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Ur­sula Ples­ner

Associate Professor

Subjects
Public management Organisation Automatisation Digitalisation Technology Public sector

Primary research areas

Di­git­al­iz­a­tion and in­vis­ible work
One of my main in­terests is to in­vest­ig­ate the daily work to make a di­git­al­ized or­gan­iz­a­tion func­tion – work, which is of­ten over­looked and un­der­val­ued. This is im­port­ant be­cause it may give us a bet­ter idea of the real costs of di­git­al­iz­ing or­gan­iz­a­tions.

Dis­place­ment of work in and among di­git­al­ized or­gan­iz­a­tions
Since di­git­al tech­no­lo­gies are in­ter­con­nec­ted, they al­low for work to be re­dis­trib­uted in new ways, and I am in­ter­ested in how tasks are re­defined, sub­sti­tuted or moved around.
The mundane ana­logue work in ad­vanced tech­no­lo­gic­al set­tings
We use a pleth­ora of ad­vanced di­git­al tech­no­lo­gies in our work lives – but we are also de­pend­ent on pen­cils, post-its, simple tele­phones, bod­ies, some­times an­im­als, some­times nature. Ma­ter­i­al­ity and em­bod­i­ment are in­ter­twined with di­git­al­iz­a­tion in fas­cin­at­ing and im­port­ant ways, and at­tend­ing to this gives us a real­ist­ic pic­ture of the con­texts that di­git­al tech­no­lo­gies are to op­er­ate in.

In­trigued about the work to make di­git­al­iz­a­tion work

My research inspires 

A responsible digitalization agenda in one of the world’s most digitalized societies 

Public managers to think holistically about digitalization 

More reflections about digitalization as a social, organizational and political phenomenon  

 

Pod­casts and oth­er re­sources

Links:

Recent research projects

Valu­ing In­vis­ible Work – Ef­fi­ciency am­bi­tions and di­git­al­iz­a­tion pro­jects in prac­tice (VIEW)

In this four-year pro­ject fun­ded by the In­de­pend­ent Re­search Fund Den­mark, our team did qual­it­at­ive stud­ies in dif­fer­ent pub­lic or­gan­iz­a­tions to ex­am­ine the re­la­tion­ship between auto­ma­tion/ef­fi­ciency am­bi­tions and the work re­quired by man­agers, em­ploy­ees, and oth­ers to in­teg­rate di­git­al solu­tions in their or­gan­iz­a­tions.
VIEW

Met­oder til di­git­al inklu­sion (MED­IN)

The Velux-fun­ded pro­ject MED­IN ad­dresses di­git­al ex­clu­sion among long-term in­car­cer­ated in­di­vidu­als in Dan­ish pris­ons. It is based on close col­lab­or­a­tion between me and a PhD-stu­dent at CBS, the So­cial Leg­al Aid Found­a­tion, and the Think tank Justi­tia. Prac­tic­ally, the pro­ject aims to strengthen di­git­al in­clu­sion through edu­ca­tion­al meth­ods and policy re­com­mend­a­tions.
MEDIN

Di­git­al Nor­d­ic Bor­ders: Un­pack­ing the con­ten­tion between open­ness and se­cur­ity in the Nor­d­ic Re­gion (DiNoBord)

DiNoBord is a col­lab­or­at­ive pro­ject in­volving part­ners from Den­mark, Sweden and Nor­way, in­vest­ig­at­ing work with and around the di­git­al in­fra­struc­tures at the Nor­d­ic bor­ders. I have been par­tic­u­larly in­ter­ested in the patch­work of hightech and low­tech prac­tices that con­sti­tute bor­der work.
DiNoBord

Links

Outside activities

Kommunale IT-og digitaliseringsansvarlige

Talk (half day sem­in­ar)

Region Sjælland Region Sjælland , 2023–present

Talk (2 hour work­shop)

LAB23 - arbejdsmiljøkonferencen , 2023–present

Talk (2 hour work­shop)

Foreningen af ledere af Sundhedsordningen (FALS) , 2025–2025

Talk

Haderslev kommune , 2024–2024

Talk

Real Danias bestyrelse , 2024–2024

Talk

High Performance Leadership , 2024–2024

Talk/teach­ing

Gentofte kommune , 2024–2024

Mas­ter­class (one full day)

CBS Executive fonden , 2023–2023

Teach­ing (one full day)

EU-SA Dialogue Facility on Strengthening Open Digital Government , 2022–2022

Re­port (90 hours)

HK , 2021–2021

Talk

Finansforbundet , 2020–2020

Talk

University of Copenhagen, central administration , 2019–2019

Talk

Syddjurs kommune , 2019–2019

Ex­ec­ut­ive train­ing