4.2 Year 0, part I: Merger preparations with the NAC (2002)
4.2.2 Merger preparations management
Table 3. Votes from PA and RRV personnel, regarding to motivation, in an in-house survey May 16, 2002
1. The salary 17%
2. Exciting and interesting work assignments. 56%
3. Contributing the societal development, and that citizens find our
work useful. 11%
4. Feeling that I can develop my competence. 16%
100%
Survey question:
What motivates you in your work?
The relationship between RRV and PA personnel and managers appeared to be very good at the kick-off, and there were both high expectations on the process, and an awareness that the process would have its share of problems. At the dinner following the first day, a PA employee said:
It is as if we in the little family come to visit our big bunch of relatives.
Or as big brother and little brother.
People around him, from both RRV and PA, smiled and agreed.
To sum up, personnel at RRV and PA came together in their aversion to the previous merger preparations process, and this also united personnel and management. In sharing this dislike, and wishes for a participative merger management model, all parties came together. The parliamentary delegation was aware of this and promised a new process, where personnel’s wishes would be taken into account. They emphasized at the kick-off that “each of you is important”.
Because RRV and PA were the only two authorities in the country who conducted national audit, it was easy to relate to each other as a family - especially the individuals conducting performance audit. One reason could be that they often shared a similar educational background.
Riksrevisionskommittén) was appointed by the Parliamentary Board.
The NAC consisted of the following three primary members24:
Luke. Luke had a degree in law, and he had served as an expert in the cancelled project for merger preparations. For many years, he had been the chairman of the Board of Auditors (Swedish: Revisorsnämnd) in Sweden. He had also been a Deputy Director-General (Swedish:
överdirektör) at the Swedish National Tax Board (Swedish:
Riksskatteverket). Today, he was the President of the Administrative Court of Appeals (Swedish: Kammarrätten) in the city of Sundsvall.
Alison. Alison was intended to be responsible for “the soft values”
(interview with the Secretary-General of Parliament, 3 December, 2002) in the NAC, especially the amalgamation of the two cultures.
She had experience of mergers in similar environments, and also from the establishment of The Swedish Research Council (Swedish:
Vetenskapsrådet).
Ryan. Ryan had a degree in law. He had just retired. Previously, he had been Head of the Administrative Department (Swedish:
expeditionschef) at Parliament and Director-General at the Swedish Agency for Public Management (Swedish: Statskontoret).
According to the Secretary-General of Parliament, the intention of these appointments was to have three people who complemented each other. He had requested a participative management approach, according to personnel at RRV and PA. Apart from these three NAC members, there were three experts in the NAC:
• Linda, Administrative Manager at PA.
• Tom, Manager for a performance audit department at RRV, and member of the RRV management staff (Swedish: stab).
24They were called members (Swedish: ledamöter) in the merger process, but to provide anonymity to individuals in NAC in this empirical description, the general concept of “NAC members” is used to signify any of the individuals (including experts) in the NAC, while “primary members” signifies the three regular NAC members.
• Anthony, Administrative Director at the Committee on Finance (Swedish: Finansutskottet). He represented the parliamentary administration.
There was also a secretariat, with 2-3 people, and finally Bonnie (Director of Human Resources at RRV). Bonnie was responsible for keeping personnel at both RRV and PA informed about what was said and happened in the NAC and its projects. In this role, she too participated in all NAC meetings.25 Bonnie, along with the secretariat, constituted a Program Office (Swedish: programkontor), supporting the NAC. During phase I of merger preparations, Bonnie led most of the seminars for RRV and PA personnel.
In the summer of 2002, the NAC presented a project organization, allowing personnel to be involved in merger preparations. It was structured as a temporary project organization, see Figure 7. Seven NAC projects, with employees from RRV and PA, were established.
Two projects were led directly by NAC members, the others were led by employees. The two projects that were considered especially strategic and important, concerned the role of the new authority (project no. 1), and organization issues (project no. 2). Due to this, it was agreed that two of the three primary NAC members would lead these - Ryan for the first project, Alison for the latter. Projects were staffed with personnel from RRV and PA, in more or less equal proportions.
The Organization Project included a culture study. Alison explained that the aim of this project was to understand each culture, in order to be able to “take the best of each of them and bring to the new authority”. This was communicated often, and preliminary results from this group were presented at most RRV/PA seminars. Personnel were invited to share their opinions on matters of organization structure and culture, and numerous employees were interviewed.
25This was announced in the staff magazine RRK-nytt 2002/01, dated June 26, 2002
Parliamentary Board
National Audit Committee (NAC)
Program Office Delegation from
the Committee on the Constitution
(Parliament)
NAC Project #1
(Role, tasks, and goals) NAC Project #2 (Organization)
NAC Project
#3 (Administr.
support &
choice of systems)
NAC Project
#4 (Personnel &
filling of positions)
NAC Project
#5 (IT, telecom,
& security)
NAC Project
#6 (Facilities)
NAC Project
#7 (Moving) Personnel organizations, management and
personnel in the authorities, Parl.
administration Parliamentary Board
National Audit Committee (NAC)
Program Office Delegation from
the Committee on the Constitution
(Parliament)
NAC Project #1
(Role, tasks, and goals) NAC Project #2 (Organization)
NAC Project
#3 (Administr.
support &
choice of systems)
NAC Project
#4 (Personnel &
filling of positions)
NAC Project
#5 (IT, telecom,
& security)
NAC Project
#6 (Facilities)
NAC Project
#7 (Moving) Personnel organizations, management and
personnel in the authorities, Parl.
administration
Figure 7: NAC project organization, English version of the one presented by NAC in the news letter issued 18 September, 2002 (RRK-nytt 2002/01, p.2)
Projects were conducted at different points in time. The one concerning the role of the new authority was conducted already in the beginning of the autumn of 2002, while the project concerning transfer of offices was not conducted until the spring and summer of 2003.
Most project leaders were asked to summarize conclusions and suggestions in final reports, and to present these to the NAC. Reports would then be passed on to the Auditor-Generals, when they had been appointed towards the end of year 2002.
According to instructions from the Parliamentary Board (Swedish:
riksdagsstyrelsen), NAC’s assignment was to prepare a basis for later decisions by the Auditors-General regarding to organization structure, staffing and managers in the audit organization, and regarding to the audit plan.26 Only in a limited number of issues was the NAC allowed to make decisions. One of these was the office issue, described in section 4.2.5.27
26See RRK-nytt 2002/01, p.1 (issued 26 June, 2002)
27NAC was also meant to prepare for the graphic profile of the new authority, and suggest guidelines and goals (Swedish: anslagsdirektiv, verksamhetsföreskrifter
The key groups during this first part of merger preparations are illustrated in Figure 8.
PA
NAC experts NAC/3AG projects
RRV
NAC Media
Parliament
Local union representatives
External actors, for example:
Figure 8. Key groups during phase I of preparations for the RRV/PA merger.
The NAC had their first meeting in June, 2002, and continued around mid-August (interview with Alison). Parliament set a start-up date for the new authority: 1 July, 2003.28 Alison, one of the three main NAC members, was very confident about the phase ahead in an interview just a week before the announcement of the names of the three AG (3 December, 2002). It was not until now, she explained, that things would become really interesting:
Then our work too will be made more concrete and detailed, it will be much more exciting. So far we have done mostly investigating. […] It will be a fun phase this spring!
och mål) for the different professions (RRK-nytt 2002/01, issued 26 June, 2002).
28Press release from the Swedish Parliament, 29 May, 2002. Previous start-up date was 1 January, 2003.
The Directors-General at PA and RRV continued with their normal assignments during this period. Rachel explained that her task was merely “to retain organizational capacity”.
4.2.3 A participative approach with equal influence(?)