Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti
Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti
Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti
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Results<br />
Center has a long tradition of R&D projects. There is an R&D unit that<br />
focuses on service development <strong>activities</strong>, but service development projects<br />
are also carried out in other units throughout Center. The number of<br />
projects <strong>and</strong> the nature of project management practices differ across units.<br />
Center’s service development projects range from small feasibility <strong>and</strong><br />
evaluation studies to improving the current services <strong>and</strong> to developing <strong>and</strong><br />
piloting new services with the member organizations. In recent years,<br />
significant ef<strong>for</strong>t has been put to developing project <strong>and</strong> portfolio<br />
management practices of Center’s R&D projects. However, Center has no<br />
experience of internal change programs or systematic program<br />
management.<br />
Due to various changes in society <strong>and</strong> legislation, as well as evolving<br />
expectations of the general public <strong>and</strong> authorities, Center <strong>and</strong> its network of<br />
member organizations were experiencing strong renewal pressures<br />
concerning their services <strong>and</strong> service production. The member<br />
organizations dem<strong>and</strong>ed more visible support from Center to their own<br />
renewal ef<strong>for</strong>ts, <strong>and</strong> the national government was also expressing concerns<br />
about the future of the field. As a response to these pressures, Center<br />
launched a change program that aimed at renewing the service system of<br />
Center <strong>and</strong> its member organizations. Center had previously conducted<br />
<strong>activities</strong> related to the program’s topic as a part of its day-to-day<br />
operations <strong>and</strong> through single small-scale projects.<br />
The idea <strong>for</strong> establishing the change program emerged when the unit<br />
manager of Center’s R&D had a planning session with a senior expert <strong>and</strong><br />
they came up with an idea to introduce program management in Center.<br />
The program concept had previously been in use in Center’s research<br />
<strong>activities</strong> <strong>and</strong> in Finnish governmental organizations with which many of<br />
Center’s experts cooperated. Now the program concept <strong>and</strong> the related<br />
management approach were hoped to serve Center’s purposes in directing<br />
<strong>and</strong> coordinating change ef<strong>for</strong>ts.<br />
During the ideation session, the unit manager <strong>and</strong> the senior expert found<br />
four areas where programs could be established. The ideas where<br />
introduced to the Center’s management group that selected two areas that<br />
they felt were the most important <strong>for</strong> Center’s future. The renewal program<br />
was the larger of these two initiatives. The rationale <strong>for</strong> establishing the<br />
program was to improve the coordination of Center’s fragmented service<br />
development <strong>activities</strong> <strong>and</strong> thus to gain wider <strong>and</strong> deeper impact at the<br />
national level. The program was supposed to generate novel services <strong>for</strong><br />
Center’s member organizations, as well as a new framework <strong>for</strong> organizing<br />
service production. The program involved both those services that Center<br />
provided to the member organizations <strong>and</strong> the services that the member<br />
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