Anne Reff Pedersen

Emerging Theoretical Understanding of Pluricentric Coordination in Public Governance

Currently, we are witnessing a comprehensive change in the theoretical understandings of how coordination is provided in the pursuit of public governance. Traditional strands of theory took their departure from the presumption that coordination is the outcome of processes within coherent institutionally or functionally demarcated units that follows a specific pregiven rational logic of consequentiality. This view is apparent in public administration theory, organization theory, and planning theory. In recent years, this unitary, rationalist understanding of coordination has been challenged by a more pluricentric understanding of coordination in public governance. Coordination is viewed as a messy and floating process that revolves around interactive arenas that promote communication between a plurality of interpretive logics and situated practises. Although the traditional theories of coordination tended to view vertical and horizontal forms of coordination as radically different modes of coordination, the new theories question the analytical value of this distinction by pointing to the relational, interpretive, interdependent, and interactive aspects of all coordination processes including processes in which public authorities seek to govern their subjects. In the new theories, one of the main questions is how to get a better hold of this new understanding of coordination in processes of public governance. The article aims to do so by bringing together insights from three theoretical strands: public administration theory, organizational theory, and planning theory to show how each of them are currently contributing to the development of what we define as a theory of pluricentric coordination in public governance.

Fragmented work stories: Developing an antenarrative approach by discontinuity, tensions and editing

Following a strand of narrative studies pointing to the living conditions of storytelling and the micro-level implications of working within fragmented narrative perspectives, this article contributes to narrative research on work stories by focusing on how meaning is created from fragmented stories. We argue that meaning by story making is not always created by coherence and causality; meaning is created by different types of fragmentation: discontinuities, tensions and editing. The objective of this article is to develop and advance antenarrative practice analysis of work stories by exploring how different types of fragmentation create meanings. This is done by studying the work stories of job and personnel consultants and by drawing on the results of a narrative, ethnographic study of a consultancy. The analysis demonstrates how work stories are social practices negotiated, retold, edited and performed by the storyteller in an ongoing process allowing tensions, discontinuities and editing between failures and achievements, between dreams and work realities and between home and work life. We argue that by including different types of fragmentation, we offer a new type of antenarrative practice approach that offers a contemporary method for exploring meaning creation in work stories.

Denmark’s Master of Public Governance program Assessment and lessons learned

This paper focuses on Denmark’s Master of Public Governance and its assessments and lessons learned. Denmark is seen to have an efficient economy and public sector, a digitalized public service delivery system, and an advanced work–life balance. The Danish government invested substantial resources into developing a Master of Public Governance program – a flexible and modular program for public managers to take over a period of up to six years. The paper focuses on the Copenhagen version of the Master of Public Governance program. More than 1000 public managers from central, regional and local government are now active in pursuing an executive public management education through this program. The development, structure, content and the innovative teaching ideas are presented. The available data, including an official evaluation of the MPG program, is used to assess the program and present some lessons learned. The program has achieved its goals as public managers express satisfaction with the content and the flexible structure of the program, which suited more governance-oriented public managers with a need for strategic-thinking public managers, and has provided them with an opportunity to try out innovative teaching ideas. Lessons learned include the necessity of securing back-up from the government for a program of this considerable size, offering a flexible array of accessible and up-to-date courses and ensuring collaboration between universities offering the program.

Organizational Healthcare Innovation Performed by Contextual Sense Making

Organizational change occurs when innovative ideas are implemented and translated into the everyday life of healthcare organizations and concerns the involvement of local healthcare professionals. A number of studies describe the resistance professionals can exhibit during organizational change processes (Bloom, 1998; Sehested, 2002). One way of gaining an understanding of this resistance is by investigating the meanings healthcare professionals derive from the implementation process and by examining how meanings can become a driver for involvement in the implementation process, but also by looking at how losses of meanings can become a barrier to involvement. This chapter investigates the contextual meanings of healthcare professionals in healthcare innovation processes. The term ‘meaning’ refers to the storyteller’s creation of meanings from narrative knowledge and narrative practice (Bruner, 1986; Humle and Pedersen, 2014).

Collaborative Narrative Innovation A Case of Public Innovation in Denmark

Innovation in the public sector is not a new development; for many years public employees have been active innovators, building bridges, building new hospitals and changing the relationship between professionals and users in everyday life.