Företagens konkurrenskraft beror allt mer på förmågan att attrahera, tillvarata och utveckla de mänskliga resurserna. Hur kan då arbetets organisation förändras för att åstadkomma delaktighet, kompetensutveckling och lärande? En del av detta handlar om att hitta, ge utrymme för, stödja och utveckla eldsjälar. Eldsjälar är personer som engagerar sig starkt i en verksamhet. De drivs av brinnande entusiasm. I företag och organisationer spelar eldsjälar ofta en avgörande roll för förändring och förnyelse. Det gäller inte minst i utvecklingsarbeten som berör arbetets organisation. Men vad gör egentligen eldsjälar i ett arbetsorganisatoriskt utvecklingsarbete? Vilka problem möter de? Varför engagerar de sig? Varför agerar de som de gör? Kan de lära av sina erfarenheter och vidareutvecklas som eldsjälar? Denna avhandling redovisar resultaten av en studie av eldsjälar och deras insatser. De eldsjälar som har studerats var huvudaktörer i försök med nya sätt att organisera arbetet i början av 1970-talet. I boken identifieras två grundläggande dilemman som eldsjälar måste hantera för att utvecklingsarbete ska leda till förändring och lärande. De handlingsmöjligheter eldsjälar har, beskrivs i termer av fyra metoder för aktörsskap. I avhandlingen diskuteras hur eldsjälar kan vidareutveckla sitt agerande och sin kompetens för att åstadkomma arbetsorganisatorisk utveckling. För personer som på olika sätt är involverade i organisatoriskt utvecklingsarbete erbjuder avhandlingen både praktisk och teoretisk vägledning. Avhandlingen är av speciellt intresse för chefer, fackliga företrädare, aktionsforskare, konsulter samt personer sysselsatta med personal-, organisations- och utbildningsfrågor. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 1988</p>

Title: Yes, but… - How changes in banks in Västerbotten are linked to the current financial crisis, but are still normal organizational development Background: In the beginning of the 90’s, there was a financial crisis in Sweden which hit Swedish banks hard. The Swedish bank Gota banken went bankrupt and Nordbanken was taken over by the government, in large part because of their apathetic reactions to the situation they were so surprised to find themselves in. Today, almost 20 years later, the banks of Sweden find themselves in a new crisis. Because of the important position banks have in society, it is extremely important that they remain stable and have the capacity to ride out a crisis situation comfortably. As the banks did not show any crisis management strategy or skills in the 1992 crisis, it is relevant to explore if the previous experience has given Swedish banks the ability to handle a crisis situation in an efficient way. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to apply organizational development theory, crisis management theory and adversity reaction theory to the primary data collected from the interviews with the banks and through that analyze if Swedish banks are acting to prevent the financial crisis from affecting them badly. Method: The study has a hermeneutical approach and was carried out by interviewing managers from the five major banks in Västerbotten. The primary data collected has been analyzed to get an understanding of the current development in the banks and its possible link to the financial crisis. Conclusion: We found that banks are constantly changing in order to keep up with their competitors, changes in technology, society and the increasing demands from customers. The current events and changes in the banks are undoubtedly linked to the financial crisis, it has accelerated change, it has slowed down ongoing processes and it has facilitated harder decisions and less popular changes. But the crisis has not caused drastic changes in the organizations or their way of doing business. In fact, it can be said that the changes due to the financial crisis is normal organizational development, as the banks have responded to it in much the same fashion as they do to all changes in the external environment. Key words: crisis management, organizational development, threat rigidity, prospect theory, financial crisis

My analysis consists of an in-depth study of the experience of a group of development programme participants who were exposed to the use of art and artistic work in organisation and leadership development, resulting in positive effects. My starting point is creativity as a concept according to paediatrician and psychoanalyst DW Winnicott who stresses how important playing and creativity is for us, even as an adult, for us to utilise our full potential. He believes that we have a psychological space – a crossover area – where the outer, objective reality and the inner, subjective reality meet. Playing, creative development and experiences occur in this space. The purpose of my paper is to investigate art and artistic creation to determine if it can be used in the work environment as a means to provide individuals access to the crossover space, thereby developing creativity and the creative power. Risks have also been addressed within my paper. Art and culture can be brought down to a level where its use is only justifiable in those instances where value and economic benefits can be shown. In my opinion, this risk must be taken seriously. This does not mean, however, that one should not work across borders. This is about letting art and culture provide value in the leadership and organisation development by concurrently complementing logical and rationale methods, plans, and decision-making with the goal of striving to maintain the integrity and autonomy of the artistic endeavours.

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders’, and for that reason, it is considered important by researchers and practitioners alike to understand how to develop effective leadership skills and characteristics. The purpose of this research was to explore concepts of leadership including leadership development (LD) within an international development through sport context. The Commonwealth Games Association of Canada’s (CGC) International Development through Sport (IDS) administration team created a program called the Capacity Support Program (CSP). The CSP is an internship program offered to recent university graduates to assist in various initiatives intended on building sporting capacity within partnering Commonwealth countries. Participants also known as Capacity Support Officer’s (CSO’s) were immersed within an international environment with a host sport organization (e.g., Barbados National Olympic Committee) for approximately fourteen-months. In this study, interviews were conducted with IDS administrators to clarify and provide further detailed information about the program. In addition, archival material (e.g., pre-departure training manual, website articles, DVDs), interviews with CSO’s, and a debrief focus group session with the CSO’s which discussed their experiences and the various concepts of leadership and LD within an international development through sport context was conducted. Data was recorded and transcribed verbatim. A grounded theory approach, specifically the inductive coding technique was utilized throughout the content analysis procedure. Findings showed that concepts of leadership and LD were 1) a fundamental component of the program and 2) linked to various existing literature on leadership theories (e.g., authentic leadership). Further, findings demonstrated the program design and training were significant components of LD and that the cross-cultural context accelerated LD. These findings and others will culminate in a discussion regarding future studies of leadership and LD.

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders’, and for that reason, it is considered important by researchers and practitioners alike to understand how to develop effective leadership skills and characteristics. The purpose of this research was to explore concepts of leadership including leadership development (LD) within an international development through sport context. The Commonwealth Games Association of Canada’s (CGC) International Development through Sport (IDS) administration team created a program called the Capacity Support Program (CSP). The CSP is an internship program offered to recent university graduates to assist in various initiatives intended on building sporting capacity within partnering Commonwealth countries. Participants also known as Capacity Support Officer’s (CSO’s) were immersed within an international environment with a host sport organization (e.g., Barbados National Olympic Committee) for approximately fourteen-months. In this study, interviews were conducted with IDS administrators to clarify and provide further detailed information about the program. In addition, archival material (e.g., pre-departure training manual, website articles, DVDs), interviews with CSO’s, and a debrief focus group session with the CSO’s which discussed their experiences and the various concepts of leadership and LD within an international development through sport context was conducted. Data was recorded and transcribed verbatim. A grounded theory approach, specifically the inductive coding technique was utilized throughout the content analysis procedure. Findings showed that concepts of leadership and LD were 1) a fundamental component of the program and 2) linked to various existing literature on leadership theories (e.g., authentic leadership). Further, findings demonstrated the program design and training were significant components of LD and that the cross-cultural context accelerated LD. These findings and others will culminate in a discussion regarding future studies of leadership and LD.

This bounded case study describes the readiness of a Southeastern State University System to support the growth of online learning. Structured as a case study, the view provided of the Southeastern State University System in this moment in time provides a contextually rich view of the phenomenon of change within a university system. The study answers the following questions regarding the change towards online course delivery: Does the Southeastern State University System have a primarily transformational or transactional orientation? What are the key change facilitating factors within the Southeastern State University System? What are the key change restraining factors within the Southeastern State University System? The key change facilitating factors identified as part of the first phase of the study included: motivation to change, job/task requirements and organizational culture supportive of change. The perspectives of the administrators regarding facilitating factors differed, as did views on if the organizational culture was supportive of change. The CIO interviewed described a variation in perspectives regarding online learning based on institutional categories and missions, which was reflected in the interviews. The key change restraining factors were identified during the survey phase of the study as: change related systems, emotional impact of change and change mission and strategy. Financial incentives, both for the institutions and the individuals involved in online or blended activities was identified in the interviews. However, the CIO interviewed outlined a perspective that the funding model for collaborative programs in the university system was flawed. A perceived lack of change mission strategy was common through the interviews, with signs pointing towards improvement within the system, with a new focus on online learning as part of an initiative to have more college graduates within the state. This study provides a snapshot of the state of a university system as it adapts to the changing environment of higher education. The study describes the application of an established organizational change and development model to the study of online learning, which provides future researchers with a framework to investigate online learning at a university system level.

In today’s manufacturing industry there is an increased focus to produce the right product at right time and in the automotive sector the pressure on suppliers in order to deliver is high. In this matter the organization has to have clear and reachable goals together with a production system that can meet these goals.  The aim of this study was to observe and discover improvements in an assembly line called EUCD 1 at a company working in the automotive industry. The task was from a third party perspective to identify bottlenecks and put forth recommendations for the future as to how the improvement work should be carried out at the line. The production flow has been mapped out by the use observations, interviews with personnel working on the line, qualitative and quantitative data along with System Soft methodology. The interview questions were based on Porras’ and Robertson’s Organizational framework which is divided into four sections namely technology, social factors, physical settings and organizational arrangement. The line assembles three types of gearboxes consisting of different models which make this line very complex. This case study also includes literature studies in order to support the results found in this thesis. This report includes a rich picture of the current state at the line for understanding how the line operates. Along with this observation and interviews have been made. Observations are supported by quantitative data and analyses to justify the problematic situation in the production line. The current state has been analysed with the help of the theories used and it revealed a distinct gap between the actual production and desired goals for the organization. The company used a methodology of solving the everyday problematic issues by temporary solutions which led to the reappearance of problems again.   The analyses conducted have resulted in general recommendation as to how the organization should be working to eliminate the different bottlenecks permanently. A desired state has been put forward that includes how the company should operate in a long term future to make the EUCD 1 assembly line more stable with less variation in standstill situations. The report ends with a discussion of the methodology used along with the findings obtained. The three research questions are answered along with discussions regarding how we could have done this thesis in a different manner. The reports sums up with a section for reliability of the data collected and what future studies can be conducted in the area.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between innovation and system complexity, and suggest improvements for an organization to handle innovation and complexity better. Method: The analysis was based on theoretical models about organizational structure, development models and knowledge management. The models were selected to highlight theoretical extremes rather than practical usefulness to avoid practical obstacles in the theoretic evaluations. The work progressed as a strategy development flow based on a model including four phases; analysis, objectives and recommendations, options and Implementation. Result &amp; Conclusions: To significantly improve how complexity and innovation are managed it isn’t sufficient to focus on improvements in one part, such as processes. Organizational goals, external environment, organizational structure, development model, knowledge management and internal culture have to be considered and balanced to achieve significant improvements. For the organization studied it was clear that there was a difference in the official description of the organization and how it worked in practice. Suggestions for future research: Metrics are important to measure value and improvement. Balanced metrics describing how well an organization is adapted to its goals and environment is an area for future work. The effect of Model-Based design on organizational structure is another interesting topic for further research.   Contribution of the thesis: The recommendations and objectives developed in this study can be used to improve an organization with respect to both internal and external environment.

Abstract The opening up of the government policy and the joining of private owned operators are the results of keen competition in the entire telecommunications industry. The saturated market, low customer loyalty, plus 3G operators¡¦ seizing on a market share, and recruiting talents from competitors have forced the industry to undergo restructuring. The only way to run the business perpetually is to change the existing organization so that it can survive the turmoil and generate profits. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said ¡§To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. ¡§. Therefore, operators with smaller market share (Y) choose to be on the initiative and cooperate with the operators (X) with larger market share. In this circumstance, X and Y¡¦s cooperation also proves a phenomenon of ¡§The larger will always be larger.¡¨ To ensure both sides¡¦ competitive advantage, operators X choose to proceed with merger and acquisition as well as organizational change. The result proves that operator X¡¦s decision is in the right direction. To reach a win-win result for both operators and their employees, this academic research focuses on case study of operators X, and Y. Both operators have gone through organizational change for over half a year, and it is now the most appropriate time to examine the outcomes of the change. This research applied both survey and interview methods, and the findings are: 1. The workforce in the telecom industry tends to be younger. The age group, sex and marriage distribution among operators X, X1, X2, and Y are very similar which is contributive to the change. 2. Comparing development of individual employees, solution provided by the employers, and leadership as well as employee interaction, the biggest factor that influence on the change is solution provided by the employers. 3. There are significant differences on operating procedures and management systems after the change. The differences for departments T, N, S, D, G are especially more satisfaction than that for department A. The problem analysis addressed in this pure academic study will serve as a reference for operator X when it carries out another organizational change in the future.

As contemporary health care organizations struggle to control costs, yet deliver quality patient-centred care, the concept of care becomes socially transformed through the use of quality improvement models (i.e., Lean methodology) and quality assurance documentation. This research investigates how nurses’ care work is socially organized in a system that defines care through quality management practices. I use Dorothy E. Smith’s Institutional Ethnography as a feminist mode of inquiry and as a guiding framework for my interviews with nurse participants as I explore the complex social relations within the health care system from the vantage point of nurses undertaking care work. I argue that the social reorganization of care work has affected the emotional lives of nurses as they try to balance actual patient-centred care with their reporting obligations under quality management.