Central Finland leader rejects fear-based management criticism

Piia Vuorela, who has led Finland’s weakest-performing wellbeing services county for 150 days, rejects claims that she manages through fear, Yle reports. She says she is sorry if her actions have been experienced as frightening.

Vuorela, 58, took over as director of the Central Finland wellbeing services county at the end of April. She is still on probation, but her leadership has already drawn criticism.

The county needed a new director after an acute leadership crisis last autumn. The previous wellbeing services county director, Jan Tollet, and the chair of the regional executive board, Maria Kaisa Aula, both resigned.

Yle asked Vuorela and around 10 elected representatives and officials about the atmosphere within the county leadership. Almost none of those contacted agreed to comment by name.

Vuorela was recruited particularly to oversee the county’s finances. She describes herself as a change leader and says she was hired to make difficult decisions.

The county’s financial position is the weakest in Finland. It entered an assessment procedure more than a year ago but retained its independence. The assessment group’s condition was that the county impose strict financial discipline in the coming years.

“This is what I was hired for. A leader has to endure the fact that not all decisions will seem pleasant or agreeable to everyone,” Vuorela says.

During her first 150 days, she has reduced the size of the management team and launched new co-determination negotiations. The proposed cuts could affect as many as 570 person-years.

Vuorela says her start as director has been intensive and inspiring. She acknowledges that her approach will not please everyone.

“The major co-determination negotiations, changes to the management system and the strict demands of the assessment procedure inevitably create uncertainty,” she says.

Tuija Koivisto, a former director responsible for services for older people and people with disabilities, agreed to speak publicly. She was transferred to other duties one week after Vuorela began as director.

Koivisto recently described her experience on Facebook. She said Vuorela told her after one week that she did not have confidence in Koivisto’s ability to lead the operations in line with production and financial objectives.

Koivisto said that her four decades of experience, management expertise, knowledge of the organisation, institutional knowledge and previously demonstrated trust counted for little at that moment.

She said it was humiliating that her position as area director was opened for applications the following day.

“A culture of management through fear entered the organisation immediately,” Koivisto says.

She said the sudden removal of a person who had held a senior management position for a long time can create the same experience of fear among others.

“Others think that if this can be done to that person, could it also happen to me?” Koivisto says.

Koivisto will retire in six months and will work as a special adviser at the wellbeing services county for the remainder of her career.

Vuorela says she does not recognise herself in claims that she manages through fear. The allegations were previously reported by Keskisuomalainen.

“I do not manage through fear, but I have been informed that people may have experienced management through fear here. That does not belong to the leadership culture or philosophy of our wellbeing services county,” Vuorela says.

She apologises and says she is deeply sorry if she has done something that was perceived as frightening. Such matters, she says, must be properly addressed.

Vuorela says she has not received similar feedback during her earlier career and is prepared to examine her own actions.

The Central Finland wellbeing services county must find more than 60 million euros in savings next year. The scale of the financial pressure has prompted major negotiations and difficult decisions from the county’s new leadership.