Browsing Working Papers (IOA) by Year Published
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en sociologi om kendsgerninger, karakker og kammuslingerElgaard Jensen, Torben (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Lad os forestille os, at man som studerende eller forsker nærmer sig en ny teori. Man har nu både hårdt arbejde og en række forvirrende episoder foran sig. Indledningsvis vil man typisk møde den nye teori som en lukket kasse. Man er selv placeret udenfor, men man kan konstatere eller få fortalt, at kassen gør bestemte ting. For eksempel kan man få at vide, at kassen/teorien tager bestemte typer af data ind og sender bestemte typer af forklaringer ud. I et optimistisk øjeblik tænker man måske, at det er relativt entydigt, hvad teorien handler om. Men denne fornemmelse af klarhed varer kun kort. Når man kommer lidt tættere på, opdager man at teorien ikke er én ting, men flere. Der er flere områder, flere væsentlige forfattere og flere varianter af teorien. Dertil kommer, at teorien er karakteriseret ved bestemte relationer: Nogle områder, forfattere og varianter hænger tydeligvis tæt sammen, mens andre har mindre med hinanden at gøre. Det kræver hårdt arbejde at få overblik over disse relationer, men det kan lade sig gøre. Man begynder at sætte pris på review-artikler, og man må i gang med at læse de nøgletekster, som mange refererer til. Efter en ihærdig indsats kan man langsomt vinde klarheden tilbage. Man synes, man er ved at have greb om teorien. Man får måske endda fornemmelsen af at have den i sin hule hånd. Men præcis på dette tidspunkt begynder tingene at glide igen. Man opdager til sin overraskelse - og måske rædsel - at teorien faktisk ikke ligner en lukket kasse. Teorien er i vid udstrækning bygget på et udvalg af ældre teorier, som til lejligheden er blevet fortolket og anvendt på en særlig måde. Desuden er teorien er udviklet i samspil og konflikt med en række samtidige teorier. Teorien har således en livlig og betydningsfuld udenrigspolitik, som man helt har overset fordi man havde travlt med at orientere sig i indenrigspolitikken. De to former for politik kan som bekendt ikke skilles ad, så nu åbner der sig igen en ny horisont: Hvis man skal finde ud af, hvad teorien er, må man opspore dens forbindelser til et sæt af forudgående og samtidige teorier. Hvordan kan man beskrive et fænomen, der i visse øjeblikke ligner en lukket kasse, men som ved nærmere eftersyn består af et uafgrænseligt virvar af elementer og relationer? Dette er i al sin enkelthed og i al sin kompleksitet, hvad aktør-netværksteori (ANT) beskæftiger sig med. ANT er en teori om teorier. Men ANT er også en teori om teknologi, videnskab, sociale aktører, samfund, natur og magt. Alle disse fænomener analyseres med den samme begrebsramme, nemlig den som er antydet i indledningen. Som en første approksimation kan vi sige, at aktørnetværksteori drejer sig om at tænke i punkter og forbindelser fremfor i kasser. I det følgende vil jeg introducere aktørnetværksteori på fra flere forskellige vinkler. Først vil jeg optegne nogle vigtige relationer til andre teoretiske traditioner (udenrigspolitikken) og de væsentligste dele af ANT (indenrigspolitikken). Herefter vil jeg indkredse den særlige analysestrategi som ANT står for. Hvordan analyserer man aktør-netværk? Hvad er de vigtigste analytiske redskaber og fremgangsmåder? og hvad betyder det, at tænke på denne måde? I kapitlets anden del vil jeg gennemgå et antal klassiske ANT-analyser. Formålet med denne gennemgang er dels at give et indtryk af ANTs empiriske og teoretiske bidrag, dels at vise analysestrategien i praksis. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6689 Files in this item: 1
papers in organization, no. 48, 2003.pdf (241.4Kb) -
the introduction of a monitoring technology for asthma treatment in primary careLangstrup Nielsen, Henriette (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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A study of journalist-source interactionKjær, Peter; Langer, Roy (København, 2003)[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) -
On the strategification of time in organisationsFrankel, Christian (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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how institutional contexts matterHouman Andersen, Poul; Jesper, Norus (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The paper has a dual purpose. First, we suggest that entrepreneurs in their establishment of new businesses draw on a range of pre-existing socially embedded routines for creating acceptance by their environment. Also they draw upon external resources that are used in patterning specific practices. This ability is treated as entrepreneurial assets. Secondly, we argue that the existence and patterning of these socially embedded routines used in new business development are contingent on the institutional context. We see the institutional context as complex and fragmented, composed and shaped by different institutional domains: the normative, the cognitive and the regulatory domain. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6724 Files in this item: 1
working paper 2003 no.11.pdf (369.8Kb) -
Caught in-between organizational fieldsDarmer, Per (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Traveling ideas for providing transparency and trust?Georg, Susse (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Borum, Finn (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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A viral perspective on bureaucracy and scientific managementKjær, Peter; Frankel, Christian (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The virus metaphor may be used in studies of management knowledge not only as a way of describing diffusion processes but also as a way of thinking about viral elements of knowledge production. In the present article, organizational viruses are viewed as ensembles of basic distinctions that are constitutive of concrete bodies of knowledge and which form mutable engines of organizational self-descriptions. Organizational viruses, we contend, are both characterized by stability in terms of their basic productive configuration, while at the same time allowing for a high degree of variation in terms of concrete management knowledge and practice. The article is structured as follows. After the introduction, we first develop the notion of organizational virus as into an analytical approach. Second, we discern in the work of Frederick Taylor on scientific management and Max Weber on bureaucracy, two quite distinct viral configurations that we claim have infected most modern management knowledge – both on a discursive level and on the level of concrete organizational self-descriptions and practice. Third, we discuss our findings and raise the question of how viruses ‘work’, how they interact, and why they become infectious. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6707 Files in this item: 1
dokument 18.pdf (215.0Kb) -
past and future directionsFüssel, Lanni (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) -
IT and the Construction of the Competent PatientLangstrup Nielsen, Henriette (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Initiatives in medical practice that are said to re-insert the subject, thereby overcoming the problems of objectifying practices in earlier times, often operate with a notion of bodies and selves as pre-established entities. In this paper, I will try to show some of the work it takes to produce or perform self-monitoring subjects who participate in keeping their asthmatic bodies in control through the use of an online control center. I argue that the bodies in control and the competent selves related to this technology depend on the establishment of a chronically ill body and on the decentering and incorporation of the clinic in everyday life. Passages into the body are to be kept open in real-time through the involvement of materially heterogeneous arrangements. The distributed character of this work creates and is dependent on an ambiguity in relation to the question of agency. Who or what acts, decides, looks, knows and so on, is not necessarily defined or otherwise clear in the day-to-day use of the technology. Instead, agency becomes performed in particular instances, where it might become the property of one part of the network or another. Creating the asthmatic as a free, autonomous agent in this instance depends on blurring other nodes in the network in the day-to-day use of this technology, these being, the physician, the technology, and the scientific set-up. As such, I argue that agency in the form of the self-monitoring competent ill, is best understood as a successful performance of invisible passages and links that hook up bodies, other selves, science and medical practices. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6713 Files in this item: 1
papers in organization, no. 50.pdf (282.6Kb) -
evalueringsrapport over Master of Public AdministrationRy Nielsen, Jens Carl (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Med denne rapport ønsker vi at gøre status over de første 9 år med uddannelsen til Master of Public Administration (MPA) ved Handelshøjskolen i København. Grundlaget for rapporten er en selvevaluering, der i 2002 blev udarbejdet til den første officielle evaluering af masteruddannelser i Danmark. Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut under Undervisningsministeriet gennemførte her en evaluering af MPA-uddannelsen samt uddannelsen til Master of Public Management (MPM) ved Syddansk Universitet og uddannelsen til Master of Public Policy (MPP) ved Roskilde Universitetscenter. Resultatet af evalueringen er fremlagt i en samlet rapport: "Masteruddannelser" fra september 2003. Den eksterne evaluering giver MPA-uddannelsen en særdeles positiv vurdering, men indeholder også konstruktiv kritik. Generelt er studieledelsen og lærergruppen naturligvis meget glade for evalueringen, som til fulde bekræfter, at MPA-uddannelsen er et godt produkt, der har bevist sin berettigelse de seneste 9 år. I rapporten fra Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut indgår der naturligvis mange elementer fra MPA’s selvevalueringsrapport, men studieledelsen på MPA har skønnet, at en forkortet og revideret udgave af denne rapport kunne være nyttig i forbindelse med information om MPA-uddannelsen til ansøgere, aftagere, nye undervisere, rådgivere og andre interesserede. Denne reviderede rapport udgør derfor et vigtigt vidnesbyrd om grundlaget for og de løbende justeringer af uddannelsen. Rapporten indgår samtidig som et afgørende grundlag for det udviklingsarbejde, der i 2003 er sat i gang med henblik på at på at revidere og præcisere MPA-uddannelsens kompetenceprofil og herved fremtidssikre et godt produkt. J.C. Ry Nielsen, der er en af grundlæggerne af uddannelsen og i dag vicestudieleder for den internationale del, har på studieledelsens foranledning bearbejdet selvevalueringsrapporten til den her foreliggende udgave. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6716 Files in this item: 1
statusrapport.pdf (261.6Kb) -
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) -
policy and practice viewed from the perspective of managersLeth, Camilla; Hjalager, Anne-Mette; Holt Larsten, Henrik (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This report contains the major results from a study of management development in Danish organizations. The study is part of a European research project with participation of Denmark, the U.K, France, Norway, Rumania, Spain, and Germany. The project is part of the so-called Leonardo program the purpose of which is to further cross-country competence development and collaboration within the European educational sector. The first phase of the project is a quantitative interview study of one hundred organizations in each of the participating countries. The second phase consists in qualitative case studies in selected organizations in each of the countries. In Denmark one hundred and one organizations have participated in the study. Identical questionnaires and interviews are conducted in all of the mentioned countries and the huge amount of data is analyzed in each country and across countries. The findings will be published in books, journals and newspaper articles. Hopefully the findings of the large European project will thus affect the way in which educational institutions and organizations manage the "Europeanization" of management development. The present report solely describes significant findings from the questionnaire study conducted in Denmark. Two hundred and two managers have participated, that is two from each organization. We thank the contributing organizations without which it would not have been possible to generate this picture of management development in Danish organizations. The Department of Organization and Industrial Sociology at the Copenhagen Business School is the Danish partner in the project. The project has been conducted by Camilla Leth in collaboration with Ilse Kristensen, Mette Gundersen and Lea Green under the supervision of Henrik Holt Larsen. Anne-Mette Hjalager has contributed to the preparation of the report. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6722 Files in this item: 1
dokument 30.pdf (215.2Kb) -
Or how materials produce degrees of humanity in strategic research and practiceTryggestad, Kjell (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The aim of this article is to inquire into the possible significance of materials in the production of emerging strategic outcomes. The article first sets out to discuss the different ways contemporary strategy research define the identity of strategic actors. It is argued that the various schools of strategy research, although different in important respects, operate with a common human centered assumption: Humanity is treated as given – the strategic actor or subject is assumed to be an individual human or a collective of humans. By adding the possible significance of materials and other non-human entities to the explanatory repertoire of strategy research, another line of inquiry is pursued. The performative perspective thus proposed, is inspired by the classical work of Von Clausewitz and the recent anthropology of science, technology and organizational identities. In the proposed perspective, the human centered assumption is no longer just a premise for doing strategy research, but instead considered an interesting emerging outcome to be explained. Further more, the performative perspective allows strategy research to extend the notion of emergent strategies so as to include the possible significance of materials and other non-human entities in the explanation of 2 emerging strategic identities and outcomes. Hence, also a new task has been added to strategy research: To explain how emerging strategic identities – consisting of both humans and non-humans, are produced as part of strategic outcomes. Three cases are presented, each of them with a particular bearing on how materials participate in the making of emerging strategic identities and outcomes: The first case account for strategies transforming plans into anti-plans. This is a case of how a strategic plan is betrayed (or rejected) by an emerging collective consisting of both humans and diverse materials like a paper inscription and heavy machinery. The second case account for how the emerging twin identities of the strategic management subject and the human object are co-produced in interaction with a machine delegate. Finally, the third case account for how the strategic technology and the strategic collective emerge and co-produce each other as a macro-actor, only to become transformed in unexpected ways - as common technology and reflective human subjects. In the concluding section, it is argued that the humanity of the reflective human subject should be regarded as an emerging identity, co-produced in interaction with diverse materials like machinery. It is further argued that strategy research has slowly written out Von Clausewitz original insight in this respect. The complexity Von Clausewitz introduced with the notion of ‘degrees of humanity’ has been replaced with a given humanity, yet the costs of doing so remain outside the frames of contemporary strategy research. Failing to attend to the possible significance of materials in producing degrees of humanity has made strategy research as much producers of strategic outcomes, as providers of explanations and observations. The expression ‘technological strategy as macro-actor’ summarizes these findings and the associated implications for research and practice. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6699 Files in this item: 1
working paper 2003 no.25.pdf (417.5Kb) -
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serious but not literal design!Mouritsen, Jan; Kreiner, Kristian (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]