What does IOA mean?
The question can be answered in at least three ways.
First, there is the meaning of IOA as an abbreviation:
The IOA abbreviation dates back to the 1950s. In 1953, the department’s founder
Torben Agersnap was hired by the Department of Marketing to strengthen the study
of organization and the “human factor” at Copenhagen Business School. Upon his
arrival, Agersnap was given access to a room, Office 101, which served as a seminar
room for evening classes but which could also be used as a faculty office in the
daytime. Very soon Agersnap began organizing meetings and study circles for an
emerging group of young colleagues in Office 101.
After some time, he was asked to found a new department. When attempting to
come up with a name for the department, Agersnap looked at the Office 101 sign
and then suggested ‘Institut for Organisation og Industrisociologi’ – IOI.
Unfortunately, people did not respond well to ‘Industrisociologi’ which was a direct
translation of ‘Industrial Sociology’ but a term largely unknown in Denmark.
Agersnap then came up with the term ‘Arbejdssociologi’, which literally means
Sociology of Work.
So IOI became IOA: Institut for Organisation og Arbejdssociologi, a name that was
maintained until the 2000s when ‘Arbejdssociologi’ was dumped in favor of the
‘leaner’ Institut for Organisation’ (Department of Organization). But the
abbreviation survived and continues to mystify people.
Second, there is the meaning of IOA as a question about the identity of the
department. What does IOA stand for? That question has no simple answer.
The history of the department and its unique identity has been told many times,
both by insiders and by outsiders. There are several written documents, most
notably by Torben Agersnap (and by his younger brother Flemming) describing the
development of the department from a teaching driven entity at the periphery of a
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rather traditional business school, towards a department with a strong research
agenda that engaged actively in the shaping of the business school as a broad social
science institution.
Among the written sources, we also find research evaluations that describe our
gradual internationalization, our struggle to excel in a playing field sometimes
defined by others, and our thick-headed insistence on doing things our own way,
even if we sometimes lack the words to describe that way.
Then there are all the oral accounts of what IOA stands for: stories and songs about
the IOA hippies, tales of cunning IOA strategists and leaders, legends of heroic
confrontations with the economists, and memories of great compromises that
shaped the life of IOA and the rest of CBS. Not all the folklore is happy. There were
almost as many downs as there were ups, and people and opportunities were lost
along the way. However, IOA remains the standard bearer for empirically inclined
skeptical organizational research. IOA also stands for a strong dedication to teaching
that is intended to challenge and transform those who are willing to learn. Finally,
IOA stands for an ideal of treating people as equals: researchers and administrators,
juniors and seniors, newcomers and old-timers. That, at least is how we see
ourselves. That’s what IOA has come to mean.
But – thirdly – IOA is more than an abbreviation and an organizational identity.
Perhaps asking “what IOA means” is hopelessly old-fashioned. Perhaps we need to
ask what does IOA do? IOA is an act that does not mean anything in particular but
certainly produces something very particular. This is best illustrated by looking at
everyday practices in the department. Let us for a moment consider the institution
of Friday Cake:
The IOA Friday Cake has been a ritual for decades.
The cornerstone of the ritual is the Cake List which is essentially a 6-month plan for
cake baking. The first thing newcomers learn at the department is that if you touch a
piece of cake in the kitchen on a Friday, your name will inevitably wind up on the
Cake List, and you will be expected to deliver a cake on a specified Friday within the
next half year. In a department that is often seen as laid-back and somewhat
anarchic, the Cake List is the odd exception. The List is not to be taken lightly:
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Promising research careers have been jeopardized by failure to comply with the
simple rules of the List, and people have been known to have been contacted at
their homes if a cake was not delivered in time.
There have been ups and downs in the history of the IOA Friday Cake as well. The
downs are best left in silence; the ups are memorable: Wonderful creations that for
always inscribe the name of the baker in the Pantheon of great Friday cakes.
Extravagant attempts at perfection when people have created three different cakes
because the first and the second ones were not ‘it’. Or simply cakes that redefine
the Friday Cake such as a Norwegian cake house to be smashed by a hammer
(hammer included). Cakes are not to be taken lightly, yet they always aim to please.
A good cake involves risk taking, some planning, some hard work, logistics and, most
importantly, time. A good cake is gone within minutes. Sic transit Gloria mundi.
It is in the context of cake eating we most clearly see what IOA does – or what we do
when we say IOA.
In the context of cake eating, IOA is not a, partly outdated, abbreviation. Nor is it a
claim about a pre-given identity. It is an act. Or rather it is a sequence of three acts:
On any given Friday, when a cake is being presented to the department, you will
hear the following:
First people say “I” [pronounced “ihhh” or “eye”]. That is the sound of expectation
and surprise as if to say: My God, did you really bake this? Or: It’s Friday already?
What a great way to end the week! Or: I had expected something more ambitious
than this from you, but I guess Føtex also makes great cakes…
Then people say “O” [“ohhh”]. That is the sound of deep respect or admiration:
Hallelujah, this looks really good. Or: Hey, what a great smell – is that real butter?
Or: This must have taken forever. Where do you find time to do your research and
prepare for lectures, you over-achieving, perfect soccer-mum?
Finally the “A” [“ahhh” or “ay”]. That is the sound of someone expressing deep
satisfaction with what he or she has just tasted: Mmmm, this is really good. Or:
Mmmm, I guess I should try a piece of the strawberry version as well. Or just:
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Mmmm, I feel very good right now! (My father would probably say: ahhh and
rhetorically add: What did we do to deserve this?).
In this sense IOA is a mantra. It is not just a word or an organizational construct: It is
a spiritual tool, which in a brief passing moment at about 12.45 on a Friday
afternoon produces a deep sense of what a great department is really about:
Surprise, Respect and Pleasure.
Enjoy!
Peter Kjær, Head of Department of Organization
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