Post-byråkrati och work life balance i kunskapsintensiv offentlig verksamhet. En fallstudie vid Sahlgrenska Universitetssjukhuset

Abstract

This essay takes its starting point from trends in contemporary working life coming from an HRM-inspired discourse which conveys that employees should take greater responsibility in terms of achieving organizations objectives. The main focus concerns how individualization trends in organizational life may affect work life balance and specifically how questions regarding these matters are perceived amongst members in the executive management at a big hospital, Sahlgrenska University Hospital (SU). The essay also aims to illuminate the possible effects that organizations based on ideas of autonomy and flexibility might have related to work life balance. The conclusion are that the SU is an post-bureaucratic organization in which the control amongst the members of the executive management and for the whole organization is normative. The conclusions also states that there is an increasing risk in post-bureaucratic arrangements, that responsibility for the individuals problems with work life balance reflects back to themselves and to their own choices and decisions.