) -
Sørensen, Asger (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
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Entrepreneurial leadership?Hansson, Finn; Mønsted, Mette (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
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Raffnsøe, Sverre (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: On dit souvent que Foucault a renoncé à toute philosophie de l’histoire ce qu'on peut bien admettre en constatant l'impatience de Foucault de mettre de la distance avec l’histoire universelle qui explique l'histoire en la rapportant à quelque chose qui oblige universellement et qui est en train de se faire valoir à l'époque. Dans ses Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte Hegel se réconciliait avec les antithèses de L’histoire du monde en les voyant comme l'expression d'une raison qui se faisait conscience d'elle-même à l'époque et qui cherchait à se manifester aux différents niveaux. Dans sa Zur Genealogie der Moral Nietzsche pensait se trouver en pleine réouverture d'une guerre universelle indissoluble entre "Rome" et "Judée", entre une culture aristocratique qui donnait libre cours à nos épanouissements et une culture de ressentiment qui cherchait à réprimer nos activités plus que de besoin. Dans Die Idee der Naturgeschichte Adorno essayait de faire éclater le continuum historique et ses truismes en montrant comment une nature en elle-même indéfinisable est toujours présent concrètement dans l'histoire et dans la culture sans y être réductible. Au contraire Foucault renonce à ordonner l'histoire en la mettrant à distance dans une retrospection totalisante qui se réfère à une raison synthétisante, à une conflictualité générale ou à une transcendance née de l'histoire mais oubliée URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6400 Files in this item: 1
wp1-2008.pdf (344.0Kb) -
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Abstract: artikel falder i tre afsnit. Første afsnit arbejder på at vise hvordan den nuværende ledelsespraksis nødvendigvis må bevæge sig mellem to helt fundamentale orienteringer som giver ’ledelse’, lederen og den ledede en grundlæggende mening med sin tilblivelse. Dette afsnit slutter i håbet om at der må være en overensstemmelse mellem den retoriske logos, etos og patos for at undgå at blive forført af et usædvanligt raffineret kunstværk som kan betegnes som et liv der lykkes. Andet afsnit udvikler på baggrund af en historisk læsning af værdibegrebets indholdsmæssige forskydning et begreb om eksistentielle værdier, som på den ene side udtrykker menneskets grundlæggende livsvilkår og på den anden side signalerer de tavse værdier der sikrer virksomhedens bæredygtighed. Artiklen afslutter med et afsnit omkring den praktiske integration af etiske fortællinger baseret i en forudsætning om at forståelse og ånd kan være de bærende komponenter i det organisatoriske fællesskab. Herved gives et bud på, hvordan etikken bør realiseres i organisationen gennem den autonome fortælling, der har sans for det gode liv. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6387 Files in this item: 1
wp7-2003kg.pdf (314.5Kb) -
En problemformuleringHøjbjerg, Erik (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
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Raffnsøe, Sverre (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: L’événement joue un rôle central peut-être un peu sous-estimé chez Michel Foucault. Dans cet article on essaierait de combler cette lacune, en rendant compte du rôle de l’événement dans la pensée de Foucault pour jeter un jour nouveau sur les traits de l’événement en général et le rôle de l’événement dans le livre The Music of Chance de Paul Auster en particulier. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8176 Files in this item: 1
Sverre_Raffnsoe_WP_1-2010.pdf (178.5Kb) -
Om udvikling af medarbejdernes brandorienterede dømmekraftHermansen, Dorte (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: How can service companies get their employees to ‘live the brand’? This thesis answers this question through a dialogue between practice and theory. It investigates the potential of philosophical-dialogical methods to transform abstract brand values into action in corporate branding praxis at TDC and explores opportunities to apply the methods in context of service companies in general. It develops an understanding of corporate branding as an organisational and cultural project in which collective dialogue-processes serve as the main sensemaking process. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7813 Files in this item: 1
Dorte_Hermansen.pdf (2.588Mb) -
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Thyssen, Ole (København, 2000)[More information][Less information]
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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)