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Denna rapport återger resultaten av en delstudie inom DAO-projektet; ett forsknings­projekt finansierat av Vinnova som syftar till att stärka innovationsförmågan hos företag inom SIP Metalliska Material genom att öka deras möjligheter att dra nytta av digi­tali­seringens potential.

Studien är genomförd på en svensk enhet i ett globalt företag som fokuserar på högkvalitativa produkter och som delvis har påbörjat digitaliseringsresan. Åtta viktiga aspekter att beakta när man arbetar med införandet av ny teknik i denna organisation har identifierats – fyra av dem är relaterade till organisering/ledning, det vill säga de aspekter som rör hur verksamheten styrs. De andra fyra är relaterade till medarbetarskap, det vill säga de aspekter som har att göra med hur medarbetare relaterar till sitt arbete, sin organisation, sina kollegor och sina chefer.

När det gäller organisering/ledning är delaktighet kanske den viktigaste aspekten att ta hänsyn till och utmaningen blir hur man kan organisera för delaktighet. Att ha med-arbetare som ”jobbar på” (med ett individuellt perspektiv) bäddar för individuellt ansvarstagande som kan vara positivt vid teknikutveckling, men utmaningen är att utveckla kollektivt ansvarstagande, något som är relaterat till produktionsledarens centrala roll och som behöver omarbetas. Slutligen är företagets roll i samhället en viktig aspekt ur ett organiserings-/ledningsperspektiv då företaget är centralt på orten, men detta innebär också ett dilemma.

När det gäller medarbetarskapet, finns det en möjlighet att bygga vidare på den befintlilga, starka yrkesstoltheten, men ett behov att förändra dess innehåll. Relationen till orten innebär lojala medarbetare, men ett förändringsmotstånd kan också anas medan relationen till tekniken innebär bra förutsättningar för att ta till sig ny teknik. Den sista aspekten som identifierats när det gäller medarbetarskapet är att det lärande och den utveckling som sker i vardagen behöver stödjas och organiseras på ett bättre sätt.

The purpose of this paper is to theorize how different sociomaterial entanglements affect work practices. Based on a qualitative case study, we compare and contrast three empirical Factory-cases; the Non-digital-and-non-lean factory; the Somewhat-digital-and-lean factory; and the More-thoroughly-digital-factory. When comparing these three cases, we are able to show that the different sociomaterial entanglements enact different spheres of concern. The contribution of the paper lies in its’ unveiling of how the spheres of concern differ in terms of temporal orientation and localization, and depending on the entanglement of technologies and production management models. 

This paper explores the social practice through which a social innovation – a new organizing for inter-organizational collaboration – emerged through the work of two public sector strategists in a Swedish municipality. The social practice in this empirical case were constituted by five recurrent practices: planning, navigating, interacting, documenting and pacing. The pacing-practice may be understood as an practice superior to the others, used to coordinate and adapt to the rhythm of the other practices. Hence, pacing was central for driving the project forward and contributed to various activities being carried out not only in the "right" order and in the "right" time, but also in the “right” place. This practice is rather similar to other practices of public sector work, which implies that social innovation work is about common “muddling through”-type of public policy work. The paper thus de-mystifies the work of social innovation; something that may be seen as important in a time where social innovation is said to be the answer to challenges related to globalization, sustainability, demography, and when current forms of organizing, eg NPM, do not seem to work.

Arbetet som ligger till grund för den här rapporten har gjorts inom Samverkansprojektet vilket är ett forskningsprojekt som initierats som en del av Samhällskontraktet (SK) och dess delprocess Hållbar samhällsutveckling (HSU). Både SK och HSU är organisatoriska samverkansytor för Västerås stad, Eskilstuna kommun, Region Västmanland, Landstinget Sörmland och Mälardalens högskola.

Samverkansprojektet har pågått i tre år, mellan 2015 och 2017, i det gränsland som etablerats mellan akademin, våra offentliga samarbetsparter och invånarna, vilket förklarar titeln på rapporten. Vårt konkreta mål med forskningsprojektet har varit att ”utveckla modeller/begrepp som gör det lättare för våra intressenter att förstå de organisatoriska problem de står inför vad gäller att lösa samhällsproblemen de ansvarar för”.

För att nå målet har flera mindre studier men också andra aktiviteter genomförts. Våra resultat har successivt växt fram och de har också spritts, och fortsätter spridas, på kon­ferenser, seminarier och olika typer av möten likväl som i både akademiska och populära skrifter.

Våra resultat och erfarenheter presenteras även i denna rapports åtta bidrag, där vi med hjälp av skiftande perspektiv, modeller och begrepp resonerar kring hur samverkan bättre kan förstås och förbättras. Varje kapitel avslutas med rubriken ”Läs mer” där den som vill fördjupa sig i det som tagits upp ges tips om vidare läsning. Rapporten sätter punkt för forskningsprojektet genom att formulera lättillgängliga texter som bygger på olika delar av vårt forskande och samverkande arbete.

Formen har vi valt för att bidra till ett gemensamt reflekterande hos dig och dem som du vill prata om samverkan med. Istället för färdiga svar, som man ofta hittar som resultat eller slutsatser i mer traditionella rapporter, vill vi att rapporten ska fungera som ett stöd till ett gemensamt utforskande och konstruktionen av gemensamma svar. Att undra tillsammans över problem med hjälp av det vi tar upp i den här rapporten, innebär en jämställd process där var och en bidrar med sitt perspektiv. Rapporten kan på detta sätt ses som ett verktyg för dig som arbetar med samverkan, kanske främst i offentlig sektor.

What is a system and how can it be studied? In this essay a Learning Management System used in a university distance course is analyzed and described as a system. The different system levels are explained, the components are explored and the fundamental building stones of the system are finally found and defined to be the messages sent by the students in the discussion forum. The met­hod applied is based on Langefors’ Systems Analysis Approach and its pros and cons are dis­cussed in the end of the essay. The conclusions indicate that Langefors’ theories still are ade­qu­ate and useful in this context.

The question of whether Activity Theory can serve as an adequate theoretical framework for research within web-based distance education is analyzed and discussed in this paper. I describe my reflections regarding a comparison with a few different IS approaches, dealt with in the PhD course Fundamental IS Issues. After applying the AT approach on a distance course as a whole and also on a special case, a web-based discussion, I have found Activity Theory to be useful as a holistic and descriptive tool. My conclusions are that Activity Theory provides a language to describe and analyze key features of my research project regarding knowledge construction and interaction in web-based distance education. I have also found Activity Theory to facilitate my aim to find and develop new perspectives according to my research focus.

The Internet offers a variety of ways to acquire knowledge. Universities all over the world have embraced the Internet's potential for web-based learning. This development requires new competences for students and teachers. Web-based distance education is flexible and independent of time and place and therefore increases the accessibility for students who may be located outside the university. Distance students have also the possibility to choose the time best suited for their studies. Today's distance education usually includes a web-based learning management system with a discussion forum as a tool for communication and interaction. This study focuses on the discussion forum as a tool for learning in web-based distance education and is based on a group of students with no previous experience in academic studies. The thesis describes, analyzes and explains how students participated in the discussion forum during a university course which lasted for 20 weeks. In addition, the study highlights important aspects that affect students' learning outcomes. Earlier research related to the thesis is presented by Lionarakis’ model for the various disciplines involved in distance education research field. The empirical data is gathered by studying how the students acted and participated in the discussion forum, and by analyzing the content of their postings in the forum.The results of the empirical study show that students' participation varied over time and that they were most active at the beginning of the course. During the course the content of the postings changed. The postings that were not directly related to the task decreased in number, while the task-related postings were constant. The study also shows that the students who completed the course with a maximum number of credits were the most active in starting discussions and that their participation in the discussion forum were consistently high throughout the course. Analysis and interpretation of the study’s results show that the students’ attitude towards learning affects how they participate in a discussion forum, and thus to what extent the discussion forum will contribute to students learning. Moreover, not only the importance of a consistently high participation has a positive impact on learning and study results, but also the content of the students’ postings. Finally, the study emphasizes the teacher's essential role as a guide and a facilitator of students’ web-based learning.

Organizational collaboration is perceived as a positive phenomenon in the public sector and is often seen as a way of facing societal challenges despite limited resources. This positive view on organizational collaboration seems to persist, although research shows that collaborative projects bring various difficulties. These are related to boundaries, both between organizations and professions. How boundaries are understood and managed are thus central aspects of organizing for collaboration. This thesis describes and discusses the preparation – the organizing – for collaboration and the purpose of the thesis is to explore and deepen an understanding of the practice developed in organizing for collaboration.

A municipality’s work to improve internal collaboration and prepare for external collaboration has been studied. The work was led by two project managers in collaboration with various members of the municipality. A practice-oriented approach has been applied, which involves a focus on the activities carried out during the organizing work. The empirical material was created through participatory observations of the project managers’ work.

The project managers’ practice developed into five activity patterns called planning, navigating, interacting, documenting and, what in Swedish was called, “takta”. The term “takta” was used to denote activities related to adaptation and synchronization to the municipality’s activities; to pace the activities.

The analysis shows that the activity pattern of pacing was a superior activity pattern that managed and organized the other four patterns. The concept pacing contributes to the understanding of how activities create rhythms in an organization and how these are adapted to the overall pace. People responsible for pacing must be aware of the rhythms of other activities that affect the pacing. Pacing is a complex concept that can be described in several dimensions: temporal, social, boundary-crossing, emotional, holistic, and in a situated dimension. These dimensions contribute to the understanding of how pacing is done, what it means when pacing and also facilitate an analysis when pacing fails.

The conclusion of the thesis is that an awareness of pacing activities in organizing across boundaries increases the opportunities to implement activities in the “right” order, time and place. Thus, the multidimensional concept of pacing may be used as a planning-tool when organizing across boundaries and as an analytical instrument when the organizing becomes unsynchronized with other activities. A practice-oriented perspective enables the exploration of the activity patterns created in organizing for collaboration and increases the understanding of how organizing across boundaries is done.

The purpose with this paper is to understand how the creation of a new purposeful organising within the public sector developed by exploring the nature of the learning practice that was deployed in an empirical case. Five patterns of actions were found in the empirical material that served different purposes in relation to the rhythm of the learning practice. The patterns of actions are in this paper called navigating, planning, communicatinganddocumenting.These four were recurring and synchronized in time through a fifth, overarching pattern of actions called pacing. The paper contributes to the understanding of learning in organising by expanding our knowledge of how patterns of actions are synchronized temporally in a learning practice.

Previous research shows that organisational collaboration requires coordinating work across formal and informal organizational boundaries. Previous research has also shown how such boundary-spanning across organizations come about through boundary spanners, boundary objects and boundary activities. This means that the spatial dimensions of boundary-spanning have been in focus, rather than the temporal dimensions. As time and space are connected, only focusing on the spatial dimensions provides a limited understanding of boundary management in organizational collaboration. The purpose with this paper is to develop the understanding of the spatiotemporal dimensions of boundary-spanning. We argue that attention needs to be given to the linking of individuals and artefacts, by focusing on the rhythmof activities. This we call takta. We explore the concept of takta in an empirical case, by analysing how boundary spanners, boundary objects and boundary activities were linked to each other in a rhythm involving pace, order and tempo, through takta. 

Companies need of qualified and educated staff has stressed the importance of life long learning. Distance education can be one method to meet these demands. Distance education offers flexibility for students to choose time and place for their studies and the possibility to combine work and family life with university studies. The purpose of this study is to investigate a learning environment represented by a Learning Centre and a Learning Management System (LMS). The need of communication and social interaction in four different distance courses offered by Mälardalen University are explored. Both students and tutors appreciated an introduction meeting face-to-face and the students felt that support and feedback from the tutors were important. The four courses used different LMS:s and students as well as tutors were satisfied with the functionalities regardless of what kind of LMS they used. The Learning Centre was appreciated and utilized by half of the student group. Some of the workgroups felt it was easier to meet face-to-face than to use the LMS for interaction. The conclusion is that social interaction between students as well as students and tutors is important for the students´ learning processes. A LMS, while appreciating the importance of social interaction, can fulfil the demands of communication, collaboration, support and feedback from both students and tutors. Therefore a LMS can be seen as a learning environment on its own and a Learning Centre as a complementary part of the learning environment for students who appreciate face-to-face meetings.

The study is an attempt to describe and discuss knowledge construction on distance and the usage of a web based Learning Management System. The students in the study had no previous experience of academic studies and their attitudes towards their own learning process showed lack of confidence in their capability to contribute to knowledge construction in a student group. In spite of this, the study points towards the possibility for students to support each other in knowledge construction on distance. The study furthermore indicates the necessity of the teacher’s intervention in the discussion and that a Learning Management System can be a relevant tool for developing learning and constructing knowledge on distance.

The study focuses on a group of distance students and their attitudes towards knowledge construction in distance education. Their usage of a web based Learning Management System (LMS) is studied and the relation between the students’ activity on a discussion forum and their learning outcomes is described and discussed. The study was carried out by interviewing a group of distance students and their teachers and also by studying the students’ behaviour on a LMS. The students’ attitudes towards their own learning process showed lack of confidence in their capability of contributing to knowledge construction in a student group. The concluding part of this paper indicates that the students’ attitudes towards knowledge construction and learning processes affected the way they behaved on the discussion forum. The study also shows that the students’ activity on a discussion forum is related to their learning outcome.