Management Control, Organisation and Innovation

Picture with different symbols in cogwheels

Our research explores issues of organisation and management control around knowledge, projects and innovation as well as organisational dynamics and entrepreneurship.

We explore contemporary developments, challenges, and contradictions in knowledge-intensive organisations and in the digital transformation of the private and public sector locally and globally.

Theoretically, our studies get inspiration from areas such as structuration theory, neo-institutional theory, organizational behavior, psychology and sociology, organizational change and learning, human resource management, and entrepreneurship. We apply a broad mixture of social science research methods and increasingly discover digital methods for humanities.

Through our research, we develop knowledge in relation to a number of critical and contemporary challenges, which rest in many cases on inherent contradictions and conflicts.

Key challenges

Control and Innovation

Innovation and creativity require a certain degree of organizational “ambidexterity”; an ability to both exploit the present and explore the future. There is hence a tension between the need for strict application of measurement procedures on the one hand, and a substantial degree of freedom needed to stimulate innovation on the other hand. We investigate the actual implementation and potential of strategy and managerial control in innovation. Other key areas of interest are high reliability and knowledge-intensive activities and the role of controllers and other control-related functions in the innovation process.

Standardization and Innovation

To assure quality, health, safety and environmental protection, all kinds of organizations are requested to become compliant with standards and regulations confirming the functionality of their products and services as well as the reliability of their processes. We analyze which strategies organizations have for the multiplicity and plurality of standards in the ‘audit society’.We also explore the reasons to why they deviate. Is it due to myopic thinking or is it  due to their strive for innovation?

Projects and People

Organizations in growing as well as in mature industries increasingly apply project-based structures across and within organizational borders to achieve effective integration of specialized knowledge. We study issues related to the management of people and knowledge in such organizational and industrial settings, where temporary forms of organizing and temporary work arrangements, accompanied with high levels of specialized knowledge and employee mobility are key features.

Trust and Control

Both the public and the private sector are undergoing changes regarding on the one hand new systems for management and control, and on the other hand novel forms of inter- and intra-organizational relations. Consequently, numerous new kinds of organizational tensions are brought to the fore. These tensions needs to be negotiated, something which involves managing the balance of trust and control among numerous stakeholders. Our research explores the complex interplay of trust and control in these settings to discover and learn from innovative practices in work, organization and regional development.

Ethical Behavior and Non-compliance Issues

Corporate citizenship and social responsibility in profit and not-for-profit organizations moved from a voluntary self-regulation at the institutional level to mandatory schemes like formal ethical standards and other legal requirements at the regional, national and even transnational level. We investigate the reasons for non-compliance issues in the workplace related to power and justice.

Heterogeneity and Homogeneity

Ethnicity, gender, social class, age, disability generate among other factors heterogeneous settings in organizations and society. These settings are likewise a challenge as well as an opportunity. We study how interlocking systems of power sustain inequalities and affect those who are marginalized but also investigate homogeneity and heterogeneity with the attempt to combine both in various areas of work and organizing.

Publications

Publications

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Contact

Researchers

Business Administration Research at LiU

Organisation