Browsing Department of Organization (IOA) by Title
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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) -
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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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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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) -
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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In Between Local Translation, Institutional Logics and DiscourseWaldorff, Susanne Boch (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this dissertation I focus on a national reform of the Danish public sector, which in January 2007 facilitated the development of new municipal health care centers in order to meet specific local demands and to improve primary health care. However, this new organizational concept was not presented as a mandatory and detailed legislative reform. The municipalities therefore developed centers focusing in different ways on health promotion and rehabilitation and with great variation in their structure. Specifically, I find it intriguing how specific actors at the local level, such as politicians, medical professions, and social welfare professionals, were able to participate in local developments, and how they constructed specific organizational forms as local manifestations of the new national policy. Particularly, I am interested in exploring how the heterogeneous institutional context influences local actors’ translation of an abstract organizational concept into specific organizational forms.... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8021 Files in this item: 1
Susanne_Boch_Waldorff.pdf (2.327Mb) -
Georg, Susse (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Knudsen, Morten (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Workingpaperet er en guide til litteratur om metode, analysestrategi og videnskabsteori med relevans for problemorienteret samfundsvidenskabeligt projektarbejde på videregående uddannelsesinstitutioner. En række temaer præsenteres og relevant litteratur angives. Temaerne er ordnet under tre overskrifter: I. Genstand, II. Analyse og metode III. Proces, kvalitet og formalia. Guiden er skrevet specifikt til brug på masteruddannelsen Master of Health Management på CBS, men vil også kunne finde bredere anvendelse. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7786 Files in this item: 1
WP2009-001.pdf (193.1Kb) -
Traveling ideas for providing transparency and trust?Georg, Susse (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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"feelings are the motive power, reason is the rudder"Ry Nielsen, J.C.; Ry, Morten (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this essay we will demonstrate that the role of project management in organisational change processes is a mixture of rational and non-rational features. It is also colourful, difficult, interesting, and messy. We have named the paper "An Essay on". An essay means treating a topic freely from different angles, although not forgetting the sources you used. The implication of this is that we are not able or willing to make an encompassing study of the literature on project management3. We thus know that many angles will not be covered. Furthermore we do not intend a make a negative delineation, indicating what we are not dealing with. We prefer to make a positive delineation, emphasising what we are going to take up in our essay. Positively phrased we are inspired by 3 sources that will make the foundation for our different angles: 1. Decision making theory (Enderud,1976)4. One of the authors has previously with success applied decision-making theory as an approach for analysing organisation change processes 5. Both authors have followed the same line in analysing organisational changes in the Danish public sector6. That success has inspired us to re-use the distinction between rational, political and anarchic processes in this essay 7. Enderud (1976:21-22) excludes explicitly the role of the actors’ participation in his presentation of decision models. We find, however this aspect so important that we have decided to include it 2. Buchanan and Boddy´s analysis of the character of change8: The authors characterise the change project in to dimensions. One pertains to the activities concerned: Are we dealing with peripheral or core activities of the organisation. The second dimension deals with the magnitude of the change. Buchanan and Boddy use the scale: incremental - radical9. Furthermore Buchanan and Boddy makes a useful distinction between "public performance" (on stage) of rationally considered and logically phased and visibly participative change and "backstage activity" in the recruitment and maintenance of support and in seeking and blocking resistance (ibid p.27) 3. We will apply data from our own case studies. We will use a format that we call an illustration, thereby indicating that we "only" illustrate a point. We do not prove it10. Our cases are almost all from the public sector or from trade unions. Most of them have been published elsewhere. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6711 Files in this item: 1
dokument 9.pdf (272.6Kb) -
An Interview with David J. TeeceAugier, Mie (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this paper, Mie Augier provides a rich description of the intellectual traditions, the signifi-cant people and academic institutions that in some way or another made a difference to Davis Teece’s own intellectual development. In this sense, it is a dynamic account of the emerging career of a distinguished scholar - but not only that. It is also a description of the co-development of three major disciplinary fields; organization theory, economics and strategic management during three decades or so. David Teece has made several important contribu-tions, perhaps most notably to economics (on the theory of the firm and transaction cost eco-nomics) and strategic management (on dynamic capabilities) while drawing upon organization theory and notions such as organizational routines and bounded rationality. In addition, Augier also provides an interview with David Teece, a true scholar still unsettled with what has been achieved so far - in all three fields: "Maybe I’m wrong; and maybe technology is a special case and maybe technology and organization do not belong at the core of the theory of the firm. My intuition tells me otherwise." (David Teece, quoted in this issue). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6686 Files in this item: 1
2004-51.pdf (238.3Kb) -
Forms and facades in formation of the biotechnology firmsNorus, Jesper (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In the recent years the successful collaborative arrangements and relationships between university, industry and public institutions have become a mantra in transforming new scientific knowledge into new innovations and business ventures. The fit between these very different actor groups has been treated as a contingent factor. However only little attention have been giving to a specific focus on the strategies that new business ventures have obtained to establish the fit between small firms, university research, and public policies such as regulatory policies and R&D policies. The emergence of the new biotechnologies and these techniques predominately coming from the university sector make the new biotechnology organizations an interesting object for studying these relationships both on a regional and a national level. From the perspective of the small biotechnology firms (SBFs) the paper explores four different strategies for dealing with network relations; the research oriented strategy, the incubator strategy, the industrial partnering strategy, and the policy-oriented strategy. The research-oriented strategy is narrowly focusing on how a biotechnology firm transforms their scientific results into promising technologies, services or products. The incubator strategy is concerned with localization and how to come about specific types of managerial problem in the initial stage of forming a business venture. The industrial partnering strategy concerns how to overcome the problem of bringing the technologies from an experimental stage at a research lab to be able handle industrial processes and full-scale production. Last but not least the policy oriented strategy focus on problem of having products approved by the public authorities. Theoretically the article draws upon network theories and a dynamic view of network relations. That is done in order to capture the nature of the relationships between different types of actors, but also in order to emphasize the informal nature of some of these relationships. The article has a dual purpose; 1) From a corporate point of view to emphasize multiple conditions for developing and forming interorganizational relationships, 2) From a research perspective to point to the diversity and heterogeneity of these relations and thereby emphasizes the evolutionary nature of these relations and their relatedness to the overall strategies obtained by the biotechnology entrepreneurs. The paper is structured so it will start out by stating its methodological foundations. Thereafter the theoretical positioning of the network approach will seek to argue that we have multiple network relationships are at play. Not only do these networks differ but also the institutional and organizational origins are to be touched upon to come to understand the nature of the biotechnology environment and the actors involved. The positioning of the SBFs as the focal point of the analysis leads to a discussion on entrepreneurial business strategies in biotechnology industry and how these business strategies in a very distinct mode is correlated with interorganizational relationships. The empirical evidence will be fleshed out in four cases representing each of the four suggested strategies. The conclusion discusses three implications of network partnering analysis. First, it discusses the theoretical contributions on the diversity, heterogeneity between the four partnering strategies. Second, it will point to future directions in the research. Third, the conclusion will point to the managerial challenges that can be foreseen. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6669 Files in this item: 1
working paper 2003 no.12.pdf (372.5Kb) -
Framing Research Collaboration Through ScreensBjørn Vedel, Jane (København, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In recent years, research collaboration between academic and corporate scientists has become a matter of concern for policy makers as well as research managers in academia and industry. Often, both in public research policies and in university and company strategies, science-industry collaboration has been presented as a catalyst for advancing science for the benefit of society as well as for the involved collaborators. The same policies and strategies, however, often emphasize that science-industry collaboration is difficult and demanding due to inherent and often incommensurable differences between the respective goals and processes of academia and industry. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8561 Files in this item: 1
Jane-Vedel-2011.pdf (257.8Kb) -
Skabelse af forestillinger i læge- og plejegrupperne angående relevans af nye idéer om kvalitetsudvikling gennem tolkningsprocesserAlbæk, Jens (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The aim of this dissertation is to identify how ideas of organisational development are incorporated into and employed in hospital departments. The dissertation focuses on the conceptions of professional identity among doctors and nurses, their conceptions of clinical practice and the ideas of development they are introduced to. The health professionals’ conceptions of development and practice are connected to their perception of ‘professional relevance’ in the dissertation. This conception of ‘professional relevance’ thereby forms a recurring expression of conceptions among the actors. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7806 Files in this item: 1
jens_albæk.pdf (1.570Mb) -
generationsskifte sætter værdier og praksis på spilChristensen, Søren (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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A Study of a New Economy Firm’s Powers of PersuasionElgaard Jensen, Torben (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The article is an empirical analysis of how a Scandinavian new economy firm was able to persuade a number of business journalists that it represented ‘the future’. It analyses how visitors to the firm were met with a specific and persuasive combination of rhetorical and material ressources. It suggests that the persuasive power of the firm was based on its ability to evoke and articulate a series of pointed contrasts between the attractive working life within the firm and the ordinary and problematic work life elsewhere. The article suggests that this strategy of drawing contrasts together differs from the mode of persuasion usually described by STS. Keywords: Sociology of expectations, Sociology of futures, Sociology of anticipation, New Economy, dot-com, persuasion, power, actor-network theory, materialised contrast argument. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6690 Files in this item: 1
future and furniture - berlin.pdf (288.3Kb)