Mats Fred
Associate Senior Lecturer
Projectification in Swedish municipalities. A case of porous organizations
Author
Summary, in English
This article aims to expand our understanding of projectification in Swedish municipalities. Above all the article explores to what extent processes of projectification can be identified and if so how they unfold. The article draws its inspiration from critical management
studies and uses the notion of sensemaking to identify the practices of projectification processes. Three processes of projectification are used for an illustrative casestudy: municipality’s involvement with EU funded projects ; social investment funds – a new and growing phenomenon of project funding systems within Swedish municipalities;
and project models – standards for how projects should be organized. Projectification, it is argued, contains more than just a lot of projects. It also comprises organizational changes and affects the way employees talk about and understand their ordinary work. Projects are described as a routine in municipal organizations and the routinely based activities in these organizations, it is argued are exposed to projectifying processes. The author argues that describing public organizations as porous is useful and needed, in order to comprise both the flexible and temporary aspects of public organizations, as well as
their more permanent and rigid structures.
studies and uses the notion of sensemaking to identify the practices of projectification processes. Three processes of projectification are used for an illustrative casestudy: municipality’s involvement with EU funded projects ; social investment funds – a new and growing phenomenon of project funding systems within Swedish municipalities;
and project models – standards for how projects should be organized. Projectification, it is argued, contains more than just a lot of projects. It also comprises organizational changes and affects the way employees talk about and understand their ordinary work. Projects are described as a routine in municipal organizations and the routinely based activities in these organizations, it is argued are exposed to projectifying processes. The author argues that describing public organizations as porous is useful and needed, in order to comprise both the flexible and temporary aspects of public organizations, as well as
their more permanent and rigid structures.
Department/s
- Department of Political Science
Publishing year
2015
Language
English
Pages
49-68
Publication/Series
Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration
Volume
19
Issue
2
Full text
- Available as PDF - 464 kB
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Document type
Journal article
Publisher
University of Gothenburg, School of Public Administration
Topic
- Public Administration Studies
Keywords
- Projectification Porous organization Sensemaking Critical management Public administration
Status
Published
Project
- Collaboration and autonomy in public administration: problem, opportunity, or both?
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 2001-7405