Signe Vikkelsø

About

View research profile and publications

E-mail

ssv.ioa@cbs.dk

Telephone

Office: +4538152827

Mobile: +4541852280

Departments

Department of Organization

Room: KIL/14.A-4.94

View research profile and publications

Subjects

Organisation Centralisation Decentralisation Change management Technology Sociology History

Primary research areas

Formal organization

The role of formal organization in business, public administration, and society. My research focuses on identifying the domains and principles of effective formalization, as well as the consequences of inadequate formalization. This includes empirical cases from healthcare, innovation partnerships, and banking.

History of organization theory

The history of organization theory and its relationship with other disciplines such as sociology, engineering, and economics. How have this changed the conceptual repertoire and self-understanding of organization scholars and practitioners?

Science, technology and organization

The entanglement of science, technology, and organization such as the organizational consequences of new technology and the organization of science and innovation.

Organizational tools and principles

The toolbox of practical organization and how it affects the structure and functioning of organizations. Currently, I study organizational charts and diagrams as tools for depicting, accounting for, and thinking about organization and management.

I study what makes good organization

I am Professor of Science, Technology, and Organization, with a background in social psychology from the University of Copenhagen and a PhD in organization and management studies from Copenhagen Business School.

My research explores topics at the intersection of organization theory, science and technology studies, and the sociology of work. This includes an interest in formal organization, organizational tools and principles, and the history of organization and management theory: What characterizes good organization, and what roles do organizational tools, technologies, and theories play? Empirically, I have focused on healthcare, manufacturing industries, innovation partnerships, and banking using qualitative methods such as ethnography, interviews, and archival research.

I have served as a research leader or core member of four externally funded collaborative research projects and have supervised 18 PhD students. I have extensive leadership experience, having served seven years as Head of Department and currently serving as Head of Studies for Master Programs in Organization, Strategy, Leadership and People. I am also member of the Social Science Research Council under Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Recent research projects

“Seeing Organization: The Socio-Material History of the Organizational Chart”

The project addresses the role of the organizational chart in society and explores the chart’s entanglement with changing modes of representational practices, shifts in organization and management theory, and transformations in work, production, capital, and regulation.

“Formal Organization – Past, Present, and Future”

The project addresses formal organization as a contested topic in organization and management theory, organizational sociology, and psychology and discusses the implications of this disagreement.