| 1. |
- Gadolin, Christian, et al.
(author)
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Organising Healthcare with Multi-Professional Teams : Activity Coordination as a Logistical Flow
- 2016
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In: Offentlig Förvaltning. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration. - : Göteborgs universitet. - 2000-8058 .- 2001-3310. ; 20:4, s. 53-72
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Multi-professional teams are now common when organising healthcare. Such teams areconsidered to resolve fragmentation issues amongst units and their functions, facilitateefficient and high quality care and are also deemed to enable different professions to meetand exchange experience and knowledge. The expected consequence is superior decisionsand improved care. However, research suggests that the deployment of multi-professionalteams within healthcare organisations is problematic with regard to knowledge sharingand integration between different professional groups. While often recognised, the reasonfor this shortcoming has rarely been explored in depth. This study consequently elaborateson the factors hindering knowledge sharing through illustrating and discussing thelogics of different professional groups and the ensuing consequences when multiprofessionalteams interact. The finding is that the teams are being utilised by the medicalprofessions in accordance with their professional logic. This results in the coordination ofactivities, incorporating the patient flow logistics amongst the different professions; makingthe impact of multi-professional teams concrete in practice and illustrating their potentialpositive outcomes for professionals and patients, even though they are not operatingas forums for overt knowledge integration for the different professions.
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| 2. |
- Nordesjö, Kettil, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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Special Issue Introduction : The Power of Evaluation
- 2021
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In: Offentlig Förvaltning. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration. - : Göteborgs universitet. - 2000-8058 .- 2001-3310 .- 2001-7413 .- 2001-7405. ; 25:3/4, s. 3-15
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this special issue is to invite scholars in public administration to address issues of power in relation to evaluation practices in the public sector. Power is one of those big, difficult, and inherently nebulous concepts that both scholars and practitioners appear to consciously or unconsciously avoid. Our ambition in this introduction is not to present a comprehensive conceptual review of power, let alone to present the many different aspects of evaluation. Rather, this is a humble attempt to foster a more explicit discussion of the relationship between power and evaluation. The aim of this introduction is, firstly, to introduce a few basic distinctions and conceptualisations of the relationship between power and evaluation. Secondly, we would like to highlight three themes where power may be an especially fruitful lens when analysing, or just trying to make sense of, evaluation procedures. These are themes found in evaluation research, but where power is not always acknowledged or accounted for. We call them (1) Evaluation and instrumental power, (2) Evaluation and contextual power, and (3) Evaluation and performative power.
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| 3. |
- Rämö, Hans, 1963-, et al.
(author)
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Reform in Translation : The Swedish Transport Administration's Quest for a New Mission Statement
- 2022
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In: Offentlig Förvaltning. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration. - : University of Gothenburg. - 2000-8058 .- 2001-3310 .- 2001-7413 .- 2001-7405. ; 26:4, s. 19-46
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The long-term outcomes of reform processes in the public sector remain understudied inthe literature. This study investigates the Swedish Transport Administration (STA)employees’ and managers’ translation and internalization of their new role as societaldevelopers. Since the STA’s founding in 2010 and until 2018, the STA head officeneither guided nor centrally determined how to define and understand the STA’s role as asocietal developer. We examine this internalization process through the lens ofCzarniawska’s translation model of the distribution of ideas as a collective creationthrough local translation and adaptation. The study shows that the ongoing friction thatoccurs when the concept and role of a societal developer are discussed and disseminatedwithin an organization is influenced by prevailing identities and local action nets. It alsoshows that the translation of this new role eventually failed, due to either it beingsubmerged within already-existing concepts or it having a perceived lack of relevance.We conducted this mixed-method study over six years (2016–2021) using documentaryanalysis, workshop participation, interviews and a survey.
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| 4. |
- Ahlström, Karin
(author)
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How Meetings Affect the Accomplishment of Broad Responsibility in a Municipally Owned Corporation
- 2024
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration. - : University of Gothenburg School of Public Administration. - 2001-7405 .- 2001-7413. ; 28:2, s. 21-39
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Municipally owned corporations are important actors in the pursuit of the Agenda 2030 goals and are often formally obliged by their owners to work in this direction. This has however shown to be quite challenging, and managers lack knowledge about how to develop new ways of organizing to meet such responsibilities. The aim of this article is therefore to understand how the work of a top management team in meetings affects the accomplishment of broad responsibility. The analysis, which is underpinned by a communicative constitution of organizing (CCO) perspective, shows how the way specific communicative practices (agendas, minutes, timeslots, turn-taking, and stakeholder voicing) are enacted leads to the re-production of parts of the organization at the expense of the whole, the present at the expense of the future, and profit at the expense of the other dimensions of sustainability. This study contributes to the literature on public management by showing how communicative practices enacted in meetings make certain concerns present and others absent, thereby creating the conditions for the accomplishment of broad responsibility.
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| 5. |
- Arman, Rebecka, 1976, et al.
(author)
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Managerial communication practices - Health care managers’ everyday structuration
- 2012
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration. - 2001-7405 .- 2001-7413. ; 16:2, s. 143-163
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this article is to describe and analyse observed managerial communication. The research questions concerned: What characterizes managerial communication practices and the organizational consequences? We make use of structuration theory and view communication as a social interaction process in which temporary structures are negotiated. Ten first- and second-line managers were shadowed. The managers used a combination of structuration of caring, interdependency and accountability typical of health care organizations. The communication practices were related to how new norms of reputation management were institutionalized through structuration. The types of structuration were sometimes contradictory and productive communication was rare or non-existent. The managerial communication practices had consequences for the power and domination and for which issues were signified as part of the agenda. The conclusions can be generalizable to other professional organizations.
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| 6. |
- Benerdal, Malin, Doktor, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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Democratic values in evaluation systems – a circle that can be squared?
- 2021
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration. - : Göteborgs universitet. - 2001-7405 .- 2001-7413. ; 25:3/4, s. 63-83
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper is concerned with the interlocking of democratic values and evaluation systems. A central issue in evaluation has been adherence to democratic values by speaking truth to power or taking an inclusive approach to evaluands. In parallel with these democratic endeavours, evaluation design has increasingly moved from ad-hoc evaluations toward evaluation systems. The question we raise in this paper is how compatible the democratic endeavours of evaluation are with the rise of evaluation systems as the modus operandi. We apply this question to the case of the Swedish school system and its built-in evaluation system: systematic quality work (SQW). In order to explore the research question, school principals were asked to articulate how the democratic mission is visible in their SQW. The results indicate that prominent managing logics at different school levels seem to affect how well democratic values are incorporated into the SQW, highlighting the need to address the institutional and governing setting of evaluation systems in combination with the actors’ roles and decisions in accordance with the democratic evaluation literature.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Bjursell, Cecilia, 1970-, et al.
(author)
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School Superintendents as Translators of Policy from the National to the Municipal Level : Emerging Discourse About an Evidence-Based Practice
- 2023
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration. - : University of Gothenburg. - 2001-7405 .- 2001-7413. ; 27:3, s. 24-36
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Policy discourses focus on (and set limits to) what is considered acceptable to say and to do. Within a discourse, a dominant idea can influence how the discourse unfolds. The present study examines the dominant idea that education should be an evidence-based practice. We explore how this dominant idea at the national level is translated into local practice by school superintendents at municipal education departments in a Swedish context. Sixty-five of Sweden’s 290 municipalities were chosen for this study based on their geographical location and size. We found 16 documents from nine authorities that explicitly mentioned evidence-based practice. A discourse analysis of these documents identified six themes that may indicate how school superintendents interpret and translate the dominant idea. The discourses are evidence-based practice in terms of (i) ‘mirroring’, (ii) ‘professional competence’, (iii) ‘collaboration’, (iv) ‘literature review’, (v) ‘method’, and (vi) ‘quality work’. Thus, there are a number of different ways in which the national policy is translated at the municipal level. What we observe in the discourses, however, expresses provisional attempts at defining <em>evidence-based practice</em>, thereby suggesting that, at the local level, education management teams are prepared to accommodate ideas from alternative areas instead of relying on and developing methods and ways of working that (historically) have been used in education. A critical insight for practice is that we should examine the grey areas between research and policy; specifically, where policy materials imitate research in an attempt to influence practice under the disguise of ‘evidence’.
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| 9. |
- Blomgren, Maria, 1966-, et al.
(author)
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The Impact of Institutional Pluralism on Governmental Reforms in the Public Sector : Choice, Monitoring and Licenses in Swedish Schools
- 2017
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration. - Göteborg. - 2001-7405 .- 2001-7413. ; 21:4, s. 3-25
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this article is to investigate the influence of institutional pluralism on the expansion of reforms in the public sector. The paper seeks to contribute to the Scandinavian institutionalism perspective where previous analyses of reforms have often used a case-study methodology and focussed on one, or a few, reforms attributable to the same institution. The focus of this article is to describe and analyse the reform history in order to capture the dynamics between reforms attributable to different institutions. An analysis of the reforms of the Swedish school system between 1990 and 2013 is conducted revealing that more than 70 reforms were implemented during the period. The reforms were based on different institutions such as ‘the market’, ‘the state/bureaucracy’ and ‘the profession’. This plurality of reforms casts new light on the expansion of reforms as it suggests that the dynamics are not only characterised by completions as has previously been shown, but also by counterbalances in relation to the institutions involved.
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| 10. |
- Brauer, John, 1988-, et al.
(author)
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Social Representations in Street-Level Bureaucracies : Production and Reproduction of Knowledge Within Public Administration
- 2021
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration. - Göteborg : School of Public Administration, University of Gothenburg. - 2001-7405 .- 2001-7413. ; 25:2, s. 99-122
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The concept of street-level bureaucracy is central to understanding public administration asit pinpoints the role of individual civil servants in the realisation of policy. Oneissue in need of further illumination is that of knowledge production and reproduction in street-level bureaucracies. This paperseeks to examine these issues by linking street-level bureaucracy with the theory of social representations. Social representations offer a social-psychological understanding of how individuals make sense of their reality in day-to-day interaction. The overarching aim of the paperis to suggest a theoretical synthesis of these two perspectives –a synthesis that connects interaction atstreet-level with common-sense knowledge, as well as knowledge generatedwithin organisationsand among professionals. The synthesis is demonstrated by presenting an analysis of social representations of unemployment among two groups of street-level bureaucrats.
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