To Örebro University

Purpose: This article investigates how promotional strategies used by work inclusion organizations reflect broader shifts in the role of work within occupational rehabilitation and active labor market policies (ALMPs). By situating the analysis in the historical trajectory from sheltered workshops to governance-oriented models of inclusion, the study examines how branding practices, viewed through the lens of brand society theory, reshape representations of work and welfare in the Scandinavian context.

Design/methodology/approach: A multimodal critical discourse analysis is conducted on promotional materials from two prominent organizations, Samhall (Sweden) and Work and Inclusion (Norway). The analysis is grounded in historical and theoretical perspectives, particularly the evolution of work in occupational rehabilitation and the concept of the brand society.

Findings: The findings indicate that promotional materials adopt corporate aesthetics and idealized portrayals of work, aligning with branding logics. The use of personal confessions as a branding tool raises ethical questions related to authenticity and agency. While promoting inclusion, these materials also reinforce support for national welfare state models.

Originality/value: This study contributes to the understanding of how branding practices intersect with work inclusion policy in Scandinavian welfare contexts. It offers an original theoretical synthesis of brand society and multimodal discourse analysis applied to ALMP implementation.

Hur kan kommuner, genom sina kommunikatörer, stärka invånarnas förmåga att förstå, förebygga och hantera lokala risker? Detta är kärnfrågan i denna rapport, som sammanfattar ett flertal undersökningar av kommunikatörsprofessionens arbete med riskkommunikation för krisberedskap. Rapporten har tagits fram inom forskningsprojektet DURCOM, finansierat av Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap (MSB). Författaren, Hogne Lerøy Sataøen, är lektor och docent i medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap vid Örebro universitet.

This paper explores how contestation unfolds within the interconnected processes of governing, managing, and measuring nature, using Swedish forest policy and Woodland Key Habitats (WKHs) as a case study. It illustrates how contestation rooted in different interests and worldviews manifests as epistemic struggles within the state apparatus. Based on document analysis and expert interviews with policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders, the paper traces the development of WKHs since the 1990s as a method, grounded in an ecosystem approach, for measuring the ecological value of a forest, as well as the subsequent politicization and contestation of the method that has played out over the past decade. Rather than targeting political goals, the contestation is directed at the objectivity, legality, and reasonableness of WKHs. The contestation led to a revision of the classification criteria and eventually the termination of the assessments. This case underscores how the deep entanglement of values and facts is essential both for driving change and for understanding the limited implementation of more progressive ecosystem-oriented policies. Assessing this triadic interrelationship between governing, managing, and measuring nature provides a deeper understanding of how contestation plays out and impacts environmental governance.

It is well known that the meanings of public values can vary significantly across different settings, given their abstract nature. Despite this knowledge, however, the public values literature has not significantly examined the official meanings of public values in their local setting. Against this backdrop, on the basis of a translation perspective we examine the context-specific meanings of 219 public values as defined by the core values statements of 61 Nordic central government agencies. We show variation and patterns in the meanings, emphasizing how the meanings vary depending on whether the values are translated into (1) a work and service delivery theme, (2) an internal relations theme and (3) an external relations theme. Through these findings, the study highlights the importance of taking into consideration the official meanings of agency core values for understanding the relationship between public values and administrative behaviour.

Points for practitioners: The findings from this study inform public managers and administrators of the possible variation in the official meanings that could be attributed to core values. They suggest that public managers should carefully consider how they want their agency's core values to be understood by the employees. Specifically, when translating core values, public managers are advised to assess whether the signifiers they use to translate the values should guide work and service delivery, internal relations or external relations, respectively, or a combination. By drawing attention to the intended meanings of core values, the findings create increased awareness of how different translations of core values implicate different administrative behaviours.

Using the Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (RVA) as a lens, this study examines the making of risk communication in Swedish municipalities by comparing two central professions in this work, safety and communication. Sweden's decentralised responsibility for risk preparedness means that municipalities are given a central role in promoting increased preparedness among residents and local actors. However, there is little guidance on how to organise the work and how to coordinate between the different professions involved. Municipal officials are tasked with developing strategies to implement national policies, including conducting and communicating RVA. The study is comparing two central professions in Swedish municipalities' risk communication, safety, and communication, to analyse their views on central tasks and perceptions of their practice. The theoretical approach is based on risk communication and institutional theory, and the empirical material consists of an interview study with both safety and communication officers (N = 36). The findings reveal that while both professional logics are active in municipal risk communication, interactions, and negotiations between them are somewhat limited. The organisational structure of the RVA favours the logic of safety officers, which has implications for how risk communication is made in practice. The article concludes by discussing what effect this may have on preparedness.

This study explores the evolving, however also “messy”, role of communication professionals in higher education institutions (HEIs), who are involved in organizational science communication. Despite substantial growth and professionalization within HEIs’ communication departments, limited research delves into these professionals’ own perspectives and their self-understanding. Our investigation employs a metaphors-in-use perspective, through 26 interviews in ten Scandinavian HEIs. The paper contributes to the research on organizational science communication by unraveling the metaphors used by communication professionals: the salesman, the marketplace-facilitator, the police, the missionary, the storyteller, and the overhead-cost, gaining an understanding of how communication professionals perceive their own role.

At a time when disasters, pandemics, pollution, and other crises gain prominence, local governments bear a crucial responsibility for effective risk communication. Yet, there remains a gap in our understanding of how municipalities approach risk communication before a crisis occurs. This qualitative study, involving seven focus groups and 29 semistructured interviews across two Nordic countries, raises questions about ownership of municipal risk communication: What challenges do municipalities face in managing ownership in risk communication? How does the organization of communication influence municipal risk communication? The results underscore three key considerations: First, there is a critical need for municipalities to engage in definitional clarification of risk and crisis communication. Establishing a shared understanding is paramount for effective communication strategies. Second, reframing uncertainty in municipal risk communication ownership as an opportunity is suggested. Embracing the inherent uncertainties and dependencies can offer a valuable perspective. Lastly, recognizing the underappreciation of risk communication emphasizes the imperative for municipal decision makers to address resource allocation issues. This involves ensuring that communication professionals have the confidence and resources needed, vis-à-vis other functions involved in risk management.

In the wake of fast-burning crises ( ’t Hart & Boin, 2001) information-sharing and communication, within and between organizations, as well as between organizations and the public, pose perennial challenges (Boin et al., 2016; Quarantelli, 1988). This is primarily because fast-burning crises are rife with uncertainty about causes, consequences, and intervention options (Ansell et al., 2010). With communication increasingly being seen as an ongoing challenge in the actual management of crises, crisis communication has emerged as a distinct and cohesive field producing a large body of research in the last ten years (Diers-Lawson, 2017). Still, the fields of crisis communication and crisis management view the role and function of communication differently. Crisis communication researchers often focus on the external aspects of crisis communication, for instance crisis-response strategies, public relations, and image-repair efforts, rather than the internal aspects: the communication within the organizations handling the crisis (Frandsen & Johansen, 2011). Consequently, limited efforts have been made to theoretically and empirically reflect upon communicational conditions, processes, and activities during an ongoing crisis (Bundy et al., 2017). Crisis management research, on the other hand, tends to play down the role of communication during ongoing crises, paying more attention to issues such as decision-making, organizational learning, and organizational cultures (Johansen, et al., 2012). 

This chapter addresses this paradoxical situation through in-depth analysis of the terrorist attacks in Oslo on July 22, 2011. The analysis relies on Karl Weick’s (1976, 1979, 1988) sensemaking theory, which provides a valuable starting-point for understanding the role of information-sharing and communication during ongoing crises. Furthermore, the concept of collective crisis sense-making (Frandsen, 2020; Stieglitz et al., 2018), has the potential to bring together insights from crisis communication and crisis management research. During an ongoing crisis, collective sensemaking processes concern how social actors create their environment by (en)acting and paying attention to some information while ignoring other information (Young, 2018; Maitlis & Sonenshein, 2010). Hence, sensemaking pertains to the process of clarifying what is going on and bracketing cues from the environment (Stieglitz et al., 2018). Sensemaking is about attributing meaning to environmental stimuli, and it necessitates communication to connect cues to frames (Young, 2018). As crises typically consist of unexpected and incomprehensible events and situations, sensemaking is of the utmost importance for reducing confusion and guiding action (Waller & Uitdewilligen, 2008). Still, the actual processes whereby individuals put their different pieces of information together jointly and collectively have thus far largely been neglected (Maitlis & Christianson, 2014, 102). 

The aim of this chapter is to contribute to filling this gap by theorizing about how collective crisis sensemaking and the actual practice of putting together pieces of information within and outside organizations might contribute to the crisis communication and crisis management literatures respectively. More specifically, we elucidate how power, culture and polyphonic communication have roles to play in sensemaking processes. We ask the following research questions: (How) are individuals who holds different pieces of information during an ongoing, fast-burning crisis able to collectively construct meaning? What challenges are involved in the processes of collective crisis sensemaking? 

The empirical basis of the chapter comprises three communicative situations related to the so-called “car tip” during the two terrorist attacks in Oslo, 2011. In the aftermath of the crisis the police were strongly criticized (NOU, 2012). A quintessential example of what was widely perceived as a flawed police response was its handling of the “car tip.” This tip included detailed information about an armed person in uniform who was observed leaving the government complex only minutes prior to the explosion. In the chapter, the following situations are analyzed. First, we look at how an operator assistant at the Oslo police communicated with the operations commander by a written note, causing important information to go missing for significant amount of time. Secondly, we analyze the situation related to information about an armed man, which three separate operations operators received but did not link together. None of the operators had an overall picture, nor did they have the technology to combine the incoming information. Thirdly, we will focus on how information shared by the Oslo police operations center was decoded differently by different police districts close to Oslo. Using unique, real-time data, we map in detail how the police handled and shared information and how they tried, but, with one exception, failed to collectively make sense of witness reports. 

In recent decades, the role of communication and PR within higher education institutions (HEIs) has grown in significance, marked by the expansion of communication departments, diversified work assignments for communication professionals, and an increasing focus on reputation and visibility. This study examines 203 job advertisements targeting communication professionals in Swedish HEIs from 1999 to 2022. Our analysis identifies a substantial shift in the expectations and roles of communication professionals. It reveals a pronounced trend of increasing expectations, necessitating candidates to possess a broader and deeper skill set to manage a wider spectrum of responsibilities in HEIs. Furthermore, while our findings signal a noteworthy transformation in the communication profession, it also shows the evolvement from a supportive function to a strategically integral role in aiding and forming institutional management and leadership. Moreover, this study highlights communication departments as particularly flexible sites for receiving and incorporating external trends and ideas in university organizations.

Il est bien connu que les significations données aux valeurs publiques peuvent varier considérablement d’un cadre à l’autre, compte tenu de leur nature abstraite. Malgré cette conscience, cependant, la littérature sur les valeurs publiques n’a pas réellement examiné les significations officielles données aux valeurs publiques dans leur contexte local. Dans ce contexte, sur la base d’une perspective de traduction, nous examinons les significations propres au contexte de 219 valeurs publiques telles que définies par les énoncés de valeurs fondamentales de 61 agences gouvernementales centrales nordiques. Nous faisons apparaître les variations et les modèles dans les significations, en soulignant comment les significations varient selon que les valeurs sont traduites dans (1) un thème de travail et de prestation de services, (2) un thème de relations internes et (3) un thème de relations externes. À travers ces résultats, l’étude souligne l’importance de prendre en considération les significations officielles des valeurs fondamentales des agences pour comprendre la relation entre les valeurs publiques et le comportement administratif.

Remarques à l’intention des praticiens: Les résultats de cette étude informent les gestionnaires et les administrateurs publics de la possible variation des significations officielles qui pourraient être attribuées aux valeurs fondamentales. Ils suggèrent que les gestionnaires publics devraient examiner attentivement comment ils souhaitent que les valeurs fondamentales de leur agence soient comprises par les employés. Plus précisément, lors de la traduction des valeurs fondamentales, il est conseillé aux gestionnaires publics d’évaluer si les signifiants qu’ils utilisent pour traduire les valeurs devraient guider le travail et la prestation services, les relations internes ou externes, respectivement, ou une combinaison. En attirant l’attention sur les significations voulues des valeurs fondamentales, les conclusions font mieux prendre conscience de la façon dont les différentes traductions des valeurs fondamentales impliquent différents comportements administratifs.