Abstract [en]

This article presents a study of five schools with shared principalship. It contributes knowledge about how shared principalship is experienced by people who work closely (“close subordinates”) with the shared principalship constellations. Data consists of 20 semi-structured interviews. Close subordinates describe that the shared principalship meant a reasonable workload for their principals and welcomed their level of accessibility. Confidence in the leader collaboration was heightened if close subordinates were able to witness that collaboration in action with their own eyes. The findings are discussed in relation to the conditions introduced by current school legislation in Sweden. © 2017 Marianne Döös, Lena Wilhelmson, Jenny Madestam, and Åsa Örnberg.

Ort, förlag, år, upplaga, sidor

2019. Vol. 8, nr 1, s. 154-170

Nationell ämneskategori

Företagsekonomi Utbildningsvetenskap

Public or Private – Does It Matter? How School Leaders in Public and Private Schools Perceive Their Roles Madestam, Jenny Sundström, Göran Stockholms universitet, Samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen. Bergström, Göran Stockholms universitet, Samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen. 2018 (Engelska) Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, ISSN 2001-7405, E-ISSN 2001-7413, Vol. 22, nr 3, s. 129-152

Keeping the discussion among civil servants alive: ’Platform of values’ as an emerging genre within the public sector in Sweden

Nyström Höög, Catharina

Högskolan Dalarna, Akademin Humaniora och medier, Svenska språket. Uppsala universitet.ORCID-id: 0000-0002-4838-3093

Björkvall, Anders

Örebro universitet.2018 (Engelska)Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, ISSN 2001-7405, E-ISSN 2001-7413, Vol. 22, nr 3, s. 17-38

This thesis concentrates on two questions: What beliefs do ministers have of appropriate steering in the Swedish core executive Regeringskansliet (RK)? Do they believe that RK is a politically steered organization as it is usually described, or as a throughout political organization, as some political scientists have recently depicted it? RK embraces two institutional subcultures: one non-political with permanent civil servants and firm rules and regulations for work processes, the other one political, where work conditions are more adaptive. Analyses of beliefs that ministers may have, build on information from interviews with 35 ministers in governments from 1991 to 2014. They answered questions about their steering of preparation work in cases, performed by civil servants. They described their choice of strategies and means for steering. Their explicit memories of actual steering activities have been used for inferences of their beliefs. The research method is typically qualitative. Two organizational theories serve as basis for the analyses. One is the legal bureaucratic model, mainly according to Max Weber. Either ministers steer the work of civil servants hierarchically, giving instructions directly to them. Or else, they steer with political advisers as proxies, thereby involving them in the hierarchical steering. The other one is a cadre theory – an unorthodox choice, which reflects a recent idea saying that RK is a throughout political cadre organization where ministers, staff members as well as civil servants are political office holders. All ministers stressed that work processes in RK ministries are steered by them, i.e. they believe RK to be a politically steered organization. Ministers chose steering strategies according to institutional demands and possibilities and according to their beliefs of what strategies match their individual ambitions for the government position. Most ministers stated that they gave instructions directly to civil servants. But approximately three out of ten ministers said that they steered using political advisors as proxies, in some cases with far-reaching mandates to act independently. The ministers focused both on steering formulation of the matter per se and preparation procedures when it was important for the political outcome.

From minister perspectives the political staff can be identified as a cadre. Evidence for civil servants being seen as political cadres was scarce. One minister had practiced typical cadre steering in specific task forces, parallel to hierarchical steering in the ordinary ministry organization. Some ministers had used detached cadre-oriented means. In their opinion, informality in steering procedures promoted the performance of civil servants. One minister mentioned that all work in RK ultimately results in government decisions, and that is why RK may be characterized as an outright political organization. Almost all ministers who used political advisors as proxies, belonged to coalition governments. Their choice of steering strategy can be understood as an adjustment to the heavy workload that coordination of politics imposes on them.

Abstract [en]

This paper aims to provide institutional explanations for the development of performance-based budgeting (PBB). Particularly, we explore the tensions between converging and diverging pressures. By analysing PBB in two countries with significant experience with it, Finland and Sweden, the research explains why we observe only evolutionary changes in actual budgetary practices. Indeed, the introduction of this practice is part of a global reform process undertaken over decades by public sector organizations. Nevertheless, the countries still struggle with PBB and, despite global converging pressures, diverging pressures shape its development, challenging its implementation and use, and paving the way for evolutionary changes.

Ort, förlag, år, upplaga, sidor

2018. Vol. 20, nr 12, s. 1836-1857

Nyckelord [en]

Performance budgeting, isomorphism, institutional logics, ambiguities, central government

Nationell ämneskategori

Ekonomi och näringsliv

Abstract [en]

Public organizations In the 21^stcentury, are increasingly complex in terms of multiple institutional rules, norms, and practices. This complexity constitutes a difficult challenge for civil servants to find and determine appropriate identities, roles and relationships in their everyday work.  For this special issue we made a call for scholars to contribute new addressing the roles of civil servants within increasingly complex public sector organizations, focusing on a couple of interrelated research questions:

• What is the nature of public administration taking into consideration increasing institutional complexity in terms of persistent bureaucratic traditions, new public management solutions, participatory ideals, activist sentiments among officials and so forth?
• What are the consequences of this institutional complexity for the possibility of preserving a coherent, rule-governed public administration and what does public mean today in public administration?
• What types of roles are civil servants playing in relation to different institutional rules and norms and various categories of actor (politicians, citizens, organizations) and how do they handle frictions and conflicts?
• What type of conceptions of civil servants’ roles are developing, including public service ethics? What alternative and contesting role-conceptions and ethics are prevalent and supported?

This introduction should be understood as being both a summary of the current state of research in relation to civil service – its predicaments and challenges – as well as being a suggestion for future attention among scholars and practitioners. We have thus written this introduction not only with the purpose of summarizing the main components inherent in the six articles that are included in this special issue but with the hope of also spurring discussions concerning what civil service has been, currently seems to be and might become in the future.

Ort, förlag, år, upplaga, sidor

Göteborg: Göteborgs universitet, 2018. Vol. 22, nr 3, s. 3-16

Nyckelord [en]

Public service, Civil servants, Governance, Public administration, Public sector organizations

Nationell ämneskategori

Statsvetenskap

Abstract [en]

Some policy work within public administrations these days seems to rely heavily on individual officials’ efforts to make sense of new policy proposals and practices to other groups in their organizations. This is the case especially with local work on cross-cutting issues such as gender and equal treatment policies, children’s rights issues, sustainability and climate policies etc. Typically, work on these matters are meant to be carried out in all parts of the public sector. However, operations in many parts of this sector are guided by managerial models giving little weight to what is usually perceived as “side issues”. Also, new policy proposals in these areas tend to be formed in complex boundary-spanning practices, involving partnerships and collaborative work, not easily compatible with administrative ideals of clear divisions of tasks and mandates. As a result, the officials responsible for work with these issues often seem to have to invest time in explaining both why certain steps ought to be implemented, and by what legitimate processes they have come about. 

In this study, such micro-level attempts to gain support for new policy proposals or practices in the administration through efforts to influence the meanings ascribed to them, is seen as a form of steering. The aim of the thesis is to investigate them as such, with the help of governance theory and Karl Weick’s sensemaking perspective. Thereby, the study seeks to provide insights into questions of how this micro-level steering may be analyzed, as well as issues of what they may mean for public administrations’ capacity to make sense of conflicting demands. 

Theoretically, the study arrives at an analytical model based on two arguments. The first is that attempts to mobilize other members of an administration in complex practices via means of influencing their understanding of these practices, could be seen a project with two thresholds. One concerns the need of explaining what type of situation or practice members are faced with, and how it fits into the order of the administration. The other concerns the need to visualize its aims in such a way that it appears desirable to groups targeted for mobilization. The second argument is that micro-level attempts to influence meaning-making processes in public administrations could be undertaken in both direct and indirect ways. They may come in the form of words and “talk” directly intended to enact certain images in the organization, but also in the form of efforts to stabilize or reinforce the social dynamics holding such images in place. The study discusses several ways in which attempts to manage this dynamic may be carried out.

Empirically, the analytical model is applied to two case studies focusing on officials working in Swedish municipalities. The task set out for the cases is to investigate the officials’ attempts to gain support for an EU-funded partnership, with the objective of changing recruitment routines in their administrations. The results show that the officials indeed used both direct and indirect means to influence other members understanding of this practice. But also that there appeared to exist a certain dynamic between these means, underlining the need to apply a broad analytical framework when studying this steering, and on a more general note that such steering should be thought of as a product of both communicative and organizing skills.      

Ort, förlag, år, upplaga, sidor

Stockholm: Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, Stockholms universitet , 2018. , s. 298

Serie

Stockholm studies in politics, ISSN 0346-6620 ; 177

Abstract [sv]

Den första januari 2015 sjösattes den kanske största organisationsreform som genomförts i Sveriges statsförvaltning – omorganisationen där de 21 länspolismyndigheterna slogs ihop till en enda nationell polismyndighet. Syftet med reformen var att komma närmare medborgarna samtidigt som förmågan att fatta beslut på en samordnad central nivå skulle stärkas.

I november 2016 arrangerade Förvaltningsakademin ett seminarium om denna reform. I panelen deltog forskare, poliser, journalister och rikspolischef Dan Eliasson. Första delen av seminariet handlade om hur själva reformen blev till. Den andra delen var ett panelsamtal där deltagarna utifrån sina olika perspektiv diskuterade kring frågor som: Vilka negativa och positiva effekter kan vi se så här långt? Hur ser vi på framtiden?

I denna skrift presenteras en utskrift av seminariet. Här ges även ett teoretiskt perspektiv samt en översikt över de reformer den svenska polisen genomgått sedan mitten av 1960-talet.

Anders Ivarsson Westerberg är docent i företagsekonomi och verksam vid Förvaltningsakademin, Södertörns högskola.

Ort, förlag, år, upplaga, sidor

Huddinge: Södertörns högskola, 2017. s. 88 Upplaga: 1