"Måla fan på väggen" -En kvalitativ studie om anställdas upplevelser av och strategier i en neddragningsprocess i en offentlig organisation

Sammanfattning: This study focuses on employees in a public organization and their experiences of cutback management. In January 2017, the Swedish Migration Agency decided to initiate a cutback process in which a large number of employees risked losing their job. Such process is still ongoing, and we have performed qualitative interviews with seven respondents prior receiving a potential notice of termination. Through such interviews it emerged how the respondents experienced the cutback management process, and we divided such experiences into six themes. These were communication, participation, acknowledgement, job security, trust and motivation. Six of the respondents experienced a lack of communication, not being involved in the cutback process and a lack of acknowledgement by the management. Along with the insecurity a cutback process creates due to the risk of losing one’s job, such experiences led to a lower motivation, a lower organizational commitment but also a lower work commitment. Their experiences led as well to a lower trust both in the Swedish Migration Agency and the state as employers. As a consequence of their experiences, but specially of the job insecurity and family situation of each respondent, more than half of the respondents had left or decided to leave the organization. Our result differs from previous research specially in the matter concerning the work commitment and public service motivation. Our study shows that it is possible the employees of today’s public organizations work for the state because of what the state can do for them and not because of what they can do for the state and the users of public service. Our study shows the public service motivation appears to be in decline, and thus also the work commitment in times of cutbacks.