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

Results
Center’s program was also struggling with the lack of autonomy. The
program did not seem to have a strong enough position in the
organizational hierarchy. In the eyes of the interviewees, the program’s
topic was legitimate, since everyone agreed on the importance of the service
system renewal. Still, the program as a vehicle for change was not widely
accepted, and several interviewees demonstrated skepticism towards
program management in general and this program in particular. This
skepticism was said to be even more common among those who were not
involved in the program activities, and the overall management culture of
Center was described as unsuitable and immature for program
management. The next quote demonstrates how these doubts were
expressed:
Q40 (Center, peripheral program participant): ”There is a lot of room for
development in the management of this organization, related to the practical
management, managing people, HR management, planning and so on... That’s
why I wonder whether there really is place for this program management, since
the whole management culture requires development. And if this never really
opens up for discussion, then there really will never genuinely be room for it,
and we won’t gain the potential added value from it.”
Additionally, the program team in Center felt that they lacked authority to
actually change the prevailing order. Interestingly, the interviewed top
managers of Center had a different view: they thought that the program was
given the authority to start action, and they were waiting for the program to
demonstrate progress and early results. Both parties accused each other for
the situation: the program core team was frustrated due to the lack of top
management commitment, direction and resources, and Center’s top
managers were waiting for the program to demonstrate concrete results so
that they could truly become committed to the program. At the time of the
second round of interviews the program’s situation seemed very difficult:
the program core team was seemingly discouraged by the lack of support,
while the top management did not seem to have much faith in the program.
The situation is illustrated by the following quotes. Representing the key
actors, a program core team member stated:
Q41 (Center, program core team member): “Occasionally I’ve also felt a bit
discouraged, because the management group has been sending a message that
they are not pleased with this. So I wonder what we should do then, since we
don’t get any further instructions, but just the message that “we want to see
results, we want to see results.”
The top management had a different view of the situation, and they blamed
the program core team for being inactive:
141