Universitetet i Agder: UiA Journal System
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Quality Beyond Borders
No full textReview of "Quality Beyond Borders: Dantotsu, or How to Achieve Best in Business", by David Hutchins, London, Routledge 2019. ISBN 978 1 138 56510 4
Trust-based steering of large Engineering-to-Order offshore/onshore projects: is it possible?
No full textThe various traditions of socio-technical system design (STSD) emphasise different aspects of such systems, but the core relationship in the literature is between the use of technology and the set-up of organisations. Therefore, much attention has been paid to organisational issues, including work tasks, distributed responsibilities and processes. An organisation where tasks and responsibilities are distributed requires other forms of co-operation and clarification and, not least, that the actors trust each other. Nevertheless, trust has received little discussion in the STSD literature.This paper focuses on trust as a relational tool: the factors decisive for developing trust in a project management team established ad hoc to implement an offshore development project, how to develop trust in practice, and whether a focus on trust reduces the need for control measures. The purpose of systematic trust building is to develop team members who are, individually and as team members, able to deliver the results expected for their area and to support colleagues to do the same, thereby reducing the need for control measures. Trust building represents one way for the project manager to acquire control of the organisation, and it must therefore be better understood, starting with this question: how efficient are the various factors for the project manager in exercising power, i.e. ensuring control over project execution? The case in this paper illustrates the need to address trust and control in the set-up of a project management team, a focus which is also important for STSD in general
Introducing a corporate concept into organisational practices: a case study of domestication and organisational choice
No full textThis article discusses a case of introducing and launching a new corporate concept, a so-called company-specific production system (XPS), into an organisation. Such concepts are at present very commonly used, but what does it take to implement a new logic into an existing organisation? As a theoretical point of departure, the process was understood as a process of domestication, where the imported concept moves from being external, general and unfamiliar to becoming internal and known, owned by the organisational culture and embedded in its practices. Domestication is a process where the import has to be rescripted through how the organisation, as individual members and as various collectives, enacts it, makes sense of it and understands it. The organisation in this case study had a rich tradition of participation, and in the process under study, members from most levels and functions were involved in the attempts to transform the general concept into something workable and company-specific. This paper takes a socio-technical design approach, which argues that organisations importing new technology or new organisational concepts are faced with choices, not with something inevitable. The study reveals the challenges of the domestication process and how the organisation faces not one choice but a multiplicity of interdependent choices, and how handling the process calls for an untraditional, complex and participatory approach
“Too much grammar will kill you!” Teaching Spanish as a foreign language in Norway: What teachers say about grammar teaching
No full textExam results show that many Norwegian students lack communicative competence in their second foreign language. This study investigates Spanish language instruction in Norway, in particular Spanish teachers’ opinions about grammar teaching, and why and how grammar is taught in lower and upper secondary school. Furthermore, the study explores whether common grammar teaching approaches are primarily explicit (rules provided) or implicit (rules not provided), inductive (language first) or deductive (rules first), and whether the language of instruction is primarily Norwegian or Spanish. The data comprise interviews with teachers and classroom observations, as well as teaching plans and other material. The analyses of the interviews and the observations show that the teachers think that grammar instruction is an important part of foreign language instruction, and they seem to prefer an explicit, deductive approach. The language of grammar instruction is predominantly Norwegian, independent of the teacher’s native language. Based on the findings, I conclude that teachers may consider introducing more inductive approaches to grammar instruction, as well as providing students with more target language (TL) input and opportunities for communication in the TL.
Dynamic capabilities: Their effect on performance mediated by product integration in the highly acquisitive software industry
No full textBuilding on behavioural theory employing dynamic capabilities, this paper examines how firms create competitive advantage through innovation over time after multiple mergers and acquisitions. Mergers and acquisitions are a way to acquire gaps and prominently missing features and functions; the firm then has only to assimilate them into their portfolio. This research is focused on the acquirer’s ability towards obtaining performance from product integration and is set within the context of highly acquisitive software-houses; those organisations involved in the sales and manufacture of business software products. The ability to realign and innovate this will increase performance over the long term
The role of universities for workplace innovation: a Turkish case
No full textUniversities have three essential functions. One is educational and other is about generating knowledge and technology. The last one is related to the bridge between the theory and practice that is being practically engaged to the society that is generally called “Service”. In many of them, to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for the society is a much more important mission then the latter. They do this through their commitment to the transformative power of a liberal arts and sciences education. While focusing on the educational issues of students, university administrators should also take into consideration the training needs of their own administrative personnel, since they are among the fundamental internal customers of the university. Creating an innovative workplace for all is essential at a contemporary university, since it is accepted as one of the role model workplaces within society. This paper emphasises the crucial need and the steps of in-service training programmes for administrative personnel, which contributes to the educational and managerial quality of higher education institutes. As a sample case, an in-service training programme is shared for the training needs of the administrative personnel of a Turkish State University, located in Istanbul, after conducting a detailed needs analysis. Following the response of the sample university to the research findings, the paper concludes with reflections on alternative institutional structures, based on Quality Circles / İmece Circles
Can an unconventional Socio-technical System approach open the way to new solutions and new understanding?
No full textSocio-technical System Design (STSD) was developed as an alternative to the prevailing Taylorist organisational design principles focusing on specialisation and standardisation. STSD emphasised quality of work and has thus been described as a strategy for “simple organisation and complex jobs”. This may sound like a partial strategy for developing holistic, meaningful jobs. However, it is as much about developing efficient organisations with interactions between people and technology that increase company competitiveness.STSD has taken different directions in different countries/geographic areas. All these directions emphasise holistic job design and employee participation. However, approaches to achieving holistic job design and to the role of employee participation vary. The ongoing digital revolution, often labelled Industry 4.0, is rapidly changing the conditions for work in general. Tasks that were previously manual are being automated, and communications and information are being made available to an extent not seen until now. In this landscape, it is necessary to consider whether we have suitable approaches for facing the challenges posed by these technological developments.In this paper, which considers two strands in the tradition of STSD theory and a case study, I will examine the need to introduce a familiar but rarely discussed or used STSD approach to major technological and organisational change
Coping with the Future: The Brexit Kodak Moment
No full textThis short article is based on a keynote talk at the "Coping with the Future" conference at the University of Agder in October 2018. It has been updated to take account of the situation in September 2019
Agile Workplace Innovation
No full textAgile methods, such as Scrum, first re-invented project management in software engineering. It then quickly spread into all kinds of areas and industries. Scrum is “a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems” (Schwaber and Sutherland 2013), and it changes the way work is done. It can be shown that Scrum is a suitable method to support Workplace Innovation. The concept of Workplace Innovation, described here with the ‘Fifth Element Concept’ (Totterdill 2015), comprises practices that empower and enable employees and that are beneficial for organisations. To obtain an understanding of how Scrum supports Workplace Innovation, guided interviews were conducted and analysed. Five practitioners of Scrum were interviewed, and the analysis was carried out using Mayring’s qualitative content analysis with an inductive coding. This article aims to gain insights into how and where Scrum can support Workplace Innovation, and what other factors have a significant influence. Scrum may not be a silver bullet, but it can be instrumental in supporting many elements of Workplace Innovation