"Refuse to close Sapphire - assert emergency mode"

Professor Mats Alvesson at Lund University has devoted his research life to organizational culture. He has delved into phenomena such as technocracy and mismanagement and in 2012 he coined the term "functional stupidity". It means that employees stop questioning decisions and structures within locked systems that are characterized by too strong a consensus.

When Alvesson learns of DN's revelation about the closure of the LSS residence Safiren, he says that it seems to be an example of something "even worse".

- Completely insane!

The background to the decision from the Inspectorate for Care and Care is that Region Stockholm failed to archive criminal record extracts for the employees at Safiren.

Excerpts have been made. None of the staff have a criminal history. But the excerpts have not been saved.

Both Ivo - and later also the administrative court - considered this so bad that the otherwise well-functioning and vital LSS accommodation was banned. At the end of next week, November 20, is the last day that the multi-illness children are allowed to stay in their home.

- "Country must be built by law", they say, but here it is like "Country must be destroyed by law", says Professor Alvesson.

His research project is currently studying two other supervisory authorities - the Work Environment Agency and the School Inspectorate. But Mats Alvesson believes that the knowledge he has acquired about them can be transferred to Ivo.

- Good governance is based on laws, ethics and judgement. This is where you get stuck in the law. But those of us who see it from the outside wonder why one should follow the legal text at all if it leads to horrible results?

Here, the law does not say that you have to close the accommodation. You can close, it says. Why do you think Ivo still chooses the path that affects the children?

- If you are trained hard in a system, it can get this bad, says Mats Alvesson.

The association FUB also reacts strongly to DN's reporting.

- You are amazed when you take part in this. Here, Ivo sets out to close a well-functioning business because some documents have not been saved. It has completely unreasonable consequences, says FUB chairman Anders Lago.

Last spring, the association published its so-called "Misery Report" with several examples of LSS housing where residents have suffered and even died due to neglect.

- Those homes are not closed, but Safiren is banned. It's an absolutely horrible system error, says Anders Lago.

He hopes that Region Stockholm refuses to follow Ivo's decision.

- With reference to both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on Functional Rights, they should be able to claim that this is an emergency situation.

Is there such a clause?

- I don't know, but I think they have to take possible fines or other punishments for the sake of the children. That two large Swedish authorities did not manage to resolve this a long time ago, outside the courts, is in itself outrageous.

Why do you think Ivo made this decision in the first place?

- I think it is because the Riksdag and the government are so incredibly focused on finding criminals on welfare. Then the authority becomes overzealous. We have a control society and when the criminals do not turn out to be present to the extent we thought, it hits the businesses that actually work and are needed, says FUB chairman Anders Lago.

Professor Mats Alvesson in Lund agrees.

- I think we are seeing a strange recoil effect. In the past, we may have based decisions on trust, confidence and judgement. That made some people take advantage of it. Now the pendulum has swung.