The Northern Lights: Organization theory in Scandinavia

This anthology contains samples of the most original Nordic research, positioned against the general literature within a given theme in organization theory. The contributions are originated in the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and are connected to their local c [...]
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This anthology contains samples of the most original Nordic research, positioned against the general literature within a given theme in organization theory. The contributions are originated in the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and are connected to their local context via their topics, approaches, and writing styles. Each essay is a presentation of a much wider research tradition, and the interested readers can follow the references to many other publications in English. While the book is addressed primarily to undergraduate and graduate students of organizations, it is also intended as a voice in a transnational dialogue grounded in a locally embedded theorizing.



The Nordic contribution to this dialogue is characterized by a deep interest in practice of organizing, expressed in a great number of field studies. The approach taken is process-oriented (as opposed to structure-oriented). Opposing universalizing tendencies, the researchers are taking embeddedness of the practices they study seriously. This focus does not make their interest parochial: indeed, connectedness is another typical trait in Nordic research. The authors are well versed in North American tradition, albeit they treat it critically; are very familiar with European developments, and more recently direct their curiosity to the remaining continents, especially Asia and Australia. This requires a great openness to other academic disciplines and a transdisciplinary character of organization theory, with its roots in economics and engineering, but also with strong links to sociology, psychology and anthropology.



TABLE OF CONTENTS

About the Authors

Introduction: Did the Vikings Know How to Organize?

Barbara Czarniawska & Guje Sevón

Part 1: History Lives

1. Nordic Management: From Functional Socialism to Shareholder Value?

Haldor Byrkjeflot

2. Organizational Citizens – Unionized Wage Earners, Participative Management, and Beyond

Ann Westenholz

3. The Finnish Business System in Transition: Outcomes, Actors, and Their Influence

Risto Tainio & Kari Lilja

Part 2. Re-phrasing Organization Theory

4. Entrepreneurship as Discourse and Life Style

Daniel Hjorth, Bengt Johannisson & Chris Steyaert

5. Temporary Organizing – A Viking Approach to Project Management Research

Mats Engwall, Runólfur Smári Steinthórsson & Anders Söderholm

6. Scandinavian Approaches to Strategy – Combining Competition and Co-operation in Practice

Peter Lorange, Bente R. Løwendahl & Øivind Revang

7. Critical Organization Theory

Mats Alvesson

8. Using Gender in Exploring Organizations, Management, and Change

Iiris Aaltio & Anne Kovalainen

Part 3. Coming to Grips with Current Phenomena

9. Organized Hypocrisy

Nils Brunsson

10. Knowledge Management as Technology: Making Knowledge Manageable

Kristian Kreiner & Jan Mouritsen

11. Imitation and Identification as Performatives

Kerstin Sahlin-Andersson & Guje Sevón

12. Organization as Evolution of Space

Tor Hernes

13. Magic in Action: Strategic Management in a New Economy

Per Olof Berg

14. Corporate Art or Artful Corporation? The Emerging Philosophy Firm

Pierre Guillet de Monthoux & Sven-Erik Sjöstrand

Part 4. Contemplating the Discipline

15. Tales of Organizing: Symbolism and Narration in Management Studies

Barbara Czarniawska & Kaj Sköldberg

16. Making Organization Research Matter: Power Values and Phronesis

Bent Flyvbjerg

17. Publishing Exotic Studies in a Mainstreaming World

Sten Jönsson

18. On the Origin of the Northern Lights

Lars Engwall

Afterword

James G. March

References

Index