PhD defence: Christian Dyrlund Wåhlin-Jacobsen

In recent years, a growing number of workplaces have implemented activities where employees are invited to voice problems and suggest initiatives directly to their managers in a group setting. While it has been claimed that such activities have a number of positive effects for the organizations which host them and for their employees, others have argued that the activities often do not provide employees with a reasonable opportunity to influence their working conditions. The dissertation addresses this ambivalence by exploring how participants in workplace voice activities construct change initiatives to improve the employees’ working conditions in practice. Through a social interaction perspective based mainly on conversation analysis, the dissertation (1) demonstrates how suggestions for initiatives are negotiated in interaction, rather than simply transmitted from employees to the management; (2) develops our understanding of the moral-related interactional threats that the participants face and which might compromise the process of constructing change initiatives; and (3) offers a multi-faceted perspective on power and influence which more adequately captures how employees’ and managers interests are negotiated within the activities than current models which primarily focus on formal decision-making rights.

Primary Supervisor:
Associate Professor Magnus Larsson
Department of Organization
Copenhagen Business School

Secondary Supervisors:
Assistant Professor Mette Mogensen
Department of Organization
Copenhagen Business School

Professor Andreas Holtermann
National Research Centre for the Working Environment

Assessment Committee:
Associate Professor Elizabeth Naima Mikkelsen (chair)
Department of Organization
Copenhagen Business School

Professor Jan Svennevig
Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies
University of Oslo

Professor Peter Hasle
Department of Materials and Production
Aalborg University

Thesis:
The thesis will be available here

Reception:
The Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies will host a reception, which will take place immediately after the defence in the kitchen on the 4th floor of Kilen.