The purpose of this project is to contribute with new knowledge about how managerial interventions in built spaces influence working practices among employees.

The project carries out ethnographic studies at two of Sweden's university hospitals, Nya Karolinska Solna in Stockholm and Norrlands universitetssjukhus in Umeå. Both of these university hospitals have undergone profound changes in the physical hospital environment in recent years, but they have chosen to do this in different ways.

The project aims to answer questions about what ideas about change and governance underpinned the decisions in respective hospital, how the change strategies were communicated to employees in the hospitals, and what consequences for the employees’ working methods that these material changes have had. The project contributes theoretically to organization research by comparatively studying the material conditions for organizational change, as well as to a public discussion about the need to find sustainable ways to change public healthcare practices in order to meet future healthcare needs.

The project runs for 4 years and starts in 2021. The project is funded by Forte – the Swedish Reseach Council for Health, Working Life, and Welfare, 2020-2024.

Learn more about Livia Johannesson