Att bygga för vård. Lokalförsörjning inom vårdbyggnadssektorn

Doctoral thesis, 2008

Organisations and the activities they perform are changing continuously as a consequence of organisational and technological development. In order to effectively support a core activity its premises must be able to adapt to this development. Therefore changes are being sought regarding current praxis with issues concerning strategies and processes for the provision of premises. What is strived for is a process open for the client and user that are not primarily focused on construction but rather on the function and usability for the core business. Within the healthcare sector, where this study has been carried out, one is continually faced with changes related to organisational, medical and technological aspects. In order to accommodate these changes rapid adaptations of the premises are required, and a process that can handle rapid changes needs to be developed. However, it is not only the process that needs to be developed, the organisation carrying out the process of provision of premises must also develop to meet new demands on transparency, development of knowledge and efficiency. Through a case study and action research projects it has been investigated how an organisation providing facilities to the health care sector can develop and meet the challenges put on it. The research question was structured in two parts. The first question concerned how the process of providing premises is influenced by the structure of the organisation. The second question concerned what aspects could be identified to describe the interaction between core activities, the organisation being supplied with facilities, and the organisation that provide, supply, the facilities. Findings indicated that there are three aspects in the interaction that influence the result of a premise providing project. These are the process, the actors and the structure of the organisation. The process is important because it is the facility providers’, the actors, tool when they carry out their tasks. Process descriptions should therefore be appropriate and be used in a way so that it helps the actors to achieve the goals for the projects. Shared process descriptions can coordinate and transfer experience and knowledge between projects. On an organisational level, coordination and structure is also supporting the knowledge transfer. The structure of the organisation is therefore an important aspect and directly related to the first research question concerning how organisational structure influence the process of provision of facilities Findings from the case study also indicated that the actors behaviour was central in order to establish an effective interaction between the organisation providing facilities an their clients.