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The making of a Swedish strategy : How organizational culture shaped the Public Health Agency's pandemic response

Olofsson, Tobias LU ; Mulinari, Shai LU ; Hedlund, Maria LU ; Knaggård, Åsa LU and Vilhelmsson, Andreas LU orcid (2022) In SSM Qualitative Research in Health 2.
Abstract
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... (More)
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. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
COVID-19, Sweden, Pandemic Crisis, Culture of production, Organizations, COVID-19, Sweden, Pandemic crisis, Culture of production, Organizations
in
SSM Qualitative Research in Health
volume
2
article number
100082
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85145081770
  • pmid:35434698
ISSN
2667-3215
DOI
10.1016/j.ssmqr.2022.100082
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
82f1c25d-3237-441f-964c-66fef0451f5f
alternative location
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321522000440
date added to LUP
2022-04-15 15:23:01
date last changed
2024-06-15 00:46:35
@article{82f1c25d-3237-441f-964c-66fef0451f5f,
  abstract     = {{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.}},
  author       = {{Olofsson, Tobias and Mulinari, Shai and Hedlund, Maria and Knaggård, Åsa and Vilhelmsson, Andreas}},
  issn         = {{2667-3215}},
  keywords     = {{COVID-19; Sweden; Pandemic Crisis; Culture of production; Organizations; COVID-19; Sweden; Pandemic crisis; Culture of production; Organizations}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{SSM Qualitative Research in Health}},
  title        = {{The making of a Swedish strategy : How organizational culture shaped the Public Health Agency's pandemic response}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2022.100082}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.ssmqr.2022.100082}},
  volume       = {{2}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}