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- Ingelsson, Pernilla, 1968-
(författare)
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How to create a commercial experience : Focus on Leadership, Values and Organizational Culture
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A new kind of commercial offer is on the rise, that of a commercial experience. It is said to be the next progression of value after a service and that it is distinct from a service in several ways, two important being a) the provider having to create something new or memorable to the customer, i.e. creating attractive quality, and b) the offer being a co-creation between the customer and the provider. Little has been written though about how creating a commercial experience can affect the way organizations should work. One of the areas that ought to be affected is the way organizations work to shape and coordinate co-workers and leaders behaviors by having a common set of values, or in other words a strong organizational culture. A number of studies show that the leaders in an organization have a strong influence on its culture while others show that working with Total Quality Management (TQM) can enhance the corporate values and lead to profitable organizations. The purpose of this thesis was to explore and contribute knowledge about how to create a commercial experience. The more specific purpose was to explore this area in relation to leadership, values, organizational culture and TQM. To fulfill these purposes two case studies were carried out with the intention of finding ways of working. The first focused on how a renowned organization that offers commercial experiences works and the second on organizations offering commercial experiences in the region of Jämtland. One conclusion drawn from the research is that methodologies and tools that aim directly to enhance the organization´s values and hence its culture might be of even more importance in organizations offering a commercial experience. It seems to be important to be aware that values need to be translated into behaviors to make them understandable in the organization. Storytelling is one tool that can be used as an enhancer of organizational culture, a tool that might be a fairly unrecognized for this purpose. It is also evident that the leadership practiced within the organization is crucial if a strong organizational culture is to be achieved. Further, strategies for selecting the right values appear to be important when trying to create a strong organizational culture - a strategy not so evident within TQM. This could be one area where TQM needs to be developed in order to support the creation of a commercial experience but also to implement TQM more effectively.
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| 3. |
- Ingelsson, Pernilla, 1968-
(författare)
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Creating a Quality Management Culture : Focusing on Values and Leadership
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- When applied successfully, the QM initiatives TQM and Lean enhance an organization´s ability to meet and exceed the expectations of the customers as well as co-workers and other stakeholders. There are however also QM initiatives that fail and one reason for this is the organization’s inability to create a supportive culture, a culture that rests on a number of values which aim at improving the quality and thereby customer satisfaction. Even though this is known by both practitioners and researchers, little has been written on how to achieve a QM culture in practice and there are not many methodologies and tools designed directly with purpose of creating this culture. In addition, the measurements used for monitoring organizational success focus mainly on ‘hard’ process or financial measures such as lead-time reduction and operating income. The purpose of this thesis has been to ‘examine how a strong organizational culture can be created and to contribute with knowledge about how to create and measure a QM culture’. To fulfill this purpose, a number of case studies have been carried out and a questionnaire has been developed in order to measure the presence and importance of a number of QM values.The research presented in this thesis reinforces the fact that culture is an important factor to take into account when applying QM initiatives. A structured way of working with culture and the development of a strategy on how the culture in the organization will be changed is needed. This in combination with methodologies and tools aiming directly at enhancing a QM culture. The research also shows that the relationship between organizational culture, values and behaviors needs to be considered when working to create a strong QM culture. Most of the methodologies and tools found in the case studies aim directly at reinforcing the ‘right’ behaviors in the organization, hence enhancing the underlying values. For instance, the way an organization works with selection, e.g. recruitment and promotion, based on behaviors rather than documented merits is one methodology found in the research. The leadership was found to be important when it came to building or strengthening the culture. Managers are considered key players and need to act as role models, displaying the desired behaviors themselves. The managers need to be present among their co-workers and aware of how their own actions affect the possibility to build a strong QM culture.Another conclusion drawn is the need to measure the ‘softer’ side of QM. One starting point when applying a QM initiative should be the assessment of the existing culture in the organization as a complement to the ‘harder’ measures. The research presented in this thesis suggests that the questionnaire that has been developed could be an appropriate tool for this purpose. If the existing culture in an organization does not support the values within QM, the behaviors of managers and co-workers that are needed to improve quality and thereby customer satisfaction could be hard to achieve.
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| 5. |
- Meagher, Gabrielle, et al.
(författare)
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Big Business in a Thin Market : Understanding the Privatization of Residential Care for Children and Youth in Sweden
- 2016
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Ingår i: Social Policy & Administration. - : Wiley. - 0144-5596 .- 1467-9515. ; 50:7, s. 805-823
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article analyzes the transformation of Swedish residential care homes for children from a regionally coordinated, public social service system into a thin, but highly profitable, national spot market in which large corporations have a growing presence. Marketization and privatization are theorized as complex processes, through which the institutional structure and logics of this small, but significant, social policy field changed profoundly. Using official documents, register data, media reports and existing research, three consecutive phases in the development of the children’s home market are identified since the early 1980s. Change was driven on one hand by policies inspired by New Public Management, which shifted public authority horizontally to the private sector, and vertically to local authorities (funding) and to the state (regulation). On the other hand were responses of local authorities and private actors to the changing incentives that policy shifts entailed. During the first two phases, both the proportion and size of for-profit providers increased, and the model of family-like care was replaced by a professional model. Cutting across the trend of privatization in the third phase was establishment of a parallel system of homes for unaccompanied refugee children – mostly in public ownership. Similarities with privatization in the English system of children’s care homes are noted. By showing how the Swedish market for residential care has been created by policy and by actors’ responses to those reforms, the article provides a foundation for thinking through how the predictable, significant and well-documented problems of such care markets might be addressed.
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| 10. |
- Sallnäs, Marie, 1952-, et al.
(författare)
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Samhällsvårdade barn, gate-keeping och forskning
- 2010
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Ingår i: Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift. - Forsa, Umeå. - 1104-1420. ; 17:2, s. 116-133-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Within the discourse of childhood sociology, children are extensively regarded as “social actors”, a perspective that underlines the importance of asking children about their lives and experiences. To actually carry out such research, however, raises several methodological, principal, ethical and practical issues, especially when the research is about vulnerable children as those in out-of-home care. In this article we discuss the issue of gate-keeping when conducting research with children in foster homes or residential care. As a concrete example we use experiences from a survey of living conditions among those children. The research questions were: 1) How and by whom is gate-keeping carried out when research is conducted among children in out of home care? 2) How could one as a researcher relate to gate-keeping carried out by adults in the environment of the children versus children’s one will? 3) What impact does gate-keeping have on results, feasibility and in a wider perspective the knowledge production regarding children in social care? The article shows that researchers needs to encounter a chain of gate-keepers to be able to get access to the children, and often attrition is high in studies with children as informants. Adults can serve both as gate-keepers and gate-openers. Our conclusion is that children in social care can be reached for research purpose, but that it is time-consuming, challenging and as a researcher one is often faced with ethical dilemmas. It is clear that there has to be a balance between gate-keeping and gate-opening. In this balance, on the one hand, it is possible for children to talk to researchers when they wish to do so, on the other hand, children must be protected so they are not exploited as research objects.
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