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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  

 

Klum­mer i 'mand­ag mor­gen'

Hvem tør sige stop til di­git­al in­nov­a­tion? (Klumme i "Mand­ag Mor­gen", 29.11.23)

Som leder skal du ikke sige nej til digital innovation. Men du skal helst kunne gennemskue, om det digitale projekt, din organisation poster tid og penge i, ser ud til at bidrage med værdi eller ej. Ellers bidrager du blot til den kollektive, organisatoriske uvidenhed, der ofte forhindrer at nogen tager ansvar for at sige stop.

Læs klummen her

Ledelse af di­gitale for­andringer mellem sort­syn­et skep­sis og hyper­i­otim­isme (Klumme i "Mand­ag Mor­gen", 08.05.24)

Der er risici forbundet med både teknologipessimisme og teknologioptimisme. Så hvilken ledelsesopgave ligger der i at finde den tredje position – det, vi kunne kalde en nøgtern og realistisk tilgang til nye teknologier i organisationer?

Læs klummen her

Blinde vink­ler i den di­git­al­is­erede or­gan­isa­tion - (Klumme i "Mand­ag Mor­gen", 29.01.25)

Nye digitale teknologier kan være et redskab for effektivisering og besparelser. Men tit mangler vi blik for det merarbejde, der følger med. Det usynlige digitale arbejde er ikke bare knyttet til en afgrænset implementeringsfase, men er et permanent vilkår i den digitale organisation.

Læs klummen her

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

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