In the Point of Intersection : How Organizational Development Takes Shape in the Church of Sweden Diaconia when Tradition Meets New Development Trends

This master’s thesis addresses how strategic development takes shape, when ideas connected to an organization’s historical heritage meet contemporary expectations of organizational development. The Church of Sweden Diaconia sets the example and in a qualitative case study this meeting has been examined. With new institutional theory as starting point the interpretation is made that the meeting between tradition and develop­ment can be under­stood as a meeting between a value based and a scientifically based logic. From the con­tradicting logics, the deacon and the social worker appear as institu­tional myths and as a double work identity. To maintain legitimacy, both logics need to be encom­passed. I introduce the idea of a space for intentional reflection, open for negotiation between the identities