Keskijohto kuntamuutoksen näkijänä ja kokijana. Seutuyhteistyö muutosprosessina kuntien keskijohdon näkökulmasta

Abstract

Kunnissa tarve yhä nopeampaan uudistumiseen on ajankohtaisempaa kuin ehkä koskaan aiemmin. Kyky toteuttaa muutoksia onnistuneesti on kuntien tulevaisuuden toiminnan kannalta merkityksellistä.

Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan, millaiset tekijät vaikuttavat organisaatiomuutosten toteuttamiseen ja onnistumiseen kunnissa. Tutkimus pyrkii lisäämään ymmärrystä kuntien muutosprosesseista, muutosten luonteesta ja muutosprosessien hallinnan mahdollisuuksista.

Esimerkkinä organisaatiomuutoksesta tutkimuksessa toimii kuntien seudullisen yhteistyön edistämiseen tähtäävä Seutukuntien tukihanke. Hanketta tarkastellaan tutkimukses-sa muutosprosessina siihen osallistuneiden seutukuntien sektori- eli keskijohdon näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu haastatteluaineistosta ja elämäkertakirjoituksista.

Seutuyhteistyöstä muodostui 1990-luvun puolessa välissä eräänlainen trendi, strateginen valinta, jonka kautta kuntien ajateltiin selviävän parhaiten toimintaympäristön niille asettamista haasteista. Yhteistyötä vauhditti myös valtion keskushallinto mm. vuonna 2000 käynnistetyn Seutukuntien tukihankkeen kautta. Vaikka hanke sisälsi useita kannusteita yhteistyön vahvistamiseksi, ja vaikka kunnat ottivat sen vastaan myönteisesti, eteneminen kokeiluseuduilla oli vaihtelevaa ja hidasta. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan niitä syitä, jotka johtivat hankkeen ja yhteistyöinnon laantumiseen.

Tutkimusten tulosten mukaan yhteistyön ja muutoksen toteutus seuduilla vaikeutui, sillä muutosta on pyritty toteuttamaan ns. hallinnan hälyn vallitessa. Tutkimuksen havainnot todentavat, että hallinnan hälystä johtuen kuntien kapasiteetti ohjata ja toteuttaa muutoksia on olennaisesti heikentynyt. Myös yksilöiden omat tarpeet ja tavoitteet, kuntaorganisaatioiden ominaispiirteet sekä muutoskonteksti ovat vaikeuttaneet muutoksen toteuttamista.

Muutoksen toteutus on tutkimuksen mukaan vaikeutunut erityisesti siksi, että sovelletut toimintatavat ja johtamismallit ovat olleet rationaalisia ja moderneja. Nämä mallit eivät riitä muutoksen toteutukseen ja hallintaan eivätkä ne sovellu tilanteeseen, jossa kunnat toimivat verkostomaisesti ja yhteistyössä. Mallit myös jättävät yksilön muutoskontekstissa marginaaliin.

Tutkimuksen tulokset kertovat, että kuntien rakenteet ja toimintatavat eivät ole kykeneviä vastaamaan niihin haasteisiin, joita toimintaympäristö kunnille asettaa. Tähän liittyvät ongelmat vaikuttavat myös muutosten toteuttamiseen ja vaikeuttavat niitä. Tulevien muutosten johtaminen vaatiikin uusia päätöksentekomekanismeja ja toimintatapoja, jotka eivät voi pohjautua hierarkiaan tai rationaalisuuteen. Tulevissa paikallistasolle kohdistuvissa ja siellä tehtävissä uudistuksissa huomio on kiinnitettävä myös hierarkkisten rakenteiden ja toimintatapojen uudistamiseen, koska niillä on merkitystä organisaatiomuutosten onnistumisen kannalta.

Muutosten toteuttamisen edellytyksenä verkostoissa, jollaisena Seutuhanketta voidaan pitää, on asiantuntijuuden ja ammatillisen harkinnan nousu verkoston perusarvoksi. Prosesseihin, joissa muutoksesta päätetään, tulisi ottaa mukaan organisaation useampia toimijoita hierarkian huipulla olevien lisäksi.

Muutoksen onnistumisen erityisenä edellytyksenä tutkimuksessa on noussut esille muutosjohtaminen kompleksissa toimintaympäristössä ja hallinnan hälyssä. Tämä asettaa johtamisen näkökulmasta kunnille suuria haasteita. Kuntajohtamista tullee määrittämään yhä enemmän kyky implementoida onnistuneesti muutoksia ns. postmodernissa toimintaympäristössä ja hallita toimintaympäristön kaaosta. Kaooksen hallinta korostaakin kuntajohtajuuden uudelleenmäärittelyn tarvetta, postmodernin kuntajohtajuuden määrittelyä.

The subject of this study is organisational change, or more specifically, changes in local government organisation. The regional support (SEUTU) project, launched in 2000 and aimed at promoting regional co-operation between local authorities, serves as an empirical example of change in this study. Regional co-operation is examined as a change process from the perspective of middle management. This study poses the following research questions: how do individuals experience organisational changes and which factors have an effect on the implementation and the success of a municipal change process.

As a starting point for the study is the post-modern paradigm prevalent in municipal science research. The basis of post-modern thinking is scepticism toward universality and hence, post-modern organisational research has sought to give prominence to local voices and perspectives. In this study, the paradigm is reflected in an attempt to identify the different voices within an organisation, which may have been left on the margin in the modern paradigm. Local government middle management has been cho-sen to represent these marginal voices in this study. The middle management has a central role in organisational change and regional co-operation as it operates at the nexus of decision-making processes concerning changes, at the boundary between strategic decision makers and personnel.

The methodology used in this study is based on the grounded theory research method which aims to generate a theory from empirical data. For the purposes of this study, inductive-deductive grounded theory is applied. This means that the study is based on empirical data but a theoretical framework is used to make the examination of the phenomenon easier. This study aims to formulate a tentative the-ory of factors which affect the implementation and success of organisational changes in municipalities.

The reference period for the study is defi ned by changes in the municipal operating environment, which took place during the last decades of the 1990s. Changes that took place in the international, national, political, institutional and economic operating environment of municipalities during the ref-erence period led also to an increase in inter-municipal co-operation. After the mid-1990s, regional co-operation became a kind of trend, a strategic choice, which was thought to help local authorities best cope with challenges posed by the operating environment. Co-operation helped local authorities stay independent, but at the same time secure high-quality basic services. Co-operation was also promoted by the national government. In 2000, to promote co-operation, a regional support project SEUTU was launched by then Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen s second government. The project introduced a range of incentives to strengthen regional co-operation. Although the project was favourably received by local authorities, progress in pilot regions was unsteady and slow. Finally, the project results, consisting mainly of the surveys and plans made, were considered to be best applicable to the implementation of only another great administrative reform, the restructuring of local government and services. Therefore, in autumn 2007, the Ministry of the Interior made preparations to terminate the SEUTU project. This study will focus on factors that slowed down the progress of the project.

This study examines the project from a change process perspective, from within local authorities and regions. The increase in co-operation is examined in the following eight regions originally chosen for the project: the regions of northern Lapland, Pieksämäki, Nivala-Haapajärvi, Turunmaa, Oulu, Loimaa and Hämeenlinna, and Lahti urban region. Within these regions, co-operation is examined in four dif-ferent service sectors from the perspective of leading municipal officers of the sector in question: social services and health care, education, technical services and administration. The material for this study was collected between 2002 and 2005 and consists of interviews and biographical material written by sector managers.

The research shows that the implementation of changes in local authorities is chiefly hampered by the chaos, the governance noise, related to the changes in the municipal operating environment. As a result of the study, four factors are determined that complicate change processes and reflect governance noise. The factors that hamper the implementation of changes include weak change management, goals and intentions of individuals, characteristics of municipal organisations and the context of change. The noise hampers change management and control and brings to the fore the different interests of different actors in situations involving changes. The differing interests provoke conflicts that municipalities cannot solve.

Finding solutions to the conflicts and a successful implementation of changes become more difficult because the study shows that local authorities operate in a postmodern environment and yet follow rational, modern models of decision making in their operations and in situations involving changes. In post-modern conditions, these models do not provide tools for successful change implementation and management, nor are they applicable in situations where local authorities form networks and work in co-operation. In a context of change, the models leave individuals on the margin. Consequently, in change situations, individual goals, anxieties and insecurities are underlined, which deepens the chaos of the situation. Therefore, the new situation calls for new decision-making mechanisms and practices but also structures which cannot be hierarchical or rational in nature. A new situation also emphasises the need for stronger leadership and the need to specify in more detail the need for and the goals set for a change.

However, the restructuring of practices and decision-making processes in change situations is not quite that simple, because governance noise makes it more difficult to find the best models for the context. The insights gained through the research show that due to governance noise, the municipal capacity to control and implement changes has significantly diminished.

The study shows that organisational change is a complex phenomenon that cannot be controlled, implemented or described through one single theory or model only. In the light of the findings of the study, for a change to be successful, the following is required: the structures and practices of municipal organisations must be changed so as to adapt to post-modern conditions; the methods of change man-agement must be reformed; the intentions and goals of individuals must be understood and taken into consideration; and the effects of the context of change must be considered in change situations. To this end, the multidimensional cause and effect relationships affecting change situations must be understood and dependencies between them must be coordinated. Due to the complex nature of changes, no general models can be created. Also, because of the chaos and noise inherent in change, the comprehensive models described in earlier theories seem to simplify the real change.

The post-modern operating environment affects change in a variety of ways making it more fragmented than ever. Therefore, change must be described, analysed and implemented from an agonistic perspective. This means that in change situations, different perspectives and voices previously left on the margin must be placed at the centre of municipal organisations. In networked co-operation between local authorities problems can only be solved if the perspectives of several different actors are com-bined. This also highlights the necessity to redefine the power of current actors. For changes to be successful in the current post-modern operating environment, more extensive, profound and shared expertise and participation is required. Also actors other than those at the top of the hierarchy may have something to give to the change process. The differences and limits of different actors should be seen as positive in respect of change, offering new, valuable perspectives to municipal decision making and the implementation of changes. Therefore, the control of chaos also highlights the need to redefine the municipal management from a post-modern perspective.