Care for Sale: The Influence of New Public Management in Child Protection in Sweden

Höjer, Staffan; Forkby, Torbjörn

doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcq053

Cited by 58 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Nevertheless, the social processes and the groupbased emotions they evoke (such as pride), most probably have direct consequences for attitudinal and behavioral outcomes (e.g., Hornsey & Hogg, 2000;Tyler & Blader, 2001). For example, the management policies in the public sector in which administrative units are held accountable and responsible for the results, not only regarding their costs but also their incomes, make it increasingly difficult for employees to identify with (Ashforth & Johnson, 2001;Höjer & Forkby, 2011) and feel pride for the overall organization. This may fuel workgroup identification.…”

Section: Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Job Resources to Promote Feelings of Pride in the Organization: The Role of Social Identification

Welander

Wallin

Isaksson

2017

SCAND J WORK ORGAN PSYCHOL

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Employees are assumed to obtain job resources from and identify with the organization they work for. Previously, the concepts of job resources and social identification have mostly been studied holistically, that is, on one general organizational level. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how job resources, operationalized at two different levels (workgroup and organizational) in two organizations, could have an influence on group-based pride that employees feel for their workgroups and for their organizations. Social identification is purported to intervene in this relationship on respective level, and its inclusion is expected to contribute to different forms of pride. Regression analyses of questionnaire data gathered from 436 employees in two middle-sized municipalities in Sweden revealed that: (1) a workgroup's resources explained additional variance in workgroup pride beyond the effects of resources at the organizational level, (2) organizational resources explained additional variance in organizational pride beyond that of workgroup resources, and (3) social identification in both these areas was a potential partial mediator in these relationships. These findings highlight the need to distinguish between workgroup and organizational levels regarding both independent and dependent variables. Such clarification of the multiple identifications and group-based pride dynamics could have practical implications for Human Resource (HR) managers in particular.

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Section: Practical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Job Resources to Promote Feelings of Pride in the Organization: The Role of Social Identification

Welander

Wallin

Isaksson

2017

SCAND J WORK ORGAN PSYCHOL

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“…were constructed individually and by the group of CPC members would also have been interesting because it may have enabled us to find out more about how aware the CPC members are of their influence. Some of these aspects, such as social workers' perceptions of CPC decision making strategies, have been discussed in a previous study (Ho¨jer & Forkby, 2011). The issue of monitoring will be focused on in future analyses from this project.…”

Section: Limitations Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Questions of control in child protection decision making: Laypersons’ monitoring and governance in child protection committees in Sweden

Forkby

Höjer

Liljegren

2014

Journal of Social Work

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In Sweden, decision making in child protection is heavily dependent on laypersons appointed to municipal child protection committees (CPCs). These laypersons have the power to decide upon proposals coming from professionals. Members of the committees are appointed from among their political party's members. In the committee, they are supposed to act as judicious laypersons equipped with sound judgement. In this study, 31 committee meetings in three municipalities were followed using observational techniques and audio recordings. The appointed CPC members' decisionmaking processes and communicative strategies to influence social work practice were analysed.Findings: The results show differences between the CPCs, indicating localized decisionmaking cultures. The representatives worked (not as party politicians, but) as a team with the professionals as counterparts. Communication strategies, most frequently questions, were used to govern the social work practice, over and above the decision making. Questions served both to obtain the information needed and also to exert normative influence by setting up a normative grid for ways to pass the committee. Downloaded from Applications: This research shows that social work in Sweden has a long way to go until it is acknowledged full professional status. The study also suggests that improvements in the CPCs' decision making need to be based on a closer look at the laypersons' knowledge, values and common sense and how these aspects affect decision making.

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“…) and supervisors (Shanks et al . ), and undertaking case studies of purchaser/providers splits (Wiklund ) and municipal procurement strategies (Höjer and Forkby ) in the wake of NPM. Overall, these studies identify difficulties when agencies adopt business‐like arrangements, cultures and performance orientations within child welfare work.…”

Section: Marketization and Privatization In Child Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Big Business in a Thin Market: Understanding the Privatization of Residential Care for Children and Youth in Sweden

et al. 2015

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This article analyzes the transformation of Swedish residential care for children from a regionally coordinated, public social service system into a thin, but highly profitable, national spot market in which large corporations have a growing presence. Marketization and privatization are theorized as complex processes, through which the institutional structure and logics of this small, but significant, social policy field changed profoundly. Using official documents, register data, media reports and existing research, three consecutive phases in the development of the children's home market are identified since the early 1980s. Change was driven on one hand by policies inspired by New Public Management, which shifted public authority horizontally to the private sector, and vertically to local authorities (funding) and to the state (regulation). On the other hand were the responses of local authorities and private actors to the changing incentives that policy shifts entailed. During the first two phases, both the proportion and size of for‐profit providers increased, and the model of family‐like care was replaced by a professional model. Cutting across the trend of privatization in the third phase was establishment of a parallel system of homes for unaccompanied refugee children – mostly in public ownership. Similarities with privatization in the English system of children's care homes are noted. By showing how the Swedish market for residential care has been created by policy and by actors’ responses to those reforms, the article provides a foundation for thinking through how the predictable, significant and well‐documented problems of such care markets might be addressed.

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Care for Sale: The Influence of New Public Management in Child Protection in Sweden

Cited by 58 publications

References 11 publications

Job Resources to Promote Feelings of Pride in the Organization: The Role of Social Identification

Job Resources to Promote Feelings of Pride in the Organization: The Role of Social Identification

Questions of control in child protection decision making: Laypersons’ monitoring and governance in child protection committees in Sweden

Big Business in a Thin Market: Understanding the Privatization of Residential Care for Children and Youth in Sweden

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