Brewing Organizational Responses to Institutional Logics

This dissertation examines how the multinational brewer Carlsberg Group responds to the issue of ‘alcohol-related harm’, expressed in its work with the focus area of ‘responsible drinking’ (RD). RD is associated with different initiatives aimed at reducing the misuse of alcohol, e.g., youth drinking, binge drinking (i.e., drinking to excess), and drunk driving. The issue of ‘alcohol-related harm’ is not a new issue, but public perception of the issue has changed in the direction of emphasizing health and lifestyle; rather than simply being a question of a few alcoholics, ‘alcohol-related harm’ has recently become a question of a more general health risk. As a result, brewers and other alcohol produces are increasingly expected to engage in solving the associated problems of ‘alcohol-related harm’, while making sure that they do not amplify the problem via potentially problematic product launches and inappropriate advertisement campaigns. In 2010 Carlsberg Group initiated the development of a new strategic approach to responsible drinking that differed from the previous orientation, in which each subsidiary had its own approach (or non-approach) to the issue. The call for an integrated approach has given rise to multiple ways of tackling the issue, both at headquarters and subsidiaries, all of which represent the unification of a social and a commercial dimension (the social responsibility logic and the market logic). This dissertation examines the concrete conceptualizations of organizational responses to the issue of ‘alcohol-related harm’, focusing on the different actors involved and, specifically, on the construction of the interplay between the social and commercial aspects. The question guiding my research is therefore: How does Carlsberg Group handle multiple institutional logics in its responses to the complexity related to the issue of ‘alcohol-related harm’

Hvad er Danmarks styrke på digital innovation i den finansielle sektor?

I denne artikel ser vi nærmere på de strukturelle styrker, der danner grundlaget for Danmarks digitale styrker med udbredelsen af offentlige digitale services og forbrugere, som accelerer i at tage digitale services til sig. Igennem et institutionelt perspektiv fremhæver artiklen nogle af de egenskaber, som karakteriserer digital innovation af bankservices i Danmark. De væsentligste faktorer, som artiklen peger på, er de offentlige investeringer i digital infrastruktur, som skabende troværdige produkter som NEMID-login hos borgere. Vi fremhæver eksempler på dette mellem de etablerede banker på det danske marked og den nye digitale bank Lunar. Artiklens nyskabelse er, at den bidrager med ‘bricolage-perspektivet’ på nye digitale bankservices, hvor eksisterende ressourcer genanvendes på nye måder og i nye konstellationer gennem partnerskaber. Strukturer som danner grundlag for, at digital innovation kan ske i samarbejder, i netværk og partnerskaber som en form for samarbejdsdrevet entreprenørskab. Artiklen bygger videre på et institutionelt innovationsperspektiv, som tilbyder en ny måde at skildre og forstå nøglen til Danmarks digitale innovation på i et konkurrenceprægede miljø

Catching a glimpse: Corona‐life and its micro‐politics in academia

The spread of COVID-19 acutely challenges and affects not just economic markets, demographic statistics and healthcare systems, but indeed also the politics of organizing and becoming in a new everyday life of academia emerging in our homes. Through a collage of stories, snapshots, vignettes, photos and other reflections of everyday life, this collective contribution is catching a glimpse of corona-life and its micro-politics of multiple, often contradicting claims on practices as many of us live, work and care at home. It embodies concerns, dreams, anger, hope, numbness, passion and much more emerging amongst academics from across the world in response to the crisis. As such, this piece manifests a shared need to — together, apart — enact and explore constitutive relations of resistance, care and solidarity in these dis/organizing times of contested spaces, identities and agencies as we are living–working–caring at home during lockdowns

Reproductive hormones, bone mineral content, body composition, and testosterone therapy in boys and adolescents with Klinefelter syndrome

Adult patients with Klinefelter syndrome (KS) are characterized by a highly variable phenotype, including tall stature, obesity, and hypergonadotropic hypogonadism, as well as an increased risk of developing insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and osteoporosis. Most adults need testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), whereas the use of TRT during puberty has been debated. In this retrospective, observational study, reproductive hormones and whole-body dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry-derived body composition and bone mineral content were standardized to age-related standard deviation scores in 62 patients with KS aged 5.9–20.6 years. Serum concentrations of total testosterone and inhibin B were low, whereas luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone were high in patients before TRT. Despite normal body mass index, body fat percentage and the ratio between android fat percentage and gynoid fat percentage were significantly higher in the entire group irrespective of tr eatment status. In patients evaluated before and during TRT, a tendency toward a more benefi cial body composition with a significant reduction in the ratio between android fat pe rcentage and gynoid fat percentage during TRT was found. Bone mineral content (BMC) did not differ from the reference, but BMC corrected for bone area was significantly low er when compared to the reference. This study confirms that patients with KS have an unf avorable body composition and an impaired bone mineral status already during childhood and adolescence. Systematic studies are needed to evaluate whether TRT during puberty will improve these parameters

Organizational Identity Work for Optimal Distinction

Organizations pursue optimal distinctiveness to satisfy divergent expectations of different audiences and to demarcate their distinctiveness relative to other organizations in the same industry. In pursuit of optimal distinctiveness, they engage in organizational identity work, that is, deliberate efforts to form, repair and strengthen their distinctiveness. In this paper, we investigate how organizational actors develop identity claims aimed at achieving optimal distinctiveness. We collected real time data in the form of observations, interviews and archival material from the Carlsberg Group, a global beer producer, at the time when they engaged in organizational identity work to face the issue of ‘alcohol-related harm’. The findings consist in three related processes of organizational identity work, which organizational actors engaged in internally to gain optimal distinction from other beer producers: (1) authenticating key identity resources; (2) aligning them with the issue and established practices; and (3) enrolling organizational actors with ties to different audience groups. We also identified the externally oriented process of (4) communicating externally their new identity claims to different audiences. Based on our findings, we offer a process model of organizational identity work that outlines how organizational actors develop new organizational identity claims for optimal distinctiveness. Our research theoretically connects the literatures of organizational identity work and optimal distinctiveness

Parental comparison of the prosodic and paralinguistic ability of children with cochlear implants and their normal hearing siblings

The everyday communication of children is commonly observed by their parents. This paper examines the responses of parents (n = 18) who had both a Cochlear Implant (CI) and a Normal Hearing (NH) child. Through an online questionnaire, parents rated the ability of their children on a gamut of speech communication competencies encountered in everyday settings. Comparative parental ratings of the CI children were significantly poorer than those of their NH siblings in speaker recognition, happy and sad emotion, and question versus statement identification. Parents also reported that they changed the vocal effort and the enunciation of their speech when they addressed their CI child and that their CI child consistently responded when their name was called in normal, but not in noisy backgrounds. Demographic factors were not found to be linked to the parental impressions. Published Open Access with Taylor & Franci