Do middle managers have room for manoeuvre in Swedish human service organisations?

• Middle managers in Swedish human service organisations are responsible for implementing the many goals and visions of government as formulated in policy. Since the 1980’s there is a growing expectation that these goals should be materialized through HRM strategies. In the wake of New Public Management (NPM), HRM has become significant in human service organisations as expressed in proliferation in the numbers and specializations of managers, a development of management rhetoric and particularly investments in managerialism and managers as a way of achieving change. This paper reports on the contradictory positions that arise for middle managers, in human service organizations where HRM is integral part of managerial repertory. The aim is to examine how the role of middle manager is impacted as a result of this increasing organizational complexity and governance. As part of the middle-layer, middle managers must balance the various aspects of their work from a weak power base, and act as a buffer between their staff and their seniors. As a result, inconsistencies between the expectations of the organization and the individual employees they manage create tension, conflict and feelings of powerlessness that may result in increased inefficiency - the opposite of the organizational intention. This research is based on interviews and observations of 30 Swedish middle managers from human service organisations over a period of two years. We use qualitative text analyses to analyse our data. We expect to find that middle managers use different types of strategies to give meaning to the work they do and create room for manoeuvre in everyday practice.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Work (hsv//eng)

Keyword

human service organisations

HRM

governance

middle manager

New Public Management

Sweden

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)