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Abstract: Aim: to understand and explain how the borderland between civil and corporate societies are constructed and reproduced in the organisations subjectivity. I want to study the navigations and interpretations of the different actors in the field in an explorative manner.

How do the leaders of the organisations interpret governing and strategic management? What concepts are used? How is the leadership constructed?

How do they discuss the demands of management and structure coming from outside the organisations? How are the organisations shaped by accountability and normative conceptions of leadership?

What is their view on the demands coming from within the organisations? What role does the democratic governance body have in relation to the employees and the management?

What is their view on employment, relations with trade unions and employer associations and the managerial position of the organisations?

The Swedish context with strong emphasis on membership and democratic rights for the members and volunteers has not gained a large impact on the international research concerning non-profit management. Instead the service delivering organisations working with government contract and hired recruiters and volunteer management is in focus. This makes it a very interesting area of research. My specific interest is in the management of employees in this type of organisation and how the use of corporate management theory can give us a clue to how the organisations perceive their subjectivity; are they companies without a profit goal or are they nonprofits with employees?

The methodology; I have conducted interviews with leaders in some of the most well known and interesting organisations in this field. The Swedish Red Cross, Saco - The Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations, and the Fair Enterprise Network, a social business enterprise. To contrast their answers I interviewed the Employers' Association IDEA and the section for employees in non-profit organisations within JUSEK union. I have had a social constructivist perspective and approach in my research as my interest is about how interpretations are made, how leaders construct their view of the organisation and their role in it and the meaning behind the words that are used to make sense of the organisations.

My conclusions is that a new terminology and more research is needed, the work situation of employees, they work in a no-man’s-land where expectations, order structure, limitations, rights and obligations are all very unclear and floating. This may be a result of a lack of theory and concepts that are unique for the civil society and that the organisations are forced to use management terms and concepts. There is a very real dilemma for the organisations; the increased demand of numbers and data to verify the quality of the organisations, the increased interpretation of competition within the sector and the lack of concepts to show this in a truthful and justifiable way.

Keywords: ideell sektor; chefskap; ideell logik; mätbarhet; styrning

Language: Swedish

61 pages, October 2, 2009

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