Texte remanié de: Habilitationsschrift--Wirtschafts- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Fakultät--Erlangen-Nürnberg--Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 1990. / Bibliogr. p. 353-388. Index.

Diss.--Fakultät für Betriebswirtschaft--Universität München, 1988. / Bibliogr. p. 307-329. Index.

Thèse--Méd.--Reims, 1971. N°: 28. / Bibliogr. p. 59-60.

Titel: Den salutogena äldreomsorgen. – En kvalitativ studie om omsorgspersonalens arbetssätt. Författare: Lina FranssonAnledningen till studiens start, var när jag själv uppmärksammade hur en brukare inte gavs möjlighet till att utföra sysslor som hen egentligen klarar på egenhand. Omsorgspersonalen vid tillfället tog över och utförde sysslan åt brukaren. Jag uppmärksammade sedan begreppet salutogen äldreomsorg och blev nyfiken på vad det var. Studiens syfte är att skapa kunskap om det salutogena arbetssättet, samt förståelse för hur och varför omsorgspersonalen på två äldreboende i Alvesta kommun arbetar efter det. De avgränsningar som görs är att studien grundas utifrån omsorgspersonalens perspektiv och är utifrån deras arbete mot den enskilde individen. Omsorgsförvaltningen i Alvesta kommun har valt att utbilda sina enhetschefer i salutogent ledarskap men studiens fokus kommer att vara på hur omsorgspersonalen arbetar efter det salutogena arbetssätt som enhetscheferna arbetar med att få ut i sina verksamheter, samt varför. För att följa studiens syfte söker jag svar på två frågor: Hur kommer ett salutogent arbetssätt till uttryck på arbetsplatsen? Hur kan omsorgspersonalens arbetssätt förstås? Metodiken som används för att kunna besvara studiens frågor bestod av deltagande observationer av omsorgspersonal, samt semi-strukturerade intervjuer med samma åtta personer ur personalgrupperna, för att få djupare förståelse. För att tolka det insamlade materialet och försöka besvara och diskutera studiens frågor användes begrepp ur organisationsteori. Organisationsteorin tar upp och förklarar hur organisationsbeteende och organisationskulturer som finns inom organisationer kan påverka anställda och deras arbetssätt. Teorin tar även upp att organisationen påverkas av samhället utanför. Anställdas sociala nätverk utanför organisationen skapar olika värderingar och normer som följer med de anställda in i organisationen. Studiens slutsats är att omsorgspersonalens arbetssätt kan förstås med hjälp av verksamhetens organisationsbeteende och organisationskultur. Eftersom omsorgspersonalen som deltagit i studien känner varandra och umgås utanför arbetsplatsen, delar de liknande värderingar och normer. Organisationsbeteendet och organisationskulturen stärks genom att omsorgspersonalen umgås utanför arbetsplatsen, vilket också kan skapa starkare sammanhållning i arbetsgrupperna och motivationen att strävan efter samma mål.

L’originalité de cette thèse est dans la réponse apportée à une question réflexive, critique et latente dans le champ des théories du changement en management : existerait-il une théorie de changement organisationnel et stratégique nous permettant de comprendre la réalité de ce phénomène de manière multidimensionnelle, non ‘scientiste’ et sans empreinte managérialiste ? Pour répondre à cette question nous commençons par mener une réflexion épistémologique sur le type de connaissances que nous produisons dans les sciences de gestion en proposant quatre idéaux-types. Ensuite, nous menons une analyse critique de la littérature en classant les principaux travaux existant dans les trois premiers idéaux-types (scolastique, pratique et critique) et arrivons à la conclusion qu’il n’existe pas de théories réflexives (dans le sens bourdieusien) du changement organisationnel et stratégique qui nous permettent d’avoir une compréhension moins biaisée de la réalité de ce phénomène. De multiples causes induisent l’anémie des théories actuelles à fournir une lecture satisfaisante du changement qui puisse aller au-delà de la surface (managérialiste), de la guerre des chapelles académiques (épistémocentrisme, déconnexion par rapport à la réalité et erreur scolastique) et croyances naturalisées (idéologies dominantes comme dominées). L’ensemble de ces ‘causes’ produisent plutôt le ‘non-changement’ (la réification) en générant des théories et pratiques inadéquates qui ne permettent pas de comprendre et/ou de catalyser le changement. Pire, elles contribuent à une production de connaissance fallacieuse basée sur de nombreux biais que nous analysons. En effet, malgré la masse impressionnante de recherches sur le changement et de pratiques du changement, la très grande majorité des projets de changement connaissent des échecs patents ou partiels.A partir de ce travail de revue critique et de ce constat, nous tentons d’explorer des alternatives à cette situation inféconde pour la recherche comme pour la pratique du changement. Une alternative possible pour avancer notre compréhension de ce phénomène est de changer radicalement la façon dont nous l’explorons, donc à innover heuristiquement. Nous adoptons donc une démarche multiniveaux (ontologique, épistémologique, méthodologique et théorique) basée sur une approche relationnelle radicale. Cette dernière nous permet de voir le phénomène du changement comme le produit de multiples réalités et de leurs relations. Analytiquement parlant, pour proposer une théorie relationnelle du changement, nous avons mené une étude de cas unique, longitudinale incluant des entretiens, des données secondaires et de l’observation directe (ethnographie). Cette recherche est basée sur une architecture abductive. Cette approche nous a permis, sans l’adoption de cadres théoriques a priori, de mettre en exergue que le changement est principalement dépendant de quatre dimensions (l’histoire, les dispositions, le champ et le quotidien). Pour donner du sens aux résultats empiriques, nous sommes retournés à la théorie en explorant trois de ces dimensions – l’histoire étant intrinsèquement présente dans ces dernières– pour proposer une lecture originale du changement. Nous sommes arrivés à la conclusion que la réussite du changement dépend essentiellement de l’attention portée à son initialisation par le biais des supports sociaux qui matérialisent le (non-)changement. Cette thèse contribue donc de manière singulière aux quatre des cinq dimensions les plus importantes d’un travail de recherche : ontologique, épistémologique, méthodologique et théorique en se basant sur une heuristique innovante / The uniqueness of this PhD dissertation is in providing an answer to a reflexive and critical question in the field of change theories in management studies. Is there any organizational and strategic change theory, allowing us to understand its reality in a multidimensional manner and without any scientist, managerial (and more generally ideological) and/or predefined theoretical lenses?For answering this question we have started to think with an epistemological eye on the type of knowledge produced in organization science, by proposing four ideal types of knowledge production. Thus, we have done a critical literature review by classifying the main existing works within the first three ideal-types (namely scholastic, practical, and critical). We have concluded that there exist barely reflexive theories (in the bourdieusien sense) of organizational and strategic change. Multiple causes could generate the current theoretical anemia, which result is a failure to provide a satisfactory reading and understanding of change phenomena. The main causes are the managerialist lenses, streams war in academia which consequence is epistemocentrism and scholastic fallacy, and thus, a disconnection with the field reality, and finally different types of ideology. All these causes are producing either a state of non-change by generating inadequate theories and practices which do not permit to understand and/or catalyze organizational and strategic change. Worst, they contribute to a fallacious knowledge production which could reify the social reality instead of changing it. Indeed, despite the enormous mass of research and practical frameworks on organizational and strategic change, we are still facing total or partial failure in the quasi-totality of organizational and strategic change projects. Then, we try from our critical literature review and our epistemological reflection to explore alternatives to this unfertile situation of the field. One of the alternatives is advancing our change understanding by, precisely, changing radically our vision of what organizational and strategic change could be, and so by innovating heuristically. Consequently, we have adopted a multilevel approach (ontological, epistemological, methodological and theoretical) based on a radical relational approach on reality. This approach has allowed us to consider that the reality is not a substance, and therefore, for understating a phenomenon (here “changing”), we have to consider that it is the result of multiple realities and their relations. Analytically speaking, for proposing a relational theory of change, we have conducted a unique case study, longitudinal, including interviews, secondary data and direct observation (ethnography). This approach has allowed us, without the adoption of predefined theoretical frames, to show that the organizational and strategic change process is hinging on four dimensions mainly (history, dispositions, field and the everyday life), beside the facts that all these dimensions are social supports of change and for having a chance to be successful in the change process is better to initiate it by considering them seriously. Then in the final part of our dissertation we have theorized the three last dimensions by returning to the appropriate literature (historical dimension intrinsically exists within the three other dimensions).This dissertation makes, therefore, four main contributions to the understating and study of change by proposing a new way of considering its reality (ontological), the production of knowledge and its purpose (epistemological), a new approach to study it (methodology) and a new theory of change (theoretical) and strategic change

Various hypotheses derived from Annett's (1972; 1985) genetic theory of handedness are experimentally tested. Results from the first investigation show that excessive bias in favour of right handedness is due to a weakness in left rather than superiority of right hand skill, and is associated with poor nonverbal reasoning ability. A second investigation indicated that risks to reading problems were increased in children with either too little or too much bias in favour of dextrality. A further three studies investigated patterns of ability and disability at both laterality extremes. It was found that language deficits were more frequent in children reduced in bias towards the right hand. An attempt to find a task which those at the dextral tail of the laterality distribution were worse at than those at the sinistral tail met with inconclusive results. The experimental findings are, in general compatible with Annett's hypothesis of a human balanced polymorphism with heterozygote advantage for ability.

In today’s competitive global environment it is vital for businesses to continuously outperform their competitors, making each business more and more dependent upon product quality and the ability to adjust rapidly to change. To survive, businesses more and more depend on the creativity, initiative and problem-solving abilities of their employees. The research in this treatise will focus on the components of a high performance organisation, when assessing the international high performance strategy of Company A, developed by top management. The implementation of Company A’s strategy relies on how well the organisation fosters an environment which is conducive to high performance. At this stage it is not clear if the chosen strategy will succeed and direct the organisation towards sustainable high performance in the long run. Hence, the research question, which is the crux of this study, is to assess the effectiveness of Company A’s international high performance strategy in creating a sustainable high performance organisation in the long run. To achieve the primary objective of this research study, the researcher compared various prominent models of high performance organisations with one another. Despite the limitations, the researcher believes that the significance of De Waal’s model is that he managed to identify the factors involved in creating a high performance organisation. Based on the quantitative and qualitative comparisons, the researcher decided to use the research conducted by De Waal as the framework for the basis of this study. The Delphi Technique was used to identify the effectiveness of the strategy through a consensus seeking and commitment building process. Contrary to expectations, the empirical results indicated that Company A’s strategy does clearly indicate a high percentage of effectiveness. Although it definitely indicates that there is still a long road ahead of Company A to reach ultimate sustainable high performance, it definitely is on the right track. The research highlighted a few areas of concern, but with continuous adjustment and alignment of their strategy Company A would have a solid framework to work towards high performance in the long run.

In recent years, the problem of automating the formation of Virtual Organisations (VO) has risen to prominence. Work in this area has typically considered the process of VO formation to be a centralised process driven by a company with responsibility for the business opportunity.Such systems use two main stages: first they decompose the business opportunity into a set of roles and then select suppliers for each role by matching their advertised capability against criteria supplied by the user. Both stages require that the company driving the VO formation process has access to considerable amounts of centralised knowledge.In contrast, this thesis considers virtual organisations as forming by combining the cooperative contributions within a group of organisations. It is shown that, within this context, both the knowledge required to facilitate and the control within the virtual organisation formation process are naturally distributed. In particular companies are free to vary their level of commitment to given projects and so only they have detailed knowledge of their capabilities. Supporting VO formation within this context requires a novel approach capable of utilising this distributed information. The primary contribution of this thesis is to provide such a novel approach to supporting virtual organisation formation. This approach builds on the traditions of blackboard and multi-agent systems. It allows virtual organisation formation to be driven by the accumulation of voluntary contributions from the prospective members of the virtual organisation. The principle focus of the system is on identifying candidate virtual organisations, and it does not offer automated support for such aspects as the creation of contracts. Crucially this system works with the distributed knowledge encountered in the chosen problem domain. The following technical contributions shape the general approach into a detailed system: (a) the representation of company's capabilities, (b) an algorithm for combining those capabilities and (c) mechanisms enabling intelligent agents representing the companies to produce candidate virtual organisations. The proposed system is evaluated in three ways - its technical feasibility is demonstrated through the implementation of a testbed prototype, a theoretical discussion of the systems performance is given and finally its potential benefits are shown in a reasoned case study.

Studien undersöker vad chefer gör för att behålla medarbetare inom organisationer och hur de översiktligt betraktar fenomenet. Med stöd av en semistrukturerad intervjuguide intervjuades sex personer som alla har någon form av chefsposition. Det insamlade materialet transkriberades och analyserades genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys, vilket resulterade i uppkomsten av vissa återkommande teman som sedan diskuterades. Resultatet visar att informanterna arbetar med vad tidigare forskning presenterar som passande områden för att kunna behålla sina medarbetare, även om det finns oväsentliga skillnader mellan de olika organisationerna. Avslutningsvis går det därmed att konstatera att cheferna riktar lämpligt fokus mot utvalda områden för att kunna motivera sina medarbetare till fortsatt anställning.

Bibliography: p. 213-220. / Organization science is not a new discipline. However, it persistently attracts many researchers to explore new concepts for coping with the increasing complexity in our society. The exploration is in transition, from mechanistic doctrine to systemic and humanistic notions. The mechanistic view is still prevailing and playing a dominant role, but, owing to its increasing critics, appeals for renovation of mechanistic principle incessantly arise. The tendency induces diversified approaches for intervening in the situation of bureaucratic context. This research investigates the features of organization from three angles - on the one hand, the structure and process (functional) aspects, and on the other, the purposeful behaviour of humans. Many works see the three components as separate, and deal with them accordingly. However, we contend that the three aspects are interrelated and that they should be integrated. The integration suggests that multiple views of organization are adequate because it embodies the attributes of purposeful behaviour and functional characteristics. Problems within an organization can be seen as the mutual influence of these parts. They can mutually aggravate and impede the performance of an organization. On the one hand, we contend that bureaucratic organization is inadequate, owing to its fragility in functional components of processing information to adapt to environment change. On the other hand, its rigid essence causes an inability to deal with human dimension problems. The problematical elements present a systemic relation. In turn, we attempt to explore the essence of organization's complex problems. The exploration concludes that both complexity and problems are cognitive phenomena. The illustrations suggest that the unearthing of organization problems should be grounded in the 'interaction' and 'consensus' 'model interchanging' of stakeholders. Based on this idea, we propose an intervention framework for diagnosing pathological pattern within bureaucratic organization. The framework is applied to one of South Africa's biggest local governments (the City of Tygerberg). The research result shows that the most significant problem within the City of Tygerberg is in the information-processing subsystem- associator. Besides, the 'mental pathology' locates on the 'sink' stage of the structured problem model.