Mats Williander

The unintended consequences of management by objectives: the volume growth target at Volvo Cars

Purpose – In order to lead and control large organisations, top managers could use objectives as an integrative mechanism and a driver of change. This paper aims to study the overall volume target of Volvo Cars regarding the consequences it has on organisational practices.Design/methodology/approach – Interviews with relevant managers at Volvo Car Corporation were conducted.Findings – Different interpretations of a seemingly clear objective, different views on both the rationale for and possible direction of the needed change and an increasing gap between middle and top managers are organisational responses to the demanding volume ambition. The response from the interviewed managers was more emotional than expected, resulting in an overall sense of target fatigue in the studied organisation.Research limitations/implications – The study suggests that the lack of academic research interest in the management by objectives (MBO) discourse is misleading. Rather than dismissing MBO as what is an outmoded manage...

Low-CO2 Electricity and Hydrogen: A Help or Hindrance for Electric and Hydrogen Vehicles?

The title question was addressed using an energy model that accounts for projected global energy use in all sectors (transportation, heat, and power) of the global economy. Global CO(2) emissions were constrained to achieve stabilization at 400-550 ppm by 2100 at the lowest total system cost (equivalent to perfect CO(2) cap-and-trade regime). For future scenarios where vehicle technology costs were sufficiently competitive to advantage either hydrogen or electric vehicles, increased availability of low-cost, low-CO(2) electricity/hydrogen delayed (but did not prevent) the use of electric/hydrogen-powered vehicles in the model. This occurs when low-CO(2) electricity/hydrogen provides more cost-effective CO(2) mitigation opportunities in the heat and power energy sectors than in transportation. Connections between the sectors leading to this counterintuitive result need consideration in policy and technology planning.

Fading Eco-benign networks: The causes found at Volvo Car Corporation and Ford Motor Company

Purpose – Most research on greening of industry using a network approach has the firm as smallest unit of analysis. In addition, few have focused on technological regimes. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues through research on the firm‐internal network of two automotive firms, the actors, resources and activities of their networks, and how change initiatives in the firm forge and dissolve external networks of alternative regimes.Design/methodology/approach – The case study is based on an insider/outsider research methodology. The specific issues of contextual and temporal boundaries in case research with a network approach were addressed through a relatively open‐ended process of inquiry during which these boundaries emerge and unfold. In terms of data collection, interviews with project team members in the two focal companies were conducted.Findings – Failure or success is not only a matter of how the alternative regime fits into its cultural ambience in society and how successful that ...