Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide background to this special issue and consider how critically oriented research can be applied to health and social care management. Design/methodology/approach – Basic principles of critical management studies are introduced briefly to frame...

Purpose – Finland represents one of the Nordic welfare states where the role of the public sector as the organiser and provider of health and social care is strong. However, the amount of voluntary work in social and health care services is surprisingly big. The strongest advocates for keeping...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of reforms designed to address economic and demographic challenges in England with reference to the authors’ own empirical work providing a critique of their impact and suggesting a way to improve the quality of social care for...

The Finnish health and social care sector is currently undergoing numerous reforms. These reforms involve novel demands regarding the role of steering, decision-making, and management in health and social services. This article sheds light on some of the critical factors encountered by...

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to understand and define how the polyphony of management is constructed in interaction and to describe this through concrete management meeting cases. Polyphony refers to the diverse voices of various organization members, and how these voices are present,...

The rise of modern corporations has been accompanied by an expansion of salaried executives who have replaced owner-managers. With this expansion, the new class of managers/executives came to regard themselves as stewards of large and complex corporations, and not principally or exclusively as...