Stefan Sveningsson

The dissertation examines power and knowledge in strategic changes. It is a study of changes in three Swedish newspaper companies which developed from single-business to multi-business corporations. It is suggested that this transformation was based upon the establishment and reproduction of a new knowledge formation. This knowledge was the knowledge of strategy, particularly the classical perspective as it had emerged during the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s. A central theme in that knowledge was diversification which became more common in newspaper companies during the 70s. In the study it is suggested that the changes can be interpreted as forms of isomorfism based on both professional and imitative aspects. However, the diversification efforts also disclosed historical editorial norms that were provoked and challenged. Newspaper companies had historically avoided diversification in order to sustain the editorial integrity of independence. When diversification efforts were pursued in the 70s and 80s, a resistance was thus mobilized. The study describes the opposition between those favouring diversification and those resisting it. It was in those struggles that the disciplinary forms of power emerged. In that emergence some people became locked into specific norms and knowledges, subsequently governing their behavior. The development created conflicts which obstructed and to some extent inhibited communication between central actors in the companies.