Mer ekologisk mat : i Jämtlands läns landsting

Abstract: Authorities, municipalities and county councils have great opportunities to pave the way to a sustainable society. In the public sector, the tax revenue is used and therefore it is important that both employees and societal stakeholders feel that they participate in the sector's decisions and fields of application. Municipalities and county councils are primarily service organisations. The employees' commitment is necessary to be able to reach set goals, to develop procedures and policies that support the overall political goals, in other words, to be successful in the environmental work. There are a lot of areas in the public sector that have a high priority, like educational systems and healthcare. The combination of environmental work and the priority of the core activities are not easy, but both areas must be a part of the work for public sector. The purpose of the thesis is to help the management in an organisation within the public sector to motivate their employees to work toward a jointly environmental goal. The study is a comparative case study, in which two county councils serve as the empirical base. The primary focus is the procurement process, how they manage purchases of ecological food-stuffs. The theories in the study frame the phenomena in terms of organisational change in order to understand how the change is managed, what motives the change is driven by and how communication is used to understand the dilemma. The study has the starting-point in the county council of Jämtland who is trying to achieve the governmental goal of 25 % ecological foodstuffs in public sector by year 2010. The study shows that an economic compensation has an important role when it comes to motivation in the county council of Uppsala. Working towards a joint goal which is perceived as possible to achieve has lead to impressive results and an expressed joy by staff "…it is fun to work with ecological food-stuffs". Positive comments expressed by staff in the county council of Uppsala has got is also working as a positive motivational factor. The general perception is that if the county council of Uppsala would not have used a financial incentive structure that rewarded environmental policies to be put in action, they would not have reached this far in such a short period of time. The economical compensation has served as insurance for the head chef. Since the economical compensation has been significant for the county council of Uppsala to reach 25 % in such a short time period. This experience would be possible to transfer to the county council of Jämtland – the need for a financial reward system that serves as an important part of incentives for promoting a changed behaviour. The communication in the county councils is mainly executed through intranet and internal papers. A forum can be created to stimulate discussion about the county council's goals. It is important to discuss about the goals and to educate the employees. It is also important to work towards a jointly goal and that everybody involved has a clear picture of what is happening within the county council. Recurrent in the theories are the importance of giving feedback. The analysis of the county council of Jämtland shows that their efforts to reach environmental goals is not tied to the goals themselves but rather to the process of conducting business in a responsible manor. Their efforts reflect ambitions to construct an incentive structure in which each and every individual participates actively in their daily activities.