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Negotiating shared Responsibility for sustainable urban Development: Pronouns and In-here-ness as rhetorical Resources
Mälardalen University, School of Business, Society and Engineering, Industrial Economics and Organisation. (NOMP-group - New Organisation and Managment Practices)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4373-5950
Mälardalen University, School of Business, Society and Engineering, Industrial Economics and Organisation. (NOMP-group - New Organisation and Managment Practices)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6955-8350
Mälardalen University, School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Health and Welfare.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7832-2155
2024 (English)In: Journal of Organizational Change Management, ISSN 0953-4814, E-ISSN 1758-7816, Vol. 38, no 8, p. 1-14Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Purpose – This article explores how issues of shared responsibility are discursively negotiated within the realmof managing collaborative efforts between organizational actors for sustainable urban development abiding tothe agenda 2030.

Design/methodology/approach – The research explored shared responsibility as localized, micro-discursivenegotiations within and between local organizations in Sweden.

Findings – Analysis displays how speakers’ use of rhetorical resources vacillates along two continuums:the who responsible for sustainability and the discursive construction of agency. This shows that theposition where the actors share responsibility, that is when the actors are constructed as both able andwilling to take responsibility and as sharing a collective identity, is continuously being negotiated incommunication.

Originality/value – The article contributes to literature on collaborative ways of organizing and managingcomplex public challenges. With a focus on the discursive construction of shared responsibility, theconcept of in-here-ness is introduced to denote accepted and assumed responsibility, which may shiftthrough the use of pronouns: from a narrow “I” or “we” of stakeholders to a wider “we” of collaboratingparties. The article further contributes to the empirical field of sustainable development at themunicipal level

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2024. Vol. 38, no 8, p. 1-14
Keywords [en]
discursive psychology, collaboration, negotiations, shared responsibility, sustainability
National Category
Social Sciences Peace and Conflict Studies Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Research subject
Industrial Economics and Organisations
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-65080DOI: 10.1108/JOCM-01-2024-0049ISI: 001381802900001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85212837163OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-65080DiVA, id: diva2:1820332
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20190129Available from: 2023-12-18 Created: 2023-12-18 Last updated: 2025-10-10Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Managing broad responsibility together in a municipal company: Communication as prophylaxis
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Managing broad responsibility together in a municipal company: Communication as prophylaxis
2024 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Municipal companies are important actors in the pursuit of the goals of Agenda 2030 and are often formally obliged by their owners to work towards achieving these goals, but without jeopardizing ongoing production and the delivery of vital public services. This has, however, shown to be challenging, and managers are often unsure how to develop new ways of organizing to meet such complex challenges and take on broad responsibility. What has been recognized is the importance of collaboration, which is a beneficial and distinct organizational form of its own that creates value greater than what individual organizations can do separately. Such ways of working are, however, hardly straightforward endeavours, since they usually involve members with contrasting goals and approaches, are inclined to fragmentation, and can sometimes even add to the challenges they set out to resolve. The aim of this thesis is to understand the practical challenges associated with collaborative efforts to manage broad responsibility in a municipal company. In response to this aim, responsible managing is studied both empirically and through a research literature review. The purpose of the literature review is to better understand the challenges of managing broad responsibility and what is currently being done to achieve the goals of Agenda 2030 at the municipal level. To understand how responsible managing is accomplished in practice, the enactment of responsible manging is empirically studied in a municipal company over a total of four years. Particularly, two cases have been studied using a participatory research approach: first, the case of a top management team managing responsibly together and second, the case of responsible managing in interorganizational collaboration in a municipal company. For both cases, a theoretical lens is used, resting on a social constructionist and processual-relational ontology, supported by practice-based studies in the communicative stream. This means that attention is focused on communication (both talk and text) in an approach that views responsible managing as a communicative practice, a form of emergent, relational, and situated practice and the means by which responsible managing emerges, is sustained, and transformed. The overall results show how situated communicative practices are influential for preventing the limitation of broad responsibility, fragmentation of the share responsibility, and the deprioritization of obligations over time. Based on this, a metaphor of dental prophylaxis is proposed. By conceptualizing responsible managing as a situated communicative practice and showing how responsible managing may be enacted, this thesis contributes theoretically to the field of organization and management.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Västerås: Mälardalen university, 2024
Series
Mälardalen University Press Dissertations, ISSN 1651-4238 ; 400
National Category
Social Sciences
Research subject
Industrial Economics and Organisations
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-65086 (URN)978-91-7485-629-3 (ISBN)
Public defence
2024-02-02, Gamma, Mälardalens universitet, Västerås, 10:00 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 20190129
Available from: 2023-12-18 Created: 2023-12-18 Last updated: 2025-10-10Bibliographically approved

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Ahlström, KarinLindell, EvaStier, Jonas

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