| Abstrakt: |
This chapter focuses on the challenges brought by changes in the management of human service institutions. Institutions are challenged to react quickly and efficiently to influences and demands and to anticipate events even though they feel confused and uncertain. For those in human service institutions, the tension around the aim of their work and the contradictory demands of the marketplace culture, has been leading many good managers to become caught up in tasks, and to lose sight of the whole picture. Organisation-in-the-mind is a holistic concept. That is, everything is interconnected. The challenge for managers is whether they can see the significance of working from the boundary, where they can get the overview and see the interconnectedness of the parts, in order to understand the full significance of the institution in its context. Because institutions can be considered as living organisms, which is shown by the shifting patterns of relations and networks of activities and feelings, something is always happening and management's picture today cannot be relied on for tomorrow. In the course of examining and working with the institution and its parts hidden facts may come to light, new ideas or opportunities may occur, extra resources be added and innovative decisions made. |
