Flexible Firm : : The Design of Culture at Bang & Olufsen / / Jakob Krause-Jensen.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Krause-Jensen, Jakob,
• MitwirkendeR: Van Maanen, John,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2010]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (318 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; CONTENTS --; List of Figures and Illustrations --; Foreword --; 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 --; Conclusion --; Postscript --; Appendix --; References --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9781845458249; 9783110998283
• DOI: 10.1515/9781845458249
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Jakob Krause-Jensen.

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.