We are in the same boat.

The purpose of this study is to explore the eldercare managers' descriptions of their work situation, and through our research, reach a comprehesive view of the managers discretion in the municipational eldercare system in Sweden. Our questions in focus are: In what sense do the managers feel that laws, guidelines and objectives control their decisions? In what sense do the magangers feel that colleagues influence their decisions? How do the managers experince that superior managers and politicians influence their decisions? The essay is based on semi-structured interviews, with six different managers in the eldercare, from three different municipalities. We have made a questionnaire as a tool for our interviews, so that no questions were forgotten during the interview sessions, (with a few additional follow up questions). We analyze our results by using DiMaggio and Powell theory; we have chosen to work with two of the isomorphisms, in order to show how the managers relate to the organisations. We are also using Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucrats and their professional discretion, to see the manger from the other perspective; as an individual person in the organisation. Our results and analysis indicates that managers in the eldercare have a wide ability to control and shape their discretion. The factors, which control how the managers form their discretion, are laws, guidelines, goals, colleagues and superior management levels. These factors are largely interpretable, which gives the managers a wider possibility to shape decisions based on the existing guidelines and framework. The study shows that the most limiting factor to constrain the discretion is the financial resources