Frozen fish and mummies: On the role of preserved objects in organizing

Abstract

This paper explores the efforts to construct a standard for competence development and management in Sweden. The apparently absurd idea – to standardize processes of competence development to gain a competitive advantage – manages to seduce many different people, groups and organizations over many years. We frame these developments and activities as the construction of an actor network, where attempts are made to translate the global idea of competence development into an object in order to be spread further and become a widely used management technology. When this translation fails new objects are constructed to aid in the translations. We argue that such an artefact-centred approach (Pentland & Feldman, 2008), while common in contemporary management does not translate well into intended actions. The framing of the paper reveals that the traditional account of “launch” and “implementation” is too simple to grasp all the complexity of introducing new technologies and practices.