Johan E. Ravn - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Johan E. Ravn

European journal of workplace innovation, Oct 30, 2023

Forskning & forandring, Oct 16, 2023

In this text we pay our respects, both professionally and personally, to Morten Levin who passed ... more In this text we pay our respects, both professionally and personally, to Morten Levin who passed away on April 9 th 2023 at 76 years of age. We who write this knew Morten from different periods, professional, and geographical distances. Our common ground is our mutual interest in action research and work life research and change, concerns that occupied Morten for decades. We know that Morten's life contained other dimensions, for others to narrate. We knew him as a leader, educator, professor, and friend in Trondheim attached to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, previously NTH), the SINTEF research foundation, Cornell University, and various national programs such as ACRES and EDWOR. Underlying our professional commonality with Morten are significant overlaps in political concern with democratic institutions generally and with securing and developing workplace democracy as a central feature in Norway and other countries, founded upon the Norwegian "Industrial

IJAR – International Journal of Action Research

This essay presents two case examples of the context and practices of industrial democracy: Norwe... more This essay presents two case examples of the context and practices of industrial democracy: Norwegian industrial democracy exemplified with the Aker case and the Mondragon Cooperative Experience (a term Mondragon often uses to describe its whole structure and history). The comparison illustrates the necessity of combining general systems theory, the distinction between political and socio-technical participation, and the role of ethos, worldview, and heedfulness in understanding how these enterprises operate and manage ongoing challenges. Our central motive is to promote the expansion of organizational democracy within the global industrial system as a superior and more humane alternative to global neoliberal capitalism. These are not simple comparisons because these systems have different histories, contexts, and dynamics. In making the comparison, we show that the constant process of balancing and rebalancing political and socio-technical participation is a key dynamic in keeping ...

IJAR – International Journal of Action Research, 2023

The aim of this project is to promote the expansion of organizational democracy within the globa... more The aim of this project is to promote the expansion of organizational democracy within
the global industrial system as a superior and more humane alternative to a neoliberal model, that rejects looking beyond short-term profit-maximization, no matter what the human or environmental costs are. We show that the constant process of balancing and rebalancing political and socio-technical participation is a key dynamic in keeping such industrial democratic systems updated and in the continual process of self-development necessary for viability in a changing and turbulent global environment. We show that enterprise ethos and worldview, far from being an add-on or a “soft” dimension, is the bedrock on which such systems rely, and that the so-called “rational choice” model of economics is neither rational nor adaptive.

Magma

Stilt overfor begrepet «partene i arbeidslivet» vil de fleste tenke på interessemotsetning og for... more Stilt overfor begrepet «partene i arbeidslivet» vil de fleste tenke på interessemotsetning og forhandling mer enn felleskap og samarbeid. Men partene i arbeidslivet er også skaperne av «den norske samarbeidsmodellen». Artikkelens tema er hvorvidt denne har noen fremtid.Innledningsvis pekes på modellens mest sentrale trekk. Myndighetene vedtar lover og legger forholdene til rette. Arbeidsgiverne eier produksjonsmidlene, og deres styringsrett anerkjennes av arbeidstakerne, som på sin side eier arbeidskraften, og deres organisasjonsrett aksepteres av arbeidsgiverne. Gjennom samvirke over tid har det vokst frem en høy grad av tillit og et omfattende samspill. Dette kalles samarbeidsmodellen, arbeidslivets praktiske samarbeidsferdigheter, som har bidratt til senket konfliktnivå og styrket konkurransekraft gjennom produktivitetsutvikling og innovasjonsaktivitet.Neste skritt er å posisjonere samarbeidsmodellen i forhold til andre arbeidslivsmodeller, og det pekes på forskjeller med hensyn ...

management revue. Socio-economic Studies, May 31, 2023

The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2014

IJAR – International Journal of Action Research

IJAR – International Journal of Action Research

This essay presents two case examples of the context and practices of industrial democracy: Norwe... more This essay presents two case examples of the context and practices of industrial democracy: Norwegian industrial democracy exemplified with the Aker case and the Mondragon Cooperative Experience (a term Mondragon often uses to describe its whole structure and history). The comparison illustrates the necessity of combining general systems theory, the distinction between political and socio-technical participation, and the role of ethos, worldview, and heedfulness in understanding how these enterprises operate and manage ongoing challenges. Our central motive is to promote the expansion of organizational democracy within the global industrial system as a superior and more humane alternative to global neoliberal capitalism. These are not simple comparisons because these systems have different histories, contexts, and dynamics. In making the comparison, we show that the constant process of balancing and rebalancing political and socio-technical participation is a key dynamic in keeping ...

Dette er sluttrapporten for kvalifiseringsprosjektet Verdikjede fagarbeider. Verdikjede fagarbeid... more Dette er sluttrapporten for kvalifiseringsprosjektet Verdikjede fagarbeider. Verdikjede fagarbeider er støttet økonomisk av Regionale forskningsfond Midt-Norge og aktiviteten i prosjektet pågikk i 2015. Prosjektgruppa har bestått av forskere fra SINTEF Teknologi og samfunn, ledere og tillitsvalgte fra Pipelife Norge AS, Teeness Sandvik, Siemens PEC, representanter fra Norsk e-læring, samt yrkesfaglærere ved Surnadal Videregående skole, Charlottenlund Videregående skole og Heimdal Videregående skole. Formålet med kvalifiseringsprosjektet har vært å skape grunnlag for innovasjon i utviklingen av fremtidens fagarbeider gjennom verdikjede fagarbeider. Med verdikjede fagarbeider mener vi kjeden rådgivning - yrkesfag – lærlingeansvarlig - bedrift – og modningsårere etterpå. Delmålene i prosjektet har vært; a) å fremskaffe oversikt over eksisterende forsøk i Norge og eventuelt andre europeiske land for å bygge kunnskapsbase, b) å få en god forståelse for mekanismene i hele verdikjede fagar...

Sociotechnical systems (STS) research has not received much attention in the last decade, at leas... more Sociotechnical systems (STS) research has not received much attention in the last decade, at least not in terms of its original foundation in a production system context. The main challenge in modern sociotechnical thinking is that STS has neglected its roots in technology and nowadays focuses more at a general social perspective on work. The “S”-view overshadows the “T”-view, and the fruitful link between the technical system and the social system is thereby lost. In this sense, STS is dead. Now, due to recent and future developments in technology, strong awareness is called for in regard to a common interplay between the social and the technical system. Increasingly, competitiveness in high-tech manufacturing industries depends on a complex interaction between state-of-the-art technologies such as automation and information systems, and organisational or social factors such as knowledge, learning, communication and innovation. However, up to now, efforts at improvement and develop...

AI & SOCIETY

The organizational theory literature is reasonably unanimous that team autonomy is a key factor f... more The organizational theory literature is reasonably unanimous that team autonomy is a key factor for employee well-being and motivation as well as organizational performance. However, team autonomy is challenged when its processes and outputs need to be aligned with actors and factors external to a team. There are likely challenges and conflicts between team autonomy and the need for coherence in the wider system. Team autonomy has a range of implications and is challenged by a number of factors, such as knowledge complexity and decision-making, learning, large-scale problems, product and technical interdependencies, the use of platforms, virtual collaboration and diversity. Alignment with the external is particularly necessary in multi-team environments with many technical interdependencies, where a single team's failure to deliver a sufficient level of quality may lead to system-wide consequences. Therefore, teams in complex environments increasingly need to regulate and manage their work in cooperation with internal and external partners and systems. Such dependencies challenge team autonomy. In this special issue of AI&S, we want to address these topics in more detail, particularly in the context of software-intensive organizations and digital transformations. The scope and, thus, the consequences of a team's work can be far-reaching when the team's effort and output take place partially or completely in fully digitized contexts and processes. The articles in this special issue show various ways of dealing with the challenge of balancing autonomy and alignment with the external. A key focus is to show the buffering function: how teams, with the help of processes, technology, new organizational forms and time and space are able to find the buffer needed for maintaining team autonomy.

<jats:p>*</jats:p>

Hard Work in New Jobs

In international research projects, partners and data often both come from diverse research backg... more In international research projects, partners and data often both come from diverse research backgrounds and adhere to different theoretical perspectives and research paradigms. Researchers have to collaborate as effectively as possible in what is often a temporary research consortium whose composition is based on varying expertise, previous collaboration and occasional fortuitous encounters. Investigating work and its quality in a European context therefore presents a range of interesting methodological, conceptual and organisational or practical challenges that face both the levels of analysis of comparison and the research process as a whole. Are we addressing and comparing individuals and their jobs, sectors and companies, or countries? Or are we aiming to paint a complex picture that explores the interrelationships between all of these analytical levels? And in exploring this complex picture, how do we render our findings useful and relevant for policymakers, social partners, managers and activists? In navigating a research project through these questions, we encounter a number of opportunities and constraints, and also trade-offs between different aims and logics of research. These points are worth reconstructing, to gain some insight into the possibilities and insights and the specific contexts of project-oriented research into the working life of Europeans.

number 011-0226 STS IS DEAD – LIVE STS! EMPHASISING THE NEED FOR A MODERN SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEM A... more number 011-0226 STS IS DEAD – LIVE STS! EMPHASISING THE NEED FOR A MODERN SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEM APPROACH ON HIGH-TECH PRODUCTION SYSTEMS Torbjörn H. Netland, Gaute Knutstad, Johan E. Ravn, Lars Skjelstad and Marte P. Buvik SINTEF Technology and society Department of Industrial management 1 Operations management group Work research group S.P. Andersens veg 5, N-7465 Trondheim, Norway Corresponding author: torbjorn.netland@sintef.no POMS 20th Annual Conference Orlando, Florida U.S.A. May 1 to May 4, 2009 Paper type: Conceptual paper

number 011-0226 STS IS DEAD – LIVE STS! EMPHASISING THE NEED FOR A MODERN SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEM A... more number 011-0226 STS IS DEAD – LIVE STS! EMPHASISING THE NEED FOR A MODERN SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEM APPROACH ON HIGH-TECH PRODUCTION SYSTEMS Torbjörn H. Netland, Gaute Knutstad, Johan E. Ravn, Lars Skjelstad and Marte P. Buvik SINTEF Technology and society Department of Industrial management 1 Operations management group Work research group S.P. Andersens veg 5, N-7465 Trondheim, Norway Corresponding author: torbjorn.netland@sintef.no POMS 20th Annual Conference Orlando, Florida U.S.A. May 1 to May 4, 2009 Paper type: Conceptual paper

European journal of workplace innovation, Oct 30, 2023

Forskning & forandring, Oct 16, 2023

In this text we pay our respects, both professionally and personally, to Morten Levin who passed ... more In this text we pay our respects, both professionally and personally, to Morten Levin who passed away on April 9 th 2023 at 76 years of age. We who write this knew Morten from different periods, professional, and geographical distances. Our common ground is our mutual interest in action research and work life research and change, concerns that occupied Morten for decades. We know that Morten's life contained other dimensions, for others to narrate. We knew him as a leader, educator, professor, and friend in Trondheim attached to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, previously NTH), the SINTEF research foundation, Cornell University, and various national programs such as ACRES and EDWOR. Underlying our professional commonality with Morten are significant overlaps in political concern with democratic institutions generally and with securing and developing workplace democracy as a central feature in Norway and other countries, founded upon the Norwegian "Industrial

IJAR – International Journal of Action Research

This essay presents two case examples of the context and practices of industrial democracy: Norwe... more This essay presents two case examples of the context and practices of industrial democracy: Norwegian industrial democracy exemplified with the Aker case and the Mondragon Cooperative Experience (a term Mondragon often uses to describe its whole structure and history). The comparison illustrates the necessity of combining general systems theory, the distinction between political and socio-technical participation, and the role of ethos, worldview, and heedfulness in understanding how these enterprises operate and manage ongoing challenges. Our central motive is to promote the expansion of organizational democracy within the global industrial system as a superior and more humane alternative to global neoliberal capitalism. These are not simple comparisons because these systems have different histories, contexts, and dynamics. In making the comparison, we show that the constant process of balancing and rebalancing political and socio-technical participation is a key dynamic in keeping ...

IJAR – International Journal of Action Research, 2023

The aim of this project is to promote the expansion of organizational democracy within the globa... more The aim of this project is to promote the expansion of organizational democracy within
the global industrial system as a superior and more humane alternative to a neoliberal model, that rejects looking beyond short-term profit-maximization, no matter what the human or environmental costs are. We show that the constant process of balancing and rebalancing political and socio-technical participation is a key dynamic in keeping such industrial democratic systems updated and in the continual process of self-development necessary for viability in a changing and turbulent global environment. We show that enterprise ethos and worldview, far from being an add-on or a “soft” dimension, is the bedrock on which such systems rely, and that the so-called “rational choice” model of economics is neither rational nor adaptive.

Magma

Stilt overfor begrepet «partene i arbeidslivet» vil de fleste tenke på interessemotsetning og for... more Stilt overfor begrepet «partene i arbeidslivet» vil de fleste tenke på interessemotsetning og forhandling mer enn felleskap og samarbeid. Men partene i arbeidslivet er også skaperne av «den norske samarbeidsmodellen». Artikkelens tema er hvorvidt denne har noen fremtid.Innledningsvis pekes på modellens mest sentrale trekk. Myndighetene vedtar lover og legger forholdene til rette. Arbeidsgiverne eier produksjonsmidlene, og deres styringsrett anerkjennes av arbeidstakerne, som på sin side eier arbeidskraften, og deres organisasjonsrett aksepteres av arbeidsgiverne. Gjennom samvirke over tid har det vokst frem en høy grad av tillit og et omfattende samspill. Dette kalles samarbeidsmodellen, arbeidslivets praktiske samarbeidsferdigheter, som har bidratt til senket konfliktnivå og styrket konkurransekraft gjennom produktivitetsutvikling og innovasjonsaktivitet.Neste skritt er å posisjonere samarbeidsmodellen i forhold til andre arbeidslivsmodeller, og det pekes på forskjeller med hensyn ...

management revue. Socio-economic Studies, May 31, 2023

The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2014

IJAR – International Journal of Action Research

IJAR – International Journal of Action Research

This essay presents two case examples of the context and practices of industrial democracy: Norwe... more This essay presents two case examples of the context and practices of industrial democracy: Norwegian industrial democracy exemplified with the Aker case and the Mondragon Cooperative Experience (a term Mondragon often uses to describe its whole structure and history). The comparison illustrates the necessity of combining general systems theory, the distinction between political and socio-technical participation, and the role of ethos, worldview, and heedfulness in understanding how these enterprises operate and manage ongoing challenges. Our central motive is to promote the expansion of organizational democracy within the global industrial system as a superior and more humane alternative to global neoliberal capitalism. These are not simple comparisons because these systems have different histories, contexts, and dynamics. In making the comparison, we show that the constant process of balancing and rebalancing political and socio-technical participation is a key dynamic in keeping ...

Dette er sluttrapporten for kvalifiseringsprosjektet Verdikjede fagarbeider. Verdikjede fagarbeid... more Dette er sluttrapporten for kvalifiseringsprosjektet Verdikjede fagarbeider. Verdikjede fagarbeider er støttet økonomisk av Regionale forskningsfond Midt-Norge og aktiviteten i prosjektet pågikk i 2015. Prosjektgruppa har bestått av forskere fra SINTEF Teknologi og samfunn, ledere og tillitsvalgte fra Pipelife Norge AS, Teeness Sandvik, Siemens PEC, representanter fra Norsk e-læring, samt yrkesfaglærere ved Surnadal Videregående skole, Charlottenlund Videregående skole og Heimdal Videregående skole. Formålet med kvalifiseringsprosjektet har vært å skape grunnlag for innovasjon i utviklingen av fremtidens fagarbeider gjennom verdikjede fagarbeider. Med verdikjede fagarbeider mener vi kjeden rådgivning - yrkesfag – lærlingeansvarlig - bedrift – og modningsårere etterpå. Delmålene i prosjektet har vært; a) å fremskaffe oversikt over eksisterende forsøk i Norge og eventuelt andre europeiske land for å bygge kunnskapsbase, b) å få en god forståelse for mekanismene i hele verdikjede fagar...

Sociotechnical systems (STS) research has not received much attention in the last decade, at leas... more Sociotechnical systems (STS) research has not received much attention in the last decade, at least not in terms of its original foundation in a production system context. The main challenge in modern sociotechnical thinking is that STS has neglected its roots in technology and nowadays focuses more at a general social perspective on work. The “S”-view overshadows the “T”-view, and the fruitful link between the technical system and the social system is thereby lost. In this sense, STS is dead. Now, due to recent and future developments in technology, strong awareness is called for in regard to a common interplay between the social and the technical system. Increasingly, competitiveness in high-tech manufacturing industries depends on a complex interaction between state-of-the-art technologies such as automation and information systems, and organisational or social factors such as knowledge, learning, communication and innovation. However, up to now, efforts at improvement and develop...

AI & SOCIETY

The organizational theory literature is reasonably unanimous that team autonomy is a key factor f... more The organizational theory literature is reasonably unanimous that team autonomy is a key factor for employee well-being and motivation as well as organizational performance. However, team autonomy is challenged when its processes and outputs need to be aligned with actors and factors external to a team. There are likely challenges and conflicts between team autonomy and the need for coherence in the wider system. Team autonomy has a range of implications and is challenged by a number of factors, such as knowledge complexity and decision-making, learning, large-scale problems, product and technical interdependencies, the use of platforms, virtual collaboration and diversity. Alignment with the external is particularly necessary in multi-team environments with many technical interdependencies, where a single team's failure to deliver a sufficient level of quality may lead to system-wide consequences. Therefore, teams in complex environments increasingly need to regulate and manage their work in cooperation with internal and external partners and systems. Such dependencies challenge team autonomy. In this special issue of AI&S, we want to address these topics in more detail, particularly in the context of software-intensive organizations and digital transformations. The scope and, thus, the consequences of a team's work can be far-reaching when the team's effort and output take place partially or completely in fully digitized contexts and processes. The articles in this special issue show various ways of dealing with the challenge of balancing autonomy and alignment with the external. A key focus is to show the buffering function: how teams, with the help of processes, technology, new organizational forms and time and space are able to find the buffer needed for maintaining team autonomy.

<jats:p>*</jats:p>

Hard Work in New Jobs

In international research projects, partners and data often both come from diverse research backg... more In international research projects, partners and data often both come from diverse research backgrounds and adhere to different theoretical perspectives and research paradigms. Researchers have to collaborate as effectively as possible in what is often a temporary research consortium whose composition is based on varying expertise, previous collaboration and occasional fortuitous encounters. Investigating work and its quality in a European context therefore presents a range of interesting methodological, conceptual and organisational or practical challenges that face both the levels of analysis of comparison and the research process as a whole. Are we addressing and comparing individuals and their jobs, sectors and companies, or countries? Or are we aiming to paint a complex picture that explores the interrelationships between all of these analytical levels? And in exploring this complex picture, how do we render our findings useful and relevant for policymakers, social partners, managers and activists? In navigating a research project through these questions, we encounter a number of opportunities and constraints, and also trade-offs between different aims and logics of research. These points are worth reconstructing, to gain some insight into the possibilities and insights and the specific contexts of project-oriented research into the working life of Europeans.

number 011-0226 STS IS DEAD – LIVE STS! EMPHASISING THE NEED FOR A MODERN SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEM A... more number 011-0226 STS IS DEAD – LIVE STS! EMPHASISING THE NEED FOR A MODERN SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEM APPROACH ON HIGH-TECH PRODUCTION SYSTEMS Torbjörn H. Netland, Gaute Knutstad, Johan E. Ravn, Lars Skjelstad and Marte P. Buvik SINTEF Technology and society Department of Industrial management 1 Operations management group Work research group S.P. Andersens veg 5, N-7465 Trondheim, Norway Corresponding author: torbjorn.netland@sintef.no POMS 20th Annual Conference Orlando, Florida U.S.A. May 1 to May 4, 2009 Paper type: Conceptual paper

number 011-0226 STS IS DEAD – LIVE STS! EMPHASISING THE NEED FOR A MODERN SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEM A... more number 011-0226 STS IS DEAD – LIVE STS! EMPHASISING THE NEED FOR A MODERN SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEM APPROACH ON HIGH-TECH PRODUCTION SYSTEMS Torbjörn H. Netland, Gaute Knutstad, Johan E. Ravn, Lars Skjelstad and Marte P. Buvik SINTEF Technology and society Department of Industrial management 1 Operations management group Work research group S.P. Andersens veg 5, N-7465 Trondheim, Norway Corresponding author: torbjorn.netland@sintef.no POMS 20th Annual Conference Orlando, Florida U.S.A. May 1 to May 4, 2009 Paper type: Conceptual paper