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This paper draws on the metaphor of “magic” to explore the role of dialogue conferences and subsequent activities as a tool for organizational development and change. The metaphor is introduced and elaborated as a means of allowing critical reflection on action research projects.

In the empirical setting of a change project in a regional health authority in Sweden, researchers designed and facilitated a development coalition for introducing integrated care. This required an action research intervention that supported the establishment of new relationships and developmental practices across both organizational and professional boundaries.

The unfolding of developmental processes set in train by dialogue conferences are shown as being a dynamic process of magic underpinned by the principles of democratic dialogue.

By drawing attention to the three keywords of development, participation and dialogue three sites have been identified for critical reflection and reflexivity in action research. Magic is argued as an activity wherein the seemingly impossible is made to happen in these areas; equally it can be an activity of simple illusion whereby appearance is at odds with reality.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of leadership culture and analyse how leadership cultures are produced in higher education reforms, in a hybridised discursive context of traditional academic values and emerging managerialism and leaderism.

Building on a perspective on leadership as a cultural phenomenon emerging in processes in which societal, sectorial and professional discursive resources are invoked, this study adds to earlier studies on how notions of leadership are involved in the transformation of higher education organisations. To this end, the method combines a traditional qualitative study of change initiatives over a long period of time with participative observation. Focusing on two vignettes, the analysis centres on how several discursive resources are drawn upon in daily interaction.

The emergence of hybrid leadership cultures in which several discursive resources are drawn upon in daily interaction is illustrated. This paper emphasises how hybrid cultures develop through confirmation, re-formulation and rejection of discursive influences.

An extended empirical material would enable further understanding of what cultural constructions of leadership that become confirmed, re-formulated or rejected. International comparisons would also enrich the analysis.

This paper may influence leadership, leadership development and change initiatives in higher education organisation.

Higher education organisations are crucial for societal development and this paper contributes to better understanding how they are changing.

The perspective proposed builds on recent developments in leadership studies and expands the means for focusing on social processes rather than individuals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a pilot in a national R&D programme in Norway (2007-2010) to join the ongoing discussion on the different meanings and uses of planning tools and approaches in cultural heritage across various disciplines. The study aimed to reveal how patterns of collaborative planning processes unfold in a complex cultural heritage setting, the key challenges, dilemmas and tensions in the different phases of the process and implications for future research and policy.

Longitudinal explorative dialogic action research was undertaken to investigate and capture the evolution of knowledge-creating processes. The qualitative data collection methods included 25 semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, participatory observation and text and document analysis.

Experiential R&D activities can bridge and transcend the context-specific tensions that separate the involved actors and their activities. Furthermore, a pro-active cultural heritage authority is required at the national level to maintain supportive links to the local level, and it is necessary to manage and prevent potential opportunistic action from negatively affecting cultural heritage sites and processes.

The single case study approach makes generalising beyond the current study difficult. However, the findings raise relevant issues for further research on the management of cultural heritage policy from a sustainable development perspective.

This paper identifies the need to study the evolving processes of linking cultural heritage, sustainable development and collaborative planning, as well as the dynamic relationship between the national, regional and local levels of heritage management.

This chapter examines the developmental journey toward a sustainable healthcare system in the west of Skaraborg County in Sweden from 2000 to 2010. It tracks a stream of collaborative research projects within the context of the Swedish sustainability debate that were focused on achieving improved care quality, patient safety, efficiency, and efficacy. The case reports how a central government directive to integrate healthcare at the local level – the county – led to the establishment of a development coalition management group that designed and managed the transformation via broad participation and engagement mechanisms. The transformation process toward a more sustainable healthcare system raises theoretical and practical questions about sustainable effectiveness, the role of partizcipation and learning mechanisms such as democratic dialogue conferences in sustainable effectiveness, the tension between planned and emergent change processes, and the challenge of integration in the drive toward a sustainable healthcare system.

Multiple jobholders’ workplace learning is an under-researched theme, although it offers possibilities to add knowledge of learning at several workplaces at a time. The purpose of this study is to explore the career development and workplace learning of Finnish multiple jobholders with university degree.

The qualitative extreme case study of “elite multiple jobholders” was based on 45 in-depth interviews, which were analysed by abductive content analysis using the chaos theory of careers (CTC).

This study showed that elite multiple jobholders were attracted by meaningful jobs, which were significant, had broader purposes or offered possibilities for self-realization and self-development, whereas they criticized paid work organizations. They tried to anticipate the future working life and labour markets and adjusted their careers to them by educating and by choosing jobs with learning possibilities. However, they saw themselves as constructers of the future, which left them at vulnerable position concerning the institutional setting. They organized their work flexibly with different contracts and their professional identities were networked.

This study is limited in Finns with university degree. Future research should inspect multiple jobholders with lower degree educations, in different contexts and with other methodologies.

This study gives an example of applying CTC as a holistic framework to study how individual careers emerge contextually and how they are recursively connected to work organization and working life changes. Possibilities to understand fractals are offered.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate an organizationally oriented, patient-focused care (PFC) model's effects on care quality and work climate.

The study has a before-after (PFC implementation) design. The sample included 1,474 patients and 458 healthcare providers in six participating wards before and after PFC implementation, plus five additional randomly chosen wards, which only featured in the post-assessment.

No pre-post differences were found regarding care perceptions or provider work climate evaluations. Statistically significant improvements were noted among provider care evaluations. Using aggregate-level ward data, multiple regression analyses showed that high adherence to PFC principles and a positive work climate contributed significantly to variance among care quality ratings.

Among healthcare providers, questions related to specific PFC aspects during evenings, nights and weekends had to be dropped owing to a low response rate.

An important requirement for both practice and research is to tailor PFC to various health and social care contexts.

The study is large-scale before-after PFC model review, where patient and provider data were collected using well-established measurements.