Reputation Management in the health care sector

The research explores how public sector organizations change, in a setting where exogenous pressures of mediatization are intertwined with endogenous processes of reputation management. Mediatization and reputation management are contradictory and intertwined at the same time: Mediatization cause increased politicization and is a driver for strengthening the hierarchical control of public organizations. Reputation management, on the other hand, is strengthening tendencies towards autonomization and fragmentation, as the instrumental needs of specific organizations, e.g. a good and unique reputation, are emphasized. The research explores these intertwined and contradictory processes theoretically, and also within the health care context.