”Det är för brukarnas skull vi är här” – Om enhetschefers handlingsutrymme och deras möjligheter att påverka de äldres livssituation

“It’s for the sake of the clients that we are here” – The managers’ area of discretion and their ability to influence the elderly’s daily situation. Our essay focuses on managers of nursing homes in the Swedish municipal elderly care and their ability to influence the elderly’s everyday life. We were also interested in how they use this area of discretion and the factors that influence and limit it. In our study we conducted seven interviews with managers of nursing homes in one Swedish municipality. We have then used the structural perspective of Bolman and Deals organization theory and concepts such as area of discretion and parallel processes to analyze the information obtained in these interviews A conclusion can be drawn that the organization of the Swedish elderly care is the principal factor in influencing and limiting the managers’ discretion. However, despite these limitations the managers have a relatively large area of discretion in the daily work at the nursing home. Therefore they have the possibility to influence the elderly’s daily situation, mainly through their staff by transferring an approach that gives the elderly power and allows them to make choices of their own, and decide about their daily situation