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- Kvarnstrom, Emilia, 1981-
(author)
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Institutionella samspel : Om möten mellan en kommersiell och en ideell logik
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Institutional logics create order and stability. They organize interaction and prescribe how we should behave towards each other. Such logics have generally been regarded as exclusive, in the sense that an organizational field is always guided by a single institutional logic. If there are two or more institutional logics in one setting at the same time this will create conflicting demands and contradictions. So how do organizations and individuals that act in these settings, where different institutional logics do meet, cope with the conflicting demands? This question is researched by studying actors who organize partnerships between corporations and non-profit organizations. Institutional logics have typically been studied at field level. My study follows a more recent literature strand focusing on individuals and their way of coping with conflicting institutional logics. In this thesis, interviews, text analysis and observations are used. The interviews were conducted with CSR managers of corporations, managers of corporate partners at non-profit organizations, CSR consultants, and project managers of intermediary organizations. These actors are working in an environment where conflicting institutional logics are played out. Using a narrative approach it is shown how these actors are aware of their institutional environment and its conflicts which requires them to constantly act as translators. The study shows that the actors organize an interplay between a market-logic and a social-welfare logic by bringing together the logics and establishing limits to what extent logics can be mixed. Thus, the actors can be understood as bilingual, rather than hybrids. Furthermore, it is argued that a narrative approach provides the possibility to understand institutional logics in empirical contexts as more present and visible than they are usually considered to be. The study concludes that bilingual actors balance conflicting demands and negotiate requirements set by institutional logics in their day-to-day work. Settings where institutional logics meet can hence be understood as both a contradiction and an ongoing interplay.
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| 2. |
- Nilsson, Kerstin, 1951-
(author)
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Förändringsstrategier i grundskolan : ett ledarperspektiv
- 1998
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Change Strategies in Primary School - a leader perspective This thesis focuses on change strategies in the Swedish primary school. The schoolleaders have a new situation and role as change agents since the school was brought under local government control with among others the reguirement to be responsible for the local process of development in school. Further studies have the main focus on schoolleaders´ work situation and role, however not on how schoolleaders handle change processes. There are many studies from other organizations that show how important it is that the staff take part in local change processes. In the decentralized school it is of great interest to have an elucidation of different change strategies and how the schoolleaders´ way to act have effects on the participation of the staff. Empirical data have been collected in case studies. This thesis is a separate part of a more comprehensive research project in Swedish schools, called "The School in change". That project focuses on environmental work in the work organization and includes twelve schools. Theese schools were chosen depending on their geografical situation and from the point that both the leader and the staff had a clear wish for active work with their working environment, by starting local development projects. Of these schools, I chose three that I wanted to study in another point of view. The research purposes were to describe and understand how schoolleaders, in this case principals, at the primary school work with change strategies. To reach my aim, I chose to study the change strategies of the principals from an actor´s point of view. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at three times and to complete the picture from the answers, I used the observation method. Some data from a staff investigation in the main project "The School in change" has been used in this study, with a view to making the results clear and better understanding them. The main results from this study are that I am able to identify two different change strategies, related to the schoolleaders´ way of working with local development in the school organization. One of the schoolleaders has a stationary strategy and two schoolleaders have mobile strategies. They are different in the way that the stationary schoolleader and one of the mobile leaders show a clear own change strategy of their own, while one schoolleader has an imitated strategy. The results also show that the leader with her own and stationary strategy, has a growing part of participating staff in ordinary work organization as in local development work. Another result is that in the schools with the mobile leaders the participation decreases. It makes no difference if the leader has her own or an imitated strategy for change and development of the school. Different kinds of theory have been used to interpret the results. Two aspects have been found important to be able to understand how the leaders of the school act with change strategies. These aspects are the work with the local development and the role and situation of leadership in school.
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| 3. |
- Bergvall, Sven, 1976-
(author)
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Through the Mirror : Perspectives of Brand Heritage
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The role of brands in contemporary society has in a fundamental way shifted the earlier balance of power in terms of consumers’ identity, in a sense creating a society where we are what we consume. This change has not only created enormous values centered around everyday brands, but also made brands into cultural objects interacting in a space earlier exclusive to such high-brow areas such as religion, science and the fine arts. As such, brands have become an integral part of our societies, permeating virtually every space of contemporary life. This new role of brands also creates a need to understand how brands interact with culture. This dissertation is focusing on the brand heritage facet of brands, a construct existing both in consumers, as a kind of historical mashup in the consumer’s mind, and brand management which, at least discourse-wise, finds it to be more of a cultural stereotype. In order to further the understanding of the phenomenon of brand heritage, this dissertation is using the case of Sony Ericsson to explore how both brand managers and consumers are relating to the brand. At Sony Ericsson, the brand managers are very dual to the brand heritage of their parents, on one hand they are clearly trying to distance themselves from the past by ‘inventing’ difference, on the other, they are embedding sub-brands of Sony into the products to enhance their offering. On the consumer side, as the study was conducted in Sweden, it is quite apparent that the heritage of Ericsson still looms over the new brand, unable to break lose from its symbolic universe. While this is by no means inherently bad, it goes to show the difficulties brands have to rapidly shift from one well-established brand identity to another. To elicit information from the consumer respondents photo elicitation was used in order to gain insights into their negotiation of brands deeper than what is usually possible in a ‘normal’ interview setting. One outcome of this study was four principles that brand heritage can be seen as formative of brand heritage, the principle of comfort, the local, authenticity, and identity. They act as beacons both for consumers and brand managers as they create a structure for understanding how brand heritage interacts with culture to enable its use both in the brand and consumer identity creation process.
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| 5. |
- Fredén, Sophie
(author)
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Från värnplikt till frivillighet : Hur en ny reformidé mötte den etablerade praktiken i Försvarsmakten
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In the summer of 2009, the Swedish Parliament decided to suspend the century-oldpractice of military conscription, and introduce all-volunteer forces. One year later,1 July 2010, the Swedish Armed Forces became an organization "as any other", thatshould attract, recruit and try to maintain its employees. The process of this reformis the topic of this dissertation.Previous research has shown that reforms are quite difficult to conduct, as theyrarely go exactly as the reformers planned: planned changes are often accompaniedby unintended changes (Brunsson and Olsen, 1990). In order to describe all changesthat take place during attempts to reform, a translation model (Czarniawska andJoerges, 1996) has been used. The process of change was seen as a travel for thereform idea from its carriers to those who were to put it in practice in local units.Even if local practices are usually well-established, such practices are notunchangeable, especially if a new reform idea raises interest. The aim of the study isto contribute with increased understanding of reform processes by following theidea of voluntarism into an established practice of conscription.The process of reform has been studied in various places: in the headquarters,during the meetings between the top leadership and commanders of local units, andin the local units. Appropriate field study techniques were used: interviews, directobservation, shadowing and document analysis. Fieldwork started in 2010 andcontinued until 2015. The analysis of the collected field material followed theprinciple of abduction, i.e. an iterative interpretation of field material and previousresearch results, using the translation model as a frame of interpretation.The idea of reform has been inspired by an international trend of moving from massarmies staffed by conscripts to all-volunteer forces. It was then edited to fit theSwedish situation, and started its travel from idea-carriers to idea-users. On its wayit has been translated in quite a few ways. Sometimes it was seen as an attempt atmodernization, other times as an increase in cost-effectiveness, as a culturaltransformation, as an attempt at professionalization of services, or as entering thecompetition among employers in the labor market. Even translations that shared thesame label (for example, competition or cultural transformation) could beinterpreted in detail in quite different ways at different local units.Some attempts at integration of different translations failed; demands and expectationsin conflict with one another, or a translation of the reform idea was incompatiblewith the local practice. Such situations can be seen as paradoxical but, asLuhmann (1995) pointed out, a paradox is often perceived as paralyzing by the observers,while the actors feel mobilized to de-paradoxify them by appropriate actions.The study shows that the roles of idea-carriers and idea-users were not clearlyseparated: the same persons could engage in both activities, depending on thecontext. A suggestion for future studies could be to explore the activities, instead ofthe roles, which are flexible, and also pay attention to the new, digital "means oftransportation" – especially through the social media.
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| 6. |
- Högberg, Örjan, 1969-
(author)
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Maktlösa makthavare : En studie om kommunalt chefskap
- 2007
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Enligt den svenska förvaltningstraditionen, vilken bygger på den Weberianska byråkratimodellen, ska politiker fatta beslut och tjänstemännen verkställa dem. Men, relationen mellan politiker och tjänstemän i den kommunala vardagen förefaller inte vara så enkel. Förtroendevalda politiker upplever ett problem med att tjänstemännen har för stor makt, vilket leder till ett inflytande på den politiska processen som inte står i proportion till deras formella position. Problemet bottnar i att den Weberianska byråkratimodellen inte längre fungerar som ett vägledande ideal i praktiken. Den kommunala vardagen karakteriseras istället av en otydlighet i hur makten i praktiken konstitueras och distri-bueras i relationen mellan politiker och tjänstemän, med resultat att icke-förtroendevalda chefstjänstemän kan hamna i en maktsituation där de kommer i besittning av, förutom sin legitima chefsmakt, en reell politisk makt. Som en följd av detta kan våra svenska kommuner komma att ledas av en profession som tränger undan och kanske i praktiken övertar politisk ledning – en profession som enligt den Weberianska byråkratimodellen formellt ska vara politiskt maktlösa. Mot bakgrund av detta syftar studien till att bidra till kunskapen om de kommunala chefstjänstemännens politiska agerande och de maktförhållanden som konstituerar detta agerande. Med makt avses i avhandlingen en kapacitet att handla som ägs av agenter och som kan identifieras i kraft av chefspositionens varaktiga relationer med underliggande sociala strukturer mellan politik och förvaltning, mellan politiker och tjänstemän. Makt betraktas följaktligen som en förklaringsfaktor för att förstå chefstjänstemännens politiska agerande. Avhandlingen baseras på en fallstudie av kommunchefer, dvs. kommunens ledande tjänsteman som befinner sig i den omedelbara närheten av den kommunövergripande politiska ledningen, och som därigenom verkar i gränslandet mellan politik och administration.För att bidra till denna kunskap utvecklas i avhandlingen en analysmodell med utgångspunkt i den kritiska realismens synsätt på sociala strukturer och kausalitet. Modellen baseras på tre olika typer av analyser, en strukturell analys, en kausal analys och en förståelseanalys. Med hjälp av den strukturella analysen identifieras tre stycken strukturella maktresurser som kan ses som förbundna med den kommunala chefstjänstemannapositionen. Dessa benämns centralitet, kontroll över kritiska resurser, och närhet till makt. Med hjälp av den kausala analysen studeras vad och hur dessa maktresurser tillåter innehavaren av chefstjänstemannapositionen att påverka för att uppnå effekter. Analysen visar att de strukturella maktresurserna möjliggör för chefstjänstemannen att påverka hela den politiska beslutsprocessen genom att med rätt timing i ärendehanteringen, och de beslutsunderlag som ligger bakom detta, presentera olika problembilder och konsekvensbeskrivningar. Med hjälp av förståelseanalysen studeras chefstjänste-männens politiska agerande. Med utgångspunkt i en kritisk realistisk ansats kan de kommunala chefstjänstemännens politiska agerande förstås i termer av en proaktiv politisk roll som är inneboende i chefspositionens generiska karaktär. Den proaktiva rollen är intimt sammanlänkad med strukturella maktresurser genom det att den för sin existens kräver strukturella maktresurser som är förbundna med den kommunala chefstjänstemannapositionen.
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| 9. |
- Thomson, Kerstin, 1947-
(author)
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Styrning och samhällsvärde : en studie med exempel från museivärlden
- 2017
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In light of growing criticism towards New Public Management and its effects, interest has been directed at alternative management control concepts in the public sector. Whether Public Value Management is an alternative, possibly even a new paradigm, is being discussed on the research front. New Public Management and Public Value Management have evolved in parallel during the past decades. However, New Public Management has had greater impact, not least in governments’ control of state agencies.The aim of the thesis is to gain an understanding of how ideas about the creation of public value diverge between New Public Management and Public Value Management. Beyond the research question of whether management control meets the demands of efficiency and customer-orientation as addressed in previous studies on reforms influenced by New Public Management, this thesis deals with the issue of creating value for the benefit of society. In a qualitative approach, the research is based on interpretations of documents, observations and interviews with examples from state agencies in the museum sector.The result of the study shows that differences between New Public Management and Public Value Management are expressed in notions of accountability, results and proficiency. The time perspective differs, as do the means of financing and involvement of stakeholders. Reforms in line with Public Value Management call for the involvement or consideration of a larger circle of stakeholders, including future generations.The findings of the thesis suggest that the diverging perceptions of value creation does not rule out that elements from both concepts can be combined and complement each other. The main issue is to take into account the contribution made to public value, considering whether the mandate is a long-term government assignment in line with Public Value Management or if it involves activities well suited to New Public Management with prerequisites for market orientation. The dissertation contributes to research in the field of management control in the public sector and the issue of public value.
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