Usability is a quality characteristic of a software product or system. User-centered design (UCD) is an approach focusing on making systems usable. However, improving the position of UCD is widely recognized as a challenge. This paper reports results from a case study, in which a small software development company was introduced with UCD principles and activities, and was thus expected to change their current practice. The paper takes a cultureoriented approach in the analysis. The focus is on the interaction between organizational culture and UCD, organizational culture being conceived as a set of subcultures. The results indicate that there exist differences 1) in the views of the nature of UCD; 2) in the motives for implementing it; and 3) in the experiences gained and interpretations made of the use of it in relation to each subculture. The implications for the prospective research and practice will be discussed.

Cultural differences are often used as explanations of organizational problems following mergers. This paper argues that this literature is to a large extent based on a realist epistemology where too little emphasis has been placed on the constructive processes. To partially bridge this gap, this study adopts a sensemaking approach to studying the (re)construction of cultural conceptions in the merger context. The study is based on extensive ethnographic material from eight cases of Finnish-Swedish mergers and acquisitions. The analysis of this material leads to a specification of three concurrent cultural sensemaking processes through which the top decision makers involved in the post-merger integration processes make sense of and enact cultural conceptions. First, this cultural sensemaking involves a search for rational understanding of cultural characteristics and differences. Second, cultural sensemaking also includes more or less suppressed emotional identification with either of the merging sides. Third, cultural sensemaking also involves purposeful manipulation of the cultural conceptions for more or less legitimate purposes. Based on this distinction, this study leads to specific propositions concerning how cultural conceptions are formed in post-merger organizations.

julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston vanhassa juhlasalissa (S212)

In this thesis the focus is on how do the K-retailers and their wives cope in connecting family life, family entrepreneurship and cooperation with the chain organization. The entrepreneur’s household and the firm form a socio-economic unit called householdenterprise-complex which interacts with its environment. The interaction within the household-enterprise complex and the interaction between the complex and the chain organization form the general framework for this empirical investigation. The research problem is examined by seeking answers for the next more detailed research questions: