1. |
- Brändström, Annika, et al.
(author)
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Governing by Looking Back : Historical Analogies and Crisis Management
- 2004
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 82:1, s. 191-210
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article offers a conceptual framework that broadens and enhances our understanding of the role of ‘history’ in contemporary governance and the attempts by policy-makers to ‘manage’ critical issues. Building upon the literature on historical analogies in policy-making, we distinguish three dimensions that clarify how the past may emerge in and affect the current deliberations, choices and rhetoric of policy-makers. We apply this in a comparative examination of two cases of crisis management where historical analogies played an important part: the Swedish response to (alleged) submarine intrusions in 1982, and the European Union sanctions against Austria in 1999. We induce from the case comparison new concepts and hypotheses for understanding the role of historical analogies in public policy-making and crisis management.
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2. |
- Johansson, Roine, et al.
(author)
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Central steering and local networks : Old-age care in Sweden
- 1999
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 77:3, s. 585-598
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recently, some European social scientists have claimed that the old legal-bureaucratic model of administration has been replaced by a new paradigm in public administration, characterized by a strong emphasis on collaboration in local organizational networks. The proponents of this policy network approach take a clearly voluntaristic view on policy implementation; network actors build consensus in negotiation processes, and the role of central government is restricted to that of goal-setting, facilitator and mediator. Thereby, phenomena like power and steering are overlooked. This paper gives an account of a major Swedish reform in the area of old-age care, whereby the boundaries between regional and local areas of responsibility for care of the elderly were displaced. By using a variety of contriol methods, central government was able to structure and steer the old-age implementation networks. The consequences of this central steering were different on different administrative levels: for the county councils, the reform has resulted in a specialization for the core areas of primary health care and hospital treatment, whereas the municipalities have had to diversify their areas of activity. Thus, to understand the effects of the reform, implementation networks must be viewed as both hierarchical and horizontal power structures, were national government, from a hierarchically superior position, can affect formally horizontal relations between actors by creating patterns of interdependence. Central govenment's steering has taken on less direct forms than the traditional ones, but indirect forms of steering can certainly be efficient, especially when several mutually reinforcing control methods are combined.
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3. |
- Barry, Jim, et al.
(author)
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Women's movements and new public management : higher education in Sweden and England
- 2007
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 85:1, s. 103-122
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article considers change in academe in Sweden and England, focusing on gender equity and the new public management reforms. In drawing on social movement theory, it is argued that public sector agendas in these countries have been affected by the influences of their respective women's movements as well as by the new public management. The article explores these developments through the experiences of a group of employees whose voices are heard infrequently in the literature, those in middle-level academic positions in universities who are responsible for delivering change. It is argued that the rational, hierarchical, masculine discourses of the new public management offer challenges to women's movement supporters, whose influences and responses are examined. It is contended that the use of social movement theory, as a vehicle through which to conceptualize change, offers a number of insights. These are: the contribution made to gender equity by women who are not self-defined feminists or strongly committed to equal opportunities, known as femocrats; the contribution made by some supportive men to gender equity; and the potential for future collective opposition to the new public management from women's movements.
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4. |
- Bejerot, Eva, et al.
(author)
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Professional Autonomy and Pastoral Power : The Transformation of Quality Registers in Swedish Health Care
- 2011
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 89:4, s. 1604-1621
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In the context of the recent transformation of control in Swedish health care, the changing role of quality registers are analyzed as a vivid example of how professional groups become involved in new modes of regulating professional work. Based on a critical appraisal of the main currents in the research on NPM, it is argued that understanding ‘the productive side of power’ is an underexploited theme. The main part of the article is devoted to a detailed analysis of how a seemingly insignificant, but in its consequences important, professional practice was transformed from a resource for clinical research, an entirely professional concern, to a tool for hierarchical control. In the concluding sections, a number of important conditions for the successful use of ‘soft power’ in modern societies are identified and discussed.
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5. |
- Blomgren, Maria, 1966-
(author)
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The drive for transparency : Organizational field transformations in Swedish healthcare
- 2007
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 85:1, s. 67-82
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper provides an account of the rising clamour for transparency in the Swedish healthcare field. Previous research into accounting, auditing and classification has shown that such visualizing technologies potentially have the capacity to create new objects and ideals in a field (Miller 1994; Power 1997; Bowker and Star 1999). It is thus reasonable to believe that the simultaneous use of various visualizing technologies in a field might transform it. This paper provides an analysis of the early stages of such a transformation process. The carriers that promote transparency are identified and it is shown that the drive for transparency has opened up the field to new actors. It is also shown that the drive for transparency has changed the quality discourse and as a consequence of that, the National Quality Registries are beginning to be opened up to the public.
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6. |
- Carter, Bob, et al.
(author)
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Taxing times : lean working and the creation of (in)efficiencies in hm revenue and costums
- 2013
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 91:1, s. 83-97
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The prevailing economic and budgetary climate is intensifying the search for methods and practices aimed at generating efficiencies in public sector provision. This paper investigates the increasingly popular bundle of techniques operating under the generic descriptor of lean, which promises to improve operational quality processes while simultaneously reducing cost. It offers a critical appraisal of lean as a fashionable component of public sector reform and challenges the received wisdom that it unambiguously delivers ‘efficiencies’. Quantitative and qualitative research in HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) centred on employees' experiences has indicated the extent to which work has been reorganized along lean principles. However, employees perceive that changes in organizational processes and working practices have unintentionally generated inefficiencies which have impacted on the quality of public service. These suggested outcomes raise wider concerns as lean working is adopted in other public sector organizations.
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7. |
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8. |
- Galaz, Victor, et al.
(author)
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Institutional and Political Leadership Dimensions of Cascading Ecological Crises
- 2011
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 89:2, s. 361-380
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- While some of the future impacts of global environmental change such as some aspects of climate change can be projected and prepared for in advance, other effects are likely to surface as surprises - that is situations in which the behaviour in a system, or across systems, differs qualitatively from expectations. Here we analyse a set of institutional and political leadership challenges posed by 'cascading' ecological crises: abrupt ecological changes that propagate into societal crises that move through systems and spatial scales. We illustrate their underlying social and ecological drivers, and a range of institutional and political leadership challenges, which have been insufficiently elaborated by either crisis management researchers or institutional scholars. We conclude that even though these sorts of crises have parallels to other contingencies, there are a number of major differences resulting from the combination of a lack of early warnings, abrupt ecological change, and the mismatch between decision-making capabilities and the cross-scale dynamics of social-ecological change.
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9. |
- Hysing, Erik, 1977-
(author)
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Governing without government? : the private governance of forest certification in Sweden
- 2009
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In: Public Administration. - Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 87:2, s. 312-326
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The role and capacity of the state are changing. Some researchers argue that the state is transforming, strategically adapting to new circumstances, while others see a development of governing arrangements that are autonomous from the state, governing ‘without’ government. This article assesses the governing without government thesis through the case of forest certification introduced in Sweden in the late 1990s. This is a case of private governance, the governing capacity of which is based on voluntary self-regulation rather than government authority, seemingly a prime example of governing without government. The results show that government nonetheless is involved with forest certification through governance-oriented modes of governing: enabling and influencing the arrangements. Thus, what appeared to be a prime example of governing ‘without’ government is better understood as governing ‘with’ government.
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10. |
- Jarl, Maria, 1973, et al.
(author)
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New public management in public education: a catalyst for the professionalization of Swedish school principals
- 2012
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In: Public administration. - : Wiley. - 1467-9299 .- 0033-3298. ; 90:2, s. 429-444
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- New Public Management (NPM) is one of the most significant reforms in public welfare in recent times. Making individual civil servants more dependent on the directions of the local manager than on common professional standards, previous sociological research argues that NPM results in a ‘deprofessionalization’ of civil servants. Taking a somewhat different approach, recent public administration research indicates that NPM may, at the same time, enhance the professional status of welfare managers. By integrating the literature on the sociology of professions and public administration this article develops a theoretical framework for understanding the influence of NPM on school principals’ professional project. Taking a process-oriented methodological approach, the article analyzes the professionalization of Swedish school principals. The result shows that Swedish school principals gained increased support for their professional project by the introduction of NPM. The article argues that NPM can function as a catalyst for welfare managers’ professional projects.
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11. |
- Johansson, Karl Magnus, et al.
(author)
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Organizing the Core Executive for European Union Affairs : Comparing Finland and Sweden
- 2010
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 88:3, s. 649-664
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Examining core executive organization for EU affairs in Finland and Sweden, this article uncovers how change agents used European integration deliberately to strengthen their role in the domestic settings through taking control of EU policy co-ordination. In both countries, EU membership was an exogenous factor that enabled the offices of the PM to secure a more powerful position and advance their own institutional agendas. This strengthened their leadership role and weakened the respective foreign ministries, whose legitimacy in EU co-ordination was undermined by the discourse that matters pertaining to this co-ordination should be treated as domestic policy instead of foreign policy. This discourse proved instrumental in the organizational reforms and core executive restructuring. Both countries also provide evidence of intra-Nordic organizational learning since the Finnish co-ordination system was based on lessons drawn from Denmark whereas the subsequent Swedish reform was inspired and legitimized by changes in Finland.
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12. |
- Johansson, Vicki, 1961
(author)
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Negotiating Bureaucrats
- 2012
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 90:4, s. 1032-1046
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article will present the argument that frontline bureaucrats fulfilling their duties within an infrastructure bureaucracy can be understood as negotiating bureaucrats, policymakers, and cousins to street-level bureaucrats. Empirically, the argument is based on data from an exploratory case study of a major road construction project in Sweden collected through passive participatory observation, interviews, and documents; the main source of theoretical inspiration is implementation theory and the theory of street-level bureaucracy. Working conditions, both similar to and different from street-level bureaucrats, are discussed, and patterns of negotiating practices are identified and analyzed. The analysis indicates that a fragmented implementation structure has effects on when and how negotiating practices are applied, and on policy outcomes, bureaucratic legitimacy, and political efficacy.
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13. |
- Nilsson, Måns
(author)
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Changing the decision space : European policy influences on energy policy and systems change in Sweden
- 2011
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 89:4, s. 1509-1525
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The EU takes a growing interest in governing the energy sector in its member states. Competing with national institutions, policies and organizational structures, it is however not clear whether the EU exerts a strong influence compared to other factors, and if there is such an influence, the mechanisms are not well understood. This paper examines strategic reorientation towards electricity investment in the Swedish energy sector, a frontrunner case of Europeanization, and discusses how this change can be attributed to EU policy change, national policy change and organizational field developments respectively. It finds that EU energy policy influence has been notable, and that governance mechanisms that shape beliefs and expectations are strongly at play. However, despite growing EU clout on energy policy, field level and national policy change remain key drivers of the changing decision space in the examined time period.
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14. |
- Nohrstedt, Daniel, 1974-, et al.
(author)
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Converging under pressure? : Counterterrorism policy developments in the European union member states
- 2010
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In: Public Administration. - Chichester, West Sussex : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 88:1, s. 190-201
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article analyses counterterrorism policy convergence among the 27 European Union (EU) member states between 2000 and 2006. While considerable academic interest has been devoted to the common European Union policy in response to terrorism after September 11, few studies have compared counterterrorism policy-making at the member state level. This gap raises the question whether the institutional framework of European counterterrorism policy-making has stimulated convergence of national policies. Data on five policy instruments for counterterrorism show that the aggregated implementation rate increased by almost 55 per cent in this period, which indicates a trend towards policy divergence within the EU as a whole. However, the findings also reveal significant variation in the level and pace of policy instrument implementation. One potentially important variable explaining national policy developments is the degree of political pressure from the EU on member states, while EU membership accession and national counterterrorism policy legacies were less important factors.
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15. |
- Nylén, Ulrica, 1961-
(author)
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Interagency collaboration in human services : Impact of formalization and intensity on effectiveness
- 2007
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In: Public Administration. - : John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 85:1, s. 143-166
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Interagency collaboration in human services production, it has been claimed, contributes to improved quality and/or reduced costs, but previous research on effectiveness from collaboration has failed to recognize that collaboration could be arranged in a multitude of ways. This paper investigates the effectiveness consequences of alternative collaboration arrangements. From a literature review, the degree of formalization and intensity, respectively, stand out as major aspects of collaboration. The impact on effectiveness from intensity and formalization was investigated through an explorative case study of collaboration projects in Sweden. Results suggest that the particular combination of formalization and intensity determines the impact on effectiveness. Combining low intensity with medium high formalization into ‘an assignments reallocation strategy’ of collaboration appears to have modest impact, whereas medium high intensity in combination with low formality, that is, ‘a commitment-based networking strategy’, has a high potential to increase effectiveness. High intensity in combination with high formalization produces ‘a formalized team-building strategy’, which is simultaneously promising and risky.
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16. |
- Alvehus, Johan, et al.
(author)
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To strengthen or to shatter? On the effects of stratification on professions as systems
- 2021
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 99:2, s. 371-386
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this article is to contribute to the literature on how stratification affects professions. Our case is the first teacher reform in Sweden, which introduced a more prominent position for some teachers. In this article, we elaborate six different first teacher types and analyze how these affect the profession. While elites are generally described as hybrids, we conclude that several of our types rather led to a de‐hybridization of roles, where managers became more administratively focused, and elites more anchored to professional tasks. We conclude that elite roles expose various potentials in being strengthening/weakening or shattering/integrating to the profession, but, in contrast to other studies on professional elites, the majority of roles studied here are both strengthening and integrating to the profession. The study is qualitative and based on 111 interviews, 12weeks of shadowing and 53 observed meetings.
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17. |
- Assadi, Anahita, et al.
(author)
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Street-level bureaucrats, rule-following and tenure : How assessment tools are used at the front line of the public sector
- 2018
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In: Public Administration. - : WILEY. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 96:1, s. 154-170
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Studies on street-level bureaucracy examine actions of frontline workers within the public sector. In this literature, there is a lack of evidence on how job tenure affects how frontline workers respond to formal steering. We contribute to prior research by studying the nationwide introduction of an assessment support tool to be used by caseworkers to assess clients' needs under the Swedish active labour market policy. We examine the potential effects of tenure on how caseworkers use this tool. The empirical analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative data. We show that as tenure increases, street-level bureaucrats, especially male caseworkers, tend to act in accordance with policy signals to a lesser extent. The qualitative analysis shows that this pattern can partly be explained by the fact that increasing experience with meeting clients face to face increases caseworkers' perceived confidence and skills.
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18. |
- Bauhr, Monika, 1973, et al.
(author)
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When does transparency improve public services? Street-level discretion, information, and targeting
- 2021
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 99:3, s. 500-516
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Transparency has been widely promoted as a tool for improving public service delivery; however, empirical evidence is inconclusive. We suggest that the influence of transparency on service provision is contingent on the nature of the service. Specifically, we argue that transparencyis more likely to improve the quality of service provision when street-level discretion is high. Discretion increases information asymmetries, and, in the absence of transparency, allows officials to target public services in suboptimal ways. Using finely grained data from the Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index between 2011 and 2018, we show that communes that experience increases in transparency also experience improved quality of education and health (services characterized by greater discretion), while the quality of infrastructure provision (characterized by less discretion) bears no relation to increased transparency. The findingshelp us understand when transparency can improve service provision, as well the effects of transparency reforms in non-democratic settings.
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19. |
- Berlin, Johan, 1975, et al.
(author)
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Involuntary backsourcing in the public sector ‐ From conflict to collaboration
- 2022
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 100:3, s. 674-691
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this study is to contribute to the literature on how involuntary backsourcing in public organisations is performed in practice and how it affects the relationship between principal and agent. The study focuses on two questions; 1) Which stages characterise the process when public contracts are involuntary terminated? 2) How does involuntary backsourcing affect the relationship between principal and agent during the transfer period? The study's case concerns public backsourcing in Sweden, in particular, how a metropolitan municipality manages involuntary backsourcing. This study provides in‐depth insights into backsourcing and its practice, as well the degree to which the conflict dimension between the parties is affected. The study shows ‐ paradoxically ‐ that the relationship between principal and agent during the transition phase is characterised by dependence, mutual exchange of information, collaboration and less conflict. The study contributes to developing the theory of backsourcing, particularly the behaviour that is played out between principal and agent in the transition stage. The findings identify the need for public organisations which make outsourcing decisions to have contingency plans for bringing operations back in‐house.
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20. |
- Carelli, Daniel, 1991, et al.
(author)
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When the cat is away: How institutional autonomy, low salience, and issue complexity shape administrative action
- 2024
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 102:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Political issues sometimes display an intriguing combination of high degrees of complexity, low political saliency, and high levels of administrative autonomy. This article investigates how this type of issues shapes the relationship between politicians and the public service. More specifically, we advance the notion of “administrative action space” to describe the emergence of collaborative governance when directives from the political level are intermittent or absent. Using an illustrative case on the administration of measures to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a transnational public health issue in Europe, we find that senior public servants nested in epistemic communities play a leading role in driving agency and facilitating governance of complex but low-salient issues when administrative autonomy is extensive.
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21. |
- Christensen, Lene Tolstrup, et al.
(author)
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The gradual corporatization of transport infrastructure : The Danish case
- 2021
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; , s. 1-16
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The article introduces the theoretical perspective on gradual institutional change to the corporatization literature. This is achieved via a longitudinal case study on the institutionalization of the Danish state guarantee model (SGM) for transport infrastructure based on archival document studies of seven infrastructure projects and 31 interviews with elite actors and experts. The article explores with a detailed analysis how the gradual change mechanisms of layering, conversion and displacement coexist, are interrelated, and are coevolving over a long period. It contributes to the corporatization literature presenting the SGM as an alternative to public and private partnerships and government agencies.
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22. |
- Cornell, Agnes, 1981, et al.
(author)
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Money Matters: The Role of Public Sector Wages in Corruption Prevention
- 2020
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 98:1, s. 244-260
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Economic theory as well as conventional wisdom from corruption‐ridden countries suggest that low wages among public employees lead to corruption, but cross‐sectional empirical research has largely failed to confirm this relationship. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between experiences of corruption and wage levels for public sector employees, utilizing both objective and expert survey data, with global coverage. The statistical analysis shows that higher wages, as compared to the average wage in the country, is associated with less corruption. There is also some support, but weaker, for the hypothesis that corruption increases when wages fall below subsistence levels.
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23. |
- Dahlström, Carl, 1972, et al.
(author)
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Outsourcing, bureaucratic personnel quality and citizen satisfaction with public services
- 2018
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 96:1, s. 218-233
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article investigates the relationships between outsourcing, bureaucratic personnel quality (BPQ) and citizen satisfaction with public services. Our baseline expectation is of a negative association between outsourcing and service quality; however, we argue that this tendency can be counteracted when the government buyer has a more competent and motivated personnel, not only in managerial positions, but across the board. Better‐educated and paid public employees are likely to have an important moderating effect on service quality through their input into quality specifications, their ability to recognize the provider's consummate or perfunctory behaviour, and their willingness to act on the observed performance. Using data from a cross‐section of Sweden's municipalities, our analysis reveals a robust association between higher levels of outsourcing and lower levels of citizen satisfaction, but the data do not provide unambiguous support for the hypothesis that the strength of this association diminishes when BPQ is higher.
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24. |
- Donatella, Pierre, et al.
(author)
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Why do politicians perceive the same financial conditions differently?
- 2024
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In: Public Administration. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Behavioral public administration research has provided empirical evidence of several perception biases when individuals process information. Building on these findings, we seek to advance the literature by analyzing politicians' financial perceptions of their own government. Drawing on the theory of motivated reasoning, we examine the context of Swedish municipalities and find financial perception gaps associated with politicians' party affiliation (establishment or anti-establishment), parliamentary position (opposition or governing party), and formal hierarchical rank. Specifically, politicians representing anti-establishment and opposition parties, as well as those occupying lower positions in the political hierarchy—and thus having less influence over and less responsibility for municipal affairs—tend to perceive the financial situation more negatively. These findings suggest the presence of a motivationally driven bias in politicians' perceptions of financial conditions; moreover, they illustrate that these perceptions are influenced by factors beyond the traditional financial, socioeconomic, and demographic ones examined in previous research.
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25. |
- Duit, Andreas
(author)
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RESILIENCE THINKING : LESSONS FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
- 2016
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In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 94:2, s. 364-380
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The notion of resilience is rapidly gaining influence in public administration practice and research, but a more comprehensive resilience research agenda in public administration is yet to emerge. This article aims to clarify how experiences and potential contributions from social-ecological resilience research can inform resilience studies in public administration. By contrasting key components of the resilience paradigm and its policy prescriptions with established findings from public administration research, a set of key shortcomings of social-ecological resilience thinking are identified: (1) deterministic systems models; (2) simplified accounts of politics and policy; and (3) a lack of systematic and generalizable empirical studies. To avoid these shortcomings, it is suggested that public administration resilience studies should explore multiple and competing models for how resilience can be generated; analyse trade-offs between resilience and other values of public administration; avoid systems theoretical resilience models; and apply the notion of resilience in areas beyond crisis management.
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