Työnohjaus projektimaisessa työssä

Projektinomaisuus on tullut osaksi organisaatioiden arkipäivää ja muuttanut samalla organisaatioiden ja yksilöiden perustehtävän dynaamisemmaksi ja vaikeasti määriteltäväksi. Pohdin artikkelissa, millä tavoin projektimaista työtä voidaan tukea työnohjauksen keinoin ja miten projektimaisen työn omaa apuvälineistöä voidaan valjastaa työnohjauksen tarpeisiin

Overcoming Barriers of Systemic Innovations in a Business Network

Systemic innovations expand the scope of development from certain products and services to complex solutions where complementary innovations are needed to occur at the same time. Intelligent technologies that build upon digitisation and enable remote monitoring and control and related services are an example of systemic innovations transforming manufacturing firms' business logics and requiring the involvement of the business network. The progress and success of such innovations may face various barriers, not only concerning the technology being developed but also the value creation and capture processes of the entire system. This paper explores intelligent technologies as a systemic innovation, identifies transformation-related barriers toward the open systemic innovation and characterises ways to overcome the barriers in a business network. A single-case study with a manufacturing firm and its business network involved the front end of a systemic innovation concerning the creation and development of intelligent materials and related business solutions. The results reveal barriers concerning the market, industry, solution and investments and propose ways to overcome them during the front end, and in anticipation of the back end, of the systemic innovation. The chapter shows novel empirical evidence on intelligent technologies as systemic innovations from a special case. It offers ideas for preparing the network-level changes at the front end of systemic innovations.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Promotion of values in a multinational enterprise

This study focuses on the promotion of values as a way for organizational managers to influence operations in a multinational enterprise (MNE). Despite the continued centrality of the organizational culture concept in management literature, and the need for dynamics in a turbulent business environment, managing culture has been considered difficult or even impossible. This study concentrates on one part of organizational culture, namely organizational members' beliefs as a potentially malleable target of managerial intervention. Values are introduced as a sufficiently abstract and general vehicle for influencing organizational beliefs, while the promotion of values means the practices and procedures used to increase value-related awareness and action. In a multinational enterprise, influencing beliefs and promoting values may be especially challenged due to the diverse beliefs of employees. Extant literature has not covered this area sufficiently. The objectives of the study are to increase understanding of the context and target, content and means, and the process and practices for promoting values in a multinational enterprise, and to discover factors relevant to promoting values successfully. In a qualitative, holistic single-case study setting, the research examines a successful multinational enterprise, Nokia, and its approach to promoting values. Semi-structured interviews with employees, middle managers and top managers are used as a primary source of data. Additionally, various internal and public documents, value-related materials, and observations are used as support for the interviews. The results confirm organizational beliefs as the malleable target of managerial intervention particularly when the firm maintains a proactive stance towards its environment. The business unit position in relation to an organizational core, and external, global and local orientation are suggested as dimensions to be identified when managing beliefs in an MNE. Values are characterized as a moving target in the field of organizational identity and culture beliefs of organizational members. The significance of constant reinterpretation of values is emphasized, if management wishes to use values as a vehicle for managerial intervention. Acknowledgement of ambiguity is raised as central to making the promotion of values successful. In addition to localizing the promotion of values, firms should develop practices that are particularly focused on managing the ambiguities rather than striving for operational consistency across the range of different subcultures. Practical ideas are presented on how the promotion of values could take place in a global firm. The qualitative case study in a successful multinational firm provides important input on how the promotion of values takes place at its best. Many questions still remain unanswered, among them the actual impact of promoting values, the process of adopting values and other types and stages of managerial intervention than the promotion of values.Tässä tutkimuksessa käsitellään arvojen promootiota eli ilmaistuihin arvoihin liittyvää toimintaa, jolla monikansallisen yrityksen johto pyrkii vaikuttamaan organisaationsa suorituskykyyn. Johtamiskirjallisuudessa organisaatiokulttuuria on pidetty hidasliikkeisenä tai jopa mahdottomana muuttaa siitä huolimatta, että muuttuva liiketoimintaympäristö korostaa ja edellyttää dynaamisuutta. Tämä tutkimus tarkastelee organisaation jäsenten organisaatiokäsityksiä, jotka ovat keskeinen ja mahdollisesti muokattavissa oleva osa organisaatiokulttuuria. Arvot esitellään riittävän abstraktina ja yleisenä välineenä organisaatiokäsityksiin vaikuttamiselle, kun taas arvojen promootiolla tarkoitetaan niitä toimenpiteitä, joilla arvoihin liittyvää tietämystä ja toimintaa edistetään. Monikansallisessa yrityksessä organisaatiokäsityksiin vaikuttaminen ja arvojen promootio on erityisen haasteellista, koska henkilöstön uskomukset ovat niin moninaisia. Johtamiskirjallisuus ei ole kattanut tätä aluetta vielä riittävästi. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on lisätä tietämystä arvojen promootion kohteesta ja toimintaympäristöstä, sisällöstä ja keinoista, sekä prosessista ja menetelmistä monikansallisessa yrityksessä. Väitöskirjassa halutaan erityisesti nostaa esiin niitä tekijöitä, jotka ovat oleellisia arvojen promootion onnistumiselle. Empiirisen, laadullisen tapaustutkimuksen kohteena on menestyvä, monikansallinen yritys, Nokia, ja sen toteuttama arvojen promootio. Pääasiallisina tutkimusmenetelminä on käytetty puolistrukturoituja haastatteluja eri työntekijäryhmien, keskijohdon ja ylimmän johdon keskuudessa. Myös sisäisiä ja julkisia dokumentteja, arvoihin liittyvää aineistoa ja observointia on hyödynnetty tiedon lähteinä ja haastattelujen tukena. Tulokset vahvistavat, että organisaatiokäsitykset ovat alttiita johtamisinterventiolle erityisesti, jos yrityksen suhde ulkoiseen toimintaympäristöön on proaktiivinen. Kun monikansallisessa yrityksessä johtamisen kohteena on jäsenten organisaatiokäsitykset, tulisi johtamisinterventiossa ottaa huomioon liiketoimintayksikön keskeisyys organisaatiossa sekä siinä vallitseva käsitysorientaatio suhteessa ulkoiseen, globaaliin ja paikalliseen toimintaympäristöön. Arvoja voidaan luonnehtia liikkuvaksi kohteeksi organisaation jäsenten identiteetti- ja kulttuuriuskomusten muodostamalla kentällä. Arvojen jatkuvan uudelleentulkinnan merkitys korostuu, mikäli niitä halutaan hyödyntää johtamisintervention välineenä. Jotta arvojen promootio voisi onnistua, organisaatiossa tulisi tunnustaa ja hyväksyä uudelleentulkinnasta johtuva epävarmuus ja tietämättömyys. Yritysten tulisi globaalin lähestymistavan ja paikallisten promootiomenetelmien lisäksi kehittää keinoja, joilla tätä erilaisuudesta johtuvaa epävarmuutta voidaan käsitellä ja hyödyntää operatiivisen yhdenmukaisuuspyrkimyksen sijasta. Väitöskirjassa esitetään joukko käytännöllisiä ideoita siitä, miten arvojen promootion tulisi tapahtua maailmanlaajuisessa yritystoiminnassa. Laadullinen tapaustutkimus menestyvässä monikansallisessa yrityksessä tuottaa tärkeää tietoa siitä, mitä arvojen promootio merkitsee parhaimmillaan. Se jättää myös monia kysymyksiä jatkotutkimuksen aiheiksi. Tällaisia teemoja ovat mm. arvojen promootion todelliset vaikutukset, arvojen omaksumisprosessi ja arvojen promootion lisäksi muut johtamisinterventiot ja niiden eri vaiheet.reviewe

Project value creation: sensemaking, shaping and monitoring in a project network

Value creation in projects is especially challenging when it deals with a complex system and multiple stakeholders are involved. Complex systems require careful consideration of the processes of value creation in a project network. Each stakeholder may have its own expectations of value, processes of value delivery, and criteria for assessing project success. Yet, stakeholders need to collaborate, share their views, and adhere to joint rules of governance in a project network, when pursuing project value creation. This chapter explores project value creation in project networks and introduces a conceptual framework of its three modes: sensemaking and negotiation, shaping and co-creation, and monitoring and control. Attention is drawn to the cognitive, operative, and evaluative processes of value creation in project networks as well as material and immaterial nature of value creation. Future research is proposed, both concerning the conceptual framework as a whole and its three modes separately.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Decommissioning of offshore wind turbines

Decommissioning is a key process in the offshore wind industry because all substructures, bottom fixed or floating, have to be removed and completely dismantled at the end of their service life. There is still no experience of decommissioning a floating wind substructure and only two very small offshore wind farms with bottom fixed platforms have already been decommissioned. Devising save and effective processes to dismantle wind offshore substructures is a challenge that has to be faced in civil engineering in near future

Managers’ search practices at the front end of radical manufacturing technology innovations

Managers of manufacturing firms have important tasks in choosing novel technology solutions for the firm’s production process. The emergence of ideas for radical manufacturing technology innovations and managers’ proactive search for radical ideas and concepts for developing production processes have not been well understood. This study concentrates on managers’ search practices at the front end of radical manufacturing technology innovations. We analyzed managers’ practices in the early phase of nine radical manufacturing technology innovation projects across three firms. Radical manufacturing technology innovations require acknowledging both process innovations for the manufacturer and product innovations for the equipment supplier. The findings revealed alternative patterns regarding the use of directed and autonomous search processes, internal and external information sources, and open and closed supplier search. This study offers new knowledge on the nature of the information processing task that managers face and on the search practices managers use at the front end of radical manufacturing technology innovations. The study contributes by differentiating the managers’ search practices based on the specific innovation scope in terms of the technology, equipment, and production concept. Managers are portrayed as active agents in renewing the production processes of a firm. Propositions are offered concerning the drivers and use of managers’ search practices at the front end of radical manufacturing technology innovations.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Requirements from industrial internet for innovations in advanced industrial services

Manufacturing firms are experimenting with the possibilities of the Industrial Internet, while at the same time adding services and service-related business models to their offerings. Previous research is not, yet, clear on how these simultaneous transformations are handled, particularly when firms being to offer more advanced industrial services. The objective in this study is to identify the key expectations and requirements that an industrial system manufacturer faces, when adopting Industrial Internet and innovating advanced industrial services for its business customers. A single case study was carried out in a manufacturing firm offering complex industrial systems and related services to business customers. Seventeen interviews and three workshops were carried out, to collect data. The results show that the manufacturing firms need novel segmentation criteria, to map their customer base and its prospects for advanced services. Four systemic requirements are identified, for the manufacturing firm to benefit from the Industrial Internet in advanced industrial services. As Industrial Internet can enable advanced services that are highly systemic in nature, service innovations require that the business ecosystem is engaged in the development work together with the manufacturing firm.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe