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This paper focuses on the translation of managerialism in the Swedish public sector. A field study of the attempts by two large municipalities to launch a grand reform in the name of managerialism, that is, a purchasersupplier reform, shows the by now familiar difficulties of trying to change public organizations. Thus the actual consequences of actions taken in the name of managerialism are perhaps more complex than is often understood within new public management theory.

The concept of translation could be a way of improving this understanding. By using this concept it is possible to grasp the complexity as well as the ambiguity and dynamism of change processes, a task that conventional concepts sometimes fail to fulfill.

The overall analysis of the field study is held within the framework of institutional organization theory. By applying the notion of translation, a theoretical link can be constructed between organizational and institutional change.