Author:

Louise Storgaard, Helle Jakobsen

Tags:

diskursanalyse, Karl Weick, leadership, ledelse, ledelsesformer, management, Norman Fairclough, sensemaking

 

Paper description:

Top management in Carlsberg Danmark introduced several initiatives in the years 2006-2008 in order to improve earnings, customer satisfaction and the managerial style.

Our focus was on the managerial style which for many years had been characterized by a very hierarchical structure. Besides, the employees were not involved in the decision making process. Therefore LEAD (LEdelsesADfærd) was introduced - an initiative meant to introduce the managers to a managerial style inspired by leadership values - coaching, pacesetting, affiliating etc.

The aim of our thesis was to contribute to an external evaluation and assess LEAD. This was done through discourse analysis and sensemaking analysis in order to evaluate the managers’ perception of the two managerial styles – management and leadership – and their perception of the initiative.

Author's own comment:

In order to achieve sufficient knowledge about Carlsberg Danmark and LEAD, we were given access to internal presentation material, and we regularly carried out meetings with management representatives who had been key figures during the process. This meant that we were able to ask clarifying questions and develop a more critical approach to the assessment.

Moreover, we carried out (anonymous) interviews with 16 managers at all managerial levels and locations in Carlsberg Danmark. The interviews constituted our empirical material and formed the basis for our analysis. This also gave us the possibility of substantiating our Findings section with essential quotes.

After presenting the results of the thesis to the management representatives, we learned that our results had been used for a presentation at a corporate strategic planning day which involved the entire organization. The whole process was extremely exciting and valuable for us.