Power of the Vague: How Vision Statements Have Mobilized Change in Two Swedish Cities

• Author: Sara Brorström,Maria Grafström,Kristina Tamm Hallström
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00953997221113233
• Published date: 01 November 2022
• Date: 01 November 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997221113233

Administration & Society

2022, Vol. 54(10) 2075 –2100

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00953997221113233

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Article

Power of the Vague: How

Vision Statements Have

Mobilized Change in Two

Swedish Cities

Sara Brorström1, Maria Grafström2,

and Kristina Tamm Hallström2,3

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of strategic artifacts in realizing change in

two Swedish cities. Drawing from qualitative studies of city development

projects we illustrate how ambiguous formulations in vision statements

constitute a powerful basis for legitimizing actions. As part of establishing

linkages between future-oriented vision statements and concrete actions

here and now, we highlight the role of materialization. We provide

three examples of how the vision statements studied materialized—into

organizational structures, management control systems, and communication

efforts—and discuss how such materialization implies that only some parts

of broad vision statements are translated into practice.

Keywords

visions, strategic management, performativity, city development, strategic

artifacts

1University of Gothenburg, Sweden

2Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research (SCORE), Sweden

3Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

Corresponding Author:

Sara Brorström, Department of Business Administration, University of Gothenburg, PO Box

603, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden.

Email: sara.brorstrom@handels.gu.se

1113233AAS0010.1177/00953997221113233Administration & SocietyBrorström et al.

research-article2022

2076 Administration & Society 54(10)

Introduction

It is a trend for cities, in various governance constellations, to draft strategic

documents (Brandtner et al., 2017; Kornberger & Carter, 2010; Rosenberg

Hansen, 2011). This tendency can be understood as a consequence of new pub-

lic management, in which public organizations mirror private ones in an attempt

to enhance efficiency (Christensen & Laegreid, 2011; Johnsen, 2019). The role

of these documents is generally claimed to be to present decisions, action plans,

and other tools in the process of realizing the stated ambitions and measuring

the associated development (Brandtner et al., 2017; Bryson & George, 2020;

Kornberger, 2012). Strategic documents in the public sector are often drafted

across traditional organizational boundaries through collaboration with actors

from diverse parts of the organization, as well as with external stakeholders

(Ansell & Miura, 2020; Hautz et al., 2017). Underlying this development is the

perception that to address contemporary challenges such as climate change,

urban segregation, and sustainability, actors must work together across bound-

aries in new and innovative ways (Metzger & Rader Olsen, 2013; Swyngedouw,

2007). However, research has shown that these documents tend to be abstract

and vague (Abdallah & Langley, 2014; Allmendinger & Haughton, 2012; Gioia

et al., 2012). This can give rise to “governance gaps” between what is agreed

on at an abstract level and the resulting actions (cf. Pierre, 1999). Rather than

studying how strategy becomes part of an organization, it is then important to

consider how organizational actors transform their organizations “to create ‘fit’

with a new strategy” (Merkus et al., 2019, p. 4). In this paper, we investigate

how such links between strategic documents and action are made and expressed

through different forms of materialization. We are interested in one particular

form of strategic document—the vision statement. Vision statements have

become extensively used in municipalities as a way of articulating and steering

what the city or municipality should become in the future. They are naturally

abstract and vague, and typically present “glossy” futures of the cities in ques-

tion. They have been criticized for merely presenting speculative and unrealis-

tic dreams that seldom resemble the development that eventually occurs

(Lauermann, 2020).

In this paper, we regard such vision statements as strategic artifacts (or

tools), and we are interested in what happens when actors use these tools,

rather than assuming their usage (Spee & Jarzabkowski, 2009). Strategizing

always involves various material artifacts that influence the work being done

(Rosenberg Hansen, 2011; Werle & Seidl, 2015), and applying this perspec-

tive responds to calls for more studies into strategy tools (Laamanen, 2017;

Vuorinen et al., 2018). We thus advance research into the role of strategic

artifacts in the public sector by illustrating how vision statements have led to