Effekten av felles forståelse

Temaet for denne bacheloroppgaven i BTH2532 omhandler kunnskap, læring og kompetanseoverføring hvor den avgrensende problemstilling er: ”Hvordan håndteres kompetanseoverføring i og mellom prosjekter i NCC”. Vi ønsker med denne problemstillingen å belyse faktorer som kan påvirke kompetanseoverføringen, samt se på hvordan overføringen foregår i praksis. For å sammenligne teori mot praksis, har vi brukt doktoravhandlingen til Ekambaram (2008) ”The role of knowledge transfer in reducing reinventing of the wheel in project organization”. Han tar for seg tre perspektiver, informasjonsperspektivet, atferdsperspektivet og systemperspektivet som beskriver forskjellige aspekter av en kompetanseoverføringsprosess. Siden kompetanseoverføring er et komplekst tema var vi nødt til å bruke en kvalitativ metode for å få større innsikt. Vi gjennomførte 6 dybdeintervjuer i NCC med respondenter fra forskjellige ansvarsområder i bedriften. Gjennom metoden tilegnet vi oss kunnskap om hvordan systemene til NCC er i dag. Kompetanseoverførings arenaene til NCC er prosjektstudio, enkeltpersoners kunnskap, evalueringsskjemaet og andre nettbaserte arenaer. Vi valgte å fokusere på de tre førstnevnte metodene. NCC Construction, som vi tar for oss i oppgaven, har hovedfokus på bygg og anlegg, hvor anleggsprosjektene omhandler vei, jernbane, tunneler og industri. NCC Construction er et datterselskap av NCC AB, som er ett av Nord-Europas ledene selskaper innen bygg og eiendomsutvikling. Gjennom relevant teori knyttet til temaet og doktorgradsavhandlingen til Ekambaram (2008) har vi drøftet teori mot praksis. Under observasjonene ble det identifisert noen gode arenaer hvor kompetanseoverføringen fremmes, men også noen utfordringer bedriften står ovenfor. Prosjektstudio som brukes under prosjekteringen, er en arena hvor kompetanse fremmes og personlighetsforskjeller viskes bort. Denne stimulerer til god læring for bedriften. Vi har sett at bedriften sitter på mye intellektuell kapital og kan være utfordrende å føre videre. Ved diskusjon oftere i større grupper, med flere ledd inkludert vil kompetanseoverføring bli satt i fokus og kompetansen i bedriften kan øke. Videre fant vi ut at kompetanseoverføring i hovedsak ble overført muntlig, hvor de ansatte selv var ansvarlig for tilegnelse av kunnskap. NCC la til rette for at kompetanseoverføringen i oppstartsfasen av et prosjekt ble gjort gjennom møter og direkte spørsmål. Spørsmål var rettet til det relevante problemet prosjektdeltageren stod ovenfor. Evalueringsskjemaet kan bidra til en bedre forståelse av tidligere eksisterende kunnskap. Vi kom frem til at ledelsen burde legge større vekt på bruken av evalueringsskjema i starten av et prosjekt. Dette vil kunne øke hver enkelt prosjektdeltagers forståelse i startfasen. Til slutt, gjennom hovedkonklusjonen, svarte vi på problemstillingen ved hjelp av hovedmodellen. Her påpeker vi viktigheten av prosjektstudio og økt fokus på prosessene som allerede finnes. Dette kan bidra til større helhetlig forståelse av eksisterende kunnskap i bedriften, samt minske gjenoppfinnelsen av hjulet

Effekten av felles forståelse

Bacheloroppgave i Prosjektledelse fra Handelshøyskolen BI, 2015Temaet for denne bacheloroppgaven i BTH2532 omhandler kunnskap, læring og kompetanseoverføring hvor den avgrensende problemstilling er: ”Hvordan håndteres kompetanseoverføring i og mellom prosjekter i NCC”. Vi ønsker med denne problemstillingen å belyse faktorer som kan påvirke kompetanseoverføringen, samt se på hvordan overføringen foregår i praksis. For å sammenligne teori mot praksis, har vi brukt doktoravhandlingen til Ekambaram (2008) ”The role of knowledge transfer in reducing reinventing of the wheel in project organization”. Han tar for seg tre perspektiver, informasjonsperspektivet, atferdsperspektivet og systemperspektivet som beskriver forskjellige aspekter av en kompetanseoverføringsprosess. Siden kompetanseoverføring er et komplekst tema var vi nødt til å bruke en kvalitativ metode for å få større innsikt. Vi gjennomførte 6 dybdeintervjuer i NCC med respondenter fra forskjellige ansvarsområder i bedriften. Gjennom metoden tilegnet vi oss kunnskap om hvordan systemene til NCC er i dag. Kompetanseoverførings arenaene til NCC er prosjektstudio, enkeltpersoners kunnskap, evalueringsskjemaet og andre nettbaserte arenaer. Vi valgte å fokusere på de tre førstnevnte metodene. NCC Construction, som vi tar for oss i oppgaven, har hovedfokus på bygg og anlegg, hvor anleggsprosjektene omhandler vei, jernbane, tunneler og industri. NCC Construction er et datterselskap av NCC AB, som er ett av Nord-Europas ledene selskaper innen bygg og eiendomsutvikling. Gjennom relevant teori knyttet til temaet og doktorgradsavhandlingen til Ekambaram (2008) har vi drøftet teori mot praksis. Under observasjonene ble det identifisert noen gode arenaer hvor kompetanseoverføringen fremmes, men også noen utfordringer bedriften står ovenfor. Prosjektstudio som brukes under prosjekteringen, er en arena hvor kompetanse fremmes og personlighetsforskjeller viskes bort. Denne stimulerer til god læring for bedriften. Vi har sett at bedriften sitter på mye intellektuell kapital og kan være utfordrende å føre videre. Ved diskusjon oftere i større grupper, med flere ledd inkludert vil kompetanseoverføring bli satt i fokus og kompetansen i bedriften kan øke. Videre fant vi ut at kompetanseoverføring i hovedsak ble overført muntlig, hvor de ansatte selv var ansvarlig for tilegnelse av kunnskap. NCC la til rette for at kompetanseoverføringen i oppstartsfasen av et prosjekt ble gjort gjennom møter og direkte spørsmål. Spørsmål var rettet til det relevante problemet prosjektdeltageren stod ovenfor. Evalueringsskjemaet kan bidra til en bedre forståelse av tidligere eksisterende kunnskap. Vi kom frem til at ledelsen burde legge større vekt på bruken av evalueringsskjema i starten av et prosjekt. Dette vil kunne øke hver enkelt prosjektdeltagers forståelse i startfasen. Til slutt, gjennom hovedkonklusjonen, svarte vi på problemstillingen ved hjelp av hovedmodellen. Her påpeker vi viktigheten av prosjektstudio og økt fokus på prosessene som allerede finnes. Dette kan bidra til større helhetlig forståelse av eksisterende kunnskap i bedriften, samt minske gjenoppfinnelsen av hjulet

Behind Close Doors: Governance Issues in Private Equity Driven Industries – The Close Corporation Paradox and its Impact on Private Equity in the US and Sweden

Publicly traded companies make up only a small fraction of the vast number of corporations operating in the US today. Only about 10,000 companies are traded publicly while there are roughly 20 million corporations doing business in the US. Likewise, over 245 private corporations’ annual revenues exceed $1 billion. Among these, more than twelve employ more than 50,000 employees. Despite the influence on vast amounts of people and capital legislature has, to a large degree, focused on publicly traded companies. The reasons for this stem, in large, back to the years of the market crash in the early thirties and has since given rise to a multitude of regulatory and legislative actions. The recent scandals giving rise to the Sarbanes Oxley Act and, most likely, new regulation pertaining to the recent credit crisis impacts the governance of companies across the globe. Different regulatory schemes have evolved to remedy situations arising in an ever more complex corporate market. In the US, a system of enabling legislation has arisen. The basic principle is that freedom of contract will create a more efficient market. Choosing in which state and how to incorporate will allow for decisions regarding form, taxes, liabilities and contractual rights. In Europe, regulation has instead focused in part on safeguarding rights be enacting regulations to limit certain actions and the restrictions imposed are based on which nation you start your enterprise in. The paradox of whether to enable efficient markets by creating freedom or safeguarding against venture capital vultures becomes strikingly apparent in the close corporation. This article aims to compare elements of the regulatory policies in the largest per capita private equity market in the world, the United States, and the third largest, Sweden. After I describe how approaches to corporate governance in the US might impact the private equity market (by imposing fiduciary duties and how those duties can be circumnavigated ex ante) I will describe the Swedish corporate regulatory environment. Special focus will be given to differences in capital requirements and how fiduciary duties play a role in maintaining shareholder rights. By describing the different approaches to regulating corporate governance a picture starts to emerge which shows that despite differences in governance techniques and risk allocation devices employed, an effective market seems to have emerged in both countries

Behind Close Doors: Governance Issues in Private Equity Driven Industries – The Close Corporation Paradox and its Impact on Private Equity in the US and Sweden

Publicly traded companies make up only a small fraction of the vast number of corporations operating in the US today. Only about 10,000 companies are traded publicly while there are roughly 20 million corporations doing business in the US. Likewise, over 245 private corporations’ annual revenues exceed $1 billion. Among these, more than twelve employ more than 50,000 employees. Despite the influence on vast amounts of people and capital legislature has, to a large degree, focused on publicly traded companies. The reasons for this stem, in large, back to the years of the market crash in the early thirties and has since given rise to a multitude of regulatory and legislative actions. The recent scandals giving rise to the Sarbanes Oxley Act and, most likely, new regulation pertaining to the recent credit crisis impacts the governance of companies across the globe. Different regulatory schemes have evolved to remedy situations arising in an ever more complex corporate market. In the US, a system of enabling legislation has arisen. The basic principle is that freedom of contract will create a more efficient market. Choosing in which state and how to incorporate will allow for decisions regarding form, taxes, liabilities and contractual rights. In Europe, regulation has instead focused in part on safeguarding rights be enacting regulations to limit certain actions and the restrictions imposed are based on which nation you start your enterprise in. The paradox of whether to enable efficient markets by creating freedom or safeguarding against venture capital vultures becomes strikingly apparent in the close corporation. This article aims to compare elements of the regulatory policies in the largest per capita private equity market in the world, the United States, and the third largest, Sweden. After I describe how approaches to corporate governance in the US might impact the private equity market (by imposing fiduciary duties and how those duties can be circumnavigated ex ante) I will describe the Swedish corporate regulatory environment. Special focus will be given to differences in capital requirements and how fiduciary duties play a role in maintaining shareholder rights. By describing the different approaches to regulating corporate governance a picture starts to emerge which shows that despite differences in governance techniques and risk allocation devices employed, an effective market seems to have emerged in both countries

Active and passive damping systems for vibration control of metal machining equipment

Passive damping is used to reduce vibrations of machining tools. The drawback with the passive damping system is that it is adjusted to damp out vibrations in one restricted frequency range. Active damping uses real time measurements to dampen the vibrations and is not tuned for one specific frequency range. Teeness AS wants to be able to investigate different ways of regulating an active damping system on a physical test bench and to investigate if an Arduino is suited for regulating the system. This paper presents the design development of the physical test bench, simulations of the designed test bench and an electrical setup with Arduino as the regulating controller. Actuators were evaluated and purchased. The test bench was designed to fit the actuators using Siemens NX as CAD program. The components of the test bench were produced by Teeness AS. Simulations of the designed test bench were conducted using FEDEM to investigate the dynamics of the system. Requirements for the Arduino were investigated and regulating scripts were coded, tested and evaluated. The simulated test bench was able to significantly reduce the vibrations investigated. However there were some behaviors of the simulated test bench that differ from the measurements made of the physical test bench. This was most likely a result of the modeling of actuators. The results from the simulations give an indication of the general behavior of the test bench, but the use of exact values should be avoided. To improve the validity of the simulations, further work with the simulation of the actuators should be conducted. Using an Arduino as a control mechanism seems promising, but further work needs to be done to reduce the noise of the sensor data and the regulating script presented in this paper should be improved

Representations of Practice- Distributed Sensemaking Using Boundary Objects

Aim/Purpose: This article examines how learning activities draw on resources in the work context to learn. Background The background is that if knowledge no longer is seen mainly as objects, but processes, how then to understand boundary objects? Our field study of learning activities reveals the use of pictures, documents and emotions for learning in the geographically distributed Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority Methodology: The study is a qualitative study consisting of interview data, observation data, and documents. Contribution: Contribute to practice based theorizing. Findings: Three ideal types of representing practices have been identified, i.e., ‘Visualizing’, ‘Documenting’ and ‘Testing’. All three are combined with storytelling, sensing, reflections and sensemaking, which point at the importance of processes in learning. The article also add insights about how emotions can be an important resource for boundary spanning – and sensemaking – by creating the capability of reflecting upon and integrating different knowledge areas in the in- practice context. Recommendations for Practitioners: Look for boundary objects within your field to promote online learning. Recommendation for Researchers: Study boundary objects in work context to understand learning. Impact on Society Role of objects in human learning. Future Research: Focus on how emotions can be used for online learning

Representations of Practice – Distributed Sensemaking Using Boundary Objects

publishedVersio

Creating a lean mind-set: Change of practice towards early treatment

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study on lean implementation viewed as an organisational learning process. By using a scaffolding framework, we investigate the ways in which human resource development facilitates learning among clinicians. This study contributes to the temporary role of human resource development in learning processes within multi-disciplinary professional groups. We identify scaffolding activities from which we have identified three human resource development practices: phase 1 – cognitive scaffolding, in which human resource development acts as a ‘mindsetter’ that aims to motivate the learning of lean in relation to the clinicians’ practices; phase 2 – peer-to-peer scaffolding through ‘doing’ lean, in which human resource development performs the role of an ‘experience creator’ who creates knowledge engagement between peers – in order to put lean into practice; and phase 3 – fading of the scaffolding, in which human resource development performs the role of a ‘delegator’ who transfers the responsibility to the clinicians to promote learning. This contributes to our understanding of how knowledge is negotiated in a multidisciplinary context. We contribute to the learning literature by emphasising how learning trajectories are initiated by learning initiatives, highlighting the role limitations of human resource development in this context, and demonstrating how a new learning tension arises between different versions of ‘lean’ in the organisation.Creating a lean mind-set: Change of practice towards early treatmentpublishedVersio

Doing or calculating lean? A sensemaking perspective on workplace learning

A lean approach in projects offers the opportunity to better connect people, processes, workflows, and delivery within projects. This is particularly important in contemporary project environments which is characterized by high levels of uncertainty, complexity, and pace of change. While knowledge from previous learning may exist, though it is often inaccessible or untapped and different levels of understanding about delivery approaches can prevail. We investigate how a lean approach in projects facilitates and can improve learning in project environments. Through thematic analysis of 40 semi-structured interviews, we found that applying a lean approach considers individual, project and organisational levels of knowledge and understanding, and triggers action underpinned by improved socio-behavourial interactions, leadership, and support. A lean approach enhances the quality of learning, better integrating timely actions and reducing the likelihood of lessons lost, to achieve effective project management.acceptedVersio