| 1. |
- Borg, Elisabeth
(författare)
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Liminality at Work : Mobile Project Workers In-Between
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral thesis addresses how mobile project workers; technical consultants working in projects, experience and deal with project-based work. The thesis consists of a compilation of five papers and an extended summary. It is based on three qualitative studies including methods like interviews, diaries, and observations. The thesis adopts and develops the conceptual lens of liminality.The results of this thesis show that mobile project workers use four different practices to deal with liminality at work. Furthermore, the thesis develops the framework of “liminality competence,” indicating that some mobile project workers are better at utilizing their liminal positions than others. The thesis also studies how liminality competence is developed and how formal training programs influence the liminal position for mobile project workers.
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| 2. |
- Borg, Elisabeth
(författare)
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Work Liminality and Liminality Competence : a study of mobile project workers
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about people engaged in project-based work, a work context that is becoming increasingly common since more and more firms are relying on project-based forms of organization. More specifically, the thesis deals with a specific condition arising in projectbased work, namely that of ‘work liminality’. The thesis aims at enhancing the understanding of work liminality and of individuals who hold liminal positions. More specifically it aims to investigate how liminality could be understood in the context of project-based work, what practices project workers rely on to deal with work liminality. The thesis also deals with how project workers perceive their work and what competencies they have in relation to their perceptions.The concept of liminality stems from anthropology, in which it denotes a transition phase from one social position to another, e.g. the transition from being a boy to becoming a man. The notion of liminality has been brought into organization studies to depict a position of ambiguous belonging and temporality. It has been used to describe the position for e.g. contingent workers, who simultaneously work and affiliate with different firms and work in temporary assignments. This thesis, however, focuses on liminality in project-based work, and it introduces the notion of ‘work liminality’ to describe a specific work situation with inherent organizational ambiguity and transiency. Project workers hold a liminal position since they simultaneously belong to a line division and one or several projects, and moreover, projects are time-limited, and can be viewed as a transition for the individual, who continuously moves from one project to the next. In that respect, project-based work constitutes a particularly interesting empirical context for the study of work liminality, and compared to other liminality situations, this context has received relatively little scholarly attention in previous research.The study presented in this thesis focuses on a particular kind of mobile project worker, namely technical consultants. These are workers who move from project to project, often across client organizations, on a continuous basis. They thus work under liminal conditions, both in terms of having several organizational belongings, and in terms of continuously switching assignments. The thesis is based on altogether 37 interviews, 13 narrative weekly diaries written under a period of three months and a number of workshops and both formal and informal meetings, mainly with technical consultants but also with managers at one of Scandinavia’s leading technical consultancy firms (which is anonymous in the thesis).Based on how liminality has been used in previous organization studies it is rather unclear what it implies, the more objective liminal position and how this is perceived by individuals who hold it, is not clearly separated in these studies. This thesis therefore suggests the analytical distinction between on the one hand ‘work liminality’, as a work situation in which the individual holds a position that is characterized by organizational ambiguity and transiency, and on the other hand how work liminality is experienced by people who engage in it. Results from this study indicate that mobile project workers experience work liminality largely in two types of situations, one primarily technical and the other foremost social. Moreover it indicates that individuals approach these situations, here denoted as social and technical liminality, either actively or passively. This leads to the proposition that the mobile project workers rely on predominantly four different ‘liminality practices’ to deal with social and technical liminality, namely ‘reputation reliance’, ‘role carving’, ‘relaxation’ and ‘redefinition’. Furthermore, an interpretative approach is used to study mobile project workers’ ‘liminality competence’. The empirical investigation shows three different conceptions of work held by the mobile project workers: ‘work as assignment handling’, ‘work as a learning platform’ and ‘work as knowledge transfer’, which are linked to three levels of liminality competence, respectively. Liminality competence concerns how the mobile project workers deal with working in a position of work liminality, while liminality practices rather concerns how the mobile project workers deal with specific situations that arises due to work liminality.
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| 3. |
- Hedborg, Susanna
(författare)
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”It’s in the between” : Inter-Project Organising in Project Ecologies
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The word project is used to describe everything from mundane tasks tomajor government-initiated structural changes. Projects are also thefocus of a growing research field that seeks to understand how society isorganised. On the back of this ‘projectification’, projects are becomingincreasingly entangled with each other, both in and betweenorganisations. This means that it is not only important to understandsingle projects, but also the interdependencies between projects in multiprojectcontexts. There is a call for a deeper understanding of multiprojectcontexts as interdependencies between projects can influenceproject work and outcomes widely, even though the interdependenciesare not visible in formal relationships. This thesis applies the concept ofproject ecologies to explore interdependencies that go beyond strategic orformal relationships. Inspired by a practice perspective, the purpose ofthis thesis is to increase the understanding of multi-project context,through investigating inter-project practices in project ecologies.In this thesis, urban development and construction projects are studied togain insight into inter-project practices in project ecologies. Spaceinterdependencies are multiple when parallel and sequential constructionprojects are carried out in a confined urban development district, and theactions of construction clients in this setting are studied using interviews,meeting observations and project documents. Routine dynamics are themain analytical framework, and the emergence of inter-project routines isused to study inter-project practices and how interdependencies becomerelationships through joint action.The findings show that construction clients commencing projects in anurban development district must apply both an intra- and inter-projectfocus. As project ecologies have low levels of formal management,construction clients must take actions to handle space interdependenciesbetween projects, i.e., actions patterned into routines between projects.These actions are not steered through principal-agent relationships, butstem from self-organising to a large extent. In project ecologies, the maincomplexities lie between projects, but benefits can be achieved if theactors can overcome issues relating to skewed power relationships, trust,and resource allocations. In the case of urban development, these benefitscan include the creation of new neighbourhoods and sustainability.The focus on the space between projects and on inter-project routinessuggests that the concept of project ecologies would benefit from an interprojectlayer running horizontally between projects. This layer, whencoupled with the routine dynamics framework, could help move theconcept of project ecologies beyond identifying actors, projects andorganisations in networks, to following the actions and actors’ practicesthat emerge in a project ecology.This thesis contributes to project studies by exploring organising that isboth inter-project and inter-organisational, moving beyond programmesand megaprojects as concepts explaining complex project organising.More specifically, it contributes to the literature on project ecologies byextending the understanding of organising in project ecologies throughexploring actions between projects. By using organisational routines tozoom-in on the actions between projects, the current definition of projectecologies as centred around a single project and firm is scrutinised.Moreover, this thesis contributes to the construction managementliterature by redirecting the focus away from contractual relationships toshowing how construction clients’ roles are influenced byinterdependencies between projects and by having to perform intra- andinter-project practices in parallel.
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| 4. |
- Ljung, Lennart, 1957-
(författare)
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Särdrag i projekt : utformning av ett ramverk för strukturerad projektanalys
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- En utgångspunkt för den föreliggande avhandlingen och doktorsstudien är den spridning och ökning av projektarbetsformens tillämpning, som skett sedan mitten av 1900-talet. Det har blivit allt vanligare med så kallade multiprojektmiljöer, dvs. verksamheter där projekt är en normalt förkommande arbetsform och av så stor betydelse att projektledning och projektstyrning (t.ex. värdering och uppföljning av projekt) är en viktig fråga för organisationens ledning. För många organisationer där förmågan att hantera projektarbetsformen blivit avgörande för överlevnad och lönsamhet finns därför ett stort behov av att förbättra projekthanteringen. Det dominerande synsättet har länge varit att alla projekt i grunden är likartade och kan ledas och styras effektivt med standardiserade projektledningstekniker och modeller. Alltfler forskare menar dock att det är så stora skillnader mellan olika projekttyper att projekthanteringen måste anpassas efter projektens särdrag, vilket förutsätter en möjlighet att analysera det aktuella projektet – att kunna ställa en ”projektdiagnos”. I en ambition att öka kunskapen om projekten i sig, är syftet med doktorsstudien att utveckla beskrivningar av de särdrag i projekt som har avgörande betydelse för projekthantering i multiprojektmiljöer. Tre fallstudier har genomförts i tre organisationer som utvecklat och implementerat en projektmodell för att förbättra sin projekthantering. Fallstudierna har delvis genomförts med aktionsforskning som metod. Detta har gjort det möjligt att studera projekthanteringen under lång tid, och att skapa nyanserade beskrivningar av särdragen i respektive multiprojektmiljö. Utifrån fallstudierna, projektforskningen och egna erfarenheter från projektmiljöer, har ett ramverk för strukturerad projektanalys utformats i syfte att öka resultatens generaliserbarhet. Ramverket, som består av tre analysmodeller och tre grundläggande perspektiv på projekt, utgör en begreppsapparat för strukturerad projektanalys som är fristående från fallstudierna. Studien visar hur särdragen i olika projekttyper, t.ex. förekomsten av dubbla operativa logiker och olika slag av komplexitet, är avgörande dels för projekthanteringen, dels för vilka förbättringsåtgärder som är effektiva i en multiprojektmiljö. Ytterligare ett bidrag från studien är det ramverk som utformats med utgångspunkt i den stora variation som olika projekt uppvisar ur ett resultatperspektiv.
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| 5. |
- Pantic-Dragisic, Svjetlana, 1985-
(författare)
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The interplay between organizational capabilities and individual skills : Studies of technical and engineering consulting firms
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The number of professional service firms has increased rapidly in the recent decades. This thesis focuses on a type of professional service firm that has, thus far, been under-researched, namely the technical and engineering consulting (TEC) firm. TEC firms are important actors with regard to innovation, knowledge development, and the transfer of knowledge among problemsolving contexts. This thesis addresses the organization and development of engineering knowledge and the roles of the TEC firm and the technical consultants in the transfer of knowledge among assignments, projects, client organizations, and industries.This thesis consists of a compilation of four papers and an extended summary. It builds on four qualitative studies and takes a multilevel perspective by utilizing an embedded case-study design to examine both the organizational level and the individual level as well as the interaction between the two levels. The thesis draws upon interviews with managers, consultants, client representatives, and industry experts and analysts. Moreover, it presents findings from an in-depth study of a competence development program for technical consultants.This thesis contributes to the professional service firm literature by uncovering the knowledgebased advantages accrued by TEC firms through the organization and development of engineering knowledge. This thesis identifies two capabilities, swift transition and knowledge cycling, and argues that the link between these capabilities creates the foundation for the successful organization of engineering knowledge. The thesis demonstrates that the capabilities developed by TEC firms are formed through the interaction between the organizational level and the individual level. In addition, this thesis illustrates that capabilities differ among TEC firms. These differences stem from the organizational processes of the firm and the individual skills of the technical consultants. Based on these differences, the thesis identifies two ideal types of firms: resource-capitalizer and project-capitalizer. Furthermore, it develops the notion of knowledge cycling which demonstrates how the mobility inherent in the technical consultants’ work facilitates the transfer and development of knowledge within and among problem-solving contexts. This process highlights the roles of the individual consultant, the TEC firm, and the client organization in the transfer of knowledge within and among assignments, projects, client organizations, and industries. Finally, this thesis provides insight into how formal training can develop the consultants’ ability to transfer knowledge among problem-solving contexts by enhancing their liminality competence.
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| 6. |
- Bredin, Karin, 1977-
(författare)
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Human Resource Management in Project-Based Organisations : Challenges, Changes, and Capabilities
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral thesis addresses human resource management in project-based organisations. The aim is to explore the challenges for HRM in project-based organisations and the changes in people management systems to meet these challenges. The thesis consists of a compilation of six papers and an extended summary. The research reported in the thesis is based on a combination of multiple, comparative, and single case studies of project-based organisations. The core case studies have been conducted at Saab Aerosystems, AstraZeneca, Volvo Car Corporation, and Tetra Pak. The results indicate central challenges regarding competence development and career structures, performance review processes and reputation of project workers, and the increased responsibility and pressured work environment for project workers. They further indicate that many of these challenges are handled through a more HR-oriented line manager role, while HR departments are downsized and centralised. The thesis hence emphasises the need to understand HRM as a dimension of management in which various players share the responsibility for its design and performance. To conclude, the thesis applies a capabilities perspective on project-based organisations and develops a conceptual framework that embraces people capability: the organisational capability to manage the relation between people and their organisational context. In this framework, people management systems improve people capability when they integrate it with strategic, functional, and project capabilities. It is suggested that the people capability framework provides new possibilities to analyse HRM in project-based organisations and to explain the changes in people management systems that are needed to align them to the project-based context.
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| 7. |
- Pantic-Dragisic, Svjetlana, 1985-
(författare)
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Swift transition and knowledge cycling : A study of knowledge transfer in technical consulting
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The prominent shifts towards greater flexibility in work arrangements as well as in organizational forms have had profound effects on the labor market for engineers, and given rise to the technical consulting industry. The technical consulting firm is becoming increasingly important in many technology-based industries, as a growing number of technology-based firms rely on technical consulting firms to produce their outputs. In that respect, the technical consulting firm is an important actor for the organization and development of engineering knowledge, as well as for the transfer of knowledge to and among technology-based firms. However, despite its growing importance, the technical consulting firm has received scant scholarly attention. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to enhance the understanding of the roles of the technical consulting firm and the technical consultants for the transfer of knowledge among problem-solving contexts and client organizations.This thesis is comprised of a compilation of three papers and an extended summary. It draws upon a qualitative single-case study in one of Scandinavia’s leading technical consulting firms. This thesis takes a multilevel perspective, and utilizes an embedded case study design to study both the organizational and the individual level of analysis. In total, it builds on 54 interviews with managers and consultants, 14 observations of a competence development program for engineers who are in the beginning of their careers as technical consultants, and 2 workshops with managers.This thesis identifies two primary capabilities, developed through the interaction between the firm and the individual level: swift transition and knowledge cycling. The findings indicate that the link between the respective capabilities creates the foundation for the successful organization of engineering knowledge. Hence, these capabilities illustrate that the technical consulting firm has other roles to play than merely solving the problem of numerical and functional flexibility. Moreover, this thesis develops the process of knowledge cycling. The knowledge cycling process addresses the role of the individual consultant in the transfer of knowledge within and among problem-solving contexts, and consists of three distinct knowledge processes found prominent during the different phases of a consulting assignment: (1) knowledge acquisition, (2) knowledge integration, and (3) knowledge transfer. Furthermore, this thesis provides insight into how formal training affects the technical consultants’ ability to transfer knowledge. The findings suggest that this ability is developed through a three-stage process: (1) identifying the core of an assignment, (2) broadening the scope of action, and (3) becoming more self-confident in the role of consultant.
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| 8. |
- Thorgren, Sara
(författare)
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Synthesizing value creation in IORs for innovation : six studies and a stretch of perspective from the specific to the general
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation consists of six individual studies with the overall aim to contribute to understanding value creation in interorganizational relationships (IORs), which firms establish to achieve innovation. The six research papers address several specific research questions focusing on different aspects of IORs by using qualitative, quantitative and conceptual methods. The dissertation is divided into two parts. Part I is an introductory chapter to the six research papers. This part briefly introduces the research questions, methods, paper overviews, and provides some generaldiscussions not emphasized in the specific papers. Part II consists of the six research papers, each presenting a unique inquiry, literature framework, and method. In brief, the six papers of this dissertation are:Paper I presents the benefits of working with the same partners in multiple (different) innovative processes.Paper II tests the influence between relationship characteristics (knowledgetransfer, interorganizational trust, and relationship diversity) and networking firms' corporate entrepreneurship.Paper III tests the indirect effects of partner fit on networking firms' corporate entrepreneurship.Paper IV identifies and tests important factors for innovative performance in firm networks.Paper V tests the influence of compensating network board members on network performance.Paper VI theorizes how and why interorganizational trust can cause rigidities, which may be particularly bothersome in some kinds of IORs.Some general conclusions of the six studies are that they demonstrate the relevance of acknowledging social processes in studies of knowledge exchange; they also recognize that while literature suggesting that social aspects such as trust may be powerful in reducing perceived relational risks, research takes a biased path if it does not also properly acknowledge the risks and costs associated with it; and finally indicate that in discussions of trade-offs between flexibility and stability in IORs it may be useful to consider the dimension of exchange flexibility, that is, how flexible the partners are in what they exchange and when they do this. Some specific conclusions are that the studies demonstrate both antecedents to and consequences of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) in an IOR setting: in terms of antecedents, they explain why partner fit has an indirect effect on knowledge transfer and why CE has a direct effect on knowledge transfer, and in terms of consequences, they explain why knowledge transfer positively influences CE. The studies also suggest that when partners try to create conditions where they do not believe they might be exploited, there is a risk that rigidities in resources and routines develop. Further, they also show that design aspects, such as how the network is formed, configured, and governed, as well as compensation of network board members affect network performance.
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