Researchers in POLO contribute to research in leadership and leadership development – often in relation to organizational learning. POLO research projects in leadership and leadership development focus on leadership practices and approaches for enhancing sustainability and the organizational opportunities for learning, collaboration, and development.

Relational leading

Researchers in POLO have contributed to research in and the furthering development of social constructionist ideas in relation to management theory and leadership development. These ideas have been integrated in the notion of Relational Leading.

POLO researchers inspired by social constructionist ideas are part of a broader international network of researchers engaged in leadership and leadership development based on the social constructionist thinking. In this perspective, leadership is seen as a relational activity which emerges from conversation, interaction and coordinated action, as leadership develops through the micro-processes of everyday interaction in and around the organization.

POLOs research projects in Relational Leading focus on processes of communication and relational dimensions of organizational life and is, in relation to these issues, concerned with multivocality, sensemaking and co-creation of knowledge and organizational learning through interactive, dialogical processes.

Systemic leadership

Systems Theory has shaped both international research and Danish institutional practices on leadership for decades. Senior researchers in POLO were prominent in introducing Systems Theory in research, management, consultation and organizational development in Denmark. Junior researchers in POLO continue this tradition and expand and advance practices and concepts in Systemic Leadership drawing on complexity theory and sustainability perspectives.

The Systems Theory understanding of the world in terms of complex, independent open systems, creating systems of systems, have had a renewed relevance in conceptualizing, handling and organizing efforts and research in relation to societal, complex problems which are constituted by multiple actors and demanding cross-disciplinary whole-encompassing solutions.

Researches in POLO have contributed in translating the world view of Systems Theory into principles of Systemic Leadership, emphasizing acceptance that leaders can never possess a full overview but can enact a will to expand their perspective by studying the whole system and listening to the many voices in the organization and furthering reflection, generative conversation and teamwork.

Sustainable leadership

Sustainable leadership is a recent research area in POLO. Sustainable leadership is about leading the organization in directions that will ensure the organization to reach its goals in ways that do not prohibit others to do the same. Sustainable leadership focus on employees and means of production as well as the environment of the operating organization – both locally and globally.

Sustainable leadership is about understanding that organizations grow from life and must therefore also have life as an end goal. Explicitly, organizations must handle human and material processes transparently and with respect for the overall systemic balance. Implicitly, this understanding must characterize the culture and the general atmosphere of the organization and reflect in attitudes such as shared responsibility, consideration and commitment.

Researchers in POLO are concerned with how organizations may transform in sustainable directions, and the role of management in doing so. Specific research projects investigate how the UN 17 sustainable development goals may be used as an onset for organizational development – particularly in small and medium sized enterprises.

The research interest in sustainable leadership is related to POLOs research in work environment as sustainable leadership is also about creating organizations for employees to thrive in, that is, organizations with a focus on balance and on humanizing the workplace for employees to unfold their collective capacity.

Organizational learning, learning in organizations and education and competence development in and related to organizations are key fields of expertise and research for POLO researchers. Facilitation and research of sustainable organizational development and change is often part of POLO research projects conducted in close collaboration with external project partners.

Work environment in learning communities

Drawing on psychological and broader work environment research, POLOs researchers have increased their attention and research efforts towards examining the relationship between organizational work environments and organizational learning communities.

The psycho-social work environment in a workplace may both support or constrain learning and development, depending on circumstantial factors, and is itself affected by organizational changes. Employee autonomy, the possibility for applying one’s competence and capabilities in the work as well as participation in communities of practice which contribute significantly to the organization, society and human lives support the learning of individuals and growth organizational learning environments, yet may in some circumstances be constrained or blocked by factors in the psychosocial work environment.

Social acceleration with increased change, as well as new technologies in the workplace, as well as import of abstracted management and organization programs, challenge known work environment factors and produce altered premises for learning in organizations. Researchers in POLO wish to contribute to research on organizational work and learning environments by exploring specific dynamics and challenges in organizational and management contexts.

Action research as approach to organizational development

Researchers in POLO have extensive experience in facilitating organizational development, learning and competence development through action research processes involving organizational employees and management representatives. The purpose of action research is to create change and learning in organizations, between organizations and in stakeholder collectives across organizations.

Action research starts by a wish to bring about change and to transform a problem situation in either the organization or the inter-organizational collaborative community. The process of research and development is designed as to bring about new practices and develop new knowledge.

Action research usually includes for employees, managers, researchers and other stakeholders (e.g. users, citizens, external partners) to collaboratively explore the problem situation at hand, formulating a development goal and possible change initiatives. The process of an action research engagement includes of a number of cyclic processes of shared investigation and reflection, experimentation and evaluation, to the gradual transformation of the problem situation.

Action research projects may be designed in large scale or smaller scale and build always on the cooperation between practitioners and researchers during the change and research process. 
 

Researchers in POLO have a longstanding tradition and experience of working closely with a variety of industrial and public sector partners in action research projects and have done so in fields such as competence development, leadership development, team and organization development, organizational learning, action learning and peer-supervision and -reflexivity.

POLOs researchers engage in societal advancement by facilitating research-based development of organizations, groups of organizations or stakeholder collectives in action research processes. Researchers in POLO have a longstanding tradition and experience of working closely with a variety of industrial and public sector partners in action research projects.

As a consequence, researchers in POLO have contributed to the advance of methods and theory in international action research communities. In collaboration with research colleagues in Denmark, POLO is every two years host for the national action research conference and have for 20 years run The Danish Action Research Network (DAN). POLO contributes to the action research network of Learning Across which is based at Aalborg University and includes also researchers from other universities in Denmark and Norway.

Researchers in POLO edit and publish on action research with both national and international journals and publishers. POLO have been part of developing learning theory perspectives in action research, describing the organizational manager as an action researcher, and investigating action research as a co-creation process. In addition, POLO have published on the use of roleplaying and art-based methods in action research.

Currently, POLO is developing action research collaborations between practitioners and researchers from process theory perspectives and integrates new technologies and digital media in action research practice by, for example, conducting responsive reflexive diary writing in researcher/practitioner collaborations. 

Researchers in POLO have engaged extensively with the process turn in organization studies in particular to explore the implications of a process perspective in studying organizational entry, employee onboarding, talent development and leadership practice.

From philosophies of time, POLO researchers have contributed to the pioneering development of process research methodology by developing methods and concepts for a ‘withness’ research tradition. Making research methodology a matter of process ontology holds a potential for humanizing and democratizing research methodology as well as to advance first-person engagements with empirical matters. ‘Withness’ research contributes to the advancement of practitioner research and the transformation of researcher-practitioner positionalities in co-creation and participatory research designs.

POLO researchers continue to explore the collaborative and methodological possibilities of taking a process stance in empirical engagements. Recently, POLO instigated cross-disciplinary methodology development in collaboration with international research colleagues devoted to advance and expand processual qualitative research.