Developing a Tool for Cross-Functional Collaboration: the Trajectory of an Annual Clock
This empirical study examines how practitioners from the organizational functions of human<br />resources, occupational safety and occupational health services within a Finnish industrial<br />organization view the challenges that production supervisors face in their daily work. The arti...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Outlines Association
2014-04-01
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| Series: | Outlines |
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| Online Access: | http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/outlines/article/view/16830 |
| _version_ | 1828082051381723136 |
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| author | Riikka Ruotsala |
| author_facet | Riikka Ruotsala |
| author_sort | Riikka Ruotsala |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This empirical study examines how practitioners from the organizational functions of human<br />resources, occupational safety and occupational health services within a Finnish industrial<br />organization view the challenges that production supervisors face in their daily work. The article<br />presents a formative intervention, which focuses on supervisors’ changing work and how these<br />organizational support functions could collaboratively serve supervisors better, especially in their<br />task of promoting well-being at work. The article approaches this collective learning effort from<br />the framework of the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), by examining how crossfunctional<br />collaboration evolves and the transitions through which it develops in an intervention<br />process. The development of collaboration is analysed through a process of collective concept and<br />tool formation by following a cross-meeting trajectory of specific annual clock episodes. An<br />annual clock, a co-ordinating tool used in organizations to assist the yearly planning and<br />management of specific operations, emerged in the intervention as the practitioners’ attempt to<br />synchronize overlapping and inconsistent well-being related practices assigned to supervisors.<br />The article presents a framework that can be applied in this kind of combined empirical analysis<br />of tool development and the evolving collaboration. The analysis shows how the idea of the annual<br />clock grew through multifaceted conceptualizations, in which it first had the status of a conceptual<br />object, then a collaborative tool, and eventually a script for becoming a novel cross-functional<br />practice. Simultaneously, the mode of interaction expanded from a function-based co-ordination to<br />task-oriented co-operation, and finally to communication. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:44:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e430384855d64f88b9cb79debd88305a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1399-5510 1904-0210 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:44:48Z |
| publishDate | 2014-04-01 |
| publisher | The Outlines Association |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Outlines |
| spelling | doaj.art-e430384855d64f88b9cb79debd88305a2023-01-02T03:01:09ZengThe Outlines AssociationOutlines1399-55101904-02102014-04-01152315315399Developing a Tool for Cross-Functional Collaboration: the Trajectory of an Annual ClockRiikka RuotsalaThis empirical study examines how practitioners from the organizational functions of human<br />resources, occupational safety and occupational health services within a Finnish industrial<br />organization view the challenges that production supervisors face in their daily work. The article<br />presents a formative intervention, which focuses on supervisors’ changing work and how these<br />organizational support functions could collaboratively serve supervisors better, especially in their<br />task of promoting well-being at work. The article approaches this collective learning effort from<br />the framework of the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), by examining how crossfunctional<br />collaboration evolves and the transitions through which it develops in an intervention<br />process. The development of collaboration is analysed through a process of collective concept and<br />tool formation by following a cross-meeting trajectory of specific annual clock episodes. An<br />annual clock, a co-ordinating tool used in organizations to assist the yearly planning and<br />management of specific operations, emerged in the intervention as the practitioners’ attempt to<br />synchronize overlapping and inconsistent well-being related practices assigned to supervisors.<br />The article presents a framework that can be applied in this kind of combined empirical analysis<br />of tool development and the evolving collaboration. The analysis shows how the idea of the annual<br />clock grew through multifaceted conceptualizations, in which it first had the status of a conceptual<br />object, then a collaborative tool, and eventually a script for becoming a novel cross-functional<br />practice. Simultaneously, the mode of interaction expanded from a function-based co-ordination to<br />task-oriented co-operation, and finally to communication.http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/outlines/article/view/16830well-being at work, supervisor, concept formation, intervention, script, activity theory |
| spellingShingle | Riikka Ruotsala Developing a Tool for Cross-Functional Collaboration: the Trajectory of an Annual Clock Outlines well-being at work, supervisor, concept formation, intervention, script, activity theory |
| title | Developing a Tool for Cross-Functional Collaboration: the Trajectory of an Annual Clock |
| title_full | Developing a Tool for Cross-Functional Collaboration: the Trajectory of an Annual Clock |
| title_fullStr | Developing a Tool for Cross-Functional Collaboration: the Trajectory of an Annual Clock |
| title_full_unstemmed | Developing a Tool for Cross-Functional Collaboration: the Trajectory of an Annual Clock |
| title_short | Developing a Tool for Cross-Functional Collaboration: the Trajectory of an Annual Clock |
| title_sort | developing a tool for cross functional collaboration the trajectory of an annual clock |
| topic | well-being at work, supervisor, concept formation, intervention, script, activity theory |
| url | http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/outlines/article/view/16830 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT riikkaruotsala developingatoolforcrossfunctionalcollaborationthetrajectoryofanannualclock |