Maria Blomgren

Maria Blomgren (PhD) is a Professor at the Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University.

My research can broadly be summarized in four areas: Control, monitoring and management; Professionals in institutional change; Strategic communication and Competition and organizational identity. I have a general interest in questions of control and organization, and have aimed at increasing our understanding of the fundamental changes in public sector organizations during the last decades. Various financial and managerial models and techniques – often referred to as New Public Management – have been introduced in areas that previously were controlled and organized in other ways. What kind of consequences this has had for organizations, professional groups and managers in the healthcare and school sectors, has been in focus of my research for many years. I have investigated such things as the ambition to make medical quality indicators open to the public; what changes in control and management has meant for the work and conditions of various professions; what kind of norms and ideals that have been promoted and challenged; and how this has formed and re-formed organizations in the fields of healthcare and education. My ambition has been to critically investigate, problematize and understand what a widespread adoption of new financial and management models and mindsets has meant in our time.