Från organisationsteori till MTO-analys? : -en fallstudie om fyra chefers arbetssituation

Sammanfattning: The background to this report is the author’s ambition to understand individuals’ work situation, how it’s formed in interaction between the individual and factors in the work-setting. Such an ambition is well in line with the concept of Human-Technology-Organization (HTO), a cross-scientific approach that puts a system-oriented perspective on how human, technolog-ical and organizational factors interact within work systems. The aim of this report was to explore managers’ work-situation and generate an understanding of it from an HTO-perspective by using an organizational model as a framework for an interview guide and to analyze the work situation from an HTO-perspective following the ques-tions at issue: 1. How does the managers experience their work situation? 2. How can an HTO-perspective contribute to the understanding and potential of im-provement of the work situation? The organizational model used in the report is Porras & Robertson’s (1992) "Factors constituting the organizational work setting". The model summarizes and describes the organiza-tional, social, physical and technological factors that up until 1992 had been identified by contemporary research within the "Organizational Development" field as important for organizational change. Four managers’ work situation was studied at the company Södra Cell Mörrum. The report’s methodological approach is of an explorative qualitative nature and has been conducted by the design of an interview guide based on the organizational model described above and semi structured interviews to explore the managers’ work situation. The results give a detailed description of how the managers experience their work situation och how it is affected by the interaction of the factors human-technlogy-organization. In analysis, it’s illustrated how: - the organization’s strategies and structure in interaction with the work flow and tech-nology contributes to the managers’ exposure of stress in their work-situation. - the organizational structure interacts with the individual and vice versa, how the managers’ fuzzy work-description contributes to how they themselves in interaction with other parts of the organization define it and creates informal organizational structure an interaction processes. - the use of technology is affected by its design, by how the organization reinforces its use and by individual characteristics. It has been shown how technology affects the organization’s strategical effort and disposition. - organizational factors such as goals and reward systems interacts with and affect behaviors at the workplace. The analysis also shows how informal aspects of the organization, such as it’s history and culture affects behaviors. The conclusions of the report are: -that an HTO-perspective is a suitable approach to create a broad understanding of the factors which interaction affects work systems. Such an understanding constitutes a good starting point for development and improvement of work systems. - that the result encourages further use and development of the methodological approach of using Porras & Robertsons’ model as a framework for an understanding of the individuals’ work situation.