What are the consequences of outsourcing on organizational performance in municipal care services?

Abstract

Public sector in Norway experiences a rapid growth, which partly is explained by increased demand for public goods and services as a result of a higher level of welfare. Especially healthcare sector will experience such a pressure in years to come. This paper discussed the growing trend in Norwegian public sector to outsource public services within healthcare sector. The reserch was limited to home-based care and nurcing servises, and two organizations within the same municipality has been chosen for the analysis. With the help of comparative design and in-depth qualitative interviews, we have tried to find out what kinds of transformations an organization goes through after it has been outsoured and what kinds of mechanisms are trigger in organizations internally as a result of such transformation.