Mia Rosa Koss Hartmann
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In the Gray Zone With Police in Making Space for Creativity Hartmann, Mia Document Version Final published version Publication date: 2014 License CC BY-NC-ND Citation for published version (APA): Hartmann, M. (2014). In the Gray Zone: With Police in Making Space for Creativity. Copenhagen Business School [Phd]. PhD series No. 39.2014 http://libsearch.cbs.dk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?docId=CBS01000688563&vid=CBS&afterPDS=tr ue Link to publication in CBS Research Portal General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us ([email protected]) providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. 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Sep. 2021 In the gray zone In the gray copenhagen business school handelshøjskolen solbjerg plads 3 dk-2000 frederiksberg danmark www.cbs.dk In the gray zone With police in making space for creativity Mia Rosa Koss Hartmann PhD Series ISSN 0906-6934 39-2014 Print ISBN: 978-87-93155-78-7 LIMAC PhD School Online ISBN: 978-87-93155-79-4 Department of Operations Management PhD Series 39-2014 In the Gray Zone With police in making space for creativity Mia Rosa Koss Hartmann Supervisor: Daniel Hjorth PhD School in Language, Law, Information, Operations Management, Accounting and Culture Copenhagen Business School 1 Mia Rosa Koss Hartmann In the gray zone With police in making space for creativity 1st edition 2014 PhD Series 39.2014 © The Author ISSN 0906-6934 Print ISBN: 978-87-93155-78-7 Online ISBN: 978-87-93155-79-4 LIMAC PhD School is a cross disciplinary PhD School connected to research communities within the areas of Languages, Law, Informatics, Operations Management, Accounting, Communication and Cultural Studies. All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Acknowledgements So many people have supported and contributed to this study that it almost seems pointless to even try to mention them by name. To all of you who work in the Danish police and genuinely offered your voice, reflections and helpfulness: I am deeply grateful and impressed by your stories of the deeply felt pride and honor that you put into your call to keep our country safe, secure and just. I sincerely hope that this piece of text does justice to the brave, humble and dedicated people that I feel very privileged to have met. May your voices be the clear and far- reaching and inspire others to follow in your footsteps. For even making this research project possible, however, I want to thank Professor Preben Melander, Head of Center for Business Development and Management at Copenhagen Business School’s Department of Operations Management, for initially offering me ‘shelter’ to write the proposal and encouraging an in many ways ‘off the road’ PhD project and to the National Police Commissioner, Jens Henrik Højbjerg, for approving the project. My regards go to the people who carried it through to the police: Chief of Staff Mogens Hendriksen, Chief Superintendent Peter Ekebjærg, Dr. Camilla Hald and Chief Superintendent Jørgen Harlev. For their deeply qualified and trustful guidance, I most respectfully thank my supervisors, Professor Daniel Hjorth and Professor Ester Barinaga, both from the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy. My warm regards go to Professor Linda Smircich and Professor Marta Calàs at the Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts, for generously hosting my visit and enriching the project through your highly competent teaching, advice and discussions. 3 Through different periods of the project, a number of police managers provided great support for the PhD project. For their insightful efforts and encouragement along the way, I owe my deep gratitude to Chief Superintendent Bo Samson, Chief of Staff Karen Aastrup Bak, Chief Superintendent Klaus Munk Nielsen, Chief Consultant Jens Dünweber and Chief Consultant Anne-Stina Sørensen. I also thank Prosecutor Heidi Dearman for her help and legal advice, Jette Deltorp for reading large parts of the thesis and sharing her observant in reflections on it and Amalie Wulff Jedig for designing the cover illustration. Without the relieving laughter, deep reflections and enthusiastic sphere created and shared among close colleagues and friends at work, the intense and at times challenging process would not have offered so much personal joy, passion and warmth as it did. For your insights, kindness and bright smiles, I thank Nadja Kirchoff Hestehave, Lotte Høgh, Louise Johansen, Søren Obed Madsen, Trine Vendius Thygesen, Sidsel Kirstine Harder, Jette Louise Flensburg and Dr. Kira Vrist Rønn. The final and warmest thanks go to my family and friends for your unconditional support; in particular my life companion, Rasmus, for lighting up every second of life. 4 Abstract What does it mean to be innovative in public organizations? Scholars and policy makers call for public sector organizations to become innovative, whether this is through increasing collaboration, exploring networks or recognizing the innovation that occurs in government. This study contributes to this discussion a critical perspective arguing that much of the innovation that occurs in public organizations may come about in ways that are intentionally silenced by the organization and therefore dependent on the tactical creation of space for everyday creativity. It does so through an 18-month ethnographic study informed by Foucault’s concepts of governmentality and discourse, as well as his history of the emergence of police within the state, and by De Certeau’s theory of everyday practice and metaphor of the city. I observe that innovation is understood differently across the hierarchical strata of the organization and that this matters considerably for how creative practices emerge. At the top of the organization, managers relate to innovation as a ‘correct’ means of improving efficiency and legitimizing police to the surrounding society. Middle managers relate to innovation through their work of translating top-down initiatives and selecting amongst bottom-up solutions, while prioritizing that they themselves remain ‘safe’. Rather than relating to innovation as an aim of government, rank and file police officers at the bottom of the hierarchy relate to creativity as inherent in doing ‘real’ police work. ‘Real’ creativity is widely perceived as essential to concrete responsiveness to crime and unexpected situations here and now. As such, we observe a tension between an ‘inner’ office approach to innovation as correct, safe bets and an ‘outer’ street approach to innovation/creativity as ‘real’ responses to ‘real life’ challenges as they play out in this very moment. 5 As especially rank and file officers experience that what they associate with creativity is not necessarily recognized as desirable or necessary to other domains of the organization, they do not cease being creative. Rather, they exploit what they themselves term ‘gray zones’. Gray zones are an integral part of police work, in which laws and rules do not always translate into meaningful practices ‘on the street’, nor do they provide meaningful guidelines for dealing with novel problems. However, gray zones are also spaces of indistinction and obscurity that police officers actively seek to create and expand in order to develop, use and share novel solutions. While gray zones are mostly informal and discrete (even secretive), some parts of the formal organization seem to institutionalize aspects of them and hereby support similar kinds of spaces for creative development of new practices and solutions. I discuss these observations relative both to the ethical dilemmas of this type of creative and innovative activity and to the theoretical frameworks that I apply. Of central importance, however, are the implications for innovation research, particularly in the context of public organizations. Paradoxically, the call for more innovation may result in less innovation: Because innovation is understood so differently across hierarchical strata, because ‘real’ creativity is not recognized as innovation by the ‘innovators’ themselves and because much ‘real’ creativity occurs at the edge of accepted rules and procedures, there is little formal support for these kinds of creative, yet highly persistent, practices. This poses critical questions about how to increase managerial attention in respect of transparency, accessibility and qualification of gray zone creativity in the police as an important input to debates about how to balance responsible and responsive government in legal-democratic societies. 6 Dansk resumé Hvad vil det sige, at offentlige organisationer er innovative? Forskere og politiske beslutningstagere kalder på, at offentlige organisationer skal være mere innovative, hvad enten det skal ske gennem øget tværgående samarbejde, udforskning af netværk eller anerkendelse af den innovation som sker i staten. Dette etnografiske studie af innovation i dansk politi bidrager kritisk til denne diskussion. På baggrund af 18 måneders feltarbejder