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Browsing by Subject "manager"

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  • ”Aikuismaisen järkevää” : suojainten käyttöön liitetyt merkitykset rakennusalan kulttuurisena ilmiönä 
    Åberg, Jaana-Mari (2014)
    Goals. This master's thesis research was aiming at discovering from interaction between the employee and supervisor, the kind of information that will increase the use of protective equipment (PPE) and improve safety in the construction site. The study examined the meanings that the supervisors associate with PPE, as well as situations in which a manager should point out the employee to use protective equipment. Methods. This qualitative research belongs to socio-cultural communication research tradition. This speech communication study was carried out from the perspective of ethnography of communication. The study included five semi-structured interviews, 8 video recordings from construction sites, an online discussion, observation notes from 16 different construction work situations, as well as 10 journal articles, including photographs. The method of analysis was the cultural discourse analysis (CUDA). It was used to study how managers produce meanings related to the use of protective equipment in interaction. The concept of relational work was used to study the interaction between the supervisor and the employee from the supervisor's point of view. Results and conclusions. The study showed that employee's objections to the use of protective equipment carry a strong cultural message. The study also showed two different cultural ways of speech, "getting involved" and "taking notice". The main differences were with the meanings related to the use of protective equipment and the interaction with employees. "Getting involved": managers linked the PPE with a lot of different meanings, many of which were negative. For example, PPE prevented working or the use of PPE was considered unmanly. They perceived that reminding about the use of PPE was negatively marked, impolite and inappropriate. "Taking notice" managers related the PPE with professionalism and safety. They also perceived that reminding about the use of PPE was unmarked or positively marked, polite and appropriate. The results can be utilized in helping the interaction between the manager and the employee associated with the PPE.
  • Kriittinen diskurssianalyyttinen tutkimus osaamisen kehittämisestä asiantuntijaorganisaatiossa 
    Leppäharju, Saara (2011)
    This study is about competence development in an expertise organization. Also, gender as a cultural and discursive construction was examined. The foucauldian critical discourse analysis and the theory of critical management and organization studies formed the theoretical and methodological framework. As the research phenomenon was understood as discursively produced, power is defined through the idea of government and as a knowledge constituting concept. It was examined what kind of reality, discursive subject positions, and finally, what kind of gender is produced in the discourse covered in this study. The context of the study was an expertise company that provides comprehensive infrastructure services. Managing and leading experts were therefore one of the main themes of the study. The qualitative research data was collected in a research project which concentrated on the possibilities, barriers and preconditions of the competence and career development in three different organizations. The gender viewpoint was included in the research project. The data was collected with a semi-structured interview. In this study nine individual interviews from one of the organizations were used, of which three were managers' interviews and six were the interviews of employees . The data was analyzed with the critical discourse-analytical reading approach when the data was interpreted as the discourse of competence development. The findings identify the examined discourse as a governmental method of discipline which entwines to the business strategy of the company, producing reality about the importance of continuous competence development. It demands employees to define themselves as self-developmental and active subjects. The employees adopted the discourse by constructing themselves as experts who are willing to develop, but who at the same time are challenging hierarchical power relationships. Expertise enables position to challenge manager-subordinate relationships by constructing them as cooperational and equal. Manager-position was constructed as a legitimized developer imposed by the organization as well as a mentor who facilitates the self-direction of the employees. Generally gender was produced as a concept independent of sex. However, at the same time gender was constructed through the differences between the sexes, being either advantage or a barrier for an individual. As a conclusion, it can be interpreted that being a subordinate and a manager seems to be changing and situational in contemporary organizations. The study reveals the changing forms of control in organizations and the requirement of more subjective work.

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