Ofta genomförs projekt i tillfälliga organisationer och är ett tidsbegränsat åtagande. Lärande i organisationer som till största del består av projekt, s.k. projektbaserade organisationer, har andra typer av utmaningar när det gäller kunskapsöverföring än vanliga linjeorganisationer där kunskap kan skapas och stanna i avdelningar. Kunskapsöverföring i återkommande evenemangsprojekt är viktigt för att undvika att göra om misstag som kan vara kostsamma, speciellt då det är efter själva evenemanget som det går att avgöra om projektet är lyckat eller inte. Syftet med uppsatsen är att redogöra för tillvägagångssätt som kan användas för att överföra kunskap mellan återkommande evenemangsprojekt. En fallstudie om O-Ringen AB som organiserar O-Ringen, världens största orienteringsäventyr, genomfördes för att svara på studiens forskningsfråga: Vilka tillvägagångssätt kan användas för kunskapsöverföring mellan återkommande evenemangsprojekt? Med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer med projektledare för fyra O-Ringen och VD för O-Ringen AB samt genomgång av företagets uppdragsplan redovisas tillvägagångssätt som organisationen använder för kunskapsöverföring mellan de årligt återkommande evenemangsprojekten. Studiens resultat visar hur kunskapsöverföring kan ske mellan återkommande evenemangsprojekt. O-Ringen AB överför kunskap mellan sina återkommande evenemangsprojekt genom tidigare erfarenheter, att samla erfarenheter, informella och formella möten, dokument, icke-standardiserat material och system. / Projects are often executed in temporary organizations and are under a time limit. This is part of why learning in organizations that mainly work with projects, so-called project based organizations, have other types of challenges when it comes to knowledge transfer than in other types of organizations where knowledge is created and stays in departments. Knowledge transfer in reoccurring event projects are important to avoid repeating mistakes which could prove costly, especially when it only is after the event itself that it’s possible to determine if the project was successful or not. The purpose of this study is to describe which methods can be used in knowledge transfer between reoccurring event projects. A case study in O-Ringen AB, the company that organize O-Ringen, the world’s biggest orientation adventure, was conducted to answer this study’s research question: Which methods can be used to transfer knowledge between reoccurring event projects? The methods of knowledge transfer used in O-Ringen AB are presented in this paper. The results are based on interviews with the project managers of four O-Ringen events and the CEO of O-Ringen AB. In addition, the conceptual plan that the organization produces was used. The result of the study show how knowledge transfer can occur between reoccurring event projects. O-Ringen AB transfer knowledge between their annually reoccurring event projects through earlier experiences, collected experiences, informal and formal meetings, documents, non-standardized material and systems.

The increasing trends towards customization which has also been emphasized as a competitive advantage have resulted in engineering-to-order (ETO) companies having a leading role in many industries. However, in parallel with this digital information and technological advancement is rising, and companies are aiming to improve their processes to consequently reach greater success in their operations. Recent research has discussed Industry 4.0 and improved production planning methods in the manufacturing industry. Thus, manufacturing companies are striving to increase their efficiency levels and readily available data has been one of the most important and common denominators for this transformation, in fact, considered a necessity to survive in the current highly competitive market. Despite this, data collection which is a crucial part remains unexplored by academia and especially in ETO but also production planning methodologies as well as tool considering that they have a complex production process and relies heavily on manual labor from skilled operators.  Thus, this thesis sets out to investigate and explore shopfloor data collection and production planning and control (PPC) in the ETO environment. The research approach used here was a case study at an electrical transformer manufacturing plant located in Sweden. However, this study has also considered benchmarking companies as well to achieve the result of this study. Data collection techniques used were interviews, observation, and an extensive literature review that has guided the realization of the aim and gave a base to the suggested improvement for the problems identified. The findings of this master thesis illustrated that there is a lack of detailed plans, detailed information, manual effort, and lack of IT development which negatively impacts the performance of PPC. Furthermore, this had a strong correlation with the still manual shopfloor data collection that many ETO companies rely on. Principles that can be employed to mitigate the effects are further discussed in detail throughout the thesis.

The construction industry is often perceived as conservative and slow to innovate. Previous studies have explanations for why this is the case and attempt to look further into why implementing and diffusing innovation in the construction industry is different, and somewhat more challenging than in other industries. Some point towards the fact that a construction project is somewhat a ‘temporary factory’, where the end product being produced is the factory itself. This creates challenges which other industries do not face, making it difficult to optimize construction projects. Furthermore, is the construction industry a multiorganizational industry, and activities are project based. That means that there are often multiple projects going on parallel, with multiple actors involved, making the industry complex. In this paper, we conduct a single case study on the implementation of a digital innovation at a large Swedish construction company. The company is a highly decentralized, project-based organization making the study about implementing innovation in such organizations. The results were analyzed using Rogers’ framework for the diffusion of innovation. We were able to identify four facilitating factors, along with one hindering factor, for our case of implementing an innovation at a decentralized project-based construction organization. The facilitators were: the innovation should to be somewhat simple to understand and use, the projects implementing the solution require extra resources to be willing to take the risk of implementing a new solution, the implementation needs driven individuals to keep the momentum of the solution going and push the solution through the complex organization, and finally is it helpful to use marketing internally at the organization to bring attention to the solution. Finally, the hinder identified was simply internal politics and the complicated organizational structure of the firm.

Project-based organizations (PBOs) are becoming increasingly widespread and important for the modern economy and society. Thus, they attact significant scholarly attention to their distinctive features. The unit of analysis employed by the majority of the studies is the project-based organization as a whole. Hence, the locus of attention stays at the organizational level, whereas project-related effects are discussed in terms of aggregate properties. With very few exceptions, projects as distinct entities do not feature prominently in the discussion of project-based organizations. This observation creates an interesting paradox. In particular, when projects are discussed as separate units of analysis, their complex organizational dynamics, idiosyncrasies, and institutional embeddedness are among important loci of attention. However, when projects and project collections are discussed within the context of the PBO, the very same aspects tend to be downplayed. Most commonly, projects are either neglected or implicitly assumed to be homogeneous, interchangeable atomic units without internal structure or dynamics, obediently following orders of the parent organizations. Their internal organizational properties are overlooked and the individual-level variables are assumed to have little or no influence on the project outcomes. This thesis questions these assumptions and posits that understanding the dynamics at the project operations level might have important implications for explaining the effectiveness of management arrangements in the PBO. In particular, this thesis aims to explore the factors that shape project-based operations in the setting of the project-based organization. The thesis examines three particular factors which affect organizing of the project-based operations: (1) the content of operations; (2) the context of operations; and (3) the social processes at the operational level. Structurally, the thesis comprises a cover essay and four appended papers (three of them published in international peer-reviewed journals). Largely inductive in nature, the thesis builds on two research studies. The first study represents an in-depth “insider” case study of project-based operations in the Operations division of a large pharmaceutical company. It employs a combination of data collection methods, including semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and document analysis. The second study represents a structured framework-based literature review. Recognizing the organizational properties of projects, the thesis draws upon several literature streams within organization theory and design to analyze the empirical data. The results elaborate how the organizing of project-based operations in the PBO is shaped by the interplay between the content, intra-organizational and wider institutional contexts, as well as endogenous social processes. The thesis contributes to the literature on project-based organizations by developing an institutional, as well as extending a contingency perspective on organizing project-based operations. Further, the results call for revisiting the conceptualization of the PBO by questioning the view of projects as atomic and homogeneous units. Finally, the thesis contributes to the literature by developing an organization design perspective on the PBO. In terms of managerial implications, the thesis offers a few frameworks which can be used to support the decision-making process in a PBO. In particular, Paper I develops a contingency model of program management competences (the 3C model), Paper II derives a framework that can help PBO managers in evaluating the sources of isomorphic pressure on individual projects and programs, while Paper IV puts forth an organization design model for the PBO. At a more general level, Paper II discusses how the identified isomorphic processes within the PBO can limit flexibility, innovation, and efficiency. Finally, the cover essay discusses the important factors that need to be scrutinized in order to assess organizing of the project-based operations, such as the technical content, the project landscape and social landscape or the influence of institutionalised practices and models. / <p>QC 20170508</p>

Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka verktyg som används för att främja kunskapshantering inom ett företag som arbetar i projekt, då tidigare forskning indikerar att projektformen medförsvårigheter i arbetet med kunskapshantering. För att besvara syftet undersöker uppsatsen vilka förutsättningar som är avgörande för att kunskapsdelning ska komma till stånd samt vilka metoder som finns att tillgå för att dela och överföra kunskap inom och mellan projekt. En fallstudie med semi-strukturerade intervjuer genomfördes för att besvara frågeställningarna. Resultatet visar att det finns en tro bland respondenterna att individen bär på kunskap och det framkommer en tilltro till de sociala aspekterna av kunskapsdelning. För att kunskapsdelning ska främjas krävs att medarbetarna har ett brett socialt nätverk samt att det existerar en företagskultur som uppmanar till kunskapsdelning. Det bör finnas systematiska processer föröverföring av såväl explicit och implicit kunskap då resultatet indikerar på att ett fungerande IT-verktyg för kunskapslagring tillsammans med verktyg och systematiska processer som lessons-learned, tillsammans bidrar till en effektiv kunskapshantering och säkerställer att kunskap överförs mellan projekt. / The purpose of this paper is to investigate which tools are used to promote Knowledge Management in project-based organizations, since previous research indicate that the project form experience difficulties regarding Knowledge Management. An empirical research was conducted in order to examine which conditions are crucial for knowledge sharing and which methods are available to share and transfer knowledge within and between projects. The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The result of the study shows that there is a belief among the respondents that knowledge exists within the individual. The result also indicates that the preferred way to share knowledge is through personal communication and asocial network. Hence, in order for knowledge sharing to be promoted, employees must have abroad social network. Furthermore, there must exist an organizational culture that promotes knowledge sharing behavior among the employees. Nevertheless, a successful Knowledge Management process should ensure to include systematic processes for both sharing and transferring of explicit and implicit knowledge. The result indicates that tools for knowledge storage and tools like lessons-learned, together contribute to effective Knowledge Management processes that ensure knowledge being transferred between projects.

21世紀「知識」成為各國經濟發展之主要驅動力，企業更多採專案型組織運作以靈活應變，如何有效管理知識工作者也使企業文化愈受重視。專案型組織因知識工作者增加、多角化跨入新業務型態而有文化轉型需求。本研究欲探討專案型組織於傳統營建工程、知識密集服務、複雜產品系統三種業務類型下之配適文化與轉型模式。藉由蒐集個案公司Kyowa Exeo和IBM官方資料與高階主管談論文化之內容進行文化元素篩選，經競值架構特質表檢驗後，得出應變型文化、家族型文化、市場型文化、階層型文化四種文化類型之佔比，依此繪製舊文化暨新文化之文化剖面圖以進行文化配適與轉型討論。本研究貢獻為專案型組織分類、專案型組織文化情境配適表與文化轉型模式，並確認「家族型文化」於三類專案型組織配適文化中皆為重要元素。後續研究可繼續完善專案型組織文化情境配適表，驗證家族型文化在知識經濟時代對於專案型組織之重要性。 / In the 21st century, “Knowledge” becomes the driving force of economic development all over the world. More and more enterprises choose to change their structure to project-based organization in order to achieve flexibility. Corporate culture is getting more important for enterprises to manage knowledge workers. The demand of culture transformation in project-based organization is derived from the phenomenon of booming knowledge worker population and the strategy of diversification into new business. This study aims to explore the most suitable kinds of organizational culture for three different types of project-based organization, including traditional construction, knowledge-intensive business service, and complex product and system, and discuss the process of the culture transformation. The initial data bank of cultural elements is selected from official information, culture-related comment from senior managers (Kyowa Exeo and IBM). These elements are sorted into four kinds of organization cultures by the characteristic table of Competing Values Framework: Adhocracy culture, Clan culture, Market culture and Hierarchy culture. Two cases are studied in details by grouping their cultural elements in accordance to the four cultural categories. The percentage of each culture of Competing Values Framework is calculated and the culture profile of initial culture and new culture are drawn for in–depth discussion of cultural fit and culture transformation. The contributions of this research are the classification of project-based organization, and their most suitable cultures and culture transformation model. Besides, “Clan culture” is a critical element towards all three types of project-based organization. Follow-up research can improve the effectiveness of cultural fit table of project-based organization and verify the significance of Clan culture for project-based organization in the era of knowledge economy.

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Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:15:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 61070100611.pdf: 844754 bytes, checksum: 3b9f50710eaf7ac36ed163b18c947fba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-04-01T00:00:00Z / O distanciamento identificado entre as teorias do campo de estratégia e organização e a prática das empresas motivou o desenvolvimento de uma abordagem de pesquisa comumente denominada 'estratégia como prática'. Neste trabalho buscamos contribuir com essa nova abordagem explorando a prática de planejamento estratégico. A pesquisa se baseou num estudo de caso único exploratório em uma empresa organizada por projetos que identificou os processos de mudança na prática de planejamento estratégico do caso. Esses processos foram analisados por meio uma abordagem inspirada na teoria da estruturação de Giddens (1984), indicando que o nível adequado de formalização da prática de planejamento estratégico deve ser dado por sua estruturação na dinâmica social da organização que, por sua vez, é permeada por 'lutas' entre indivíduos pela definição da noção de planejamento estratégico na empresa e, no caso estudado, sofreu a influência de dois fatores principais: (i) adoção de um discurso da 'excelência', e (ii) o papel de práticas e procedimentos de planejamento em uso. / A gap identified between the theories created in field of strategy and organization and the practice of the enterprises motivated the development of a research approach commonly called 'strategy-as-practice'. The present work seeks to contribute with this new approach exploring the practice of strategic planning. Our research is based on an exploratory single case study in a project-based organization in which we identified the change processes in the practice of strategic planning. These processes were analyzed through an approach inspired by structuration theory (GIDDENS, 1984) which indicated that the adequate level of strategic planning formalization is given by the organizational social dynamics which is permeated by 'struggles' between the individuals for the organizational definition of strategic planning and was influenced in our case by two key factors: (i) the adoption of a discourse of 'excellence', and (ii) the role of planning practices and procedures in use.

The focus of strategy research has long revolved around strategy formulation rather thanstrategy implementation, despite the evidence indicating that intended strategies are rarelyachieved. Project portfolio management, PPM, assumes a crucial role in enabling strategyimplementation and can be regarded as a representation of the organization's actual pursuedstrategy. Existing research on PPM has predominantly centered around portfolios in the contextof new product development, NPD, and research and development, R&amp;D. However, there hasbeen relatively less exploration of PPM within internal development departments, warrantingfurther investigation. To contribute to the understanding on strategy implementation throughPPM and its conditional factors, this qualitative case study expands the existing research bystudying the PPM process within an internal development department. The study wasconducted at the Business Improvement department, which oversees improvement projects forthe service branch of EnergyComp, a company specializing in the development of complexenergy solutions. Using an abductive research approach, a literature review was conducted inparallel with data collection and analysis. The empirical data was mainly collected throughsemi-structured interviews at the company, but also through meetings and companydocumentation. The results of the study show that PPM actions connected to projects, portfolio and resourceallocation are undertaken to effectively implement the organization's strategy within theinternal development department. Common to all areas is the importance of accurate andavailable information that effects the decisions connected to strategy implementation. On aproject level, Insufficient information poses challenges in accurately assessing project success,resulting in measurements that fail to cover all strategic objectives. In the context of theportfolio, the absence of project information and uncertainties can lead to a misalignmentbetween the actual prioritization criteria employed in the selection process and the strategicobjectives of the organization. Additionally, it may contribute to a less detailed and formalstrategic plan. Furthermore, the cost associated with adjusting the portfolio is directly linked tothe effort and expenses involved in obtaining project information. Regarding resources,insufficient information on supply and demand creates challenges in considering projectdependencies and synergies during the evaluation of project groups. Moreover, limitedtransparency across functional boundaries within the organization leads to a system wheredecision rules cannot be established at the portfolio level. Instead, it encourages bottom-uppriority decisions. Furthermore, a biased assessment by stakeholders in the functionaldepartments may result in an inadequate screening process, leading to an increased workloadin the portfolio structuring process. Finally, the large variation in project types, coupled withdiverse impact targets spanning individual and multiple functions, makes it difficult to createrelevant project categories for budgeting and portfolio structuring.