Triple E.D.

At the highly selective organisation studies PROS symposium Virginia and Thomas presented two papers, per the abstracts below. The papers were well received and the symposium as such very interesting.

Rosales, V. (2014) “The Interplay between Roles and Routines”. Sixth International Symposium on Process Organization Studies, Rhodes, GreeceThe Interplay between Roles and Routines

ABSTRACT: Organizational routines, traditionally considered inertial components of organizations, have started to be viewed as less rigid systems due to the acknowledgment of human behavior. However, the influence of roles, in the maintenance and/or change of routines, has been largely overlooked. This study aims at exploring the interplay between actors enacting individual roles while performing organizational routines. A new perspective to routines, based on sociological role theories and the concept of role as dynamic system, is introduced. The study is operationalized through a longitudinal case study in an Emergency Department where strong professional roles and strict organizational routines are in place. Interviews and observations serve as sources of evidence to understand the phenomena. The results show that individuals uphold routines through role adaptation and role switching, making a contribution to the understanding of stability and change in organizational routines.

Biedenbach, T. & Hällgren, M. (2014) “Changing the rules of the game: The interplay between routines and capabilities on an Everest expedition”. Sixth International Symposium on Process Organization Studies, Rhodes, Greece

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At the same workshop as Virginia, Markus presented a paper co-authored with Marcus Lindahl and Alf Rehn, titled “Coopetition Extremis: On Decision-Making and Subconscious Followership”. The paper was another attempt to explain the behaviour and events that unfolded on K2 in 2008 where 11 climbers were killed. One of the ideas is that it emerged a “spectral leader” that urged people to continue by the feeling of “everyone else is continuing, why should not I?”. The paper will be re-worked for future publications so keep your eyes out.

Last week Virginia Rosales Orquera passed a great milestone in the career of a doctoral student, she presented a conference paper during the 6th coopetition workshop in Umeå! The paper titled “TURF WARS: Understanding Internal Coopetition in the Emergency Department” and was co-authored by Mattias Jacobsson and Markus Hällgren. The paper was well received, and dealt with the simultaneous existence of competition and cooperation at an emergency department. While scary to an observer that at some point might become a patient, the practice was in abundance on a daily basis. One of the findings include four different practices that could happen at any point, between different people, and how these practices manifested themselves. Next step is to transform the conference paper to a journal paper.

The other week Markus was presenting some TripleED research at the annual PMI (Project Management Institute) conference. While there was several tracks approximately 200 took the opportunity to listen to what might make temporary organisations one of the most dangerous ways to organise.

Other interesting presentations included Mr Ricardo Vargas, who is the Director of Sustainable Project Management Group SPMPG. Mr Vargas spook about the United Nations office for project services’ approach to project management. The presentation was truly interesting in that they are accomplishing projects in some of the absolutely most horrendous settings there is, fraught with sickness, and torn apart by war.