| 1. |
- Aronsson, August, 1980-
(författare)
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Löfte, tvist och försoning : Politikens spelregler i 1300-talets Norden
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to explain how politics in 14th century Scandinavia were structured by a set of rules or norms of conduct – rules which were neither codified nor enforced by any outside agency, yet had a very real impact on the patterns by which political action was conducted. Taking inspiration from historical anthropology, the study sets out to analyze the ways in which political tensions and relationships, primarily within the royal elite, were negotiated in various situations. The source material – mainly letters of treaties, but also contemporary literary sources – are treated as remains of political communication within a common discursive framework.The findings of the study go against some established notions about politics in the 14th century that are prevalent in current Scandinavian research. On the whole, patterns of political behaviour during the period show great similarities to those of the earlier Middle Ages, despite the discontinuity implied by the idea of the 13th century as the era of "state formation" in Scandinavia. Rather, the kings and princes of the 14th century appear to have been ruled by quite similar norms of behaviour to those of their predecessors, albeit on a more complex scale.The concepts of peace and justice are shown to have been central to the way that political action was legitimized. No functional difference can be shown to have been made between "feudal" or personal relations, and those of the state. Peace was conceived as a state of harmony, which could only be achieved through the establishment of mutual positive bonds, and an active striving for justice. The latter was achieved, both with the aid of mediators and negotiators, and through the demonstration of force, in patterns largely similar to the practice of feuding. Likewise, acts of supplication and reconciliation are shown to have played an active part in the way that political relations were reified during the process of ending an armed conflict.
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| 2. |
- Blomquist, Tomas, 1963-, et al.
(författare)
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Ekonomisk styrning för förändring : en studie av ekonomiska styrinitiativ i hälso- och sjukvården
- 1998
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since the end of the 1980’s Swedish county council managers has been preoccupied with planning and implementing organisational change in order to alleviate the financial problems and to create more efficient production systems. Many of these efforts to change have implied changing the systems for management accounting and control, changes that have been inspired both by market-oriented ideologies and by the governance principles of large corporations in the private sector. Literature on management accounting and control indicates however, that management is unintentionally contributing to the creation of organisational inertia and conservatism. This contradiction is formulated as a change dilemma; ”How can managerial principles that make organizations subject to bureaucratization and inertia be used as important strategies for organizational change?” The purpose of the study is thus to analyze the use of management control systems as organizational change strategies in health care, employing a change perspective on management control.When used as a change strategy, management accounting and control becomes manifest as management control initiatives. Actors handle these control inititatives by organising themselves around the issue at hand. This organising process ends or fades away when there are no need for further attention to the control initiative.Empirical studies were made in the councils of Västerbotten, Sörmland and Uppsala counties. Management control initiatives investigated were performance-related pay, quality improvement work, systematic planning procedures, provider/purchaser-models, downsizing projects and profit center systems.The systems for management accounting and control appeared to structure health care organisations in terms of spatial structuring temporal structuring and actor categorization. The management control initiatives introduced were structured as extraordinary organising processes delimited in terms of space, time and involved actors. Actors in the administrative norm system participated with the intention to change the organisation, while those in the medical norm system aimed at just handling the initiative.Management control initiatives can therefore be seen as passing opportunities to change, passing in the sense that the organising processes are temporary by nature, opportunities in the sense that temporary re-coupling can be used to achieve long-term change. One such opportunity is the formulation of control initiatives; the possibility of using simple and standardized change strategies can be useful, but only if they are also linked to the medical norm system. A second opportunity is the temporary organising processes; if the project form of organising change can also be conveyed to the medical norm system, management control initiatives could result in short, intense courses of events that actually change things. The third opportunity s the recurrent cyc ica pro perties of management accounting and control systems, enabling recurrent activities around the same themes, thereby keeping them alive.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Tell, Fredrik, 1968-
(författare)
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Organizational Capabilities : A Study of Electrical Power Transmission Equipment Manufacturers, 1878-1990
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Organizational capabilities of large industrial firms constitute a pillar in Alfred Chandler's theory of the emergence of managerial capitalism. Science based firms represent one important sector within such an economic context. This dissertation describes the evolution of the large electrical manufacturers and their involvement in the power transmission equipment business between 1878-1990. In electrical power transmission technology, there was an initial "battle of the currents" regarding the choice of alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) technology. This battle was won by AC. However, after World War II, an alternative technology was developed in high voltage DC (HVDC). Concurrent with this technological evolution, the electrical manufacturing industry was characterized by increasing concentration. In electrical manufacturing the largest firms diversified and grew into corporate giants. However, by the end of the 1980s, several of the initial giants had exited the power transmission equipment business, while some of the smaller, more focused, firms had amalgamated into new transnational giants. Departing in aknowledge-based theory of the firm, it is suggested that organizational capabilities can be analyzed in terms of management-based, technology-based, and market-based activities. Using this framework, these activities are discussed as knowledge-based and related to properties associated with organizational learning and path-dependency.
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| 5. |
- Yakob, Ramsin, 1975-
(författare)
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The Problem with Errors : Solution Search in Platform Development
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is concerned with problem-solving in platform development. A problem isconceived of as an obstacle that needs to be overcome in order to reach a desired outcome,whereas a solution is denoted by the set of activities required to reach such an outcome. Aplatform is conceived of as the technological foundation made up of a number of elements thatare purposely planned and developed to form a common structure from which a stream ofderivative products can be developed. Problem-solving in platform development is a non-trivialtask since platforms need to cater for both commonality and distinctiveness across a number ofderivative products. Further, several design architectures are intertwined in the development ofplatforms, giving rise to increased complexity. The purpose of this dissertation is to exploreplatform development from a problem-solving perspective, with the purpose of answering whatproblem-solving activities are carried out in platform development processes, how are differentapproaches to the search for solutions related to problem-solving in platform development, andhow can problem-solving in platform development be conceptualized? This dissertation is basedon two empirical studies of platform development processes from the telecommunication andautomotive industry, and draws upon a qualitative research methodology. The result of this studyis an iterative and dynamic model of solution search in problem-solving. This dissertationimplies a distinction between problems and errors in platform development. Solution searchemerge as a matter of choice of whether to engage in problem-solving activities and/or errorcorrection activities during the development of platforms. Solution search also surface as anintermingled process of search for required inputs, outputs, or governing laws (i.e. solutions) forreaching a desired goal. In this process, analytical search, directional search, and synthesizedsearch and the facilitation and management of both feed-back and feedforward is important.
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| 6. |
- Digerfeldt-Månsson, Theresa, 1964-
(författare)
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Formernas liv i designföretaget : Om design och design management som konst
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Design management has become strongly associated with strategic management of creative resources or immaterial assets within the creative economy. It is a development that has involved a growing interest in the way innovative and aesthetically oriented design companies use design as a resource. They constitute a category of companies that claim to represent a unique way of looking upon design itself and also a more intuitive and entrepreneurial design management philosophy. The research concerns Swedish so-called “radical design innovators” who are active in the furniture and interior decoration industry. The study is based on in-depth interviews with leaders, and the aim has been to gain greater insight into how they look upon design as a resource. The study was done from an art point of view. Since design management, due to its alliance with creative economy, has incorporated aspects traditionally associated with the artistic sphere, the aim of the study has also been to improve our theoretical understanding of how art broadens the way by which design is looked upon as a creative resource. Art is represented by Henri Focillon and his notion of “form as life”. Art is understood as something that belongs to knowledge and reality directly at a basic level. The study shows that the design leaders perceive design-form as a poetic image, i.e. as a “lived” quality that escapes verbal definition as it appears as a movement in space, matter, mind, and time. It also shows how their intuitive design management philosophy can only be understood if we look upon design as an artistic process, i.e. a process based on the dynamic relationship between seeing, doing, and bodily being-in-the-world. To sum up the study shows the importance of conceptualizing radical design innovators as aesthetic actors - and not only as innovative ones - if we are to achieve a fuller understanding of where their creative potential resides.
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| 7. |
- Kylsberg, Gösta, 1956-
(författare)
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Kunglig kommunikation - körkonst och tradition : En autoetnografi om autenticitet i ett kungligt konstföretag
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Event marketing has developed in the era of the experience economy. But the rapid growth of the event industry has led to an overflow of events on the market competing for the attention of potential audiences, and events face the risk of becoming non-events or pseudo-events. As a consequence, the demand for experiences has developed into a demand for real and meaningful experiences. This study focuses on a certain category of special events, namely state ceremonies in Sweden. Special events ca be characterized by such qualities as uniqueness, rarity, high quality, traditions, symbolism, authenticity, generosity and can be defined as a unique moment in time celebrated with ceremony and ritual to satisfy special needs. The thesis is an autoethnography, where the Royal Mews, which is the royal transport organization, is looked upon as an art company. The aim of the study is to gain understanding of why horse-drawn carriages are used and what makes them special and effective. The analysis and interpretation of this study are based upon artistic aspects and aesthetic theory. The main contribution of the thesis is within the area of marketing communication, where the concept of rich authenticity and its architecture is understood as a way of analyzing and understanding what makes the Royal Mews special and effective. Rich authenticity is an holistic view where the aspect of a double reality, combining practice and aesthetics is used. State ceremonies using horse-drawn carriages, as special events, create aesthetic experiences through the quality of rich authenticity, which is built upon Vitruvius classic concepts of architecture. A rich, authentic, Royal Mews appears with this perspective to be a Royal Mews of continuity (firmitas), of art practice (venustas) and of communication (utilitas). Aesthetics is an omnipotent distributor of roles between these three pillars that make up the rich authenticity.
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| 8. |
- Lundh, Simon, 1980-
(författare)
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Implementation of IFRS reporting in Sweden : an interview study
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In 2002 EU decided to require all listed companies in the European Union to prepare group accounts in accordance with IFRS for accounting periods starting on or a er 1 January 2005. e overall aim of this study is to explore public companies’ implementation of IFRS. More specifically, the study will identify and analyse the changes and challenges in group accounting for pu- blic companies implementing IFRS. e study explores how the companies in question actually experienced the implementation of IFRS instead of merely speculating on what might happen.e study is an explorative study, and consists of an interview-based study with nine interviews. e companies included in the study are listed on a Swedish market and the study consists of interviews with key people, such as Heads of Group Accounts, Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) or people with similar positions in the companies.e findings show that the implementation from a de jure point of view se- emed to imply significant group accounting changes for the public companies. As Swedish standard setters had started the convergence to international stan- dards before the implementation of IFRS, the changes in group accounting were not as great as they could have been. Overall, the companies in the study did not experience a lot of issues when implementing IFRS. Most of the issues discussed in the interviews seems to have been minor in nature. While the extent of issues experienced was minimal when the companies in the study implemented IFRS, the most common solution to a problem was to hire an accounting consultant company. Another finding from the study was that the companies most o en followed the new standards and also agreed with most of the requirements in- cluded in them. e standards was enforced mainly by the auditors and these were o en the very same companies that provided accounting consulting.
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| 9. |
- Wahlstedt, Linnéa
(författare)
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Dynamic Knowledge Integration : A field study of an Information Systems Development Project
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Current research on knowledge integration offers valuable structural analyses of factors that influence knowledge integration, performance outcomes, and knowledge integration mechanisms. Less attention has been paid to how knowledge integration is carried out over time in cross-functional development projects. This thesis is based on a year-long field study of an Information Systems Development Project. The study shows how the knowledge integration process was repeatedly interrupted by different problems that could not be resolved by merely relying on integration mechanisms that were imposed by the top management. Instead, a bottom-up dynamic evolved where the project members and participating project managers managed to reestablish coordination and knowledge integration through the invention of different ‘collective heuristics’. A novel model of Dynamic Knowledge Integration is presented which claims that knowledge integration contains two interplaying processes; one consisting of different knowledge integration mechanisms and activities, and one consisting of the collective heuristics that were invented and employed when unexpected problems emerged. In general, this research argues that knowledge integration can be understood as a dynamic process, of which both knowledge integration mechanisms and collective heuristics constitute core elements.
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| 10. |
- Zambrell, Katarina, 1958-
(författare)
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Identitet i arbete(t) : Chefers reflektioner om arbetets dimensioner
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to identify, describe and develop the understanding of what aspects at work are important for individuals' identity construction. In this understanding-oriented study the empirical data consists of three different groups: middle managers, cultural workers and “Airis-managers”. I have interpreted and analysed the 75 respondents’ stories, and in their experiences found similar patterns. My conclusion is that there are different dimensions at work that may affect the identity construction. My research question: What is it about work that is experienced as important for individuals’ identity construction? can be answered with the five different identity-related dimensions that I have identified: the enabling dimension, the legitimating dimension, the strengthening dimension, the touching dimension and the constraining dimension. All these dimensions, except the constraining dimension, contribute positively to identity construction. The constraining dimension can be compensated if the other positively confirming dimensions dominate. The identity construction for each individual appears different depending on what dimensions he/she experiences. That is why work’s impacts on the individual's identity construction vary. In order to illustrate the developed typology of identity-related dimensions, I created a model that aims to facilitate understanding of what aspects at work that may be important for the personal identity. When raising awareness of these dimensions, efforts to strengthen the most important dimensions can be made. Through their leadership and ways of organizing work, managers may influence their employees’ opportunities to construct and strengthen their identity.Much of the identity research discusses the more conscious identity work. In my third study my empirical data consists of managers’ who have brought artists into their organizations, i.e. conducted an artistic intervention called Airis. My interpretation is that implementing an artistic intervention can be considered as a way to challenge and develop the managers’ identity and be a part of their identity work.This thesis deals with “identity at work” (to reconnect to the title). People seldom discuss “identity construction” but that does not mean that identity issues are unimportant. On the contrary, people often talk about their jobs and their work experiences. What this "talk" really means is what this thesis highlights: Identity is constructed and confirmed at work, especially when others are told about the work-related experiences.
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| 11. |
- Bengtsson, Marie, 1977-
(författare)
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The Art of Replicating
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Fokus för den här avhandlingen är företag som växer genom replikering, det vill säga genom att skapa och driva liknande enheter på många olika platser, så som t.ex. McDonald’s och Starbucks. Replikerande företags livscykel beskrivs normalt i termer av en initial utforskande fas, följt av en exploateringsfas där standardisering är en hörnsten i företagets strategi - vad som därefter följer är emellertid oklart. Varsamt åldrande innebär dock vanligtvis att man måste anta de utmaningar som följer i kölvattnet av stabilitet och förändring.Modeindustrin kan beskrivas som oberäknelig och föränderlig, och har varit så i århundraden. Konkurrensen är stenhård och efterfrågan är svår att förutse då mode och trender hela tiden förändras. Med tanke på det beroende av standadisering som finns i replikerande företag kan man fråga sig hur ett företag i modebranschen kan hantera en replikeringsstrategi. Den trade-off som finns mellan fördelarna av standardisering och fördelarna av lärande och anpassning ställs på sin spets i ett sådant företag.Renässansen stora konstnärer mötte en liknande utmaning om än i lite annan form. Baserat på kollektivt arbete skapade renässansens verkstäder såväl replikor som nya verk i mästarens namn. För verkstaden betydde det att de skulle replikera mästarens stil till den grad att enskilda bidrag från lärlingar inte gick att skilja från mästarens eget arbete. Nya lärlingar var tvungna att lära sig att “emulera” mästarens stil och fungerar som en förlängning av hans hand och öga.Den här avhandlingen tar därför avstamp i konstens värld, mer specifikt i Renässansen, för att utforska hur ett konstinspirerat förhållningssätt kan öka vår förståelse av replikeringsprocesser i erfarna företag som är verksamma i starkt föränderliga branscher och vars strategi bygger på replikering. Det empiriska underlaget för avhandlingen är en djupgående fallstudie av den svenska modekedjan Hennes & Mauritz, och bygger på deltagande observation såväl i etablerade butiker som under öppningen av nya.
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| 12. |
- Enberg, Cecilia, 1976-
(författare)
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Knowledge Integration in Product Development Projects
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Denna avhandling handlar om kunskapsintegration i produktutvecklingsprojekt. Med kunskapsintegration avses processer av mål-orienterad interrelatering med syfte att dra fördel av de kunskapskomplementariteter som finns mellan individer som har differentierade kunskapsbaser. Förmågan att integrera specialiserad och distribuerad kunskap är betydelsefull för många företag då den bidrar till att förklara skillnader i produktutvecklingsframgång. Dock saknas det detaljerade, empiriska, studier av kunskapsintegration. Mot denna bakgrund är syftet med denna avhandling att undersöka vilka kunskapsintegrationsmekanismer som är lämpliga att använda i olika projektkontexter.Avhandlingen är baserad på två longitudinella realtidsstudier av produktutvecklingsprojekt. En detaljerad redogörelse av projektarbetet, tillsammans med en analys, presenteras för respektive projekt. Därefter görs en komparativ analys, i vilken såväl likheter som olikheter mellan de två fallen och deras respektive projektkontext diskuteras. En iterativ modell för kunskapsintegration förslås som ett resultat av studierna. Den iterativa modellen har ett flertal egenskaper som kan bidra till att öka vår förståelse för kunskapsintegration i empiriska projektkontexter. För det första visar den på vikten av att förstå i vilken utsträckning som kunskapsproblematiken i ett specifikt projekt medför behov av såväl ”aktion” som ”interaktion” och hur dessa kompletterar varandra i en iterativ process. För det andra indikerar den betydelsen av artefakter och hur dessa kan bidra till såväl aktion som interaktion. För det tredje tar den hänsyn till det faktum att aktion och interaktion medför olika kostnader för kunskapsintegration.
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