A change in strategies from production orientation to customer orientation has been emphasized within Swedish central government agencies during the era of New Public Management (NPM). When both central government and citizens are asking for outcomes, a focus only on output control is insufficient in terms of accountability. As a consequence, the NPM-logic does not fit to make a modern central government agency governable (Almqvist et al. 2011). Instead, a strategic shift towards Public Value Management (Moore, 1995, 2013) can be traced. 

This paper presents a study of such a strategic shift at the Swedish Transport Administration – a government agency responsible for national transport systems. A decision back in 2010 to act as a societal developer implies a mission that goes beyond the agency’s traditional production oriented role of providing rail and road infrastructure.

The research question is how this new role of societal developer calls for alternative strategic performance management tools. The empirical research is conducted during the past three years (2015-2017) by interviews, observations, a survey and close reading of documents. By means of an interpretive approach (Alvesson and Sköldberg, 2009) the results show how the management control system is being challenged.