Browsing Department of Organization (IOA) by Title
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Assembeling and Negotiating the Content of a WorkforceMarfelt, Mikkel Mouritz (Frederiksberg, 2016)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Due to advancements in technology and the expansion of companies onto a global level, organizations have become increasingly aware of the need to understand and manage diverse workforces; that is, the need to understand and manage differences among employees across borders (such as geographical, cultural, professional, etc.). This PhD dissertation studies this phenomenon, ‘a diverse workforce’, in a large Scandinavian pharmaceutical company. The dissertation follows the Diverse and Global Workforce (DGW) project, a ‘headquarter centric’ and strategic corporate initiative to address the rapid global expansion of the company workforce. In academia, the phenomenon has been studied widely for the last three decades under the overarching research field ‘workforce diversity’. While workforce diversity research has contributed to a better understanding of the concept of diversity in work-related situations, the role of ‘workforce’ in this equation is often assumed, reducing the problematic of workforce diversity to a need to understand the concept of ‘diversity in the workforce’. This perception is not without its problems and has led to a focus on the concept of diversity at the expense of understanding the role of the workforce as something other than a simple container of ‘people engaged in or available for work’. And so, even though the ‘workforce’ was foundational to forming workforce diversity research and its related fields (such as diversity management, diversity at work, diversity in the workplace, etc.), discussions about the role of the workforce have become a peripheral debate, while discussions on the role of diversity have become central. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9285 Files in this item: 1
Mikkel_M_Markfelt.pdf (4.846Mb) -
New ICTs and StrategyTunby Gulbrandsen, Ib; Kamstrup, Andreas; Koed Madsen, Anders; Plesner, Ursula; Raviola, Elena (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
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an introductionRocha, Robson (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper has two distinct aims. First, I would like to present and discuss the national business systems (NBS) framework ( Whitley, 1992,1992a,1996,1997). NBS framework concerns how national variations in economic co-ordination and control systems facilitate and constrain organisational change. The NBS is not widely known in the Latin America countries, and this paper intends to shortly present it The second aim is to question, based on the NBS approach, some of the assumptions about the diffusion of a new universal template for organising work (Lean Production) and its agent, the multinational corporation. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6667 Files in this item: 1
wp 32.pdf (366.7Kb) -
Bramming, Pia (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The article will address competence, its’ diffusion, application, and the consequence of this application within the field of Human Resource Management (HRM). The concept competence-in-practice will be presented and in conclusion the article will consider implications and possibilities of competence-in-practice as an alternative approach to Competence Development within Human Resource Management. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6718 Files in this item: 1
12 competence ioa working paper.pdf (202.1Kb) -
Augier, Mie; Teece, David J. (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this paper, Mie Augier and David Teece outline the history and development of the ideas underlying an emerging approach within strategic management research: the dynamic capabili-ties framework. The framework was first outlined by Teece and Pisano (1994), and in the pre-sent paper elaborated further so the reader will be able to appreciate some of the most impor-tant intellectual resources underpinning it, such as the work of Schumpeter, Penrose, William-son, Cyert and March, Rummelt, Nelson and Winter. Although listed as intellectual resources by the authors, they also turn (some of) them into a topic for further discussion. For example, Augier and Teece identify not only the merits but also the limitations of transaction costs eco-nomics. In this way, the authors pave the way for a more dynamic framework while drawing upon organization theory and scholars like Cyert and March (a behavioral theory of the firm) and Nelson and Winter (an evolutionary theory of economic change). In the dynamic capability framework firms and markets co-evolve. Managers are now allowed to perform distinct strate-gic roles in shaping both firms and their markets, e.g. through asset- selection and orchestra-tion, including also the task of allocating resources between exploitation and exploration. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6673 Files in this item: 1
2004-52pio.pdf (236.2Kb) -
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Abstract: In the following, I will analyze two articles called Complex Adaptive Systems Ecology I & II (Molin & Molin, 1997 & 2000). The CASE-articles are some of the more quirky articles that have come out of the Molecular Microbial Ecology Group – a group where I am currently making observational studies. They are the result of a cooperation between Søren Molin, professor in the group, and his brother, Jan Molin, professor at Department of Organization and Industrial Sociology at Copenhagen Business School. The cooperation arises from the recognition that both microbial ecology and sociology/organization theory works with communities of sorts. The articles explore if insights from the one field – organization theory – can be used fruitfully in the other field – microbiology. The two articles are written as prolongations of each other and I will consider CASE I & II to be two parts of the same textual body. It is my main goal with this analysis to localize actants and developmental dynamics, which I can use as guidelines in my later empirical analyses. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6694 Files in this item: 1
dokument 13.pdf (303.7Kb) -
A field study of a pharmaceutical companyBrogaard-Kay, Jacob (Frederiksberg, 2015)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This PhD thesis studies performance management (PM) in complex organizational settings. In both academia and practice, PM as a subject has received increased attention over the past couple of decades. In academia, it has been studied across several research paradigms and disciplines, through empirical cases, structured experiments and philosophical investigations. In practice, the subject is typically “owned” by Human Resource (HR) departments of large-scale international organizations. Typically, employees in all hierarchical positions of such organizations become acquainted with a PM system via the responsibility given to them at the beginning of the year for achieving a set of goals by yearend. A recurrent idea is that there should be a clear link between the organization’s overall strategies and the sub-goals of each division, department, line managers and employees. However, this thesis studies closely how PM practices do not merely produce tangible outcomes and clear links between predefined goals and outcomes. Instead, it shows how PM systems and practices are constituted through endless interactions and relations between devices, texts, humans and events. Based on this way of studying the world, this thesis illustrates how PM practices play different roles in shaping the organizing of work in sometimes surprising ways. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9188 Files in this item: 1
Jacob Brogaard-Kay.pdf (4.911Mb) -
Invitation to a dialog between two theoretical approachesWestenholz, Ann (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Two theoretical approaches – Conventions and Institutional Logics – are brought together and the similarities and differences between the two are explored. It is not the intention to combine the approaches, but I would like to open both ‘boxes’ and make them available to each other with the purpose of creating a space for dialog. Both approaches were developed in the mid-1980s as a reaction to rational-choice economic theory and collectivistic sociological theory. These two theories were oversimplifying social life as being founded either in actor-micro level analyses or in structure-macro level analyses. The theoretical quest of both Conventions and Institutional Logics has been to understand the increasing indeterminacy, uncertainty and ambiguity in people’s lives where a sense of reality, of value, of moral, of feelings is not fixed. Both approaches have created new theoretical insights by overcoming traditional micro-macro and actor-structure dimensions. However, they have also achieved this in different ways and I ask if there is a benefit to ‘importing’ some of these differences into the other approach. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8792 Files in this item: 1
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What does it mean for business educators?Mazza, Carmelo; Strandgaard Pedersen, Jesper; Alvarez, José Luis (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In the last decade, scholarly interest has been mainly attracted on the nature of knowledge, mechanisms of knowledge production and the transformation of the institutions diffusing knowledge. Most of these studies share the underlying hypotheses that management knowledge "travels", as a package, from producers to passive receivers. A few exploratory attempts have envisioned an alternative perspective based on the idea of "knowledge consumption". Managers are active receivers of institutionalized knowledge in the course of enacting their organizational roles. Building on this last perspective, first we try to outline the process of knowledge consumption. We describe how sources of knowledge are selected, knowledge is acquired and consumed by assuming that managers are active consumer of management knowledge. Then, we construct the process linking the flows of management knowledge in organizations and the flows of action performed by managers. We sustain that knowledge has to be first dis-embed from the context and artifacts it is in to be translated into a portable form—a standardized artifact, a logic of action, etc. Then, specific courses of action are required to re-embed knowledge in new artifacts, practices or routines (e.g. a budgetary procedure, an organizational process, etc.). So, to re-embed knowledge in new contexts, managers have to mobilize resources and build consensus on the specific courses of action. By assuming this process, two consequences are derived: first, the dis-embedding/re-embedding process is not the outcome of conscious planning; it goes back and forth, allows for controversial or "hypocritical" moves, at least in the short run. In any case, once management knowledge is translated into logics of action, managers have to use their imaginative power to share these logics to mobilize constituencies on priorities and undertake specific courses of actions This supports the idea that the managerial role is intrinsically political. Second, management education cannot simply deals with managerial recipes and rules of thumb. It is increasingly asked for providing non-technical knowledge to help managers exert their political role. To mobilize constituencies and create consensus on controversial decisions, technicalities could be less relevant than business-unrelated knowledge. We hold that has a relevant impact on both the institutional settings and the content of management education. The paper is structured in three parts. First, a framework is proposed to describe management knowledge consumption. Second, we outline the process linking consumed knowledge with actual managerial action. Third, the impact of this perspective on the structure of the institutions diffusing knowledge and on the idea of what is needed to make managerial decisions are explored. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6671 Files in this item: 1
dokument 14.pdf (287.5Kb) -
Boutaiba, Sami; Strandgaard Pedersen, Jesper (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In contemporary society, it is believed that things are changing at an increasingly rapid pace. We see this in newspapers, books, or every speech we listen to that modern (business) life is a race towards new horizons, or towards newness tout court. No matter which standpoint one engages vis-à-vis the rhetoric of change and the accompanying need to innovate and be creative, it is important to reflect upon the way one presents oneself vis-à-vis important stakeholders, including the most invested stakeholder – oneself. It is also within the strong rhetoric of change, that we witness an often-mentioned observation that economic transformation and globalization continue to alter how organizations and employees view work, and that these transformations require that workers and managers understand and adjust to major changes in definitions of and approaches to work, organizational structures, and relationships within and among organizations. Social scientists like Caves (2000) and Florida (2002) argue that creativity, as a resource, is critical for long-term economic development and that creative industries, in particular, act as agents of change that help drive economic development. In fact, creative industries are experiencing rapid growth, both in Denmark (Kultur- og Erhvervspolitisk Redegørelse, 2000; Regeringen, September, 2003) and globally (Pine and Gilmore, 1999), and it is generally believed that there are important lessons to be learnt from the "cultural, creative motor". Yet, they are little understood. Caves (2000) notes that, ‘economists have studied a number of industrial sectors for their special and distinctive features’, but have largely missed ‘the creative industries supplying goods and services that we broadly associate with cultural, artistic, or simply entertainment value’ (Caves, 2000:1).2 What researchers of creative industries have yet to examine, is not only how organizations within the creative industries operate and how the organizational members define and manage work, but also how the very meaning of being a creative company is performed, for example in a process of narrative identity construction. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify and understand the narrativeforms and processes through which creative enterprises organize and manage their symbolic communication and, in the process, attempt to balance creative-artistic and commercial interests. In this paper, we shall focus upon Zentropa, a filmmaking company that has generally been accredited with the etiquette of ‘creative agent of change’ vis-à-vis the Danish film industry. Thus, Zentropa is recognized as a creative player that has made a difference and it is to this narrative of Zentropa as a creative company that we direct our attention. More specifically, we propose that it matters what narrative is told about a company, and how a specific narrative is enacted, changed, and challenged during the course of a specific development. For a company like Zentropa, for whom the modern mantra ‘there is more identity in deviation than in conformity’ (see e.g. Bauman, 2000; Giddens, 1991; Sennett, 1998), it seems vital to represent and identify themselves as anti-establishment and a rebel with a cause in its way of being a film company in the Danish film field. The very concern with deviation, with being different, seems to force Zentropa to engage in ongoing reflections as to their own narrative identity. In a more general vein, we contend that there is a great need to come to a better understanding of the dynamics of identity (as also pointed out by Albert et al., 2000:14) in a society that appears restless in its infatuated praise of speed, innovation, and change. These are values with consequences for the way we make sense of ourselves and relate to others. Moreover, these are values that seem embodied by the exemplary case chosen in this project, namely Zentropa, an organization that seems almost exhibitionistic in its constant involvement in dialogues in the public space. Thus, Zentropa seems an exemplary case to study the narrative concern of being innovative, as Zentropa has become widely renowned for being innovative and for having contributed to a long-overdue renewal of the Danish film industry, as important characters in the story of Zentropa have narrated themselves as a ‘Maverick’ (Becker, 1982) within the high-framework filmmaking and is generally recognized as a remarkable example of innovativeness in Denmark (Kultur- og Erhvervsministeriet, 2000). This paper focuses more specifically on the way in which Zentropa performs an identity in interaction with one of its very significant others, namely the written press. This paper is in particular interested in studying how organizations through different forms of interaction and communication with the business media present and get their enterprises represented. Communication is obviously not a one-way street, thus this study will focus on the complex interaction between the creative enterprise and the business media. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6720 Files in this item: 1
forside 19 working paper.pdf (156.6Kb) -
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Naar, Liisa; Våland, Marianne Stang (Frederiksberg, 2014)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Increasing interest in ‘design thinking’ in the fields of management and organization has resulted in a concern with using design-oriented approaches as means to support organizational change and innovation. To this end, conceptual ideas such as Boland and Collopy’s ‘managing as designing’ have aimed at exploring how ‘design thinking’ can inform managers and the work done in organizational contexts. However, these concepts tend to be discussed theoretically with little grounding in empirical studies of practice that might inform managing according to a ‘design thinking’ approach. In this paper we look at one attempt at facilitating organizational change through ‘design thinking’. The context is the design of a new building for the UTS Business School, Sydney by architect Frank Gehry. User participation was applied to engage stakeholders in ways that would produce valuable input for managers as well as architects. We consider how architectural design and organizational change are constructed and accomplished and to what extent the manager’s approach can be considered ‘design thinking’. Our findings suggest that while ‘design thinking’ may be one approach to managing complex change processes, a deeper engagement between designers, managers and users is needed. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9012 Files in this item: 1
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A literature review and a suggestion of how to study the issueWestenholz, Ann (, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Purpose: First, the aim is to clarify that it is worth investigating working life in Chinese companies located in Denmark. Second, I outline a way of how to empirically study the issue. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review and a suggestion of how to study the issue. Findings: There is a growing amount of literature dealing with Chinese and Western working life. The term ‘Western’ mostly refers to studies in North America. However the Danish way of organizing working life is not comparable to that of North America. I argue that we need to research the impact on working life in Denmark when Chinese companies settle in an institutional context like the Danish one. It is shown that Chinese institutional orders of organizing working life are very different to those in Denmark. I outline a method of how to empirically study the interaction between Chinese and Danish managers and employees working together in Chinese companies in Denmark. I argue that when these people work together, they also become engaged in institutional work dealing with the inconsistencies between the institutional orders of organizing. To study how institutional work emerges, I propose that we take inspiration from Boltanski and Thévenot’s theory of justification, different worlds, and different worth. Research limitation: The empirical data gathering has just started and the analysis has yet to be conducted. Practical implications: Even though the paper is not based on an empirical study, implications for studying how working life is organized in Chinese companies located in Denmark are suggested. Keywords: Internationalization of Chinese companies. Institutional orders of working life in China and Denmark. Institutional work in Chinese companies settled in Denmark. Boltanski and Thévenot’s theory of justification, different worlds, and different worth. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8644 Files in this item: 1
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New management devices, practices and power relations in news workPlesner, Ursula; Raviola, Elena (Frederiksberg, 2015)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Digital technologies are profoundly disturbing not only news delivery, but also the whole organization of news work. The relationship between digital technologies and news has been investigated especially in media and journalism studies. Scholars in these fields have followed the introduction of digital technologies into news work (Ursell, 2001; Pavlik, 2000, 2013; Saltzis and Dickinson, 2008; Meikle and Redden, 2011, Plesner 2010), and dealt with a range of organizational consequences of this development. In studies of news organizations, it has been pointed out that the question of digital technology appropriation is not just important for technical or economic reasons, but because it affects organizational structures, work practices and representations (Boczkowski, 2004). For instance, reporters and editors must manage market pressures and time pressures in new ways (Klinenberg, 2005) due to the technological development towards a convergent newsroom. Two recurrent themes in this stream of literature treat the topics of changed professional identities and changed professional relations – topics that are central to organization studies. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9268 Files in this item: 1
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The co-creation of worth, calculative devices and calculative agencies in the Danish wind power marketKarnøe, Peter (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Wind power generated electricity offers a unique vantage point on the nature of markets and the specific organizing processes by which markets become constructed, configured, and contested. Modern Wind power generated electricity emerged in Denmark after the first oil supply crisis in 1974 when various entrepreneurial actors responded to that situation and saw wind power as one possible solution to ‘the’ problem. Today wind power is globally the fastest growing energy technology and supplies significant amounts of energy in countries like Denmark and Germany, in Denmark wind power generated electricity supplies 20% of annual electricity consumption. Although the trajectory of wind power institutionally and materially is much more robust today than 25 years ago very few thought that this technology had such a future. In the context of the 1970s with modernization and emerging nuclear power, many evaluated wind power as a relic from the past, some imagined opportunities (doomed as unrealistic), but nobody imagined that wind power should become one of the important ‘weapons’ against the CO2-related climate change at the turn of the century. However, confronted with emergent technologies outside the existing evaluative frames and institutionalised categories, it is not about being right or wrong from an objective epistemology, but about what epistemologies are used to frame the potential worth of a potential new energy technology. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6668 Files in this item: 1
markets-melbourne-5.pdf (371.8Kb) -
Institutionalization Through ExperimentationGeorg, Susse; Garza de Linde, Gabriela; Pinheiro-Croisel, Rebecca; Aggeri, Franck (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Judging from the number of communities and cities striving or claiming to be sustainable and how often eco-development is invoked as the means for urban regeneration, it appears that sustainable and eco-development have become “the leading paradigm within urban development” (Whitehead 2003). But what is it that is driving these urban transformations? Clearly, there are many probable answers to this complex question and in what follows we will focus on one particular catalyst of change – urban design competitions. Considered as field changing events (Lampel & Meyer 2008, Anand and Jones 2008), urban design competitions are understudied mechanisms for bringing about field level changes. This paper examines how urban design competitions can bring about changes within two types of fields – professional fields and local geographical fields. The context for our study is urban regeneration in two cities in France and Denmark, both of which have been suffering from industrial decline and have invested in establishing “eco-districts”. Based on these two case studies we explore how the different parties involved in these urban development projects have developed innovative design templates and practices that can instantiate field level changes. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8405 Files in this item: 1
Susse_Georg_1.pdf (529.4Kb) -
A Critical Ethnographic Study of the Structural Tensions of Organizing DiversityHolck, Lotte (Frederiksberg, 2015)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This dissertation consists of a collection of four articles aimed at critically exploring how diversity and its management are organized in two Danish organizations. The articles are based on a critical ethnographic study of the links among diversity and its management, and the structural setting, including the greater historical-societal structures, the organizations’ structural setup and the spatial structures. Throughout the dissertation, I focus on how this structural setting enables and constrains the local organizing of diversity. This structural focus allows me to explore how structural conditions facilitate or restrain employee agency, and enables me to suggest locally relevant and progressive ways of organizing diversity. Consequently I ask the following main research question: How do the greater historical-societal setting, the organizational setup and spatial structures both enable and constrain organizing diversity in the two case organizations, and what are the implications for the management of diversity and employee agency? URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9149 Files in this item: 1
Lotte_Holck.pdf (2.204Mb) -
Houman Andersen, Poul; Norus, Jesper (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: There is a continuing focus on the conditions for and processes of establishing new businesses and the role played by the external resource context in doing so. Using sociological concepts such as network bricolage and structuration some studies point to the supporting role as well as the restraining role of networks in this process. However, most research focuses on the innovative role of entrepreneurs in linking together dispersed resources in forming a concerted business enterprise. Far less focus has been on the de facto quality of these resources in forming the entrepreneurial role. Rather, the image of the Knightian or Kriznian entreprenur is left unchallenged, even in the "new" literature on entrepreneurship. However, if the concept of network bricolage or structuration as contexts institutionalising specific practices and sorting away others is taken seriously, the preexistence of patterned work practices shared among business actors, and how the ability to utilise these patterned practices in generating new business ideas affects the business start up process becomes important. Entrepreneurial processes may not only be influenced but also internally constituted by the wider environment. One may therefore question whether the impetus for starting up a new business vests entirely with the entrepreneur or what role the context plays in patterning the work of the entrepreneur with respect to firm creation. As pointed out by Gartner (1988) asking "who is the entrepreneur?" is the wrong question. For that purpose, we believe that the context of the entrepreneur, networks and embedded routines, provides an opportunity to understand how the context contributes in shaping the entrepreneurial act. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6717 Files in this item: 1
dokument 10.pdf (212.1Kb) -
Boxenbaum, Eva (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper investigates the bringing into existence of a proto-institution, that is, a new practice, rule or technology that diffuses beyond the innovative setting, but which is not yet taken-for-granted in a field. A case study, conducted real-time, shows how a collaborative group of business actors deliberately develop a proto-institution. They transpose an institutional logic from another field and combine it with an institutional logic in the focal field to resolve a field-level problem. Enabling factors include a high level of institutional heterogeneity in the focal field, the use of inter-organizational networks, and actors embedded in multiple fields. The making of the proto-institution is intentional, yet the institutional building blocks and the apparent interests of actors are institutionally embedded. The results from this micro-dynamic analysis suggest revisions to current conceptualizations of institutional change processes. Keywords: Institutional change, proto-institution, cognition, institutional entrepreneurship, innovation, collaborative networks. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6726 Files in this item: 1
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An Ethnographic Study of Quality Coordinator Work in two Danish Hospital DepartmentsMadsen, Marie Henriette (Frederiksberg, 2015)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The issue of quality and how to provide the best possible care for patients has always been a central concern in the health care sector. For the last decades, this concern has resulted in formulations of quality standards and clinical guidelines that define best practices for clinical work, as well as an increased use of methods and procedures to measure, assess and control quality. In this way, quality development includes certain expectations and requirements, not only to the practices of patient care but also to the practices of quality development. Accordingly, the organisation of quality development in health care has become a matter of concern in its own terms. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9227 Files in this item: 1
Marie H Madsen.pdf (2.212Mb)