Browsing Ph.D. theses by Title
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Jakobsen, Gitte P. (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: With the increasing globalization, new organizational structures, and rapid change the leader has been increasingly individualized and personalized. The leader has been put under pressure to reveal a leadership, in which the personality of the individual leader is increasingly important. Moreover, the individual leader has become central for creating and communicating organizational meaning, and the leaders’ personal conduct, ethics and identity are taken to be symbolic of the organizational brand. Leaders are increasingly publicly evaluated based on how he “tells the story” of him-self and the organization e.g. the extent to which the leader exemplifies and lives the organizational brand. This is reflected in a growing demand for leader development programs with a personal orientation, and psychological oriented development focused on the individual leaders’ personal challenges. Recent theoretical developments in the intersection of critical management studies and narrative identity studies have challenged prior assumptions and approaches, with a departure in social constructivist perspectives leadership is conceived as narrative identity construction embedded in social practice and context. Hence, leader studies turn to investigate the emergence of leaders as processes of identity work in particular contexts, privileging the use of language, social interaction and critical reflexive approaches. This dissertation explores the narrative construction of leader identity in the context of a leader development program, examining the processes and the content of identity work of leaders. Empirically five Danish executives from five different industries have been studied in a three year period, starting with a one-year long leader development program and in two following interviews. The material is analyzed within a theoretical and methodological framework inspired by a combination of social constructivist, discursive, narrative and critical management approaches to identity and leadership research. The narrative analytical framework is based on narrative theory, narrative therapy theorization, and positioning theory, analyzing the thematic, temporal and relational aspects of the five leaders’ narrative accounts. Hence, the analytical strategy analyzes the narrative recourses of: problem stories, preferred stories, storylines, and the negotiation of subject positions used by the five leaders in constructing certain situated leader identities URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7807 Files in this item: 1
Gitte_P_Jakobsen.pdf (1.488Mb) -
Et retsøkonomisk bidrag til 200 års juridisk konflikt om ejendomsrettenRose, Kalle Johannes (Frederiksberg, 2016)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: I 1815 skrev Anders Sandøe Ørsted (herefter Ørsted) en artikel angående ejendomsrettens beskyttelse. I kølvandet på den franske revolution og indførslen af Code de Civil opgøret med naturrettens absolutte ejendomsrettighedsbegreb tog Ørsted diskussionen op angående ejendomsrettens ukrænkelighed og den døde hånd i dansk ret med fokus på datidens fonde – stiftelserne. Ørsted opstillede argumenter for og imod ejendomsrettens beskyttelse, men forholdt sig samtidig yderst kritisk til både det af naturrettens absolutte ejendomsretsbegreb og det af Code de Civil fremførte ejendomsretsbegreb. Han fandt i stedet, at løsningen skulle findes i en skønsvurdering i forhold til et generelt samfundshensyn.1 Efter Ørsteds bidrag fra 1815 deltog han selv, som folkevalgt repræsentant for København, i ”Forhandlingerne på Riigsdagen”2, som skulle blive startskuddet til demokratiets indførsel i Danmark ved den danske grundlov af 1849. I denne lovtekst fremførtes ejendomsretten som værende ukrænkelig, medmindre den af almenvellet kræves ved lov og da skal krænkelsen ske mod erstatning.3 Formuleringen var i tråd med den franske Code de Civil, som ikke efter Ørsteds tidligere skrift var optimal. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9335 Files in this item: 1
Kalle_Johannes_Rose.pdf (2.509Mb) -
A study of emerging producer organisations in IndiaAbraham, Mathew (Frederiksberg, 2015)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: A majority of the world’s agricultural production takes place on small farms (less than 2 hectares). India has one of the smallest average farm sizes with over 68 per cent of its farms being marginal in size (below 1 hectare). Small farm production is constrained by challenges of accessing lumpy inputs of management and asset specific machinery, markets, credit, extension services and technology. Collective actions in the form of cooperatives in many parts of the world have played a vital role in overcoming these challenges and enabling agricultural growth. However, cooperatives in India have suffered from low participation, over-dependence on state assistance, poor management, political interference in their functioning and poor benefits to intended target groups. In recent years Producer Organisational Formats (POFs) such as Producer Companies (PCs), Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) and Farmers Federations (FFs) have emerged in an attempt to address some of these challenges faced by small producers. Although policy makers recognize this new cooperativism to have the potential to address small producer disadvantages, progress has been little in supporting or promoting POFs in India due to limited understanding of their functioning, impact and potential. This knowledge gap motivated this research. Using a conceptual framework grounded in institutional and collective action theories, this thesis examines (a) how POFs are structured on organisational, social and economic terms and (b) how resources are allocated and incentives aligned within these institutions. The thesis finds that the examined POFs are small, regionspecific collective actions, organised with the help of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) supported by the state. POFs relied on networks of social relationships, trust, norms and sometimes religious ideology to prevent collective action problems that hindered effective organisation. In economic terms, POFs helped improve market access and increased marketable agricultural surplus at the household level; yet, this surplus was not sufficient for households with marginal sized land to solely depend on farming as a livelihood activity. As for resource allocation and incentive alignment within POFs, the even distribution of collective goods to all members was a strong material incentive for participation. Social capital in the form of networks, norms and trust among members also incentivised participation. In sum the study finds that POFs have the potential to improve access to markets, credit, inputs and research and extension services, the lack of which has hindered small and marginal producer viability. In some cases social disadvantages of access arising from gender and caste were addressed through these organisations. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9120 Files in this item: 1
Mathew_Abraham.pdf (2.185Mb) -
A History of Danish School Governing from 1970-2010Grønbæk Pors, Justine (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In Denmark, as in many other welfare states, we strongly believe that problems within the public sector can be solved by means of better management. For quite some years it has been assumed that management leads to more control over and better quality of welfare. Politicians and public servants have therefore been concerned with how the individual hospital, nursing home and school can develop its management. This has created a somewhat strange problem: How is it possible from a position at the top of a governing hierarchy to create management capacity from below? This thesis is about how Danish local government, municipalities, have developed understandings of governing relations between themselves and the public school over the last 40 years. The thesis tracks how municipalities have gradually assigned organizational independence to the individual school and increased their expectations of its self-management.... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8355 Files in this item: 1
Justine_Grønbæk_Pors.pdf (4.586Mb) -
On Second-hand Valuation PracticesLarsen, Frederik (Frederiksberg, 2015)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this thesis I address the question of how value is created in second-hand markets. Focusing on the role of charity thrift stores I present an ethnographic account of fieldwork I undertook in the Tavern Guild Community Thrift Store in San Francisco. I analyse my ethnographic findings in light of contemporary literature on values and valuations in material culture and reaching back through the anthropological literature on commodities and gift economies I build a framework around David Graeber’s formulation of a concept of social, relational value. In order to structure the analysis I take Mary Douglas’s seminal work on classification as a starting point and argue that the practices of valuation constitute a process of transformation form discard to commodity. To support the analysis I introduce theoretical concepts from the ethnographic literature on values, secondhand markets and valuations. Practices of categorization enable the employees to create value, but disorder is a condition of the process, which hinders the flow as well as provides opportunity for value. I describe thrift, a considered use of resources, as the main ‘infravalue’ that drives the valuations and allows the organization to create economic, social and emotional value. Next I zoom in on the interaction between people and objects on a micro-level. The theoretical framework here brings anthropological theory into play with actor-network theory (ANT) approaches to nonhuman actors, and I introduce the term withdrawal from object-oriented philosophy to address the agency of objects in valuations. By dividing the analysis into two parts I demonstrate in greater detail how objects as part of valuations are given agency through social entanglements, but also how the objects by their mere existence influence valuations beyond this entanglement. Their presence as more than the sum of their social relations has a profound impact on the valuations by resisting as much as partaking in the process of transformation. In the last section of the thesis I present an explorative study of the extended trajectory the objects take through markets and wholesale companies in Thailand. I discuss the role of the thrift store in the global context of second-hand exchanges and offer a critical reflection on the consequences of the proliferation of second-hand markets. The thesis provides a situated approach to the study of human-objects interactions and demonstrates that an understanding of the different forms of value that are at play reveal charity thrift organizations as important players in second-hand markets. Thrift enables the organization to salvage as many objects as possible while providing services to the community. In doing so they are vital in transforming discards into commodities for the other actors in the market. This study highlights the importance of considering materiality, and especially objecthood, in the context of second-hand markets, and suggests a situated framework for understanding the relationship between objects and practices in the broader context of material culture studies. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9182 Files in this item: 1
Frederik Larsen.pdf (4.499Mb) -
Antecedents, processes dynamics and firm-level impactØrberg Jensen, Peter (Frederiksberg, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This PhD thesis addresses one of the most intensely debated phenomena over the past decade within the realm of international business: Firms’ relocation of value chain activities to other parts in the network of multinational corporation (MNC) or to external suppliers/services providers in foreign countries (hereinafter referred to as offshoring), often to destination countries with lower cost structures. Whereas the offshoring of manufacturing tasks has existed for several decades, and has been analyzed in the international business literature, the offshoring of advanced services tasks from developed country firms to destination countries such as India, which offer an attractive cocktail of low costs and highly skilled labour, is a more recent phenomenon. The offshoring of this type of services tasks forms the subject of this PhD thesis... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7741 Files in this item: 1
Peter_d_orberg_jensen.pdf (674.8Kb) -
Does Design Affect Participation?Høgenhaven, Thomas (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Governments in more than 55 countries have signed the international Open Gov-ernment Partnership and are currently implementing open government initia-tives, aiming to make governments and public sectors more collaborative, participatory, transparent, and technology-driven. If successfully implemented, such open government initiatives can improve democracy, efficiency, and innovation. As history demonstrates, it is hard to build sustainable online participation. Merely 25% of online communities gather more than 1,000 members in their lifetime. Most of the other 75 % fail due to lack of participation. Many open gov-ernment communities have shared or are likely to share the same destiny. Giving citizens, companies, and non-governmental organizations the chance to participate in government does not necessarily mean they will do it. Consequently, open government communities face a participation challenge. Current research shows that the design of the community plays a critical role in participation. Some design patterns foster participation while other patterns discourage it. Existing research also demonstrates that insights from the social sciences can be translated into design ideas and thereby help solve the participation problem. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8768 Files in this item: 1
Thomas_Hoegenhaven.pdf (6.382Mb) -
The Contingent Value of Networked CollaborationVaarst Andersen, Kristina (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Co-location of industry professionals often leads to development of collaboration networks, and multiple studies have emphasized the benefits of embedded collaboration. Due to higher levels of trust, embedded collaboration reduces transaction costs and facilitates ready knowledge exchanged. Other studies have pointed to dangers of over-embeddedness. The argument is that too high levels of embeddedness lead to habitual thinking, preferential treatment, and thereby mitigate performance. However, research on the conditions under which embeddedness in different types of collaboration networks primarily yields costs or benefits still leaves much to be investigated.... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8352 Files in this item: 1
Kristina_Vaarst_Andersen.pdf (2.825Mb) -
Busquets, Javier (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis is about innovation and power. Human nature has always been expressed by our capacity to innovate and adapt to almost any environment (Bowlby, 1962; Giddens, 1991). In the 20th century, the primary function of business organisations was to invent, produce and commercialise their products and services in different markets. As a matter of fact, business organisations in the last century proved to be the best way of disseminating innovation (Schön, 1971). Currently in the 21st century, there is a call to better understand how new ideas, technology and sources of knowledge are managed, based on the premise that novelty can unfold anywhere and that innovation cannot be considered a linear process consisting of a chain of activities. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8164 Files in this item: 1
Javier_Busquets.pdf (3.025Mb) -
Møller Larsen, Marcus (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Offshoring can be defined as the relocation of organizational tasks and services to foreign locations. Increasingly, firms experience that unforeseen costs and difficulties of managing offshoring undercut anticipated benefits; that unexpected challenges of offshoring jeopardize and eventually undermine initial objectives. Guided by the research question—what are the organizational consequences of offshoring?—the purpose of this thesis is to investigate why some firms fail when offshoring and other do not. The thesis consists of four research papers using various datasets and methodologies that investigate offshoring in an organizational context. The first paper investigates how the complexity of offshoring leads to ‘hidden costs’ of implementing offshoring activities. The second paper looks at how these hidden reconfiguration costs influence the process performance of the offshored activity and how this relationship is moderated by the modularity of that activity. The third paper investigates the effect of the organizational reconfiguration of offshoring on firms’ strategies. The final paper studies different strategies of adaptation in offshoring. Taken together, this thesis argues that whether firms relocate activities with the purpose of accessing resources or as a response to political pressures, the process of offshoring presents firms with the challenge of coordinating and integrating offshoring activities in a global organization. The complexities and uncertainties of an organization consisting of a number of offshored activities (in contrast to an organization with only co-located activities) require firms to invest additional resources in coordination mechanisms so that an efficient reintegration can be achieved. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8669 Files in this item: 1
Marcus_M _Larsen.pdf (1.714Mb) -
(Re)assembling work in the Danish PostMogensen, Mette (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The well-being of employees is currently a central matter of concern both in public and private companies. If employees do not feel well, in the last instance they might experience a burn out or fall ill from stress and thus add to the highly costly yet ever growing number filling up the statistics of this modern epidemic. In short, well-being is key to productivity. For sure this is not a new story, but at the core of organization and management theory: how to best organize the human resources of production balancing off the need for increased productivity and the preservation of physical and mental resources of the worker? In contrast to classic principles such as Taylor’s scientific management, it seems today generally agreed that well-being thrives when work is organized by principles of ‘flexibility’, ‘learning’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘creativity’. However, at the same time workplaces and organizations are under an enormous pressure towards standardization and optimization. This dissertation investigates empirically competing or intersecting ways of organizing well-being and productivity, with an analytic outset in the work task, departing from historically generated, however still prevalent, dichotomies and normativities of standardization and flexibility respectively. The empirical case of the dissertation is the organization of postal work in a big and formerly publicly run distribution company in Denmark. Based on an ethnographic field work and the employment of an auto-photographic method, the dissertation investigates how the current and simultaneous efforts of standardization and flexibility configure the well-being(s) and productivities of postal work. The theoretical framework is primarily informed by Actor Network Theory and the dissertation attend to a detailed investigation of how well-being and productivity are enacted in the daily work practices and the constant shifting/delegation going on between the inscribed postal worker of work tools, standard procedures and management programs on the one side and the routinized bodies of the postal workers on the other. Most of the time this results in ‘working compatibilities’ silently enacting bodies-with-standards that are both productive and well. At other times, however, controversy and conflicts arise, pointing to the fact that the presence of multiple modes of organizing are not always productive. The empirical chapters departs from selected auto-photographs that prompt different unfoldings of the way postal work is organized – or sought organized – and the way well-being and productivity arise as effects of these organizations. In this unfolding the analysis proceed on a tension between phenomenological and actor-network theoretical readings of empirical material creating a patchwork-like assemblage of postal work. This involves a stitching together of highly mundane, corporeal practices and material such as bicycles and kickstands, personal experiences, the researcher’s interpretations, the technical scripts of electric bikes, the norms of postal workers, the discourse of management and the political-economic developments of European postal markets. Through the empirical chapters, the dissertation depicts postal work not as a story of standardization versus flexibility, but as a constant ‘juggling’ and balancing act between them. This is not a story of humanization or the opposite, it is both at once. It is not a story of stabilization or perpetual change, it is both at once. It is a story of the hanging-togetherness of an organization that displays multiple versions of well-being and productivity as well as multiple controversies as a result of this. Depending on the stakes one has in this complex organizational set-up, whether one is the postal worker, the local manager, the HR consultant or perhaps the customer, preferences will differ, and indeed this is an important discussion. What is the better way to organize postal work? The analysis presented in the dissertation will not deliver the answer to this, but hopefully make the discussion a more qualified one, by displacing old truths. Having as point of departure and final emphasis a heuristics of the work task, the thesis aims to contribute to a specification of organization theory, HRM and work environment theorizing, which otherwise tend to have lost its primary object: work. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8589 Files in this item: 1
Mette_Mogensen.pdf (9.923Mb) -
The conduct and justification of responsible researchGlerup, Cecilie (Frederiksberg, 2015)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Within the last couple of decades, a range of new concepts that all propose that science should be done ‘more responsibly’ has emerged within science governance literature as well as in science government in both the USA and across Europe. Terms such as ‘Responsible Innovation’ (Owen et al. 2013) and ‘socially robust science’ (Nowotny, Scott, and Gibbons 2001) have gained momentum within science governance. Generally speaking, the calls share the view that there is a need for more external governing of science as a vital supplement to the internal professional ethics that also guide scientific conduct (Braun et al. 2010; Jasanoff 2011). Moreover, they agree that there is a need to enhance scientists’ abilities to reflect upon the ‘outcomes’ of their inventions – that is, the social, environmental and ethical consequences of introducing new scientific knowledge and technologies into society. Though the calls for ‘Responsible Science’ are plentiful, few have actually studied how ‘Responsible Science’ is done in practice and how the demands affect the scientific work, i.e. the organisation of science, the scientists’ professional identities and their wellbeing at work. This dissertation examines how public scientists relate to current demands for ‘Responsible Science’. Based on a Foucauldian-inspired document study of scientific journal papers as well as an STS-inspired ethnographic study of two laboratories, it answers the research questions: How is ‘Responsible Science’ conducted and justified by public scientists – and what are the consequences of these responsibilities in their daily work? URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9128 Files in this item: 1
Cecilie_Glerup.pdf (5.146Mb) -
Med udgangspunkt i støtteverbers leksikaliseringsmønstre i dansk og franskHein, Birgitte (Frederiksberg, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Enhver oversætter mellem et germansk sprog som dansk og et romansk sprog som fransk ved, at det ofte er bestemte sproglige konstruktioner, der volder problemer. En af disse konstruktioner består af et støtteverbum og et objekt, der tilsammen danner en semantisk enhed. Da denne konstruktion er hyppigt forekommende, specielt i juridiske og administrative tekster, kan det være af både praktisk og teoretisk værdi at skaffe et klarere billede af, hvordan konstruktionerne idiomatisk opbygges og bruges på de to sprog. Undersøgelsen søger at indskrive sig i en sammenhæng, der vedrører både oversættelse og lingvistisk beskrivelse, ud fra et ønske om at en komparativ beskrivelse skal kunne give en oversætter viden, som han kan bruge i sit praktiske arbejde. De fleste, som har benyttet computer-støttede oversættelser, må være enige i, at det stadig er nødvendigt med kvalificeret menneskelig oversættelse, hvis man skal have en idiomatisk korrekt og brugbart resultat. Der er ganske vist i dag mulighed for computer-støttede ”rå-oversættelser”. Somme tider kan disse oversættelser tjene til for eksempel at give en internetbruger et hurtigt indtryk af indholdet af en web-side på et sprog, som han ikke behersker.... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8623 Files in this item: 1
Birgitte_Hein.pdf (776.8Kb) -
En empirisk undersøgelse af effekten af lingvistisk kompleksitet og LSP på oversættelse af spanske teksterHalskov Jensen, Elisabeth (Frederiksberg, 1999)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Det vi ved om oversættelsesprocessen er i dag i høj grad baseret på information om den strategiske adfærd, der kan eliciteres ved højttænkning og retrospektion — eller observeres af forsøgsiederen — under et givet oversættelsesforløb. Krings (1986), Lörscher (1991) og Kiraly (1995) er blandt de forskere, som på basis afempiriske analyser af høj ttænkningsprotokoller har udarbejdet modeller, hvor de gør rede for oversættelsesstrategier. Megen forskning har først og fremmest interesseret sig for at beskrive en adfærd hos oversætteren, som angiveligt var årsagen til mindre vellykkede oversættelser (f.eks. Königs 1993; Kussmaul 1995; Hönig 1995). En del studier har også sammenlignet professionelle og ikke professionelle eller gode versus dårlige oversættere (f.eks. Gerloff 1988; Jääskeläinen 1990; Tirkkonen-Condit 1991; Krings 1987, 1997). Alle disse studier har bidraget til, at vi i dag kan sætte ord på en stor del af den adfærd, der foregår i en oversættelsesprocces, men studiet af oversættelsesprocessen er stadig i sin begyndelse. Formålet med denne undersøgelse er at bidrage til beskrivelsen af, hvordan tekstuelle faktorer påvirker oversættelse. Fokus er således ikke på de strategier, som oversættere anvender under oversættelse, men på hvordan tekstprocessing påvirkes af henholdsvis tekstens krav til specialiseret forhåndsviden (LSP-viden) og dens lingvistiske kompleksitet. LSP-teksterne i denne undersøgelse er spanske juridiske tekster, og en gruppe semi-professionelle oversættere er valgt som informanter. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9317 Files in this item: 1
Elisabeth_Halskov_Jensen.pdf (8.118Mb) -
Insights from Annual General MeetingsStrand, Therese (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis consists of five empirical studies, all relating to shareholder activism at annual general meetings. The first study concerns the structure and content of general meetings in Denmark and Sweden comparatively. The paper reveals significant differences in the level of activism, with Swedish investors being the most active in terms of proposals, proxy voting, and ‘voice’. The paper takes a legal approach, and discusses divergence in activism levels from the perspective of shareholder prerequisites to engage in monitoring efforts. Further, the paper investigating the topics addressed through questions and opinions. The results show that matters which can be categorized as irrelevant are reasonably rare. This is an important finding, as suggestions to abolish general meetings have often been based on the assumption that general meetings facilitate nothing but irrelevant, time consuming, and costly discussions that serves no monitoring function. The second study analyses the impact of voting power on shareholder activism. We hypothesize that there is a positive relationship between shareholder activism and a measure of the largest shareholder’s sensitivity to increased participation by small shareholders and find that firms’ amenability to small shareholder influence leads to more proposals by the nomination committee, but fewer proposals by other shareholders. We interpret this as evidence that the shareholder elected nomination committees effectively channel shareholder concerns and preempt other kinds of activism. Politicians and companies that desire active shareholders could improve the amenability of firms to shareholder influence by ownership transparency, shareholder committees, and contacts with shareholder associations and other vehicles for collective action... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8460 Files in this item: 1
Therese_Strand.pdf (1.719Mb) -
A study of the Think City electric car developmentStrzeletz Ivertsen, Karin (Frederiksberg, 2014)[More information][Less information]
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Korsgaard, Søren (Frederiksberg, 2016)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis consists of three chapters. The rst, "Paying for Payments", examines the role of interchange fees in payment card networks. The second, "Bank Liquidity and the Interbank Market" (co-authored with Mikael Reimer Jensen), investigates how banks' liquidity holdings at the central bank a ect outcomes in the money market. The third, "Collateralized Lending and Central Bank Collateral Policy", considers the emergence of credit constraints under collateralized lending, and how central banks use collateral policy to mitigate these constraints. While the chapters can be read independently, they share common themes. Each chapter is concerned with payments in one way or another, each is concerned with the e ciency of market outcomes, and, to the extent that there is scope for improving these outcomes, each discusses the appropriate role for policy, in particular central bank policy. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9313 Files in this item: 1
Søren_Korsgaard.pdf (1.828Mb) -
En systemteoretisk analyse af offentlig meningsdannelseVallentin, Steen (København, 2002)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: .."the thesis tries to show how – with the appearance of the themes ethics and democracy – new conditions have evolved for the administration of the Danish pension fund investments. It should be emphasized that the thesis not only aims to provide a description of the Danish debate about ethical investments; it makes a separate contribution to systems theory. This contribution consists in a general presentation of Luhmann’s theory (chapter 2) followed by discussions of Luhmann’s concepts of risk (chapter 3), morality and ethics (chapter 4) and public and public opinion (chapter 5). In theoretical terms the contribution of the thesis lies in showing how Luhmann’s systems theory can be used to describe and analyze public opinion formation in general and the debate about the Danish pension fund investments in particular. The thesis focuses on Danish developments but international developments are not ignored. To put Danish developments into perspective, a part of chapter 1 focuses on developments surrounding ethical – or socially responsible – investments in the US and the UK. Matters of definition, historical developments and praxis forms are presented and lead up to an overview of key events in the domestic debate. It is argued that the Danish debate – unlike the very individualistic anglo-saxon debate – has focused on collective matters. The debate has focused on institutions which make investment decisions on behalf of many – often hundreds of thousands of – people, institutions which do not operate in a free market setting. A brief description of Danish developments is followed by a summary of and further reflexions upon the analytical arguments of the thesis. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7131 Files in this item: 1
steen_vallentin.pdf (2.310Mb) -
Next Generation Management of Organizational PerformanceKane, Brian (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Managers must aspire to understand their organization in a way that allows them to take appropriate actions when necessary and to be able to utilize tools which encourage the organization to behave in a desirable way. The field of performance management deals with these objectives and is becoming increasingly pervasive. However, the author’s personal experience and substantial scholarship suggest that performance management is linked to dysfunctional behavior in organizations. Various current explanations for the link between measurement and dysfunction revolve around observability or knowledge of the transformation process, but seem simplistic and inadequate. This work examines measurement as one representational form out of many others, for example text. It is proposed that the representational form used in performance management practice is implicated with dysfunctional behavior. This demands an exploration of the relevant facets of organizational reality which influence the relationship with various representational forms. After a theoretical positioning, the relationship is explored empirically through onsite visits at two Microsoft Corporation locations in Copenhagen and Redmond. Thirty stories of performance management, based on interviews with senior managers, are presented. The stories provide the basis for establishing a rich understanding of organizational reality and the implications of using various representational forms in terms of dysfunctional behavior. These implications lead to a fundamental rethinking of the form and boundaries of performance management theory and practice, and emphasize the need for a multi-paradigmatic approach to performance management, which is presented. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8015 Files in this item: 1
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An Inquiry into Subjective and Social Technology at WorkBojesen, Anders (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The Performative Power of Competence undersøger hvad kompetence bliver i en række konkrete arbejdspraksisser. Afhandlingen viser hvordan kompetence ikke blot handler om individuelle eller organisatoriske opkvalificeringsprojekter, men indebærer en social værdidom (om det kompetente og ikke-kompetente) hvilket betyder at kompetence ikke længere kan ses som "et underliggende karakteristika ved individet på arbejde” men må forstås som en dobbelt bevægelse; det vil sige som en samtidig udpegning af et problem (behov for at lære noget nyt) og en løsning (forudsætning for at skabe effektive og attraktive arbejdspladser). Afhandlingen betjener sig af et stort empirisk materiale fra den offentlige sektor der omfatter fire kompetenceudviklingsforløb, gennemført i perioden 2004-2006. Materialet er skabt i et samarbejde med fire konsulenter, hvor forfatteren selv har været til stede og har bidraget til udformningen af kompetenceudviklingsprocesserne. Formuleret kort markerer kompetence en særlig ideologisk tilværelse, der betoner proaktivitet, selvrefleksivitet og en aktiv tagen ansvar for organisationens mål. Et symptom på denne kompetenceideologi er når offentlige institutioner inviterer konsulenter indenfor for at uddanne coaches og forandringsagenter og skabe tværgående teams, der igen har til formål at skabe øget fleksibilitet, tværgående samarbejde og projektorganisering. Kompetencens performative kraft består i den samtidige diagnose af mangelstilstanden og udmåling af den rette behandling. For konsulenten bliver det et problem, hvis vedkommende ikke kan tilvejebringe den rette diagnose og kur, idet intet er værre end at få diagnosticeret et problem uden at få stillet den rette behandling i udsigt. Samtidig hævder afhandlingen også, at det vil være farligt for ikke at sige umuligt endeligt at kurere den mangelstilstand som kompetence producerer. Fx kan modstand mod forandring og kritik af det bestående ikke blot elimineres som kværulanteri, men må ses som væsentlige elementer i transformationen af det selv-skabende, selv-refleksive, ansvars-tagende subjekt. Kompetencens performative kraft legitimerer transformationen af subjektet så længe subjektet finder tilfredsstillelse, ikke i de enkelte afgrænsede kompetenceudviklingsaktiviteter, men i den uendelige søgen efter et kompetent jeg. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7048 Files in this item: 1