<p>When duties are documented, new ideas are often created regarding how the work should be carried out. Writing is an important source of development, but unfortunately the possibilities are limited when it comes to transferring new ways of thinking to personnel. As with organizational change in general, employees tend to neglect new instructions. On the basis of their personal ways of thinking, they might find that the new order is incorrect, requires more resources, lacks contact with reality, or cannot be understood. The people who have prepared the new directives think they are surely justified and easy to understand. In their eyes, those who stick to what used to be correct and reasonable seem resistant to change.</p><p>The aim of this dissertation is to understand the influence of self-assessment on service cognition and to propose how this influence can be utilized to attain strategic aims. The term self-assessment refers here to the activity whereby employees, in a structured manner, collectively assess and document their own instructions. The concept of service cognition refers to individual employee’s conceptions on how to carry out their own tasks, on how colleagues carry out theirs, and on connections between activities in the common workflow. The object of study is self-assessment as business process modeling at the local offices of the Swedish Employment Service.</p><p>What is explored is the crass but fruitful understanding that new ways of thinking more easily arise among those who define organizational design than among those who are expected to change. Using socio-cognitive theory as well as longitudinal and extensive action research, the reasons are investigated behind the inevitable development of units which are trusted to write their own instructions and, in so doing, start to talk about the way work is done. Despite the independence needed to coordinate by consensus, it seems that the collective mind thereby induced actually enhances opportunities for central control and change: Units designing their own routines surely become better coordinated, but also more controllable and adaptive to strategic change. Furthermore, some principles are presented to support self-assessment regarding organization and change.</p>

When duties are documented, new ideas are often created regarding how the work should be carried out. Writing is an important source of development, but unfortunately the possibilities are limited when it comes to transferring new ways of thinking to personnel. As with organizational change in general, employees tend to neglect new instructions. On the basis of their personal ways of thinking, they might find that the new order is incorrect, requires more resources, lacks contact with reality, or cannot be understood. The people who have prepared the new directives think they are surely justified and easy to understand. In their eyes, those who stick to what used to be correct and reasonable seem resistant to change. The aim of this dissertation is to understand the influence of self-assessment on service cognition and to propose how this influence can be utilized to attain strategic aims. The term self-assessment refers here to the activity whereby employees, in a structured manner, collectively assess and document their own instructions. The concept of service cognition refers to individual employee’s conceptions on how to carry out their own tasks, on how colleagues carry out theirs, and on connections between activities in the common workflow. The object of study is self-assessment as business process modeling at the local offices of the Swedish Employment Service. What is explored is the crass but fruitful understanding that new ways of thinking more easily arise among those who define organizational design than among those who are expected to change. Using socio-cognitive theory as well as longitudinal and extensive action research, the reasons are investigated behind the inevitable development of units which are trusted to write their own instructions and, in so doing, start to talk about the way work is done. Despite the independence needed to coordinate by consensus, it seems that the collective mind thereby induced actually enhances opportunities for central control and change: Units designing their own routines surely become better coordinated, but also more controllable and adaptive to strategic change. Furthermore, some principles are presented to support self-assessment regarding organization and change.

Bakgrund och problem: Att vara ett börsnoterat bolag innebär en ökad kravbild samtidigt som företaget blir offentligt kan förväntningar från främst aktieägare förhöjas. Fokus mot främst aktieägarna kan i vissa fall leda till att bolaget utgår ifrån ett mer kortsiktigt förhållningssätt, i den mån att skapa värde för ägarna. För att då minimera riskerna att bli kortsiktig, blir vikten av styrning mot långsiktighet en viktig faktor. Det blir därav intressant att undersöka hur börsbolag via sin styrning beaktar distinktionen mellan aktieägarvärde och långsiktighet. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att ge en förklaring till hur styrningen påverkas av att verka i en noterad miljö och hur detta avspeglas i de olika bolagens sätt att styra verksamheten. Studien ämnar att öka kunskapen om hur synen på aktieägarvärde och långsiktighet ter sig och om möjlig hur de båda samordnas i bolagen.  Metod: Metoden som valts för studien var en kvalitativ intervjustudie som ansågs vara mest lämplig sett till frågeställningar samt studiens syfte. Den empiriska materialinsamlingen har huvudsakligen skett med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer som har utförts med ledande personer i börsbolagen. Slutsats: Styrningen i börsbolag ändras inte i så stor utsträckning av att verka i en noterad miljö, men det finns tendenser att den blivit mer formaliserad gällande främst rapportering. Den strategiska och taktiska styrningen formas till viss del utifrån börsen formella krav men även till viss del av intressenters kravbild. Samordning mellan långsiktighet och skapande av aktieägarvärde blir viktig för att begränsa kortsiktiga förhållningssätt främst med hjälp av bolagens tydliga strategiska inriktning. Koordineringen sker genom börsbolagens förmåga att tillgodose både aktieägarnas krav och uppnå bolagens långsiktiga planer. / Background and research problem: To be a listed company, it implies an increase in demands and, simultaneously, the expectations from the shareholders can be enhanced. The focus towards the shareholders, could in some cases result in short-sightedness in the company to increase their value. To minimize the risks of short-sightedness, the importance of management control towards long-sightedness becomes a crucial factor. It is thereby interesting to investigate how listed companies, with their management control, considers the distinction between shareholder value and long-sightedness.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to give an explanation of how the management control alters by acting in a listed environment, and how it reflects in the different companies´ ways to control the business. The study intends to increase the knowledge of the view of how shareholder value and long-sightedness appears and, if possible, how these coordinates in the companies.  Method: The method that was chosen for the study was a qualitative interview-study, which were considered the most appropriate method aligned to the research questions and the purpose of the study. The empirical material collection has occurred primarily with the aid of semi-structured interviews which have been conducted with senior executives in the listed companies.  Conclusion: The management control in listed companies do not change, to a large extent, although there are tendencies that it has become more formalized regarding the reporting. The strategic management and management control are formed, to a certain degree, by the stock exchange´s formal requirements but also, to some degree, the stakeholder’s demands. The coordination between long-sightedness and the creation of shareholder value becomes vital in order to constrain short-term approaches, with the aid of the companies´ clear strategic direction. The coordination occurs by the listed companies’ ability to satisfy both the shareholders demands and accomplish the companies´ long-term plans.