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The purpose of this paper is to present the scientific basis and to give practitioner guidelines for the system group “Idealogue” approach to innovation.

The logic of the system group “Idealogue” (idea‐dialogue) is to create a behavioural simulation “model” of the whole market system of interest. In this model, face‐to‐face communication among functional, disciplinary and hierarchal normally differentiated actors are used to perform various system simulations among problems and ideas and, at the same time, the real change process is started.

Research findings show that the system group were in agreement on much more than what earlier rational experts perceived in the same situations and, moreover, the group agreed in other and unexpected new and successful dimensions.

The findings are shown experimentally in action research projects and empirically by longitudinal follow‐up studies.

The approach, which comprehends the entire process of innovation and change, is mainly aimed for the commercially “vague” human dimension of technology.

Projects in which the group dynamic approach successfully was applied has been conducted in many action research and industrially related change situations at an organizational, regional, state and market level. This includes technological, organizational and administrative domains of the systems with successful and worldwide spread product and process innovations.

Universities have a synthetic style for radical innovation but an inappropriate administrative culture. Science parks, which are supposed to have such entrepreneurial culture, instead lack an appropriate synthetic style. Our answer is to combine appropriate styles and cultures into a new arena. A modified-systems approach, based on the suggested principles, should, however, be structurally tested and compared with the current science-park model.

The rationale behind our approach was that product innovations in occupational health and safety originate from radical innovation processes where ideas are tested naturally before any rational decisions are made. Our thesis therefore was that an open and subsidized radical innovation arena might counteract today's development imperfections and also be profitable to the society as a whole. In this study we critically scrutinized the implementation of such a publically open arena in the Swedish construction industry, which is an area with large costs for accidents and injuries. We used a two-step action research approach in order to compare the efficiency of a general arena (Innovation Stockholm) with a specialised health and safety arena, given the same radical supporting style and entrepreneurial culture. Our results confirmed our thesis: both arenas produced successful innovations and were profitable to the society as a whole. The specialised arena even doubled the efficiency for an idea to be in the market after 2 years: from 0.1 ideas to 0.25 ideas. In a general perspective we believe that our findings can contribute to the discussion on the “Open innovation” concept and how to reorganize the established “Science Park” innovation model.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of Swedish rent controls on observed vacancy rates for rental housing.

Housing vacancy rates are unevenly distributed among Swedish municipalities. In large expansive municipalities, such as Malmö, Göteborg and Stockholm, vacancy rates are very low, while in declining or smaller municipalities such as those in the northern and interior parts of Sweden, vacancy rates are considerably higher. This implies welfare losses not only in growing municipalities with queues for rental apartments but also in municipalities that are shrinking since the controlled rents there are higher than market rents and cause higher vacancy rates than with market rents. The authors estimate the influences of various determining factors, such as population growth, population size, rent levels, construction, demolition and market orientation of rents, on the observed vacancy rates.

The authors find that that these factors affect the vacancy rates differently depending on whether a municipality is large or small, growing or shrinking. Population growth, in percent per year, plays an important role in explaining the observed vacancy rates in declining regions.

A research task that remains to be done is to calculate the welfare losses due to rent higher than the market rent for municipalities in contraction.

To reduce the welfare losses of rent control, both in expanding and contracting municipalities, economists' straightforward recommendation to deregulate the rent control should, in principle, be carried out.

In many countries, rent control regulations are limited to cities, such as New York City. The paper shows that the Swedish rent control system however, applies nationwide, except for annual rent increases, which are set locally through negotiation.

This work was undertaken in order to develop a conceptual model for identification of the capability of an organization to implement age management measures.

Barriers to delayed retirement were reviewed; observations retrieved from a research consortium study were used to identify main attributes that needed to be taken into consideration in the development of the model.

The capability of organizations to react to the demographic challenge by introduction of age management measures can be classified operatively as “proactive”, “reactive”, “passive” or “chained”, depending on their resources and preferences.

The model may be useful to HR as a point of departure in the development of a business case for age management and a didactic tool to be used in internal marketing.

The concept “organizational capability” was developed as a corollary to the individual aspects of capability; recognizing preference and resource as main drivers made it possible to develop a typology that is new and is easy to understand and apply.

The purpose of this paper is to further develop a conceptual framework for analysing performance management systems (PMS). The framework aims to be useful for a rich understanding of a specific organisation’s PMS. At the same time, it should preferable be simple so that it could be used even in practice. The framework adds to earlier work by Malmi and Brown (2008), Ferreira and Otley (2009), Broadbent and Laughlin (2009), Bedford and Malmi (2015) and Johanson et al. (2001).

The paper is theoretical but has also been applied to a Swedish municipality. The purpose of the latter was to understand if the framework is feasible so far.

The authors hold that the framework in its present form is useful to use as an analytical tool even if it needs to be subjected to further development.

The paper addresses an issue that is continuously changing. This means that the suggested framework may suffer from theoretical weaknesses in some respects. To balance between a theoretically deep and exhaustive framework and a framework that is simple enough to use is a tricky question that needs further investigation.

The ambition with the framework is that it shall be useful even in practice.

The need for further research in the PMS area has been emphasised by the above researcher but also by, e.g., Van Helden and Reichard (2016). They hold that the authors need rich European cases to improve the understanding of how PMS works. The authors hold that the present framework has the potential to meet the demands from Van Helden and Reichard.

This article examines the phenomenon and concept of bullying in the workplace. Workplace bullying is a form of interpersonal aggression that can be both flagrant and subtle, but is mainly characterized by its persistency and long term duration. The relationships between bullying and related concepts such as workplace aggression and interpersonal conflict are discussed. With reference to previous empirical research as well as theoretical contributions, an attempt is made to clarify some important aspects about the phenomenon, such as various subtypes of workplace bullying. Empirical findings on prevalence, antecedents and outcome factors are outlined and reviewed. The paper also discusses the dose-response perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to explore work motivation among professionals at well-functioning primary healthcare centers subject to a national healthcare reform which include financial incentives.

Five primary healthcare centers in Sweden were purposively selected for being well-operated and representing public/private and small/large units. In total, 43 interviews were completed with different medical professions and qualitative deductive content analysis was conducted.

Work motivation exists for professionals when their individual goals are aligned with the organizational goals and the design of the reform. The centers’ positive management was due to a unique combination of factors, such as clear direction of goals, a culture of non-hierarchical collaboration, and systematic quality improvement work. The financial incentives need to be translated in terms of quality patient care to provide clear direction for the professionals. Social processes where professionals work together as cohesive groups, and provided space for quality improvement work is pivotal in addressing how alignment is created.

Leaders need to consistently translate and integrate reforms with the professionals’ drives and values. This is done by encouraging participation through teamwork, time for structured reflection, and quality improvement work.

The design of the reforms and leadership are essential preconditions for work motivation.

The study offers a more complete picture of how reforms are managed at primary healthcare centers, as different medical professionals are included. The value also consists of showing how a range of aspects combine for primary healthcare professionals to successfully manage external reforms.

The paper problematizes previous research on accountingisation, where the role of accounting in determining the scope of professional work is understood in relation to a professional/economic dichotomy and a model of episodic change. The purpose of this paper is to investigate everyday professional work in established new public management (NPM) settings, and proposes a new conceptual framework to analyze the role of accounting therein. The aim is to enable future investigations into how, when and where a situated “bottom line” emerges, by conceptualizing professional work as a process of calculation.

Qualitative data from case studies of two tertiary level geriatric organizations using observations of 33 employees and four interviews. Data related to patient discharge, and the management of the discharge processes, were analyzed.

Few visible trade-offs between distinctly professional or economic considerations were observed. Rather, the qualification of patients’ status and evaluation of their dischargeability centered on debates over treatment time. Time therefore operated as a situated “bottom line,” to which various other concerns were emergently linked in a process of calculation. Professional practitioners seldom explicitly evoke accounting concepts and technologies, but these were implicated in the ongoing translation of each patient into something temporarily stable, calculable and thus actionable for the professionals involved in their care. The study’s findings have implications for the conceptual understanding of professional work in established NPM settings.

Case study research is context-specific and the role of accounting in professional work will vary due to the professional groups and accounting technologies involved.

The study’s findings have implications for how to influence professional behavior through interventions in the existing landscape of accounting technologies. The possibility to change behavior through the introduction or removal of individual accounting technologies is questioned.

To date, research on the role of accounting in determining the scope of professional work has assumed a professional/economic dichotomy and studied episodic change linked to accounting-oriented reforms. This paper analyses the role of accounting as an on-going process with emergent boundaries between professional and economic considerations.