<p>This case study focuses on the intentions of public sector transformation. In particular, on a Swedish public authority, the National Rail Administration (NRA) this is studied and analysed. As in other parts of the Swedish public sector, the management of this authority is planning and executing ‘marketisation’ reforms. Parts of NRA’s monopoly are to be ended and to be guided by the market. The aim of the study is to examine how conflicts between management and employees are shaped according to the changes taking place. Firstly, the study assesses how management interprets the new demands put upon the organisation and translates them into action. These actions illustrated as changes from 'monopoly to market' in order to be a legitimate business competitor; from ‘bureaucracy to flexibility’ in order to enhance competence and changing employees' identities from 'technique to tactic' in order to serve the customer properly</p><p>The study then examines the management-driven implementation of these reforms; and how the employees respond to the changes from a resistance perspective. The discussion highlights what happens when the new management-driven organising principles meet the old, technology-oriented principles of employees. This contributes to a deepened understanding of why organisational changes made in the name of ‘market’, ‘flexibility’ and ‘customer’ meet resistance in the public sector. From a resistance perspective the changes are understood as ‘rationalisation’, work intensification’ and increased ‘individual control’, which per se leads to undermining of the traditional safety culture and technical skills. The customer orientation is met with highly ironic attitudes and interpreted as ‘infantilisation’ of the employees.</p><p>The concluding remarks are that conflict and antagonism is ever present in organisations and in this case manifest in three domains, legitimating, restructuring and revaluating, and between management perspective and resistance perspective.</p>

This case study focuses on the intentions of public sector transformation. In particular, on a Swedish public authority, the National Rail Administration (NRA) this is studied and analysed. As in other parts of the Swedish public sector, the management of this authority is planning and executing ‘marketisation’ reforms. Parts of NRA’s monopoly are to be ended and to be guided by the market. The aim of the study is to examine how conflicts between management and employees are shaped according to the changes taking place. Firstly, the study assesses how management interprets the new demands put upon the organisation and translates them into action. These actions illustrated as changes from 'monopoly to market' in order to be a legitimate business competitor; from ‘bureaucracy to flexibility’ in order to enhance competence and changing employees' identities from 'technique to tactic' in order to serve the customer properly The study then examines the management-driven implementation of these reforms; and how the employees respond to the changes from a resistance perspective. The discussion highlights what happens when the new management-driven organising principles meet the old, technology-oriented principles of employees. This contributes to a deepened understanding of why organisational changes made in the name of ‘market’, ‘flexibility’ and ‘customer’ meet resistance in the public sector. From a resistance perspective the changes are understood as ‘rationalisation’, work intensification’ and increased ‘individual control’, which per se leads to undermining of the traditional safety culture and technical skills. The customer orientation is met with highly ironic attitudes and interpreted as ‘infantilisation’ of the employees. The concluding remarks are that conflict and antagonism is ever present in organisations and in this case manifest in three domains, legitimating, restructuring and revaluating, and between management perspective and resistance perspective.

<p>  </p> <p>Driving simulators have been introduced by some American states’ department of transportation (DOT) as a supplementary tool to train their snowplow drivers. This is a costly investment that requires careful planning. Yet, there is a current lack of recent studies that holistically evaluate factors affecting the decision-making process on adopting the driving simulator in winter snowplow driver training. The current research aims to fill this gap by employing the theoretical framework of Technology-Organization-Environment (T-O-E) to explore factors affecting state DOTs’ decision-making process of adopting snowplow driving simulator in driver training. Relevant factors were identified first using a scoping review of literature, and then validated by interviews with DOT stakeholders. Subsequent findings from the state DOT survey suggests that perceived long-term effect on public safety, cost related to simulator training, and ease of the relocation of simulator are the top contributors when it comes to the factors affecting decision-making on adoption of snowplow driving simulator in training. The resulted T-O-E framework contains 11 factors cross-verified from various sources, in which most factors such as simulator fidelity and relative advantage were categorized to technology context under the T-O-E framework, while the main environment factor relates to normative and mimetic pressure. The paper contributes to academic research by applying T-O-E to offer decision making support for using simulator technology for training of snowplow drivers; and to practitioners by providing state DOT decision makers a framework to analyze different factors on adopting snowplow driving simulators in training.</p>