Et nyt potentiale for organisatorisk innovation: En undersøgelse af krydsfeltet mellem introduktionsforløb i offentlige organisationer, newcomer innovation og læringsportfolio i praksis

Abstract

Artiklen har til formål at præsentere og formidle indholdet af specialeafhandlingen ’Et nyt potentiale for organisatorisk innovation’. Afhandlingen fokuserer på nyansattes introduktionsforløb i offentlige organisationer og søger at besvare, hvordan læringsportfolio kan bidrage til organisatorisk innovation. Med en hermeneutisk tilgang til videnskabsteori og ved hjælp af kvalitative, semistrukturerede interviews, besvares spørgsmålet ved at analysere respondenternes oplevelser og beskrivelser i afhandlingens undersøgelse. Læringsportfolio kan herigennem siges at bidrage med en højere grad af kvalificering inden for innovativ adfærd blandt de nyansatte, samt medføre et praksisnært redskab, der kan bidrage til effektiv formidling af viden og tydelig præsentation over for kollegaer.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the conjunction of three main areas, which are employee introductory courses, newcomer innovation and learning portfolio. The combination of these areas is largely unexplored territory in the academic field, to which the main question of this paper becomes; how learning portfolio can contribute to organizational innovation during introductory courses in public organizations. By tapping into this territory, the results of the paper can lay the groundwork for other papers, which might hope to explore the potential of these mixed methods. The methodic study, in which this paper approaches these areas, is produced through qualitative, individual, semi-structured interviews and Gadamer’s hermeneutic scientific theory. The goal of this approach has been to gather information through the respondents’ experiences and descriptions. The information is analyzed to obtain a deeper understanding of the phenomena, to which it becomes possible to explain, how learning portfolio can contribute to organizational innovation in public organizations. The analysis is based on organizational theory regarding innovation-promoting behavior, operationalized by Revsbæk, and theory on learning portfolio regarding portfolio in practice and tacit knowledge, operationalized by Saltofte. The study reveals, how innovation-promoting behavior can be amplified through learning portfolio and thereby contribute to new employees’ introductory courses, in ways that benefits both the new employee, experienced colleagues and the organization. The portfolio methods can be utilized in such ways, that it can both contribute to the further sharing of new knowledge or ideas and provide the new employees with better argumentation tools to present their ideas to experienced colleagues or their management. Similarly, the practice-based use of portfolio can contribute to the transformation of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. The implementation possibilities during introductory courses also seems straightforward, as existing structures which facilitate meetings and dialogue usually are in place. Therefore, unnecessary expenses will not necessarily be brought upon an organization, should it decide to implement learning portfolio as a tool during introductory courses. Other factors should instead be taken into account, like considering if innovation is something you want to extract through new employees, or if your employees are able to set aside the required time to actually use portfolio as a tool in their daily work.

A master thesis from Aalborg University

Et nyt potentiale for organisatorisk innovation: En undersøgelse af krydsfeltet mellem introduktionsforløb i offentlige organisationer, newcomer innovation og læringsportfolio i praksis

[A new potential for organizational innovation: A study of the conjunction between introductory courses in public organizations, newcomer innovation and learning portfolio in practice]