Flexible Firm

The Design of Culture at Bang & Olufsen
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84545-668-9
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, 318 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 649 g

Bang & Olufsen, the famous Danish producer of high-end home electronics, is well known as an early exponent of value-based management: the idea that there should be consistency in what the organisation does, a certain continuity between what the company develops and sells, and the beliefs and practices of the employees. This study investigates how company values are communicated and the collective identity is articulated through the use of such concepts as ‘culture’, ‘fundamental values’, and ‘corporate religion’, as well as how employees negotiate these ideas in their daily working lives. As this book reveals, the identification of values, meant to create cohesion and solidarity among employees, came to symbolise and engender a split between the staff and the other parts of the company. By examining the rise and fall of the value-based management approach, this volume offers the indispensible insight of anthropological enquiry to expose how social realities challenge conventional management strategies and therefore must be considered in the development of new management techniques.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Krause-Jensen, Jakob

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Unternehmenskultur, Corporate Governance
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Physische Anthropologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword

by John Van Maanen

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Starting Fieldwork on ‘the Farm’

Chapter 2. ‘Reflexibility’—the Methodology of Fieldwork Among Lay Ethnographers

Chapter 3. The Power of Culture

Chapter 4. Farm, Factory, Firm - the Culture of Design and the Design of Culture

Chapter 5. Breakpoint: Metaphors of Change

Chapter 6. From ’Corporate Identity Components’ to ’Fundamental Values’

Chapter 7. ’Brand Religion’- and Voices of Heresy

Chapter 8. Working With Human Resources

Chapter 9. How To Do Things With Words

Chapter 10. The Social Significance of Flexibility

Chapter 11. Conclusion

Postscript: 5 years later - Bang & Olufsen revisited

Appendix

References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Krause-Jensen, Jakob
Jakob Krause-Jensen is an anthropologist and Associate Professor at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University. His research focuses on the way ethnographic methods and anthropological theory can be used to understand organizations and the life within them in critical and creative ways.