Offentlige toplederes karriere univers

Abstract

This Master Thesis examines the careers of 15 executives in the Danish public sector. The Danish public sector has changed due to the market‐oriented reform change in the 1990s which have led to an analysis of the challenges of careers of public executives. The focus on the executives’ careers can give an understanding of, who the public executives are, which competen‐cies they poses and how they have become executives. The analysis provides a perspective on the development of public executives’ abilities to handle challenges, and a perspective on the capabil‐ity of future executives. In order to conduct the analysis a social constructivist theoretical framework is applied. The re‐search material is mainly generated through a qualitative method, where telling as an analytical approach are used in the interview collection to capture a complex reality, where many facets seems impossible to describe adequately. A comparative analyses is generated with the career lit‐erature and the research material. In the treatment of career literature is the boundless career discourse discussed because it is the prevailing paradigm within the career literature. The thesis’ findings indicates, that social relations are very important in understanding of the pub‐lic executive career telling. This indicates that careers are not created individually, but are contex‐tually constructed. Further examination of careers should therefore include a more contextual point of view. In this approach the executive career story indicates, that the executives do not fol‐low specific career plans, but they act on arising opportunities. The executives have instead fol‐lowed their careers as a process, where the outcome not necessarily have been known. The ex‐ecutives have been able to take the right chances, they have been able to continuously develop their skills and abilities and moreover, they have been able to position themselves correctly in the context. These findings demonstrate perspectives, that can be considered for development of cur‐ent public executives and when looking for future public executives.