D. Tech (Department of Human Resource Management, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The expectation by South Africans is that the public sector must contribute positively to the economy. However, the general perception is that the public sector is failing to fulfil its mandate due to systemic problems in the entire public sector. Its supply chain in South Africa is both volatile and imperfect. This is demonstrated by the level of service delivery protests, which emanate from the feeling that the public is not receiving the quantity or quality service that they need. This study aimed to assess the relationship between supply chain risks, supply chain flexibility and supply chain performance in the South African public sector. A conceptual framework was developed, which included six supply chain risk factors, namely, government policies, supply complexity, availability of skills, supplier performance monitoring, information security and process efficiency, which feed into supply chain flexibility, which in turn leads to supply chain performance. Seven hypotheses underlying these relationships were put forward for testing. A quantitative approach using the cross-sectional survey design was adopted in which a questionnaire was distributed to 306 conveniently selected supply chain professionals who were based in Gauteng province. Items used in the survey questionnaire were adapted from previously validated scales. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the psychometric properties of the measurement instrument. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the perceptions of respondents towards the factors under consideration in the study. Hypotheses were tested using the structural equation modelling approach. The results of the study show that the threat from supply chain risks in the South African public sector remains high, and that flexibility and performance of the supply chain remains unsatisfactory. Hypotheses tests showed that all six supply chain risks significantly predicted supply chain performance. While the other supply chain risks were positively related to supply chain flexibility, the relationship between the flexibility and supply complexity was negative. Amongst the supply chain risks considered in this study, availability of skills emerged as the strongest predictor of supply chain flexibility. The study further showed that supply chain flexibility significantly and positively predicts supply chain performance. Theoretically, the study provides a specific conceptualization of the relationship between supply chain risks, supply chain flexibility and supply chain performance within the South African public sector, where no such study has been conducted before. Practically, it provides information to supply chain professionals in the South African public sector regarding the improvement of supply chain performance. The study underscores that the performance public supply chain in South Africa can be improved by managing the six risks considered in this study, and their contribution to supply chain flexibility.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Local governments worldwide are invariably faced with challenges of human capacity constraints, corruption, lack of operating transparency and accountability, dysfunctional ward committees, poor public participation, non-compliance with legislation and by-laws, poor prioritisation of community needs, unaligned budget processes, unauthorised and wasteful expenditure, tensions between politicians and administrators, as well as weak financial viability. A strong legal framework, clearly defining authority and accountability, backed by relevant skills development training, are necessary foundations for service delivery; however, without the appropriate training, staff performance could remain inadequate. Various countries have reached varying levels of local government effectiveness; however, all too often municipalities do not have the adequate skills required, to deliver the services needed, to ensure community development.

The public sector has opened its eyes to the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI) transforming and streamlining their organizations. However, they are lagging behind the private sector organizations in competency, knowledge, as well as resources, and have difficulties implementing any type of change. While there are studies on change within public sector, along with AI use in such organizations, there is a lack of research concerning perceptions of AI in public organizations, and organizational analysis based on those perceptions. This study aims to address this gap, by studying a department within Umeå Municipality with technology determinism and instrumentalism in mind, examining their attitudes and views of AI, and how those may affect a future implementation. The findings made through the study involve a thorough analysis, showing both deterministic and instrumentalist views, coming from both the municipality and the department. While there is a lack of competency and resources, the employees show an understanding, a need, and motivation for including AI and other digital tools in their work. The study describes possible approaches the department can take, and has contributed to the beginning of filling the mentioned research gap.

Idag går teknikutvecklingen och digitaliseringen snabbt framåt. För att kunna dra nytta av digitaliseringens möjligheter krävs bland annat förändringsarbete. Tidigare forskning visar att det är brist på empiriska studier om förändringsarbete inom offentlig sektor. Syftet med studien är därför att bidra med kunskap inom ämnet förändringsarbete inom offentlig sektor och ge en djupgående förståelse för hur ledare arbetar med förändringsarbete. Genom en kvalitativ studie studerar vi hur ledare inom offentliga verksamheter arbetar med förändringsarbete i samband med systemimplementeringar och hur benägna de är till att genomföra förändringsarbete. Vår studie är baserad på sex djupgående intervjuer fördelade på två ledare på en region och fyra ledare på en kommun i Sverige. Studien är även baserad på förändringsmodellen ADKAR för att undersöka hur ledare arbetar med förändringsarbete utefter dessa milstolpar. Resultatet av studien visade att ledare inom de offentliga verksamheter där studien genomfördes, arbetar aktivt med förändringsarbete genom att kommunicera och vara transparenta i verksamheterna vid implementering av nya informationssystem samt är i stor omfattning benägna till att genomföra förändringsarbete. Studien har även resulterat i ett förbättringsförslag till ADKAR-modellen, i form av en utökning med ytterligare en milstolpe kallad Openness. Den nya förändringsmodellen blir ADKARO. / Today, technological developments and digitalization are moving forward at a rapid pace, however in order to benefit from the advantages of digitalization, change management is required. Previous research shows that there are not enough empirical studies on change management in public organizations. The purpose of the study is therefore to contribute with knowledge within the subject of change management and to provide a thorough understanding of how leaders in the public sector work with change management. Through a qualitative study, we research how leaders in public organizations work with change management when implementing new information systems and how inclined they are to implement change management. The study is based on six interviews, two within a region and four within a municipality in Sweden. The study was conducted using the change management model ADKAR to evaluate how leaders work with change management. The results of the study showed that leaders within the public sector where the study was conducted, are actively working on change management by communicating and being transparent within their organizations when implementing new information systems and are to a large extent inclined to carry out change management. The study also resulted in an improvement proposal for the ADKAR model, by extending the model with another acronym called Openness. The new model for change management becomes ADKARO.

The objective of this study is to gain an understanding of how change leaders and managers affect a change implementation in a municipality. To help increase the understanding, the study examines the change project Skolplattformen which was implemented in Sweden's largest municipality Stockholms stad. This to uncover areas that possibly could improve change initiatives in the public sphere. The literature review of the study examines the concepts of public sector related change, change management and change leadership in order to help answer our research questions. This qualitative single case study is conducted primarily through 13 semi-structured interviews with five interviewees, combined with data from publicly published documents. The findings are analyzed through subcategories derived from the theoretical concepts and suggest that the scale of the change project was too complex to implement smoothly in a municipal environment. Hence, lack of communication was shown, the timeframe prolonged and strategic changes in structure was at times unexplained. In the end, Skolplattformen did not meet expectations in relation to time and cost spent.

In this paper I analyse the first use of work studies in Swedish hospitals, between 1944 and 1960. The overall purpose of the study is to increase the knowledge of how Taylorism was introduced in the Swedish welfare state. The operational purpose is to increase the knowledge of how tayloristicwork studies influenced the health service and its employees, and how the health service influenced the tayloristic methods and the engineers who conducted the work studies.In the early 1940s, the shortage of trained staff and raising costs became motivations for rationalising Swedish healthcare. The idea of using work studies as a method of rationalisation was driven by the state, in contrast both to early attempts in the US as well as when Taylorism was introduced in Swedish industry. This "push" from the state, rather than a "pull" from hospitals and the fact that only five engineers were working on work studies in the entire healthcare sector, are the reasons why work studies did not produce any measurable economic results. To be able to use work studies at the hospitals, the engineers made major changes to the original tayloristic methods. All movement studies were scrapped, and four out of ten rationalisation proposals were not based on traditional Taylorism. All groups, except doctors, were studied but a difference can be seen from 1955 when rationalisation proposals were directed only at the supportfunctions. The reason for this was that the engineers worked on behalf of the regional councils, which steered the engineers away from direct care and towards support functions such as laundry. The professional identity of Swedish engineers after the First World War focused on cooperation, neutrality, problem solving and fact-based decisions. The same professional identity can be seen for the engineers in the healthcare sector, who also actively used their professional identity as an argument why their work could contribute to the healthcare system and its rationalisation. After 1960, Taylorism gained more ground in Swedish healthcare and the work studies most likely played a role in this, but it was not until hospitals were more industrialised that Taylorism was widely disseminated in the healthcare sector. It is, therefore, hard to say that it was the work studies that led to the industrialisation of hospitals in Sweden.

Background and Problem: The audit expectation gap is an interesting phenomenon whereseveral academics and researchers have studied this subject in the audit environment. However,in relation to the research conducted on the audit expectation gap in the private sector, a lack ofresearch exists on the audit expectation gap in the public sector. The importance ofunderstanding and realising the audit expectation gap in the public sector relies on the threatthe gap has on the legitimacy and trust of the national audit offices and public auditors. Purpose: This research study aims to explore the audit expectation gap in the public sector.The study seeks to investigate what manifests the audit expectation gap between the SwedishNational Audit Office and the society of Sweden. In addition, the study aims to moreoverunderstand the reasons for making the audit expectation gap emerge. Method: The study includes two different research methods aimed to explore the differentperceptions of the public auditors and the society concerning the roles and responsibilities ofpublic state auditors. Semi-structured interviews with auditors from the Swedish National AuditOffice were conducted to comprehend their perception of public auditors. In comparison,content analysis on a published news article of the Swedish National Audit Office was observedto comprehend the Swedish society’s perceptions of public auditors. The two research methodswere then analysed and compared to explore if an audit expectation gap exists between thedifferent perceptions. Findings: The findings provide an understanding of different contributors causing an auditexpectation gap to emerge between the Swedish National Audit Office and Swedish society.The findings suggest that the audit expectation gap can be a consequence of the public lack ofknowledge in the office, poor performance or failure to adhere to core ethical principles byeither the individual auditor or office or the efficiency of the standard and its sufficiency toprovide with high-quality auditing. When such situations or circumstances emerge, the findingsindicate that an audit expectation gap is manifested between the Swedish National Audit Officeand the Swedish society.

Svenska offentliga organisationer har behov av ärendehanteringssystem för att hantera offentlighetskraven som ställs på dem. En flora av sådana system finns, men det saknas anpassade metoder för att införa dessa, vilket kan resultera i misslyckade investeringar och brister i organisationernas måluppfyllelse. Denna studie föreslår därför en modell för införande av ärendehanteringssystem, som ska ge organisationerna det stöd de behöver i införandeprojekten. Studien utfördes genom en kvalitativ metod grundad på design science research där även element av action research ingick. De fyra forskningsfaserna som ingick var en intervjustudie, en litteraturstudie, framtagande av en införandemodell och utvärdering av modellen. En modell för införande av ärendehanteringssystem kallad NOKI-modellen togs fram, vilken grundade sig på tidigare forskning samt på de problem som upplevdes hos två svenska offentliga organisationer. Modellen utvärderades genom att appliceras på ett systeminförande hos de två organisationerna. Organisationerna var över lag nöjda med resultatet av införandet enligt NOKI-modellen, och uppfattade att modellen var ett bra stöd som även kunde ha ett värde för andra organisationer vid liknande systeminföranden. De lärdomar som drogs genom att utvärdera NOKI-modellens tydlighet, innehåll och implementationsvärde ledde till en föreslagen uppdaterad version kallad NOKIv2 som dock inte har utvärderats inom studien. Inga etiska problem med studien har kunnat identifieras då den ställts mot de kriterier som gäller för svensk forskning. En samhällelig aspekt med studiens resultat är att offentliga organisationer som, med hjälp av NOKI-modellen, genomför ett lyckat införande av ett ärendehanteringssystem sedan bättre kan uppfylla sina offentlighetskrav. Studiens resultat och slutsatser förmodas vara värdefulla för organisationer som skall införa ett ärendehanteringssystem samt för forskare som studerar införandeprocesser. / Swedish public organizations have a need for recordkeeping systems to handle the legal requirements placed on them. A flora of such systems exists, but there is a lack of properly adapted methods for adopting these systems, which can result in failed investments and lack of fulfillment of the organizational goals. The thesis was done through a qualitative method based on design science research where elements of action research also were present. The four phases of the thesis were a practical study, a theoretical study, the creation of a model for system adoption and finally an evaluation of the model. A model for the adoption of record keeping systems called the NOKI-model was created, which was based on earlier research as well as on the problems that were perceived by two Swedish public organizations. The model was evaluated by applying it on a system adoption project in the two organizations. The two organizations were generally pleased with the results of the system adoption through the NOKI-model, and perceived that the model was useful and that it also should have a value for usage by other organizations when doing similar system implementations. The lessons learned by evaluating the clarity, content and value of implementation of the NOKI-model led to an updated version called NOKIv2 which has not been evaluated within this thesis. No ethical problems could be identified in the study, when placed against the criteria that apply for Swedish research. A societal aspect with the results of the thesis is that public organizations that, using the NOKI-model, successfully adopt a record keeping system will be better equipped to fulfill their requirements of public availability. The results and conclusions of the thesis are presumed to be valuable for organizations that are about to adopt a record keeping system, as well as for researchers that are studying system adoption processes.

Lean Thinking has been widely implemented in various industries in the production context. Lately a number of companies in the service sector have developed lean systems within their organisations to improve efficiency, productivity, and quality of their services. In our study we are putting forward an approach for operational excellence using Lean Thinking principals in the public service context. The study was performed at the Swedish Tax Agency and the main process examined was mail-returns handling process, the main goal was to improve business process by eliminating non value adding activities within the mail-returns handling process. A thorough investigation of the Swedish Tax Agency process was carried out, primary (core) business process was identified. We examined the supporting processes and how they can affect the primary process performance, and we defined the activities associated with mail-returns handling process and the costs incurred, which led to having a fact-sheet that examined the entire process. Process mapping for the current state was carried out and Root Cause Analyses was performed. We identified root causes of the problem and process elements with high improvement potential, and we presented an optimisation proposal for the current state. Based on the optimisation proposal, an improvement proposal for the whole process was developed. Some of the notable attributes of this redesigned strategy were substantial cost savings and reduced process time. The proposal was approved by the Swedish tax agency and practical implementation is initiated.

Digitalization is an inevitable part of working life as well as life in general. At the same time, the leader is an important part of a business where they can act as an influential and engaging role.  The purpose of this essay is to look into the correlation between, leadership and digitalization. Moreover, what the effects are on businesses if digitalization projects are implemented and more so what the effects are if those projects are implemented in an unprepared organization. The method that formed the basis of the essay is of a qualitative approach as well as an abductive approach. Nine informants were interviewed and gave their own perspective on, and experience of, digitalization. Results, that have been obtained through studies, show that leadership has an effect on digitalisation which can be contributed to communication, environment and employees’ engagement. Leadership is the foundation of successful digitalisation and successful digitalisations in certain areas leads to, improvement of Leadership opportunities Conclusions that can be drawn from the results are that leadership’s commitment, involvement and communication is perceived to be important in creating a pleasant working environment, satisfied employees and a well-functioning business. The leader role has been determined to play an important part in various areas of a business and particularly when implementing digitalization.