Editors

Harald Askeland, Gry Espedal, Beate Jelstad Løvaas and Stephen Sirris

Understanding Values Work

Institutional Perspectives in Organizations and Leadership

Editors

Harald Askeland

VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway

Gry Espedal

VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway

Beate Jelstad Løvaas

VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway

Stephen Sirris

VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway

ISBN 978-3-030-37747-2e-ISBN 978-3-030-37748-9

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37748-9

This book is an open access publication.

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Acknowledgements

The editors want to express our gratitude to those who gave their help in the process of writing and production of this volume. Professor Arild Wæraas, professor Annette Leis-Peters and Ph.D. fellow Bjørg Aambø Østby have all given invaluable comments to early drafts of the individual chapters. We are also thankful to Liz Barlow at Palgrave for believing in and accepting this book, along with generous support from our own institution, VID, by rector Ingunn Moser and vice-rector Bård Mæland to fund the open-access publication.

Contents

1 Understanding Values Work in Organisations and Leadership 1

Harald Askeland, Gry Espedal, Beate Jelstad Løvaas and Stephen Sirris

Part I Understanding Values, Values Work and Complex Institutional Contexts

2 Values—Reviewing the Construct and Drawing Implications for Values Work in Organisation and Leadership 15

Harald Askeland

3 What Is Values Work?​ A Review of Values Work in Organisations 35

Gry Espedal

4 Institutional Complexity Challenging Values and Identities in Scandinavian Welfare Organisations 57

Stephen Sirris

Part II Who Performs Values Work?

5 Institutional Leadership—The Historical Case Study of a Religious Organisation 81

Jose Bento da Silva

6 ‘Good Leaders Do the Dirty Work’:​ Implicit Leadership Theory at the Multicultural Workplace 97

Tone Lindheim

7 Foxes and Lions:​ How Institutional Leaders Keep Organisational Integrity and Introduce Change 117

Marta Struminska-Kutra and Harald Askeland

8 Institutional Leadership:​ Maintaining and Developing the ‘Good’ Organisation 139

Harald Askeland

9 Women’s Path to Leadership Through Values Work in a Context of Conflict and Violence 159

Ellen Vea Rosnes, Terese Bue Kessel and Jolly Namwesi Kanywenge

Part III How Is Values Work Performed?

10 Catching Values in Flight:​ A Process Perspective on Researching Values in Organisations 181

Gry Espedal

11 Values as Fixed and Fluid:​ Negotiating the Elasticity of Core Values 201

Stephen Sirris

12 Work on Values When Shaping Public Institutions:​ “What’s Trust Got to Do with It?​”—Experiences from Scandinavia 223

Benedicte Tveter Kivle

13 The Art of Making Sense of Volunteering 245

Johan von Essen

14 The Value of Group Reflection 265

Beate Jelstad Løvaas and Gry Bruland Vråle

Index 285

List of Figures

Fig. 6.1 Sources of implicit ideas of good and bad leadership108

 

Fig. 11.1 Elasticity in managerial values work218

 

Fig. 12.1 Norway: Number of articles on trust devided in published year and type of article231

 

Fig. 12.2 Sweden: Number of articles on trust devided in published year and type of article232

 

Fig. 12.3 Denmark: Number of articles on trust devided in published year and type of article232

 

Fig. 14.1 The process, mechanism and significance of group reflection277

 

List of Tables

Table 3.1 Empirical articles relevant to the literature review38

 

Table 4.1 Characteristics of ideal type sectors69

 

Table 6.1 List of interviewees102

 

Table 6.2 Descriptions of good and bad leadership104

 

Table 7.1 Institutional work around logic shifts126

 

Table 11.1 Hospital value discourse207

 

Table 11.2 Managerial values work214

 

Table 14.1 Outline of the group meetings270

 

Notes on Contributors

Harald Askeland

holds a Dr.Philos. and a Ph.D. degree in organisation and leadership theory, and is Professor at the VID Specialized University, Oslo. He is also academic head of the centre for values-based leadership and innovation at VID Specialized University. His main field of research is in the fields of reforms and institutional change, and the role and practice of managerial leadership. In particular, his academic interest is related to religious organisations and faith-based health organisations, concerning how they are lead, operate in and are effected by public policies and in collaborating with public agencies.

 

Jose Bento da Silva

holds a Ph.D. from Warwick Business School, together with an M.B.A. and a master’s in management from the Catholic University of Portugal. Jose also completed two degrees: Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering (University of Aveiro) and Philosophy (University of Porto).’ His research is centred on the historical development of organisations, with a special interest in how governance mechanisms and organisational social structures evolve historically. Jose’s research speaks to how nowadays multinational organisations structure their activities and manage their operations across nations.

 

Gry Espedal

is Associate Professor of the master’s program on values-based leadership at VID Specialized University. Espedal holds a Cand.theol. degree from Norwegian School of Theology and master of management degree from BI Norwegian Business School and has currently completing a Ph.D. thesis in institutionalising of values work in organisations. Espedal’s research falls within organisation theory, institutional work and institutional logic and has a special emphasis on micro-processes in organisations. The preferred method is qualitative.

Espedal has published articles and books within fields such as values-based leadership, authentic leadership, appreciative leadership, coaching and solution-focused approach, in addition to two biographies of female leaders in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

 

Beate Jelstad Løvaas

is Associate Professor at the VID Specialized University in Oslo at the master’s program on values-based leadership. She holds a Ph.D. degree in management. She has a master of science from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and a European master from University of Kiel, Germany. Her research interest includes leadership, motivation, meaningful work, supervision, relations, values and volunteering.

 

Jolly Namwesi Kanywenge

is a Junior Lecturer at the Université Officielle de Bukavu. Her research focuses on entrepreneurship and development, with a special attention given to women entrepreneurship in South Kivu. Kanywenge was a junior researcher at the time of data collection and the initial drafting of this chapter.

 

Terese Bue Kessel

holds a Ph.D. in Theology. Her research focuses on practical theology and international diakonia. Her thesis analysed a quest for diaconal empowerment and transformation in the women church movement, Femmes Pour Christ in Cameroon. She is an Associate Professor of Practical Theology and is the head of the program of theology at VID Specialized University, Stavanger.

 

Benedicte Tveter Kivle

holds a Ph.D. in Sociology. She is an Associate Professor at VID Specialized University, Oslo. Her research interests are in public values, trust, learning organisations and integration studies.

 

Tone Lindheim

holds master’s degrees in management, theology and intercultural religious studies. She is Assistant Professor and Ph.D. student at VID Specialized University. Her research focuses on cultural diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

 

Ellen Vea Rosnes

holds a Ph.D. in Literacy Studies. She is an Associate Professor of Intercultural Communication and Global Studies at VID Specialized University, Stavanger. Her research interests are mission education during the twentieth century in Madagascar and South Africa and intercultural competence in a Norwegian educational setting. She conducted the fieldwork and wrote the first draft of this chapter when she was a researcher at the Center for Intercultural Communication.

 

Stephen Sirris

is head of the master’s program on values-based leadership and serves as the director of the centre for values-based leadership and innovation at VID Specialized University in Oslo. He holds master’s degrees in theology, music and values-based leadership and is currently completing a Ph.D. thesis on how hybrid professional managers negotiate identities. His research interest includes civic organisations, professionalism and volunteering.

 

Marta Struminska-Kutra

holds a Ph.D. in sociology. She is an Associate Professor at VID Specialized University. Her research interest includes governance, public administration, social innovation and the methodology of critical and participatory research.

 

Johan von Essen

is Professor at the Centre for Civil Society Research at Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University College, Stockholm, Sweden, and affiliated with the Department of Theology at Uppsala University. His main field of empirical research is the perceived meaning of volunteering and the intersection of religion and volunteering. Besides empirical research, he has done philosophical work on the moral plurality in civil society.

 

Gry Bruland Vråle

is an Associate Professor at VID Specialized University in Oslo. She works at the centre for values-based leadership and innovation, for the master program of values-based leadership as well at advanced program in mental health care at VID. Her research interest centres on supervision and suicidal prevention.