In this article, we explore how public front‐line service organizations respond to contradictory demands for institutional reform and the types of hybridization this entails. Our research context is a major administrative welfare reform in Norway characterized by a dominant New Public Management (NPM) logic of uniform user service and central administrative control, and a subordinate post‐NPM logic of holistic user service and local organizational autonomy. We elucidate four types of responses by the front‐line organizations as they have incorporated these contradictory demands: ‘non‐hybridity’ (ignoring post‐NPM demands), ‘ad hoc hybridity’ (indecisive adherence to both demands), ‘negative hybridity’ (separation of the demands), and ‘positive hybridity’ (integration of both demands). On the basis of these findings, we argue that hybridization and agency are possible in fields of public reform characterized by a highly institutionalized NPM logic and explore the key organizational characteristics that facilitate hybridization in such fields.

ork in the public sector has been changing dramatically in recent decades. Reforms aimed at increasing the efficiency of public services have been extensive in the Nordic countries and elsewhere since the 1980s. The reforms and changes have to a large extent been associated with so-called New Public Management (NPM) principles, emphasizing the market as a central coordination mechanism. Consequently, public institutions have been restructured, their services are standardized and commodified, and market-like relationships between them have been created. In order to create markets and transform citizens into customers on a market, outsourcing and privatization have been stimulated (

Working life research does not have clear boundaries; however its focus is quite clear: Changes in working life and how these changes affect qualifications, health, occupations, innovation, the economy, identity, social orientation and culture. The density of working life research is quite high in the Nordic countries, and this research has always been involved in the development of the Nordic welfare societies in which the development of work has been one important factor. In this article working life research is presented in its historical contexts, emphasizing the welfare challenges to which the research has been related. The challenges and tensions related to the research are not presented as being simply internal to the research work, they also reflect challenges and tensions in working life and institutions that are supposed to support working life. Current controversies in working life research in the four Nordic countries will briefly be presented, and institutional challenges for the research in the four countries will be exemplified. Finally, the aims of the journal will be outlined.

The Scandinavian industrial democracy experiments (IDEs) contained elements of organization theories, based particularly on sociotechnical systems theory (STS). In this paper, we provide an introduction to some main points of these theories and their aftermath, as a context for the six papers of the special issue on the relevance of the organization theories of the IDE for contemporary organizational realities. The six papers are also summarized and positioned in relation to the theoretical insights from the IDE. KEy woRds Scandinavian industrial democracy experiments / sociotechnical systems theory / responsible autonomy / joint optimization

Managers of street-level organizations play an important role in the successful implementation of public reforms. A prevailing view within the public administration literature is that this work involves the adaptation between reforms and local contexts, where divergence is viewed as a form of resistance to change. The paper challenges this prevalent reform-centric view by introducing a situation-centric perspective and coining the concept of situational work as a significant form of managerial work during implementation. Situational work encompasses managerial actions that ensure functional and well-ordered service delivery in local street-level organizations by accomodating everyday situational contingencies, including reform objectives, but also the interests and expectations of workers, clients, and local service partners. The concept of situational work, then, broadens the recognized scope of managerial activities that contribute to successful reform implementation, reconceptualizing divergence from reform design as constructive rather than as resistance to change. The paper draws on an extensive multi-wave study of a major organizational reform in Norway, based on observations of meetings as well as qualitative interviews of managers, union representatives, frontline workers and collaborating partners in six welfare service offices at three points in time (altogether 23 observation sessions and 173 interviews).