| 1. |
- Arman, Rebecka, 1976, et al.
(author)
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The sacred and the profane in life science: The case of assisted reproduction laboratories
- 2018
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In: Culture and Organization. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1475-9551 .- 1477-2760. ; 24:5, s. 348-364
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Reproductive medicine and assisted reproduction therapies have been developed over the last decades resulting in over five million babies. The handling of human reproductive materials and patients is based on the ability to combine health care work and techno-scientific expertise in both the clinic and the laboratory setting. This study of Swedish assisted reproductive technology clinics demonstrates that the active day-to-day manipulation of human reproductive materials enact both the ‘profane’, through treating the embryos as raw materials in standardized procedures enabling economies of scale, and the ‘sacred’ through enacting a separation, the potential to human life, the patients ordeals, and seriousness. The enactment of the profane and the sacred is mostly balanced but at certain points in the work procedures, their intersecting becomes particularly salient. Such points provide opportunities for the study of the sense making of professionals in organizational grey zones, during techno-scientific activities.
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| 2. |
- Bergström, Ola, 1968, et al.
(author)
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Irish Butchers Rather than Irish Meat: Trade Union Responses to Agency Work in Sweden
- 2010
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In: Journal of Industrial Relations. - 0022-1856 .- 1472-9296. ; 52:4, s. 477-490
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Trade unions are often considered as being against the use of agency workers in the workplaces that they represent. As opposed to standard permanent employment, temporary agency work is often regarded as a more precarious form of work that serves the purposes of employers seeking to reduce labour costs, enhance flexibility and avoid employment regulation. However, trade unions may also see benefits of using agency workers as experience of them increases. When examining how agency workers are established in an organization, the mechanisms available to resolve inconsistencies between the perceived benefits and disadvantages needs to be recognized. Rather than conceiving of trade unions as being opposed or in favour of the use of agency workers, the analysis of trade union responses needs to be grounded in a different perspective. This article is an attempt to formulate such a perspective on trade union responses to agency work as being based on understanding the process of establishment rather than polarized responses. The argument is supported by an empirical study of a food manufacturing company in Sweden that increasingly turned to agency workers as a source of labour.
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| 3. |
- Bergström, Ola, 1968, et al.
(author)
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Paradoxifying Organizational Change: Cynicism and Resistance in the Swedish Armed Forces
- 2014
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In: Journal of Change Management. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1469-7017 .- 1479-1811. ; 14:3, s. 384-404
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article explores organizational cynicism in the context of a major organizational change process. Cynicism has been viewed as a form of resistance driven by unsuccessful implementation of organizational change or, in contrast, as a direct negative attitude towards management. Drawing upon the interview data with regiment managers, this article analyses how unit managers describe organizational changes that their units have endured during a longer period of time. The empirical data suggest that rather than an expression of failed organizational change, managerial incompetence, or a general mistrust in management, organizational cynicism can be seen as organizational members' response to perceived changes and an effort to create a consistent image of everyday activities and formal organizational structures. In this non-instrumental view of organizational cynicism, any attempt to analyse the impact of organizational change on organizational cynicism must therefore take into account the possibility that organizational members actively take part in translating organizational change through what we call paradoxification, that is, by identifying contradictions and inconsistencies between the formal decisions made and their effects in the local setting, rather than other forms of resistance.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Diedrich, Andreas, 1973, et al.
(author)
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International expertise and local know-how in the trading zone
- 2012
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0956-5221. ; 28:4, s. 340-351
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The management of risk and crises is increasingly seen as a matter of mobilizing formal, rational and calculative systems. Still, the capacity to understand and evaluate the socialcontext within which risk and crises are embedded is of great importance. Examining the case ofthe outbreak of Marburg haemorrhagic fever in Angola in 2004—2005, the concept of trading zoneis proposed as a mechanism bridging international expertise (in this case, that of the medicalexperts of the World Health Organization) and the local actors’ (Angolan health care workers,elders, etc.) understandings of the needs and demands of the community. Recognizing that risksare by definition impossible to fully anticipate, management practice, as part of organizingshould emphasize not only rational systems for monitoring and controlling risk and crises, but alsothe value of including trading zones and a metacode as a pidgin that facilitates collaborationbetween heterogeneous groups in such zones, each understanding their reality based on local,cultural codes.
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| 6. |
- Diedrich, Andreas, 1973, et al.
(author)
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Making the refugee multiple: The effects of classification work
- 2008
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Management. ; 24:4, s. 330-342
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper reports on a study of how the Swedish Migration Board, the Public Employment Service, the Refugee Units, and the Social Services jointly support refugees from their arrival in Sweden into employment. Among the various practices involved in this process, refugees are cast in at least four different roles, mainly by organizations, thus imposing a series of social positions to be managed. While such heterogeneous positions are not necessarily problematic, the Swedish system for integration is often portrayed as not very successful in pursuing its political and humanist goals. Some of its shortcomings may be explained by the diversity of the political, social, practical, and financial objectives of the organizations involved in the process. The paper concludes that a sociology of classification is useful for revealing how members of organizations enact social realities.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Eriksson-Zetterquist, Ulla, 1967, et al.
(author)
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Overcoming the glass barriers: Reflection and action in the “Women to the top” programme
- 2008
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In: Gender, Work and Organization. - : Wiley. - 0968-6673 .- 1468-0432. ; 15:2, s. 133-160
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Numerous equality programmes have been launched with the aim of promoting a more gender equal work life, yet little substantial action has been reported. This article presents a study of the Women to the Top programme in Sweden, supported by the European Union (EU) and aimed at promoting more women into top management positions. The research suggests that large-scale projects assembling such heterogeneous actors as industry representatives, politicians and scholars tend to generate further reflection and discussion rather than promoting adequate and highly needed action. Drawing upon Brunsson's distinction between action rationality and decision rationality, the relatively modest effects of large-scale equality programmes are examined, not in terms of a lack of commitment or competence on the part of the participants but as a matter of the disjunction between reflection and action. Reconciling reflection and action, that is, emphasizing not only reflection on gender inequality but also privileging various forms of practical action (such as new policies, the appointment of female managers, restructuring gendered wage inequalities or new recruitment procedures), is therefore a top priority for policymakers desiring more substantial changes in the gendered outline of industry.
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| 9. |
- Eriksson-Zetterquist, Ulla, 1967, et al.
(author)
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When the good times are over: Professionals meet new technology
- 2009
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In: Human Relations. - : SAGE Publications. - 0018-7267 .- 1741-282X. ; 62:8, s. 1145-1170
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Information and communication technologies play a key role in contemporary organizations. Supported by a longitudinal study of changes in purchasing practices, owing to the implementation of an e-business system at a large, global corporation, this article shows the interplay between the technology and the role of the users. We argue that the introduction of the e-business system increased the hierarchy and bureaucracy but also that the purchasers' professional identities and established work procedures were threatened by the technology being used. The results indicate how a technological artifact is by no means detached from the broader reformulating of managerial procedures and practices, instead reflecting and embodying some of the managerial virtues of predictability and hierarchy. Since technology is playing an increasingly key role in most industries and domains, it is also suggested that the intersection between technology and professions be examined in more detail.
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| 10. |
- Hagberg, Johan, 1973, et al.
(author)
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The production of social space: shopping malls as relational and transductive spaces
- 2013
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In: Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology. - 1726-0531. ; 11:3, s. 354-374
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose – The concept of space is commonly transcending the binary separation between materiality and abstraction structuring social theory, being both a built, immutable environment and what is derived from uncoordinated spatial practices embedded in social norms and instituted behaviours. As a consequence, organization theorists have been only marginally interested in organized spaces and spatiality, examining primarily office spaces and other visual, symbolic spaces in organizations. Organized space is relational and transductive, constructed to be able to both accommodate various needs and demands and to be able of responding to emerging information. Organized space is thus transient and fluid, only temporarily stabilized, and fundamentally open to external influences. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – A study of shopping center development practices demonstrates how various actors representing heterogeneous interests collaborate to balance various interests such as the need for both commercial and public spaces in a community, rendering social space a politicized space wherein disputes and interests are settled. Findings – Social spaces such as shopping centers are unfolding as relational and transductive spaces capable of being modified and changes as new social needs and demands emerge. Shopping center spaces are developed in the intersection of a variety of professional domains of expertise and social interests and needs. Originality/value – The paper combines a theoretical framework of social spaces as being what is produced in collaborative efforts and what includes both technical and material as well as social and cultural components with an empirical study of shopping mall development.
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