Municipal companies are hybrid organizations hosting multiple institutional logics operating at the interface between the public and private sector. We propose an analytical framework inspired by the institutional logics perspective, which can help us understand how performance assessment in municipal corporate boards develops as they navigate between the interests of the owner, the external stakeholders and the company.

In this paper we look at how managers perceive and manage meetings between different institutional logics in three types of hybrid organisations; a savings bank, a municipality and a hospital. The paper contributes to our understanding of organisational hybridity in two ways: First, drawing on Scott's three institutional pillars, the paper shows how meetings between different institutional logics involve not just the cultural-cognitive pillar, usually highlighted in work on hybrid organisations, but all of them, including the regulative and the normative pillars. Second, the paper suggests a hierarchical relationship between meetings and responses, ranging from less elaborate responses that primarily involve the regulative pillar to more complex and all-encompassing responses that include not only the regulative and the normative but also the cultural-cognitive pillar, triggering questions and issues about identity and purpose.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how middle managers respond when an existing institutional logic is reinforced through radical organisational change. We analyse documents and interviews with middle managers in three public sector contexts (hospitals, upper secondary schools, municipal agencies) in which the power balance between the managerial and professional logics changed through mergers. Contrary to expectations from previous research, we found a variety of responses across contexts. Our data suggest that the middle managers chose whether to acknowledge available information about the managerial logic, and that they either accepted or rejected the new power balance between the logics. There were two different ways of accepting the new power balance: by showing loyalty or through resignation. Its rejection took the form of strategically adhering to the managerial logic as a novice, even though a middle manager were, or should have been, familiar with this logic.3

In this paper, we examine skill‐related uncertainties among middle managers during organizational change. The question emerged from a qualitative study of two planned organizational change initiatives in the public sector where a group of middle managers were required to learn new skills because of changes in their work tasks and managerial roles. In both cases, we found that change recipients experienced two types of job‐related uncertainty in the post‐training phase: role ambiguity and operationalization uncertainty. Role ambiguity refers to challenges in understanding diverse expectations tied to the future work situation and necessary skills, whereas operationalization uncertainty refers to the challenges of putting new skills into practice. Although necessary and important, formal training was not sufficient to resolve these challenges. Rather, the change recipients engaged in informal and horizontal communication to resolve uncertainties related to new skill and role requirements.

Abstract:The purpose of this study was to explore factors in the municipal workplace environment that can facilitate experienced nurses in promoting their professional competence. This is of particular importance when critically ill patients are discharged from hospital. We interviewed nine nurses who had more than five years' experience in the Norwegian municipal healthcare services and analysed data by qualitative content analysis. We found that the informants have to cope with situations for which they have not been adequately prepared. Two factors in their workplace environment influenced the promotion of their professional competence in such situations: access to knowledge and information, and supportive colleagues. Experienced nurses are an important resource for information and support. However, the findings also suggest that nurses at all levels of competence are dependent on working environments that promote a high standard of nursing.https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/njn An interview study of experienced nurses´ perceptions AbstractThe purpose of this study was to explore factors in the municipal workplace environment that can facilitate experienced nurses in promoting their professional competence. This is of particular importance when critically ill patients are discharged from hospital. We interviewed nine nurses who had more than five years' experience in the Norwegian municipal healthcare services and analysed data by qualitative content analysis. We found that the informants have to cope with situations for which they have not been adequately prepared. Two factors in their workplace environment influenced the promotion of their professional competence in such situations: access to knowledge and information, and supportive colleagues. Experienced nurses are an important resource for information and support. However, the findings also suggest that nurses at all levels of competence are dependent on working environments that promote a high standard of nursing.