Denmark’s 1813 emergency phone service failed to live up to expectations and deliver much-anticipated cost savings. Separating the front and back office, standardising protocols and imposing key performance indicators caused lengthy telephone queues, high staff turnover and life-threatening consequences for people needing medical help.
Vanguard Skandinavien’s Andreas Ritter-Petersen explains how management assumptions about ‘the core paradigm’ created this dysfunctional design and management of work.