In September 2015, all member states of the United Nations signed upon the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), constituting the core of the 2030 Agenda. The 2030 Agenda form an integrated policy agenda, with the SDGs characterised as inherently interlinked. Policy integration and coordination across customary boundaries are assumed as fundamental when attempting to implement the indivisible and interlinked objectives. The public sector has, however, shown insufficient capabilities of such, characterised by increasing specialisation and fragmentation following from unforeseen effects of New Public Management (NPM) reforms. To facilitate necessary policy integration and coordination, significant alterations to policies and institutions are assumed to be necessary, and post-NPM approaches that seeks to join up the governmental apparatus have surfaced as counter-movements. Building on the above, the thesis set out to examine policy integration and coordination as cornerstones when attempting to implement the 2030 Agenda, as well as organisational key capabilities and/or barriers for such. The thesis’ theoretical point of departure builds on the fields of organisation theory and public administration, and the longstanding deliberation between the two dichotomies specialisation and coordination. Such dichotomy is elaborated on through the NPM perspective contrasted against the post-NPM perspective. The thesis’ central theoretical concepts are policy integration, coordination and specialisation. The thesis was carried out as a qualitative case study, researching the experiences and opinions of 16 civil servants, from 14 Swedish municipalities, operating strategically within sustainable development on the municipal level, through semi-structured interviews. Research findings indicate deficient policy integration in the majority of municipalities, with the 2030 Agenda being treated in separate programmes for social, environmental and economic sustainability respectively. Further, is vertical coordination, within the organisation as well as between governmental levels, appearing as insufficient. Identified organisational key factors include: the role of organisation; the role of the budget; the role of the ordinary municipal structure; the role of the leaders; the role of the center; the role of the individual civil servant; and, the role of communication. Many of the organisational key factors are described as capabilities as well as at the same time being barriers, and, hence, constituting contradictory practices for the civil servants and the organisations. The budgetary process especially stands out as one such contradiction. Similarly, are signs of the NPM perspective and the post-NPM perspective surfacing as simultaneous logics, practices and contradictions the civil servants must relate to. To strengthen policy integration and coordination, as well as the advancements of the 2030 Agenda, some practices may have to be modified.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:sh-46583 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Reppen, Martina |
| Publisher | Södertörns högskola, Företagsekonomi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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