Ministrar som politiker och strateger : en analys av den finska regeringens strategiarbete utifrån strategi som praktik

Strategic management and strategy work have in recent years been topical in the academic and public debate concerning the Finnish government. Although the strategic management and strategy work of the Finnish government carries a notable societal significance, research on the topic has been relatively scarce and seldom incorporates the views and experiences of the Government ministers. In this study, I’m approaching politics, and the work of the Finnish government in particular, through the lens of strategy as practice theory. By doing so, I’m taking a contemporary theoretical framework used in numerous strategy studies and introducing it to a new world of organisational life: politics at the highest level of national decision-making. The aim of the study is to answer the questions: How do Finnish ministers describe the strategy praxis, strategic practices and practitioners of the Finnish government? What kind of conclusions can be drawn from these descriptions based on a theoretical frame of reference of strategy as practice? For the purposes of this study, I reviewed all biographies and most other books that were written by a minister who served between 2003-2019. In addition, I interviewed six former ministers. The material, both memoirs and interviews, is analysed by means of grounded theory analysis, while also employing the narrative method for presenting the material and supporting the analysis. The theoretical framework of strategy as practice gives a clear picture of numerous strategically relevant tools, norms, and procedures of strategy, which the ministers’ own narrative seems to omit. When approached through the strategy as practice theoretical framework, even many aspects of the Government’s work that are not specifically raised as strategic by the ministers themselves can be allocated a clear strategic significance. This approach, namely taking distance from the “traditional” view of strategy, where strategies are considered spelled-out documents and rational processes, can help us uncover new ways to successfully provide strategic steering to the state administration even in a context of high political tensions