Mid Sweden University

Welfare organizations, as is the case with municipalities, face formidable challenges due to demographic changes that project a future increase in the number of people requiring services. These changes impact the professionals within these Supplemental materialorganizations, including social workers, who are pivotal in maintaining contact with citizens necessitating service. Furthermore, research has indicated more demanding working conditions under the influence of neoliberal governance. Welfare organizations are actively implementing reforms to tackle these impediments. Adopting trust-based governance (TBG) has been one such approach in Sweden. This article explores the introduction of TBG within a municipality, focusing on its impact on essential social work professionals of children and young adults. The study, conducted through eight focus group interviews with 28 social work professionals, aims to explore the introduction of TBG in these professionals using thematic analysis and occupational and organizational professional perspectives. The study’s key findings indicate that the introduction of TBG in the municipality has varied effects on social services, depending on the specific roles and responsibilities of the social service professionals. TBG offers opportunities and challenges, empowering social workers while placing additional responsibilities on them. Understanding these dynamics is crucial as welfare organizations evolve, as it is essential for optimizing service delivery and supporting social work professionals. 

Gender mainstreaming (GM) has been on the agenda of organisations at various levels in Sweden and worldwide since the 1990s. Research has shown that GM is difficult to apply and has yet to be clearly defined, and additionally that organisations are uncertain about how to implement it. Research also suggests that the dominance of the new public management (NPM) approach within organisations has made GM work more challenging. In this article, we examine GM in a medium-sized Swedish municipality that is reorganising itself to become gender mainstreamed while introducing trust-based governance (TBG). This municipality provides a unique opportunity to study how GM is constructed in a municipality at the intersection of NPM and TBG. Applying a critical perspective, this article analyses documents from reorganisation based on Bacchi’s (2009) policy analysis. The results demonstrate that GM is mainly translated into TBG-inspired practices and that efficiency becomes an overarching concept that entangles GM, TBG and NPM. GM becomes part of cultural change together with TBG, while NPM maintains its dominance in the structural change of the organisation.

Fyra kvinnor sitter vid bordet i den lite utkylda bygdegården med varsin skärm framför sig och en kopp nära till hands. Det är en kväll i april 2019. Stämningen är koncentrerad, inte högljudd eller uppsluppen. En ställer frågan: har vi protokollet från nämnden? En annan svarar: jag skickar det på mejlen nu. Tangenterna smattrar, utkast skickas, formuleringar finslipas, argument lyfts fram. Hundra meter från bygdegården med det branta taket ligger skolan. En röd byggnad i tre våningar där karmarna i de nyligen utbytta fönstren lyser vita. Där sitter en femte kvinna, på ett hastigt sammankallat föräldramöte där verksamheten inför hösten ska presenteras. Det vill säga den verksamhet som inte ska finnas kvar, eftersom eleverna ska flyttas till en större skola. Kvinnan på mötet skriver textmeddelanden om vad som sägs. De fyra vid borden i bygdegården formulerar utifrån detta en skrivelse till politikerna i kommunen. Innan kvällen är slut kommer den att skickas.