Business Process Re-Engineering and Balanced Scorecard in Swedish Public Sector Organizations: Solutions for Problems or Problems for Solutions?

This article analyzes and discusses the adoption and implementation of Business Process Re‐Engineering (BPR) at a hospital and Balanced Scorecard (BSC) at a local government. At the hospital, BPR was adopted as a solution to problems, but became de-coupled from operations, and later used for legitimacy reasons. At the local government, without having identified clear problems, BSC was adopted as an attractive solution but became coupled, rather than de-coupled, to operations. Our study shows that de-coupling does not follow the path proposed by neo-institutional theory, and that legitimacy from popular management concepts can be obtained both by coupling and by de-coupling the concepts from operations.     

Legislating Change? Responses to Criminalizing Female Genital Cutting in Senegal

Although the international community has recently promoted legislation as an important reform strategy for ending female genital cutting (FGC), there exist divergent views on its potential effects. Supporters argue that legal prohibition of FGC has a general deterrent effect, while others argue legislation can be perceived as coercive, and derail local efforts to end the practice. This study examines the range of responses observed in rural Senegal, where a 1999 anti‐FGC law was imposed on communities in which the practice was being actively contested and targeted for elimination. Drawing on data from a mixed‐methods study, we analyze responses in relation to two leading theories on social regulation, the law and economics and law and society paradigms, which make divergent predictions on the interplay between social norms and legal norms. Among supporters of FGC, legal norms ran counter to social norms, and did little to deter the practice, and in some instances incited reactance or drove the practice underground. Conversely, where FGC was being contested, legislation served to strengthen the stance of those contemplating or favoring abandonment. We conclude that legislation can complement other reform strategies by creating an “enabling environment” that supports those who have or wish to abandon FGC.     

Questioning the media and democracy relationship: the case of South Africa

This article addresses normative ideas around the role of journalism and the news media's links to the democratic process in South Africa and many other post-colonial societies in the Global South. In particular, the article addresses questions around the news media's role as the Fourth Estate and its claims to public representation, as well as the role that new media and social media in particular play in the media-politics nexus and in the strengthening of democracy (in its many guises). The article assesses the contextual factors that need to be considered in the analysis of media development and the roles and functions ascribed to the news media from within the context of the post-colony and young democracies in the Global South.     

Implementing and Integrating Policies on Performance-Based Pay: Coordinating the “One-Employer Approach” in a Swedish Municipality

In Sweden, performance-based pay has gone furthest in the public sector. This development has placed demands on employers to have a transparent and salient salary review process with which to evaluate employees uniformly and fair – and to act in a unitary manner, as one employer. Pay policies aim to coordinate salary reviews in organizations. However, the transfer of policy to practice is not easy and research has shown a gap between intended and implemented policies. Drawing on a case study in a municipality, this article expands knowledge on policy transfer by exploring and describing how HR, unions, managers and employees perceive implementation and integration of the pay policies, and to what extent the municipality succeeds in a one-employer approach. The findings suggest that the municipality fails to act as one employer and that the units that are most successful in implementing the policy are those closer to top management.