I denna rapport diskuteras styrningen i Försäkringskassan och mer specifikt hur handläggare i Försäkringskassan uppfattar och påverkas av ledningens försök att styra den operativa verksamheten genom ett nytt sätt att organisera den. Som en del av ett större leaninspirerat reformarbete, som påbörjades 2012, organiserades myndighetens handläggare om från att arbeta individuellt till att arbeta i team.

Turning the case worker into a team member – autonomy, learning and management control in the Swedish Social Insurance Agency

The Swedish Social Insurance Inspectorate (Inspektionen för social- försäkringen, ISF) is an independent supervisory agency for the Swedish social insurance system. The objectives of the agencyare to strengthen compliance with legislation and other statutes, and to improve the efficiency of the social insurance system through system supervision and efficiency analysis and evaluation.

The ISF’s work is mainly conducted on a project basis and is commissioned by the Government or initiated autonomously by the agency. This report has been initiated by the agency.

This report discusses the management control of the Social Insurance Agency and more specifically how case-workers in the agency perceive and are affected by a new way of organizing the management and control of case-work. As part of a larger lean reform initiative, which started in 2012, case-workers were re-organized into teams. The idea behind this management control reform was to reduce formal control, which previously was based on extensive hierarchical, rule-based and result-based management characterized by detailed quantitative targets and measures. The core idea and objective behind this management control reform was to increasethe Social Insurance Agency’s customer trust base. The introductionof a team-based approach can thus be seen as an attempt by the Social Insurance Agency to control by creating a new organizational category for employees – the team. Teams were, moreover, introduced in order to allow for more flexibility to adjust to customer needs by providing employees with a higher degree of freedom to plan and manage their own work.