The purpose of this research is to describe and assess the legal requirements for transparency in appointments and promotions in the higher‐education institutions of Sweden.
The study uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore legal documents, analyse data, and conduct interviews with leading executives in Swedish higher‐education institutions and administrative bodies.
Transparency is shown to exist at all stages of documentation and decision‐making procedures. In particular, appeals to the Board of Appeal are rarely approved.
The findings might not be applicable to public sectors in other countries. There is potential for further research to explore transparency in similar procedures in other comparable countries.
Quality assurance and quality control with respect to appointments and promotions in higher‐education institutions might be enhanced by legal requirements for transparency of documentation and decision‐making procedures.
The study provides original research into the administration of part of the Swedish public service and suggests that this might be seen as a potential benchmark for quality assurance and quality control with respect to public access to documentation and decision‐making procedures.
