The study explores how top management teams’ shared leadership is related to organizational ambidexterity in public-sector organizations, theoretically and empirically considering how this relationship is contingent on the management control system. Using a sample of 85 Swedish municipal housing corporations, we find that shared leadership has a positive relationship with organizational ambidexterity in public-sector organizations. Moreover, increasing use of new public management control systems, based on combined reward and performance controls, positively moderates this relationship. The study also finds that traditional public management control systems, based on combined planning and administrative controls, do not moderate the relationship between top management teams’ shared leadership and organizational ambidexterity. Accordingly, this article contributes to the public and strategic management literature, as well as to managerial practice.

This paper critically scrutinizes the key success factors and tools described in the partnering literature by exploring how they are implemented in a public–private partnering collaboration. In addition to this the paper investigates to what extent these tools facilitate the relationship between the parties in a partnering process. The empirical data consist of two longitudinal case studies. Both cases are large and complex urban development projects in the Swedish water and sewage industry. The results from the cases were ambiguous and positive; as well, some negative outcomes were present. Further, the processes were in both cases far from easy and it required a lot of effort from the parties in the collaboration to make the collaboration work and establish a culture based on trust, especially higher up in the organization. As could be expected, the reality is thus far more complex and cumbersome than previous studies indicate.

In today’s society, products and services are offered in a number of different organizational forms: leisure activities are offered by not-for-profit associations or privately held firms, waste disposal services by local government corporations or administrations, manufactured products and services by listed corporations or state-owned corporations. Independent of organizational form and type of products and services offered, the long-term survival and success of the organization should benefit from a governance system that supports the exploration of novel opportunities that are in line with the purpose of the organization. As such, an intertwinement between a governance system of an organization and the exploration of novel opportunities for the advancement of the organization is suggested. Aspects of governance can be found in the literature of corporate governance (e.g., Shleifer and Vishny, 1997) and tend to have a disciplining emphasis. Aspects of the exploration of novel opportunities can be found in the literature of entrepreneurship (Covin and Lumpkin, 2011; Zahra et al., 2000) and tend to have an enabling emphasis. The starting point for an intertwinement between governance and entrepreneurship is that organizations are present to serve the interests of the holders of property rights (sometimes diffusedly termed owners, members or, in agency theory, principals) and as such, entrepreneurship should be in accordance with and aligned to these interests. Corporate governance mechanisms serve as a way to align the interests of property rights holders, for example, as in agency theory, to align the interests of the principals and the agents (Schleifer and Vischny, 1997). Therefore, corporate governance mechanisms appear to be a relevant starting point for considering the influence on entrepreneurship at the organizational level, hereafter termed corporate entrepreneurship. Such an intertwinement is moreover in line with researchers’ identification of interesting and insufficiently explored topics (e.g., Caruana et al., 2002; Corbett et al., 2013; Lacetera, 2001; Phan et al., 2009).

We present a model of supervising bachelor and master theses that we have developed at Kristianstad University in Sweden. It emphasizes 1.) engagement, in that the research engaged supervisor becomes engaged in both the subject of the thesis and the students writing it; 2.) the Humboldt principle, in that teachers and students collaborate for mutual benefit; 3.) the Socratic method, in that the supervisor drives students´ learning through posing questions. The model implies intense and frequent supervision, seminars with students as opponents and respondents, and finally, popular presentation, where the results are presented for an educated public. The examination of the theses have the double function of securing high standard examination and to develop the staff in their supervisory and examinatory skills. The direction of the supervisory team is mainly made through common norms, such as a thesis have to be driven by theory, methodological pragmatism implying that the problem, not the authors preferences, determine which analytical method to use and empirical orientation that theories needs to be tested or evaluated. The model described has shown good results, both in national evaluations and through number of scientific publications.

Det är kostsamt att investera i och bygga ut infrastruktur, men nödvändigt för att säkerställa ett väl fungerande och hållbart samhälle. Ofta har den offentliga organisationen knappa resurser, och det finns inte möjlighet att inom ramen för den befintliga organisationen hantera större utbyggnads och investeringsprojekt. Ett alternativ är att samverka med andra aktörer, både offentliga och privata. Ett sätt att samverka är genom partnering.

Partnering kan beskrivas som en samarbetsform där skillnaden gentemot traditionell entreprenadupphandling ligger i hur relationen mellan beställare och utförare ser ut efter det att upphandlingen har gjorts. I partnering arbetar inte utföraren isolerat från beställaren med ett avtal som grund. I stället har beställare och utförare under projekttiden ett gemensamt ansvar för att säkerställa att projektet utförs i enlighet med parternas intresse och mål – och fokus ligger på problemlösning.

Hittills har partnering använts i begränsad utsträckning i Sverige. Syftet med projektet var att studera hur väl partnering som organisationsmodell fungerar för stora samhällsbyggnadsprojekt med fokus på infrastruktur och utbyggnad av vatten och avlopp inom utvecklings- och omvandlingsområdeni kommuner. Studien har dokumenterat lärdomar från två projekt – ett i Svinninge i Roslagen och ett i Sundsvall.

I rapporten görs en jämförande analys av projekten. En intressant slutsats är att en kultur baserad på gemensamt ansvar och samarbete, det som i litteraturen kallas partneringandan, inte uppstår automatiskt utan tar tid att åstadkomma och kräver ömsesidigt förtroende. I båda de studerade projektens inledande faser förekom det diskussioner när det gällde till exempel rollfördelning och kostnader. I båda projekten har också diskussioner förts kring hur incitamentssystem ska utarbetas och skrivas i avtalen, men inga konkreta slutsatser kan dras förutom att det tycks vara svårt att utarbeta lämpliga incitamentsstrukturer för partneringsamverkan där fokus är på samarbete.

Ytterligare en slutats är att det är viktigt att noga analysera vilka som bör ingå i projektorganisationen. I de fall en aktör bedöms ha inflytande över hur ett projekt fortskrider är det viktigt att låta denna aktör ingå i projektorganisationen eftersom det kan ha positiv inverkan på hur projektet fortskrider och på resultatet av projektet, samt bidra till kunskapsutveckling och förståelse.

Sammanfattningsvis kan det konstateras att partnering har positiva effekter när det gäller att skapa en flexibel och problemorienterad projektkultur, något som lämpar sig för stora och komplexa projekt där det är svårt att i förväg specificera aktiviteter och kostnader. För att fungera kräver modellen en kultur med inriktning på samarbete och delaktighet samt gemensamt ansvarstagande för projektets utgång.

The purpose with this study is to analyze the applicability of partnering as a

form of collaboration in large urban development projects with focus on the

development of infrastructure for water and sewage in local governments.

More specifically, the purpose of the study have been to over a longer period

of time document the experiences from two urban development projects

using partnering for collaboration between local government and private

corporations. The researchers have followed the two projects in focus for the

study from beginning to end. The two projects studied are one in Sundsvall,

a collaboration between MittSverige Vatten and Skanska and one in Svinninge,

a collaboration between Roslagsvatten and NCC.

The analysis of the cases as well as the conclusions drawn focuses on

themes that have been identified as central for partnering in previous studies

as well as in this one. The themes are: the procurement process, organization,

financing, governance, the partnering process, culture, knowledge

transfer and evaluation. The study conducted shows that partnering has

positive effects when it comes to creating a flexible and problem oriented

project culture. This is something that is especially valuable in large and

complex projects where it is difficult to in advance specify project activities

as well as costs. In order to work, partnering require a culture characterized

by collaboration and mutual recognition of responsibility. To form a culture

is however something that takes time.

The aim of this article is to explore how managerial focus influences organizational ambidexterity in different organizational forms at the local government level. An entrepreneurial, leadership, or stakeholder managerial focus will each find reflection in the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation of resources, and the influence will differ with the organizational form, i.e. whether a local government administration (LGA), or a local government corporation (LGC). Hypotheses are tested on Swedish public organizations operating in the waste management and water and sewerage industries. The findings indicate that LGCs have higher levels of organizational ambidexterity, and that the determinants differ from those in LGAs.