Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti

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Center has a long tradition of R&D projects. There is an R&D unit that
focuses on service development activities, but service development projects
are also carried out in other units throughout Center. The number of
projects and the nature of project management practices differ across units.
Center’s service development projects range from small feasibility and
evaluation studies to improving the current services and to developing and
piloting new services with the member organizations. In recent years,
significant effort has been put to developing project and portfolio
management practices of Center’s R&D projects. However, Center has no
experience of internal change programs or systematic program
management.
Due to various changes in society and legislation, as well as evolving
expectations of the general public and authorities, Center and its network of
member organizations were experiencing strong renewal pressures
concerning their services and service production. The member
organizations demanded more visible support from Center to their own
renewal efforts, and the national government was also expressing concerns
about the future of the field. As a response to these pressures, Center
launched a change program that aimed at renewing the service system of
Center and its member organizations. Center had previously conducted
activities related to the program’s topic as a part of its day-to-day
operations and through single small-scale projects.
The idea for establishing the change program emerged when the unit
manager of Center’s R&D had a planning session with a senior expert and
they came up with an idea to introduce program management in Center.
The program concept had previously been in use in Center’s research
activities and in Finnish governmental organizations with which many of
Center’s experts cooperated. Now the program concept and the related
management approach were hoped to serve Center’s purposes in directing
and coordinating change efforts.
During the ideation session, the unit manager and the senior expert found
four areas where programs could be established. The ideas where
introduced to the Center’s management group that selected two areas that
they felt were the most important for Center’s future. The renewal program
was the larger of these two initiatives. The rationale for establishing the
program was to improve the coordination of Center’s fragmented service
development activities and thus to gain wider and deeper impact at the
national level. The program was supposed to generate novel services for
Center’s member organizations, as well as a new framework for organizing
service production. The program involved both those services that Center
provided to the member organizations and the services that the member
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