Institutional complexity in Swedish built environment regulation : exploring the interface with industrialized house-building

Abstract: The industrialized house-building movement has emerged as aresponse to recurring criticism of the construction sector. It seeks toemulate management practices prevalent in manufacturing industries,including the use of standardized work processes and building systems.This approach does, however, make industrialized house-buildingcontractors susceptible to unpredictable variations. Swedish localplanning authorities have a legal and democratic mandate to regulatethe built environment within its borders and views variations betweendifferent municipalities as a desirable consequence of a functional localdemocratic system. Meanwhile, industrialized house-buildingcontractors have highlighted variations in regulation of the builtenvironment as obstructive to their intended methods of managing thebuilding process. The aim of this thesis is to increase understanding ofhow local planning authorities make interpretations when regulatingthe built environment and how those interpretations influenceindustrialized house-building contractors and to, within the ongoingresearch process, identify theoretical perspectives suitable for describingtensions in the interface between industrialized house-building andlocal planning authorities. The theoretical frame of reference for thisthesis consists of two major streams of organizational literature:organizational coordination, operationalized though the concept ofcoordination mechanisms, and neo-institutional theory, operationalizedthrough institutional logics and institutional complexity. Theoverarching research strategy is best described as a case study approachinvestigating cases of institutional complexity in regulation of theSwedish built environment. The design consists of one multi-casestudy relying on interviews with representatives of industrializedhouse-building contractors and local planning authorities and onesingle-case study investigating a longitudinal land development processusing a combination of interviews, direct observations and documentanalysis. Findings indicate that local planning authorities faceinstitutional complexity stemming from three semi-compatibleinstitutional logics that each prescribe different roles for planningpractitioners and expectations for their behaviour. As some planningpractitioners are more attuned to particular logics than others, it is difficult to predict, for each given situation, which logic will beactivated. Furthermore, findings indicate that institutional logics can beviewed as coordination mechanisms, thereby highlighting afundamental tension between the coordination preferences ofindustrialized house-building contractors and local planning authorities.This tension causes a lack of accountability, predictability and commonunderstanding resulting in an inability for industrialized house-buildingcontractors and local planning authorities to coordinate theircontributions in the planning and building process. The findings implythat industrialized house-building contractors and local planningauthorities should attempt to acknowledge each other’s participation inand contributions to the planning and building process. The findingsalso highlight the importance of interpretations for regulation of thebuilt environment, which implies that not all sector-wide problems canor need be solved through legislative action.