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 LEARNING
FACTORIES
PALGRAVE STUDIES
IN DEMOCRACY,
INNOVATION, AND
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
FOR GROWTH
The Nordic Model
of Manufacturing
Halvor Holtskog,
Elias G. Carayannis,
Aris Kaloudis,
Geir Ringen
Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation,
and Entrepreneurship for Growth

Series Editor
Elias G. Carayannis
The George Washington University
Washington, District of Columbia, USA
The central theme of this series is to explore why some areas grow and others
stagnate, and to measure the effects and implications in a trans-disciplinary context
that takes both historical evolution and geographical location into account. In other
words, when, how and why does the nature and dynamics of a political regime
inform and shape the drivers of growth and especially innovation and entrepreneurship?
In this socio-economic and socio-­technical context, how could we best achieve
growth, financially and environmentally?
This series aims to address such issues as:

• How does technological advance occur, and what are the strategic processes
and institutions involved?
• How are new businesses created? To what extent is intellectual property
protected?
• Which cultural characteristics serve to promote or impede innovation? In
what ways is wealth distributed or concentrated?

These are among the key questions framing policy and strategic decision-making
at firm, industry, national, and regional levels.
A primary feature of the series is to consider the dynamics of innovation and
entrepreneurship in the context of globalization, with particular respect to emerging
markets, such as China, India, Russia, and Latin America. (For example, what are
the implications of China’s rapid transition from providing low-­cost manufacturing
and services to becoming an innovation powerhouse? How do the perspectives of
history and geography explain this phenomenon?)
Contributions from researchers in a wide variety of fields will connect and relate
the relationships and inter-dependencies among (1) Innovation, (2) Political
Regime, and (3) Economic and Social Development. We will consider whether
innovation is demonstrated differently across sectors (e.g., health, education,
technology) and disciplines (e.g., social sciences, physical sciences), with an emphasis
on discovering emerging patterns, factors, triggers, catalysts, and accelerators to
innovation, and their impact on future research, practice, and policy.
This series will delve into what are the sustainable and sufficient growth
mechanisms for the foreseeable future for developed, knowledge-based economies
and societies (such as the EU and the US) in the context of multiple, concurrent
and inter-connected “tipping-point” effects with short (MENA) as well as long
(China, India) term effects from a geo-­strategic, geo-economic, geo-­political and
geo-technological set of perspectives.
This conceptualization lies at the heart of the series, and offers to explore the
correlation between democracy, innovation and growth.

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14635
Halvor Holtskog • Elias G. Carayannis
Aris Kaloudis • Geir Ringen

Learning Factories
The Nordic Model of Manufacturing
Halvor Holtskog Elias G. Carayannis
Department of Manufacturing School of Business
and Civil Engineering George Washington University
Norwegian University of Science Washington, District of Columbia, USA
and Technology
Gjøvik, Norway Geir Ringen
Department of Manufacturing
Aris Kaloudis and Civil Engineering
Department of Industrial Economics Norwegian University of Science
and Technology Management and Technology
Norwegian University of Science Gjøvik, Norway
and Technology
Gjøvik, Norway

Palgrave Studies in Democracy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship for Growth

ISBN 978-3-319-41886-5    ISBN 978-3-319-41887-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41887-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017953060

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.

Cover Illustration: © Nina Matthews / Alamy Stock

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Contents

1 Introductory Chapter  1

2 The Financial Crisis  23

3 Development of Suspension Parts Project 37

4 Organizational Culture: The Differentiated Perspective 61

5 Culture: Internal Business Contradictions 83

6 Facilitative Management103

7 Policy Implications of the Reindustrialization

of Advanced Economies135

8 Conclusion149

References157

Index167

v
 List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 The guiding argumentation 8

Fig. 2.1 Economic barometer 24
Fig. 2.2 Number of employees and R&D Human Resource Index 28
Fig. 2.3 Changes in customer, product, and R&D project base at firm level 29
Fig. 2.4 Changes in number of R&D and internal customer/supplier
linkages32
Fig. 3.1 Knowledge sharing 40
Fig. 3.2 Team decision-making 41
Fig. 3.3 Quality system formal processes 42
Fig. 3.4 Continuous improvement of quality system 43
Fig. 3.5 Example checklist (borrowed from company C4) 45
Fig. 3.6 Checklist completeness ratio 46
Fig. 3.7 Idealized learning arena C1 56
Fig. 4.1 Project involvement 70
Fig. 5.1 Illustration of the FEM analysis in an imagined piece
(http://www.javelin-tech.com/main/images/screenshots/
simulation_designer1_lg.jpg, accessed 4 May 2011) 86
Fig. 5.2 Customer communication 89
Fig. 5.3 A simplified model of the social network in the Swedish
car manufacturer project 89
Fig. 5.4 Formal education 98
Fig. 5.5 Work experience in automotive industry 99
Fig. 6.1 Setup-time history (Ringen, 2010, p. 196) 130
Fig. 7.1 Factories of the Future roadmap framework (EFFRA, 2013b) 138

vii
 List of Tables

Table 2.1 Description of companies (C) and research institutions (R)

included in this study 27
Table 2.2 New patents since 2008 30
Table 3.1 Example of FMEA tracking 50
Table 6.1 OECD unit labor costs 107

ix
 CHAPTER 1

Introductory Chapter

Abstract This chapter aims to provide deeper insight into how a m ­ odern
and sophisticated management of employees plays an important and—in
our view—key role for the successful reindustrialization of the Western
world. There are important lessons to learn from high-cost countries that
successfully compete in the global marketplace. In such contexts, the re-
combination of tacit knowledge, people, competences and culture to cre-
ate effective and efficient automated production is indeed essential.

Introduction
In both the USA and Europe, there are currently huge efforts to reindus-
trialize economies after decades of neglecting industry as the most impor-
tant economic factor for society. Such a phenomenon is the starting point
of this investigation. Specifically, Japanese ways of production have often
been studied and—to some degree—copied by American and European
firms whereby ‘Lean’ has become the de facto standard for effective and
efficient production. Recently, however, new initiatives have emerged.
Industry 4.0 is one of these, and it has a strong technological focus. It
involves censors which gather data from every step of the automated pro-
duction process, identifying each nut and bolt is prerequisite, as is the
usage of big data. However, little attention is given to people and the
knowledge-creation process.

© The Author(s) 2018 1

H. Holtskog et al., Learning Factories, Palgrave Studies in
Democracy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship for Growth,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41887-2_1
2 1 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

This book aims to provide deeper insight into how the people-aspect
plays an important and—in our view—key role for the successful reindus-
trialization of the Western world. It argues that there are important learn-
ing points from high cost countries that successfully compete in the global
marketplace. In such contexts, the re-combination of tacit knowledge,
people, and culture to create effective and efficient automated production
is indeed essential and visible.
The Norwegian labor market and work organization are similar to
those of Denmark and Sweden, its Nordic neighbors. This socio-economic
organization is often labeled ‘the Nordic model,’ the result of four key
institutionalized societal mechanisms:

• Centrally led wage negotiations between trade unions and employer

federations
• Safety nets of health insurance, welfare benefits, and pensions to all
citizens
• Labor market flexibility, that is, a high degree of job mobility and
career experimentation combined with a high degree of job safety
• Democratic decision processes and high employee participation in
organizing work tasks at all levels

This book claims that the above-mentioned mechanisms produce a spe-

cific style of collaboration and learning at work which significantly differs
from work organization styles observed more generally in the European
Union (EU), UK, USA, Japan, or elsewhere. We empirically examine the
strengths, tensions, and challenges that the work organization style meets
in the automotive industry—probably the most globalized industry in the
world.
The automotive industry provides precisely the type of business envi-
ronment that allows studies of how work organization practices—partly
shaped by strictly defined legislation and centrally negotiated rules—adjust
to global economic forces and mechanisms. Yet, precisely what types of
tensions and redefinitions of work practices and styles do we observe when
learning in a Norwegian automotive company that meets the global
marketplace?
Moreover, there is another—equally important—rationale for writing
this book. In many developed countries, the question of reindustrializing
the economy is becoming extremely important. Societal and economic
spillovers from manufacturing industries are now better understood, and
there is the increasing awareness of the fact that competitive, modern
 INTRODUCTION 3

economies require strong manufacturing sectors as the precondition for

globally competitive services. Thus, this book enlightens such a discussion
by examining how aspects of the Nordic model create competitive advan-
tages in high-cost countries such as Norway. We argue on the evidence
provided in this book that a democratic, flexible, and adaptive organiza-
tional form of learning is an important contributing factor to the creation
of competitive advantage.
As we live in a world that is steadily becoming more globalized and
interactive, the business environment has evolved to become more globally
orientated and competitive. Such changes have led to more rapid techno-
logical development as well as changes in the societies where the companies
operate. Therefore, capabilities that companies rely on must be designed in
a way that can keep up with this rapid transformation in a globalized world
(Levinthal, 2009). These capabilities include organizational knowledge, or
what the organization knows and can use in its operations, in order to be
successful (Dosi, Nelson, & Winter, 2009) and form competitive advan-
tage: ‘The importance of knowledge as a key source of competitive advan-
tages is now well established in management studies’ (Nonaka & Nishiguchi,
2001, p. 3). This strategy tradition focuses on management and how new
management ideas, processes, and organizational design can become stra-
tegic resources (Argyres, Felin, Foss, & Zenger, 2012). In addition, Argyres
et al. (2012) demonstrate that management possesses the most valuable
knowledge, supporting the top-down approach to its spreading. Garicano
and Wu (2012) agree on this when they conclude that task orientation
informs how knowledge is acquired. Specifically, task orientation concen-
trates on what each employee should and must learn in order to do a good
job; the management of tasks is therefore essential along with building a
knowledge hierarchy.
In many ways, Norwegian work–life research contrasts this strategic
view of organizational management. Here, the roots of the tradition are
firmly placed in human relations, where democratic and broad direct par-
ticipation of all organizational levels dominate thinking (Gustavsen, Finne,
& Oscarsson, 2001; Johnsen, 2001; Klev & Levin, 2009; Røvik, 1998).
This tradition argues that autonomy in teams will bring innovation ideas
from the employees from the bottom-up, termed ‘employee-driven inno-
vation’ (EDI) (Pedersen, 2012). Central to EDI is that ‘learning can
produce innovation’ and there is a ‘complex interplay of processes that
include factors at the individual level as well as organizational culture’
(Pedersen, 2012, p. 4). Its motivation is captured in the following state-
ment by Kesting and Ulhøi (2010, p. x): ‘Employees typically acquire
4 1 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

exclusive and in-depth and highly context-dependent knowledge that man-

agers often do not possess.’ Essentially, these authors posit that EDI-thinking
occurs within two organizational roles: management and employees.
And, although they highlight the need for close collaboration between
the roles, the dichotomy remains. Further, high technological develop-
ment creates exclusive and in-depth context-dependent knowledge
(ibid.). However, employees working daily in the context, with the tech-
nology-like automated machines and so on, hold no such knowledge.
This book holds on to the Norwegian work–life tradition and impor-
tance of EDI, but it has a different viewpoint. In matrix organizations, the
organizational roles are more diffused. A person can be both a leader and an
employee in the same company, or one can have many bosses. In this under-
standing, the dichotomy makes little sense. Rather than holding on to the
roles of employee–management, this book begins differently. Organizing
product development projects, according to the matrix principle, is com-
mon (Cooper & Edgett, 2005; Morgan & Liker, 2006; Nishiguchi, 1996;
Ottoson, 2010). Aligning to this principle, this book considers how indus-
tries create knowledge. Learning and innovation in such advanced organiza-
tional structures require some special foundations to be effective and
efficient. Learning requires a special kind of leadership in the sense of leader
roles and the ability to facilitate the learning process among organizational
members. Further, organizational culture plays an important role in learn-
ing, and the structure and tools are the final dimensions. This multi-dimen-
sional framework creates better understanding, increasing insight into how
technologically and organizationally advanced companies learn and create
knowledge in effective and efficient ways. This is, of course, based on high
employee involvement using the context-­dependent knowledge.
From a system perspective, this book is also important. Supplier compa-
nies are subsystems of various OEMs,1 and these companies too are com-
posed of multiple subsystems. Therefore, the challenge of management is
to manage complex relations between subsystems within subsystems with-
out having the company fall apart, adding yet another complication to the
organizational learning model.

Assumptions and Theoretical Framework

This way of thinking is inspired by Cartesian doubt—thoughts form the
epistemological foundation for the individual’s knowledge. However,
Cartesius posed that there is always some skepticism present and doubt
therefore becomes an effort to defeat such knowledge bases. Specifically,
 ASSUMPTIONS AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 5

three distinct levels of doubt exist: perceptual illusion, the dream problem,
and the deceiving God (‘Descartes: God and Human Nature,’ 2013).
‘Perceptual illusion’ means that our senses can play with us. Magicians are
experts in illusion and the audience becomes astonished when impossible
things happen on stage. In everyday life, our senses play a vital role in how
we perceive things, but many times what we perceive turns out to be
something else, such as often the case for first impressions. ‘The dream
problem’ refers to the boundary between a dream-state and consciousness
that can be difficult to separate. Psychology has proven that the human
brain fills in blank spots and creates patterns. These pattern recognitions
are well developed (Lehrer, 2012). However, this does not mean that the
patterns, or the creative process, produce something close to what many
regard as reality. ‘A deceiving God’ in Cartesian philosophy invites us to
doubt our traditional beliefs. In his case, it was religion. Systematic doubt
challenges existing knowledge and makes us rethink initial thoughts. In
this way, new aspects are discovered. With a system perspective, or subsys-
tems within subsystems, such doubt drives the investigation by assuming
the conclusions are wrong which therefore creates the motivation to test
them. In social science, systematic doubt is pursued in triangulation
because it is void of laboratory control that allows us to refine the range.
Therefore, the alternative is to look at something from various angles and
hope to discover something about it.
Flick pointed out that qualitative research often focuses on multi-­
methods (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994; Flick, 1998, p. 229). The metaphor
triangulation comes from military usage and naval navigation where mul-
tiple reference points were used to pinpoint, through geometry, the exact
position of an object (Smith & Kleine, 1986). Thus, ‘[t]he combination of
multiple methodological practices, empirical materials, perspectives, and
observers in a single study is best understood, then, as a strategy that adds
rigor, breadth, complexity, richness, and depth to any inquiry’ (Flick, 1998,
p. 231). One common misconception is that triangulation is used in social
science to check and validate studies. Indeed, achieving consistency across
data sources or methods can be useful, although Patton (2002) argued
that inconsistencies reveal opportunities to uncover deeper meaning in the
data. The same argument can be found in Miles and Huberman’s book,
Qualitative Data Analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994, pp. 266–267).
Another support for the argument of uncovering deeper meaning in
the data is offered by Yeasmin and Rahman (2012). These authors point
out that triangulation tends to support interdisciplinary research, where
theories from different disciplines help deepen our understandings,
6 1 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

arguing for triangulation as something natural to humans and a common

way of thinking. Alternatively, ‘[t]here may be a correspondence between
life as lived, life as experienced, and life as told, but the anthropologist
should never assume the correspondence, or fail to make the distinction’
(Bruner & Plattner, 1984, p. 7). Not only should anthropologists never
assume or fail to make such distinctions, all social scientists should keep
this in mind.
Additionally, social research may use the mix method (Tashakkori &
Teddlie, 2010). Here, one core project investigates a problem by analyz-
ing different data using one strategy, supplementing this with another
strategy that provides access to other data, but still explains the same phe-
nomenon. The first and supplemental strategy will go into the same pub-
lication (Morse, 2010, p. 340). It is different from multi-method or
multi-dimensional analysis, where each supplementary strategy can be
published on its own with the overall picture often published in synthe-
sized articles.
This book uses multi-dimensional analysis and method, relating to its
epistemological and ontological foundations. What we everyday call real-
ity is in fact our own versions or perceptions of things that happen around
us. With a business world becoming more globalized and interactive, the
system perspective of subsystems within subsystems indicates the com-
plexities of reality. Dealing with such complexity, no single perspective can
truly describe it. Or, in other words, triangulation is necessary because of
the multiple causal chains that compose human life.
A combination of the basic triangulation types is argued as ideal
(Denzin, 1970, 2009). Here, multi-dimensional analysis combines differ-
ent types and data sources are triangulated relating to the three variables
of space, time, and person. When personal data sources are used, the col-
lective and interactive levels are focused upon. For this book, there were
several researchers involved in the two companies, and many reflection
seminars and meetings were held. However, there are no specific records
of who reflected on what and who contributed with which insight.
Methodological triangulation is conducted through interviews (formal
and informal), observation, participation, surveys, and company docu-
ments. As for theory, three are used as framing perspectives, organiza-
tional learning (Argyris & Schön, 1996), organizational culture (Martin,
1992), and facilitative management (Hirschhorn, 1997). Using these dif-
ferent perspectives to describe product development projects in matrix
organizations minimizes the suppression of contradictory explanations
 THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 7

and brings deeper insight into the complex process of creating knowledge
and learning in an industrial setting. Precisely, it is like looking into a kalei-
doscope and finding new pictures of changing facets and colors.
Therefore, the argument is a combination of political economy, social
organization, and cultural systems (classification, worldviews, ideologies,
and myth) together make a framework for the analysis of a human system.
However, the multi-method perspective here is limited to organizational
behavior and technology management. Therefore, this book investigates
organizational behaviors with multi-causalities within multi-dimensional
nested systems, guiding the theoretical positions.

Theoretical Foundation
Manufacturing industries have created many reforms for maintaining and
developing their efficiency and effectiveness. Both quality and Lean2 sys-
tems have lots of initiatives and tools for formalizing the work method
used at different levels in the organization. Further, they also have initia-
tives and tools for tapping into the tacit knowledge of the workers, moti-
vating continuous improvement. Ideally, workers should continually come
up with ways of improving work to develop best practice by formalizing
how a task is done, for example, with one-point lessons. These are distrib-
uted throughout the company when changed. In this way, the company’s
operations become more efficient and effective throughout the years.
Concurrently, these reforms also implement overall operational systems
such as just-in-time, statistical process control, and so on. Such systems
demand specific structures and prescribe distinct methods to gain overall
results. Klein (1989, 1991) places these arguments together in two arti-
cles, where the loss of autonomy regarding performance and method are
central points. These losses are scaled toward individuals and teams.
However, the companies also loose autonomy of decisions. For instance,
just-in-time set the production pace for all of the subcontractors delivering
parts. This means that scales of autonomy, performance, and method can
be used to describe development in a bigger picture. In this book, Fig. 1.1
guides the argumentation:
The four quadrats represent different ways of conducting work or doing
business. Ideally, a company can decide its own performance, for instance,
how many products it produces and of what quality, and which production
method. However, in reality the company serves a market, and it is the mar-
ket that decides the volume and/or level of quality alongside its competitors.
8 1 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

Fig. 1.1 The guiding

argumentation

Autonomous Autonomous
performance, performance
rigid method and method

Rigid
Rigid method
performance,
and
autonomous
performance
method

These factors—market and competitors—influence the production method.

The method is seldom something that company can autonomously decide.
Mirroring these choices is the conduct of internal operations. Ideally,
production teams should be autonomous in their performance and
method, but due to automation, tight coordination with other teams on
the production line, and so on, performance tends to be more rigid.
Additionally, the previous autonomous methods may suffer due to more
automation, standards, and production reforms.

Data Usage
Data were gathered from two case studies including formal documents,
in-depth interviews, participation, observations, and surveys. Different
approaches to the case studies have been followed. Case 1 (C6) is the main
study where the research team tried to facilitate different changes and fol-
lowed a specific development project in detail over a period of two years.
Meanwhile, Case 2 (C3) is the secondary case where another researcher
initiated some of the change processes. These change efforts have been
primarily in the quality department and were therefore not included in this
book. In C3, data were gathered by talking to various people and looking
at some internal data from systems, serving as the validation tool and
 DATA USAGE 9

c­ orrection point for C6 in an effort to supplement and deepen reflection.

In total, each researcher3 had over 200 interactions with people in the two
companies, with the frequency of at least three to four days a week; three
researchers working with C6 and two with C3. In total, we spoke to 32
different people at C6 and over 51 at C3. These people represent every
position in C6, as well as the most important ones for research and devel-
opment at C3. Adding to the interactions with the case companies, one
member of the research team held several managerial positions at C6, and
another was deeply involved in establishing the managerial system at C6.
When the financial crisis struck, the researchers became involved in writing
applications for the funding of development projects in both companies.
The work yielded valuable insight into the economic side of these, provid-
ing us with information that we could not have elsewhere gotten. Holding
the position of chair, consultant, and local resident made it easier to initi-
ate reflection processes in the case companies, putting us in the unique
position to facilitate—or manage—some sort of reflection ‘orchestration’
(Göranzon, Hammarén, & Ennals, 2004).

A Short Description of the Data

Survey #1 is a survey that was targeted toward the Norwegian automotive
industry’s development departments. It had 123 respondents in 19 differ-
ent companies, with seven of them located in Raufoss.4 The general idea
behind the survey was to acquire insight into how development depart-
ments work in this globally advanced industry. It consisted of 81 questions
which were grouped according to competence, decisions and teams,
­planning and control, formal processes, motivation and leadership, infor-
mation flow, continuous learning, understanding the customer, entrepre-
neurship, external resources, and set-based concurrent engineering. Each
question required an answer on a Likert scale from 1 to 5.
The formal written documents are written on the different systems in the
case companies. The research group had full access to every system at C6, as
well as the most interesting ones at C3.5 Data from these systems were pri-
marily from the quality and management system, for example, the different
versions of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) were formed together
over the lifetime of the followed development project.
The operative research team, which consisted of three people, was given
access to follow the development of a new suspension part for a North
European car manufacturer (the main case). We began our work some
10 1 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

time before the contract was achieved, and followed it to the planning of
the industrialization phase. Sitting in many of the project meetings, both
internally and externally, the quality expert in the team was also used as
regular help in the project.
The observation of change actions6 was taken out of the participation to
demonstrate that we tried to change in our effort via action research. We
attempted to simplify the FMEA process and form, which C6 thought was
a very good idea and took charge of with the quality expert as a consultant.
We further tried to make the project’s progress and problem-­solving more
visual. Toyota has something called the Obeya room (big room) where
everything important to a project is put up for every participant to see. We
tried this at C6, but there were no rooms to do this so we settled for a mov-
able whiteboard, and brought it to every meeting. The idea was that we
should start updating the whiteboard and gradually leave the responsibility
to the company. However, in practice, this did not fully work, as we were
the only ones updating the board. And, upon discussing its value several
times with no update actions, the idea was abandoned.7 Another idea was
the A3 form, or focus sheet as we called it (Shook, 2008; Sobek & Smalley,
2008). This followed the same idea of visualizing the problems, thus mak-
ing it easier to contribute to the problem-solving process. Based on data
from specific parts of the development project, the research team produced
several A3 forms demonstrating the technique. In some ways, it was
adapted, such as when the project manager made some forms to show his
colleagues about a specific problem, although the majority did not use
them. The observation of change actions became much more focused on
when the financial crisis struck and the organizational changes started.
Volunteerism or ‘dugnad’ was partially prominent. The new leadership
wanted to withdraw C6 from the research project, but then the developers
stepped in and told management about the value of the research team. An
agreement was reached about further participation in the project of devel-
opment of parts to the North European car manufacturer.
In-depth interviews were conducted for two purposes: (a) to familiarize
with the employees in their professional work and workplace, and (b) to
attain insight into specific problems. When asked, everyone took time off
to speak with us, and these conversations could sometimes last for much
longer than planned due to long technological explanations. There were
also some people who travelled a lot and were seldom in the office and
getting them to talk required more creative approaches. For example,
there is a travel office that coordinates travel at the Raufoss Industrial
 VALIDITY 11

Park, and one of its services is car rental to-and-from the airport which
takes approximately 1.5 hours. We were able to coordinate our travel in
the same rental car.
Participation represents taking an active part in discussions and
­meetings, as well as widening the research team’s knowledge. In-depth
interviews were also used to check and clarify our understandings of the
technological details. When the financial crisis struck the case compa-
nies, a new opportunity emerged for writing public-funding applications
of R&D projects. Writing these meant that, as a research team, we had
even more time to talk with the experts, obtaining more insight into
what they believed were cutting-edge technologies and why. This con-
tributed to facilitating a deeper understanding of the companies, espe-
cially regarding the inner—or more hidden—logic of the engineering
culture and its tools.
A network survey was conducted of explaining the rules element from
which we produced a networking survey. We collected collaboration data
by asking the project members who they talked with and how often. In
addition, we mapped which external people arose in this exercise, as well
as their colleagues and specialties. What is presented in this book is a sim-
plification of these data. Nevertheless, during this phase many contacts
between the North European car manufacturer as the customer and C6
occurred. The project leader and the sales and marketing manager at C6
verified the chart. The findings were presented to the sales and marketing
manager, and the development manager at C3. C3, though, had a slightly
different system with onsite engineers8 who stay in constant direct contact
with the customer, but once a project is under way, the contact patterns
were very similar to that of C6.
Investigations were first characterized by getting to know the various
systems, standards, and formal documentation at C6. Lots of formal docu-
ments were read, and a pattern gradually emerged that did not correspond
with the formal systems. All the formal documents, notes, in-depth inter-
views, and forms were gradually built in a database using NVivo9 which
served as a repository for coded data used for analysis and reflections.

Validity
Guba and Lincoln (1989) frame validity as a matter of both credibility and
authenticity, defining credibility as ‘the idea … of isomorphism between con-
structed realities of respondents and the reconstructions attributed to them’
12 1 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

(pp. 236–237). The verification of such an isomorphism can be conducted

through several techniques (pp. 237–250) which will now be looked upon
in light of the research project.

Prolonged Engagement This is substantial involvement in the field or case.

The research team stayed close to the companies involved in this project
over a period of four years, and some of the members had previous experi-
ence with them in other projects. Therefore, it is natural to argue that
there are minimal effects of misinformation, distortion, or fronts. We tried
to facilitate our immersion in and understanding of the context’s culture.
However, due to the financial crisis our engagement took a different turn
than initially planned. It started with a change of CEO at the main case
company (C6), an Austrian, who wanted to withdraw C6 from the research
project. He argued that people in the organization needed to concentrate
on their actual work. However, the R&D department strongly argued that
they wanted to stay because it was valuable to them in terms of gaining
deeper insight into quality and management systems, as well as improve-
ments in development processes. C6 remained in the research project
where the focus was on a specific development of a suspension part for the
North European car manufacturer. Soon, other tasks engaged the research
team, such as applying for more public funding.

Persistent Observation This adds depth to the scope that prolonged engage-
ment affords. The research team had access to quality and management
systems, as well as to the network disks where temporary files and forms
were placed during their completion process. These formal systems meant
that we could check assumptions and statements from the participants in
the case companies. We also had available data from the operation’s man-
agement logging system which allowed us to establish the success of each
production process and enabled us to go back many years. The manual
paper-based achievement was subjected to scrutiny in some of our investi-
gations. As for observation, we participated in many of the various project
meetings in the development of parts to the North European car manufac-
turer. Further, as the research team consisted of four people, observed phe-
nomena could be discussed and reflected upon from different angles.

Peer Debriefing The purpose here is to test the findings with someone
directly involved in the situation and to highlight tacit and implicit infor-
mation. The research has accomplished this in various ways. First, supervi-
sors and the staff at EDWOR10 have been a great help by indicating the
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