Bridging Activity Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis.docx

Bridging Activity Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis.docx

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BridgingActivityTheoryandCriticalDiscourseAnalysis

BridgingActivityTheoryandCriticalDiscourseAnalysis:

FourStudiesofFinnishPublicandThirdsectorOrganisations

HeliKaatrakoski

Abstract

AnextensivestructuralchangecurrentlyunderwayinFinnishwelfaresocietyisevidentinthechangeinthesocietaldivisionoflabourbetweenthepublic,privateandthirdsectors.Thischangeseemstobeguidedbytheneo-liberalistNewPublicManagement（NPM）doctrine.Inworkplacesthischangeisevidentintheemergenceofneworganisationalformsandnewwaysoforganisingwork.Fromthepointofviewofemployees,theemergenceofnewformsoforganisationswithblurredandmixedboundariescanaffecttheminmanyways:

workmaybecomefragmented,lesssecureandmoreindividual.Thepressurestocustomerorientation,profitabilityandconstantevaluation,amongothers,createchangesinorganisationsandtheiractivities.NPMtypicallyhasalinearviewoftheworldthroughwhichitunderestimatesthebalancebetweenproductivity,customersandemployees.Inotherwords,NPMemphasisesthepointsofviewoftheorganisations（productivity）anditsservices（customers）whileitunderminesthequalityofworkinglife（employees）.Animbalanceisalsoevidentinpowerrelationsbetweenorganisations,thusaffectingemployees’dailywork.

Myresearchinterestistwo-layered.Firstly,Iaminterestedinactivitiesthataimtodevelopemployees’ownworkinasituationoforganisationalchange.Forthat,Ifocusonpowerrelationsbetweenagentsininterventionsessions.Secondly,Iamstudyinglocalworkactivityinthecontextofachangingbroadersocietymainlybeinginterestedintheeffectsofsocietalchangeasmaterialisedinemployees’speech.Iapproachtheseissuesthroughdiscourses,wordmeaningandthemovementofmeaning.

Thetheoreticalframeworkofmystudyisculturalhistoricalactivitytheory,whichisbasedonKarlMarx’smaterialisticviewofhistoricallydevelopedhumanconsciousness.Thetheoryviewshumanactivityasobject-oriented,mediatedbytoolsandsigns,andsocialandhistoricalinnature.IhavechosentouseFairclough’scriticaldiscourseanalysis（CDA）“method”toanalysemydiscursivedata.Inhisframework,Faircloughdividestheanalysisintothreeinterlinkedlevels:

theleveloftext（description,linguistics）,thelevelofdiscursivepractice（interpretation,micro-sociology）andthelevelofsocialpractice（explanation,macro-sociology）.Themainchallengeinmystudyconsistsofbridgingactivitytheoryandthemethodofcriticaldiscourseanalysis.

Theempiricaldataconsistof61interviews（about67hours）and15interventionsessions（about31hours）.Inaddition,Ihavecomplementarydataconsistingof62documentsand156newspaperandmagazinearticles.Thedatawerecollectedfromfourorganisations,representingneworganisationalforms.TheorganisationsaretheWorkTrainingFoundationTekevä（amulti-agencyorganisation）,theCityofTampere（internalpurchaser-providersplit）,theFinnishRoadAdministration（externalpurchaser-providersplit）andtheCityofEspoo（outsourcingmodel）.DevelopmentalsessionswereconductedinTekeväandTampere.

TheinterventionmethodusedwastheHybridLaboratory,inspiredbytheFinnishinterventionmethodknownastheChangeLaboratory.TheaimoftheTampereinterventionwastorecordtheexperiencesofthepurchaser-providersplitpilotcombinedwiththeprocessthinkingmodel,andtodevelopproposalstosolveproblems.Tekevä’spreliminaryinterventionthemewastodeveloptheorganisationalculture.Tekeväwasestablishedbyeightpublicandthird-sectororganisationsandthemergerwasstillinprocess.Duringtheintervention,thedevelopmentfocusedonco-operationwithotherorganisations,future-orientedplanningandevaluation.

1.Introduction

Inthelate1980stheneo-liberalistNewPublicManagement（NPM）doctrineandorganisationalmodelsstressingmarketlogicinpublicandthird-sectoractivitygraduallyarrivedinFinland,thusinitiatingchangesinthenatureoftheFinnishwelfaresociety.ThetrendfollowedchangesthatleadersinseveralAnglo-SaxonandWesterncountrieshadexecutedsomeyearsearlier.Today,thepositionofNPMseemscontradictory:

someresearchersarguethatitis“dead”,butinfactitseemsverymuchaliveatleastinFinland.NPMideasareevidentinthechangeinthesocietaldivisionoflabourbetweenthepublic,privateandthirdsectors.AnongoingextensivestructuralchangeintheFinnishwelfaresocietyisonewaytodescribethecurrentsituation.

Attheorganisationallevel,thechangeinworkplacescanbeseenthroughtheemergenceofneworganisationalboundary-crossing（see,e.g.,Kerosuo,2006）formsandnewwaysoforganisingwork.Thereorganisationofworkandorganisationsmeansthattheprivateandthirdsectorsincreasinglyassumemoreresponsibilityforprovidingservicesandproductionthatusedtobelongtothepublicsector.Whatmakesforexample,thecharacterofthepurchaser-providersplitinterestingisthatitchangesthetraditionalhierarchicalstructureinorganisations,relationsbetweenagents,steeringprocessesandthewholelogicofsuchactivity（Meklin2006,22-23）.

Whenthepublicsectortransfersproductionandtheprovisionofservicestoothersectoragents,administrativetaskssuchaspurchasingandtenderingbecomemorecentraltotheworkofpublicsectoremployees.Thenatureoftheworkchangesandmaybecomeverydifferentfromwhatitusedtobe.Fromtheemployees’pointofview,theemergenceofnewformsoforganisationswithblurredandmixedorganisationalboundariesmayaffecttheminmanyways:

activitiesturnouttobefragmentedandtheideaoftheworkmaybecomelesssecureandmoreindividual.One’srelationshiptotheorganisationmayalsobecomeinsecurewithregardtoresponsibilitiesandloyalty（seee.g.Grimshawetal.,2005）.Insecurityandrisk-taking,inadditiontoindependence,arealsocharacteristicoftheself-employed.Kovalainen&Österberg（2000,80-81）arguethatthereorganisationofthepublicsectorpushesitsemployeestobeginworkingastheself-employedandassubcontractors.Thisshiftassuchisnotanegativephenomenonifitisbasedonone’sownchoice.

KalliolaandNakari（2006,35）claimthattheNPMdoctrinehasarationalandlinearviewofworldanditunderminesthebalancebetweenproductivity,customersandemployees.InotherwordstheNPMdoctrinestressesthepointofviewoftheorganisation’s（productivity）andservices（customers）whileatthesametimeasitunderminesthequalityofworkinglife（employees）.Inthisstudy,myinterestliesintheemployees’perspective.

ThereasonIbecameinvolvedinthisextremelyinterestinganddemandingresearchareagoesbackseveralyears.Since2003IhavebeenworkingintheformerCenterforActivityTheoryandDevelopmentalWorkResearch,now（asofthebeginningof2009）knownasCRADLEortheCenterforResearchonActivity,Development,andLearningattheUniversityofHelsinki.ThecentreisveryactiveinstudyinganddevelopingtheworkofvariousorganisationsalloverFinland.Whenmysupervisor,ProfessorYrjöEngeström,introducedaprojectthatheandsomeofhiscolleaguesplannedtocarryout,Ibecameveryinterestedinitandinthemultidimensionalchallengeitseemedtooffer.Iwasluckytoberecruitedfortheproject,andasaresult,thisstudyisbasedondatagatheredduringtheproject.

TheprojectwascalledOptionsofprivatizationandsharedresponsibility（Yksityistämisenjayhteisvastuunylisektoraalisetvaihtoehdot）.Itbeganon1November2004andlasteduntil29February2008.TheaimoftheprojectwastodelineatedifferentkindsofhybridorganisationsinFinlandandtodevelopaninterventionmethodforsuchorganisations.TheorganisationschosenfortheprojectweredefinedashybridorganisationsrepresentingorganisationscurrentlyexperiencingthesocietalchangeunderwayinFinland.Thehybridityinandoforganisationswasfirstdefinedintheprojecttomeanthattraditional,generallyknownandacceptedboundariesoforganisationsarecrossedtoformnewfunctionalentities,orthattheseorganisationalboundariesaresomehowblurred,mixedortransformed（Pirkkalainen&Kaatrakoski,2007）.Later,thedefinitionofhybriditywasrefinedtotakeintoaccountthesocietaldivisionoflabour.Thatis,hybriditycametomeanchangesinthesocietaldivisionoflabourthatarerealisedinsidetheorganisationsorbetweentheorganisations（Pirkkalainen&Kaatrakoski,2009）.

Fourorganisationswerechosenfortheproject.TheFinnishRoadAdministrationrepresentedapureexternalpurchaser-providersplitorganisationatthestatelevel.TheCityofTampere（daycareandprimaryschool）wasoneofthemunicipal-levelorganisationsrepresentinganinternalpurchaser-providersplitwheretheproduction/serviceproductionismainlyinternal.Theothermunicipal-levelorganisation,theCityofEspoo（elderlycare）,representedtheoutsourcingmodel.Intheoutsourcingmodel,theorganisationisnotdividedtopurchasersandproviders,butpartoftheproductionisorganisedinternallyandpartexternallyinvariedamounts.Thefourthcasewasthemulti-agencyorganisationTekeväwhich,thoughformallyanindependentthird-sectororganisation,remainsstronglygovernedbyotherorganisations（whichpurchaseservicesfromTekevä,sendcustomerstoTekeväorotherwiseworkinco-operationwithTekevä）andretainsbothbusinessandsocialdimensionsinitsactivity（Pirkkalainen&Kaatrakoski2009）.Participants（total61）wereinterviewedinallfourorganisations,anddevelopmentalinterventions（15sessions）wereconductedinTampereandTekevä.Theinterv