Working on connective professionalism: What cross-sector strategists in Swedish public organizations do to develop connectivity in addressing ‘wicked’ policy problems

Abstract

In light of current debates on ‘protective’ and ‘connective’ professionalism, this article explores a new type of occupational position that is emerging within the Swedish public sector: the cross-sector strategist. The growing presence of this intermediary occupational position is seen as attempts to formalize and institutionalize the imprecise roles and governance of ‘wicked’ policy problems, and the job of these strategists is focused on supporting other jurisdictions to meet and act. By pursuing connective strategies in the form of triggering, selling, bridging, brokering, and forming accountabilities, cross-sector strategists seek to establish embedded workspaces where strategic action and decisions can be produced jointly and across jurisdictional boundaries. The study illustrates how calls for changes in professional action towards connectivity are now part of the formal organizational structure of public sector organizations, confirming the incapability of professional actors to connect in the absence of intermediary support functions. In the concluding discussion, we consider the relevance of ‘connective professionalism’ as a descriptive theoretical device applied to work settings understood as increasingly complex and interdependent, with calls for inter-professional collaboration and intensifying engagement in preventing problems rather than simply treating them.