FLEXIBILITY - With Focus on the Learning and Decisionmaking Processes in the Swedish Armed Forces

This year´s work is a deepening of previous work on flexibility. The focus is on decision making and learning, and the room the management system is giving to these aspects is affecting the flexibility of an organisation. We are giving a theoretical background and continue to describe two different organisational logics. One is emphasizing the decision making which is underlining the responsibility of the functions in the organisation. The second is emphasizing learning which is underlining reconsideration of existing facts regarding the operation in order to find relevant links to pay attention to. An organisation strongly emphasizing decision making, such as the mechanic organisation, tends to fragmentise the operations because priority is given the the limits of responsibility rather than where relevant knowledge is available. An organisation strongly emphasizing decision making, such as the mechanic organisation, tends to fragmentise the operations because priority is given to the limits of responsibility rather than where relevant knowledge is available. An organisation strongly emphasizing learning, such as the organic organisation, tends to integrate the operations when its relevance in proportion to the strategy routinely are emphasized and re-examined. The theories have been illustrated in a case study when working with the annual budget and the follow up of it. Based on the case study we are of the opinion that the principle of decision making is the determining factor within the Swedish Armed Forces. Aspects stimulating learning exist, even if the room for this seems to be limited by the responsibility and the focus on economy. Short-sightedness tends to take over in the decision making when considering how the resources are going to be used but also have long-term consequences. The control, the shortsightedness and the clear responsibility for the routine control of the management system are paradoxical phenomena when considering that the Swedish Armed Forces is in the middle of the greatest changes ever.