The making of a Swedish strategy: How organizational culture shaped the Public Health Agency's pandemic response
Several suggestions have been made as to why Sweden's approach to managing the COVID-19 pandemic came to rely on a strategy based on voluntary measures. Two of the most prominent explanations for why the country chose a different strategy than many other countries have focused on micro- and mac...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2022-12-01
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| Series: | SSM: Qualitative Research in Health |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321522000440 |
| _version_ | 1811294833020502016 |
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| author | Tobias Olofsson Shai Mulinari Maria Hedlund Åsa Knaggård Andreas Vilhelmsson |
| author_facet | Tobias Olofsson Shai Mulinari Maria Hedlund Åsa Knaggård Andreas Vilhelmsson |
| author_sort | Tobias Olofsson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Several suggestions have been made as to why Sweden's approach to managing the COVID-19 pandemic came to rely on a strategy based on voluntary measures. Two of the most prominent explanations for why the country chose a different strategy than many other countries have focused on micro- and macro-level factors, explaining the strategy either in terms of the psychologies of prominent actors or by pointing to particularities in Swedish constitutional law. Supported by a qualitative analysis using interviews and text analysis, we argue that the Swedish strategy cannot be understood without paying attention to the meso-level and the organizations that produced the strategy. Moreover, we argue that to understand why one of the central organizations in Swedish pandemic management, the Public Health Agency, came to favor certain interventions, one must investigate the culture of production inside the organization and how it created precedents that led the Agency to approach pandemic management with a focus on balancing current and future health risks. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T05:23:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d979dc7f07af484290a66450547c352c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2667-3215 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T05:23:21Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | SSM: Qualitative Research in Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-d979dc7f07af484290a66450547c352c2022-12-22T03:00:40ZengElsevierSSM: Qualitative Research in Health2667-32152022-12-012100082The making of a Swedish strategy: How organizational culture shaped the Public Health Agency's pandemic responseTobias Olofsson0Shai Mulinari1Maria Hedlund2Åsa Knaggård3Andreas Vilhelmsson4Department of Sociology, Lund University, Sweden; Corresponding author. Department of Sociology, Lund University. Box 114, 221 00, Lund, Sweden.Department of Sociology, Lund University, SwedenDepartment of Political Science, Lund University, SwedenDepartment of Political Science, Lund University, SwedenDepartment of Occupational Health and Medicine, Lund University, SwedenSeveral suggestions have been made as to why Sweden's approach to managing the COVID-19 pandemic came to rely on a strategy based on voluntary measures. Two of the most prominent explanations for why the country chose a different strategy than many other countries have focused on micro- and macro-level factors, explaining the strategy either in terms of the psychologies of prominent actors or by pointing to particularities in Swedish constitutional law. Supported by a qualitative analysis using interviews and text analysis, we argue that the Swedish strategy cannot be understood without paying attention to the meso-level and the organizations that produced the strategy. Moreover, we argue that to understand why one of the central organizations in Swedish pandemic management, the Public Health Agency, came to favor certain interventions, one must investigate the culture of production inside the organization and how it created precedents that led the Agency to approach pandemic management with a focus on balancing current and future health risks.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321522000440COVID-19SwedenPandemic crisisCulture of productionOrganizations |
| spellingShingle | Tobias Olofsson Shai Mulinari Maria Hedlund Åsa Knaggård Andreas Vilhelmsson The making of a Swedish strategy: How organizational culture shaped the Public Health Agency's pandemic response SSM: Qualitative Research in Health COVID-19 Sweden Pandemic crisis Culture of production Organizations |
| title | The making of a Swedish strategy: How organizational culture shaped the Public Health Agency's pandemic response |
| title_full | The making of a Swedish strategy: How organizational culture shaped the Public Health Agency's pandemic response |
| title_fullStr | The making of a Swedish strategy: How organizational culture shaped the Public Health Agency's pandemic response |
| title_full_unstemmed | The making of a Swedish strategy: How organizational culture shaped the Public Health Agency's pandemic response |
| title_short | The making of a Swedish strategy: How organizational culture shaped the Public Health Agency's pandemic response |
| title_sort | making of a swedish strategy how organizational culture shaped the public health agency s pandemic response |
| topic | COVID-19 Sweden Pandemic crisis Culture of production Organizations |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321522000440 |
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