Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine learning and employee-driven innovation (EDI) in thepublic sector, with a particular focus on the interplay between employee engagement and organisationalconditions.

Design/methodology/approach – The material consists of qualitative interviews with 23 participantsfrom three municipal sites of innovation support that participated in a national programme aiming tostrengthen municipalities’ innovation work.

Findings – The study found numerous constraining organisational conditions resulting in consequentialloss of employee engagement for EDI. The conclusion drawn is that employee engagement and enablingorganisational conditions are central to EDI in public sector workplaces, and that incorporating EDI intomunicipal daily operations requires paying attention to the interplay between organisational conditions andemployee engagement.

Originality/value – This paper provides important guidance for supporting EDI in the public sector.Implementing EDI into operations requires employee engagement to be successful. However, employees’engagement should not be overlooked or taken for granted. A practical implication of this study is that EDI inthe workplace must be encouraged by creating a learning environment that supports innovative learning inthe workplace. In practice, measures should be taken to support employee engagement by creatingorganisational conditions that provide a more expansive learning environment to ensure the continuity andperpetuation of EDI in public sector organisations.

Despite the number of studies confirming a high degree of unpredictability in managerial work, little is still known about how managers? workplace learning happens within organisations in such circumstances. This paper therefore aims to contribute knowledge about managers? learning in managerial practice when work is unpredictable, by investigating how first-line managers deal with unforeseen situations and how they learn in such circumstances in everyday work. Data was collected via qualitative interviews with 40 first-line managers in Swedish elderly care. By using a theoretical framework based on practice and workplace learning theories, the paper analyses how managers address unpredictability in work through three embedded practices: maintaining, modifying and inventing. The paper goes beyond research on leadership training and leadership development by contributing knowledge about the everyday learning of first-line managers when their work is unpredictable. The unpredictable managerial work does not always create chaos; instead, there are very orderly ways of learning from dealing with unforeseen situations. The unforeseen is not as unpredictable as it might seem in managerial work. On the other hand, that which is not yet known calls for an inventing practice, which results in managers learning to take new paths that can create new practices.

Public sector innovation and innovation capacity have gained increased attention inresearch and policy in recent decades, but empirical knowledge is still limited. Thisarticle focuses on initiatives to systematically support innovation in the public sector,with the aim of exploring challenges related to the organisation of innovation support inSwedish municipalities. The study is based on three case studies of municipal innovationsupport operations and 23 qualitative interviews with participants within these operations.The findings show how different innovation support strategies were chosen, ranging fromsuggestion box setups to idea coaching and training using service design methodology.Regardless of strategy, the initiatives faced challenges related to a lack of direction onwhat to innovate and implementation phases not being part of the innovation support.Other challenges related to managers being involved too late in the innovation processesand difficulties securing a commitment to work with innovation within the organisation.These findings point to both the general challenges of supporting change in organisationsand the specific challenges of introducing innovation and setting up innovation support inpublic sector organisations.

Over the past few years, public policy interventions have been initiated to promote public sector innovation. These top-down initiatives have been aimed at generating bottom-up movement, and first-line managers are believed to play an important role in this transformation. However, little is known about the challenges first-line managers face in their role as agents of change. This article provides unique insight into the expectations and conditions that first-line managers face when innovation support is implemented in municipalities. The article draws on 23 interviews with participants from three Swedish cases where innovation support has been implemented in the municipal context. These three cases of innovation support are examples of conscious efforts to systematise innovation work that also affect the first-line managers in the organisation. The findings reveal that a multitude of expectations pointing towards an exploration logic are placed on first-line managers to lead, dare and support in connection with employee-driven innovation, but the conditions under which they operate point towards an exploitation logic. The managers find themselves wedged between high expectations and a lack of mandate, resources and organisational support for workplace innovation in the public sector context.

The purpose of this article is to explore first-line managers’ experiences of workplace learning in elderly care, with a particular focus on the conditions for learning when entering a new workplace as the new manager. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 35 first-line managers from three organisations in Sweden. Four learning conditions emerged as being particularly significant for first-line managers: the managers’ previous professional experience, job-specific training, social support, and the joint repertoire of organisational arrangements. These conditions shifted in importance during the process of entering the workplace, and the way in which the conditions gave access to learning for different managers varied. The managers’ professional experience and others’ recognition of them had a considerable impact on their admittance to the new workplace. After the initial entry phase, the other three learning conditions became more significant and played a role in enabling or constraining the managers’ learning and becoming the new manager. One conclusion is that contextual and work experiences from elderly care were significant for learning during the initial phase and in order to gain access to workplace learning. Another conclusion is that high expectations and great responsibility were placed on the managers to satisfy their own learning needs. This implies that professional, social and emotional support that is received informally is just as significant for learning as formalised training for entering a new workplace as a new manager.

Det här kapitlet handlar om något som varje arbetsgivare måste göra varje år: en lönekartläggning. Den syftar till att upptäcka, åtgärda och förhindra osakliga löneskillnader mellan kvinnor och män. Kapitlet kopplar till formella maktprocesser genom att vi problematiserar vem som har makten över jämställda löner, framför allt i organisationer. Vi beskriver bakgrunden till lagkravet på lönekartläggningar, vad arbetsvärdering och lönekartläggning innebär, vilka aktörer som är involverade i arbetet med lönekartläggningen och övergripande hur arbetet går till. Därutöver ges underlag för reflektion kring målet för arbetet, val av metod och olika sätt att lösa problem som kan uppstå. Kapitlet bygger på och presenterar tidigare forskning och teoribildning på området, samt forskningsresultat från empiriska studier av arbetsvärdering och lönekartläggning i kommuner. Syftet är att bidra till ökad förståelse för vilken roll arbetsvärdering och lönekartläggning kan spela som verktyg för jämställdhet i organisationer och på samhällsnivå. Särskilt vill vi belysa vilken makt HR och personalvetare har att bidra till jämställdhet genom lönekartläggningsarbetet.

Under senare år har innovation lyfts fram som en strategisk fråga för kommuner och andra organisationer inom den offentliga sektorn. På både nationell och kommunal nivå konstateras att samtida och framtida samhälls- och välfärdsutmaningar inte kan hanteras och lösas på samma sätt som tidigare. Det behövs nya lösningar. Dessutom finns förhoppningar om att innovationsarbete ska kunna bidra till att höja effektiviteten och kvaliteten i offentlig sektor.

I rapporten undersöks vad som händer när den kommunstrategiska frågan ”innovation” landar på verksamhetsnivå hos kommunala chefer, och hur dessa hanterar och bemöter utmaningen att balansera samtidiga verksamhetskrav på stabil och effektiv produktion av välfärdstjänster, samt utvecklingsinriktat innovationsarbete. Syftet är att bidra till en ökad förståelse för de organisatoriska förutsättningar kommunala chefer har att leda för innovation. Sammanlagt 34 kommunala chefer har intervjuats om hur de uppfattar innovation, deras egen roll som chefer i innovationsarbetet, samt de organisatoriska förutsättningarna för att leda för innovation.

Resultaten visar att cheferna uppfattar att det är:

• svårt att veta vad innovation innebär i ett kommunalt sammanhang

• viktigt att skapa strukturella och kulturella grundförutsättningar för innovation

• en utmaning att få utrymme för arbetet med utvecklingsfrågor Det framstår som att cheferna lämnas att själva fylla begreppet innovation med betydelse. Det finns inte någon gemensam definition eller förståelse som cheferna lutar sig mot, vilket kan skapa otydligheter kring vad chefen egentligen ska leda när chefen ska leda för innovation. När det gäller förutsättningarna för chefernas eget arbete ges de inget tydligt stöd för att balansera kraven mellan produktion och innovation i organisationen. Cheferna lämnas att själva göra individuella val om innovationsarbetet utifrån de krav och begränsningar som finns i situationen.

The authors present an analytical model to distinguish between different aspects and modes of innovation. By showing how innovation in the public sector differs from the private sector, this paper is an important stepping-stone to understanding and supporting innovation in the public sector.