8/8/2019 Final 351

1/7

Background

Learning Lab Denmark, which came out in 1998 by a group of Danish people and

government official, was intended to bridge the gap between theory and the practice. LLDsstakeholders were the government, corporations and educational institutions. As the bridge

between these groups, LLD was expected to thrive from the tensions among them and createknowledge that was relevant to all stakeholders. LLD was to practice multidisciplinary work that

brought together researchers with different background and cultural theory as well as educationalresearch. LLD got initial support from Danish government but they were financially supported

by private sector. Benefiting from both the public and private support, LLD was encouraged to

satisfy its stakeholders and to inquire about the new processes of achieving various goals toenrich itself as a multi-purpose organization.

LLDs target was to develop a new research and development unit in different areas likelearning, knowledge creation and competence development with fresh concepts of theory and

practical tools. Another working notion was that creating something new and groundbreaking

involves the willingness to take risks without the competence of other organizations and achievea prosperous success in both national and international context.

LLD was an independent organization, but it was associated with the Danish Pedagogical

University (DPU). LLDs finance was administered by DPU. DPU was a conventional universitythan LLD and was specialized in research on education with traditional academic departments,

conferred masters and established procedures for conferring authority and responsibility to

university administrators, board of governors and academic councils.

LLD adopted an action-oriented scholarship quite different from the typical academic

process in which the researcher served as a communicator to bridge among LLDs constitutions

because communication was the core to LLDs identity. The purpose was to create anenvironment were the research and conveying process would be achieved simultaneously. This

would give birth to a dynamic way of research method were translators are not necessary to

convey the message to the interest group and the details can be readily provided first hand.

Learning lab Denmark model

Although Learning Lab Denmark was supposed to be a promising organization, it was

showered with problems especially regarding the Human Resource Management sector. Theproblems that the organization faced were as follows:

Strategic and intra-department conflict:

The main crisis that the organization was facing regarding the Human Resource

Management was the intrapersonal conflict between the secretariat and the consortia. Theorganization has primarily wished to introduce a new system in which the personnel will have a

high autonomy but at the same time the corporate culture and base rules were implied in

harmony. But the consortia conducting the different researches were not keen to abide by therules implemented by the secretariat. They believed that some of the rules were just constraining

8/8/2019 Final 351

2/7

their work and were unnecessary for the consortia. On the other hand, the secretariat was striving

to implement the rules and ensure a unified code of conduct for the entire organization.

Employee position:

One of the main problems was in LLDs HR department. LLD was meant to start withone senior manager. But later the board selected two young, energetic persons who are enough

strong with fresh concepts and ideas about design and leadership for both managing director and

research director. But the problem was to identify which person should take the responsibility ofwhat and whether one has a superior power over the other. Later on, the two managers seem to

have lost their authoritarian power over the employees and had great difficulties to implement

the corporate culture and rules.

In the mean time, the introduction of the brokers as communication agents between the

consortia and the secretariat aroused new problems, as their role was not entirely and clearly

defined. The conflict between the CDs and the broker team was about alternative research and

development in the organization. CDs measurement about broker was like service unit ortechnostructure.The confusion was on whether they have the right to introduce and implement rules or

are they just supposed to convey the rules from the secretariat to the consortia. Service unit

---executes orders/requests issued by the CDs. Techno structureissue orders/ requests to the

CDs and expects these requests to be implemented. The battle between standardization and

variability made the conflict badly. The broker team emphasized the stability and standardizationwhereas; the CDs fostered variability because they resisted the brokers initiatives.

Employee recruitment:

Vaaland and Jensen, the consortium directors did not want to bring many traditional

researchers into consortia because they believed these individuals would be unwilling to pursuecross-disciplinary, action-oriented research. To find out something new and interesting theconsortium directors chose many young energetic employees who had been educated in the top

of Danish universities and had worked as interns in other countries with a great deal. The CDs

belief was that these young energetic individuals with high ambitions will be able to find out newidentity that will run the organization ahead with adequate success. LLD encountered numerous

internal challenges which created a big gap between LLDs experience and results of its

production. A reason behind the gap of expectation and outcome was the employees inefficient

learning. They were trained to learn new methods on the job. But they did not get properopportunity in the job sector to apply their newfound insights.

Again, the total employees working in LLD were facing confusions about the positionthat they are working at. Some of the researchers were just full time research personnel and had

no skill or intention to adapt to a communication process with the stakeholders. They were just

satisfied with continuing their research and find results. Others were part-time employees inother organizations and the concept of a full time job with vast autonomy was a difficult situation

as they were not used to take the lead.

8/8/2019 Final 351

3/7

Personnel attribution:

There were number of employees in LLD from the starting time of span. It included 23

administrative staff, 18 research supporting staff and 40 full-time and half-time researchers.

Researchers used to work as thinker, conducting research and communicating results in

academic language. They used to send it to the communication team. They used to translate theresults for the audience. The audiences are also seen learning through a one way interaction

system with the translators of researches. Researchers also use to work closely with the

communication team to assist them in making the dialogue with the audiences. Most of theemployees in LLD are highly energetic. LLD expected quality differentiation from the

employees as most of them were educated from the top Danish universities and had their intern

from the foreign countries. But still there were some gaps between the expected and actualoutcomes; the reason was researchers used to face an experience curve though LLD which was

their first full time job. They were assigned to hard work ad had to learn the work on the job

directly. As a result they took much time to grab the experience curve.

Operational problems:

Most of the researchers were only keen to accomplish their researches and the process ofcommunicating it clearly and simultaneously to the audience was a nuisance to them. On the

other hand, the assistants of the researchers were sometimes not insightful enough to understand

the deep research procedures in subjects like neuroscience and were thus lagging behind theirresearchers. The whole situation would thus slow down the research process.

Among the other aspects, a major one was the payment procedures. Sometimes, the

employees were found not receiving their wages in time. The reason for this problem was thatsometimes the administrator did not fill out the papers properly which were essential for the

employees to get paid on time. Another problem was that there was a tension behind animportant issue, whether the broker team will work as a service unit or as a techno structure. Ifwork as a service unit team they will be eligible to execute order issued by Consortia Directors

and if work as techno structure they will be eligible to issue order to the Consortia Directors. The

main reasons of this tension were power, authority and hierarchical status. The seniormanagement team could solve the problem easily but they were reluctant to solve this conflict.

Organizational clash:

There were many strains in the relationship between LLD and DPU. All the managers

and employees knew that LLD is not a part of DPU. They just knew that LLD is just inside the

work area of DPU. They knew that LLD is an innovative young organization in comparison tothe old DPU. They didnt want DPUs infrastructure. LLD people knew that most of the fund

which they received was from the private sector. So, they did not want to follow the rules and

regulations as per the DPU administration. Though the entire budget, salaries was paid throughDPUs administration, LLD often faced operational problems and personal attribute conflict.

They often face problems with the payment as they were not always paid on time. (The reason

for the missed paycheck might have been that an LLD administration employee did not fill outthe paperwork that DPU required to pay the employee, but that part was ignored). At the same

8/8/2019 Final 351

4/7

time, two chief financial officers (CFOs) at LLD had resigned in 18 months. One of the several

reasons each cited for leaving was the perceived difficulty of serving as the interface between the

two organizations.

Fundraising:

The majority of the funds that LLD used to receive were from both the private sector and

the government. Because of the perception of earning a competitive edge through the

development of the IT and knowledge, the LLD was born with great support from thestakeholders. But after the economic recession of 2001, most of the corporations in the private

sector had to cut their cost and stop funding LLD. The government was also thinking of cutting

down the fund provided to the LLD. This situation gave rise to a crisis where the organizationhad difficulties to budget funds for projects as well as paying the employees salaries. The

corporation had no other source of funding and had not made any agreement to stabilize the input

of money that the organization needed.

Job concept and context:

The job concept and context was not clear to many of the employees. The researcherswere very confused on the process of researching and communicating the results to the

stakeholders. Again, some of the employees were confused about the concept of experimenting

for practical implementation. They were told that the projects that they would develop would betotally experimental and different from something that other corporations would have researched

for their need. But at the same time, the results had to be applicable for practical use. This was a

complete paradox for the employees which made them uncertain about what they were actually

doing. Some of the employees even came to conclusion that they were probably exploring pathswith dead ends and were wasting their time.

Payment problem:

The problem in the organization that entirely frustrated the employees was the payment

process. Although perceived as a separate organization, the payment process of the LLD wasaccomplished through the administration of DPU. Sometimes, the employees were not getting

their salary on time because of procedural complications. The blame would often go to the DPU

administration and create greater frustration among the employees. Again, later in their course,the LLD had problems with their funding and could not pay their employees properly and on

time. Beside the fact that the organization was running in chaos regarding their financial

situation, two financial officers (CFO) of LLD resigned in a time span of 18 months. The cause

that they showed was the perceived difficulty of serving as the interface between the twoorganizations.

The numerous challenges damages employees morale and made difficulties for thesecretariat to deliver ideas related to Hilton experience. There was a large gap between

employees daily work lives and expectation of prosperity. The organization could have got rid

of their problems through proper HR management process, but they virtually failed.

8/8/2019 Final 351

5/7

Recommendations

Regarding the failure of the top management to perceive and ensure organizational

stability, we have come up with several recommendations which we believe could have removed

the problems that the organization faced. In the implementation of the following

recommendations, the organization could reach a more stable and focused form through whichthey could ensure overall success.

Corporate culture:

The organization has long suffered from a conflict for the implementation of thecorporate culture. The organization should elaborate a definite set of rules to be implemented

through out the organization. For this, the secretariat should sit with the consortia members and

sort out the set of rules. These rules will be considered as the base of the organizational culture.They should be just a minimal regulation to be followed by all members in the organization. The

remaining procedures or set of rules necessary to run a consortium should be given to the

different consortia to implement for themselves. The directors of the consortia can seat sit withtheir respective employees and researchers to determine which set of rules they can follow as

their managerial and corporate culture. In this manner, they can implement a fair set of flexibility

and at the same time abide by the rules of the organization as a whole.

Proper HR management:

LLDs mission was to achieve a target, jointly internal and external organizationalchallenges. In spite of this targeted demand LLD could not achieve the external organizational

challenges by facing internal mismanagement administrations. Conflicts between Brokers and

the CDs have influenced the mismanagement of LLD administration. The collaboration of

brokers and CDs need to be active in management which will identify the procedures which acteffectively and mandatory to meet both internal and external challenges. The secretariat should

clearly identify the position and the duties of the employees according to their recruitment and

also explain the level of freedom and autonomy they can enjoy in the specific sectors. Leavingthe responsibility and the freedom altogether to the employees would just slow down the

organization as most of the employees are not used to such situations and need proper guidance

in the first place.

Budgeting of the projects:

The budgeting process should be implemented through a meeting with the consortia

heads to determine how much to spend for which project and the organization should prohibit theculture of demising other consortiums project and budgeting. In the current process, the projectsundertaken by one consortium is referred as useless and fantasy by other consortia. As a result,

the bargain to acquire funding for own projects and denying that of the other consortia has

become a common trend. This is a major problem as the results of a project are sometimesregarded as a total failure by the personnel of the other consortia and that automatically

demoralizes the researchers of the project. The organization should set a meeting with the

consortia heads and the stakeholders and discuss about the projects to be undertaken. In a

8/8/2019 Final 351

6/7

positive manner, they can then determine the budgeting for the projects and get rid of the nasty

habit of demising others.

Strengthening financial base:

The financial base of the organization has not been so stable and the budget had to be

stabilized for both projects and salary payments. For this reason, the organization should

establish a pact with the government and other stakeholders implementing long term agreementsto ensure proper funding. After the economic shock, the funding from the private sector almost

stopped and same fear aroused from the government sector as well. This put the company in a

delicate situation where work could terminate due to lack of funding. The organization was not atall prepared for such situation and had a difficult time coping with it. For this reason, the

organization should enter into long time contract with both the government and private sector

stakeholders. For example, they could have a five-year funding agreement against which they

would conduct research on a topic of specific interest for the stakeholder.

Organization positioning:

The top management of LLD has not been able to define the actual position of LLD and

the DPU. The LLD was regarded as a separate organization free from the traditional research

methods and bureaucratic lobbying. Instead of the dusty slow procedures, the organization wassupposed to have the fast and professional ways of dealing with their competencies. But the

infrastructure of the LLD was still placed inside the building of the DPU and the autonomy was

not clear to the employees. Some of the employees think that they are a sub-organization while

others are unhappy about being in the same building area while being an autonomousorganization. Again, the payment procedures for the LLD employees were conducted by the

DPU. The organization should determine the actual situation of the LLD and separate theinfrastructure and administrative procedures accordingly.

Training process development:

Employees training and development processes need to be changed. LLD may follow

some potential steps like general and specific training, new employee orientation etc. Both

general and specific training criteria are applicable for one organizations entire development.The benefit of new employee orientation is a process of introducing new employees to the

organization so that they can become effective contributors more quickly. The organization must

design the training process with adoption of on-the-job training. The employees will get

opportunity to apply their knowledge through on-the-job training process directly to find out thenew insights. The training must be on employees performances, work-based programs

(vestibule training and systematic job rotation and transfer) and instruction-based programs with

proper apprenticeship. The organization can start In-house and Outsourced programs todevelopment the training process which will impact directly as on the job based activities. In-

House training includes the promises of employees to work within organization effectively with

flexible schedule. On the other hand, Outsourced training programs involve peoples from outside

8/8/2019 Final 351

7/7

the organization to perform the training with comparatively lower cost and professional quality

trainers assurance.

Rewards, motivation and compensation systems

LLD only emphasized on discussing with its employees about selective articles. It has nosignificant reward and motivational activities to stimulate the employees to perform effectively.

LLD should follow a system of motivation and performance in the organization to improve

employee moral and performance. One of the main problems that LLDs employees had facedwas regular compensation or regular salary payment. The employees did not get payment

regularly because of the absence of financial managers. Additional managers or managers from

other departments had to fulfill the need. To know about employees demand according to marketand performance upgrade, the organization can arrange pay surveys where the organization

would be able to achieve a real idea about the employees salary demands and how an

organization can retain its employees with better performance by allocating rewards added with

the salary. The compensation systems or rewards can be included in salary as extra payment for

the employees. LLD is a research organization where team and group work is always presented.The team and group incentive reward systems can be followed for the motivation perspective.

Conclusion

The concept with which LLD started was a promising one. But the organization had

difficulties to perceive their ultimate goal because of weak human resource management and

strategic setting. The correction of the failing aspects could bring the organization back on trackand ensure their stability. What the organization really needs is a strong management to mould

the primary stage of the organization providing the specific corporate culture and role of the

employees. Later on, the organization could use its organizational flexibility to set the pace for

the different departments.