Strategic Management in Finnish and Norwegian Government Agencies

Jan-Erik Johanson, Åge Johnsen, Elias Pekkola and Stephen Affleck Reid
Additional contact information
Jan-Erik Johanson: Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, FI-33014 Tampere, Finland
Åge Johnsen: Oslo Business School, Oslo Metropolitan University, PO Box 4 St. Olavs Plass, NO-0130 Oslo, Norway
Elias Pekkola: Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, FI-33014 Tampere, Finland
Stephen Affleck Reid: NLA University College Oslo, PO Box 7153 St. Olavs plass, NO-0130 Oslo, Norway

Administrative Sciences, 2019, vol. 9, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to analyse the design and implementation of strategic planning and performance management in governmental agencies in two Nordic countries, Finland and Norway. Nordic countries are an interesting study from a comparative perspective because while they are commonly assumed to have been high-intensity new public management reformers, they are also commonly assumed to have a distinct public management tradition. Moreover, these two countries are interesting to study because within the Nordic public management tradition, Finland and Norway specifically represent two different public management traditions. Finland belongs to the Eastern Nordic public management tradition, with an emphasis on decentralisation and agency autonomy, while Norway belongs to the Western Nordic public management tradition, with an emphasis on hierarchical governance, and hence, much performance management and reporting. Therefore, we expected to find more decentralised strategic management and an emphasis on evaluation in Finland, and more central, planning-like strategic management and reporting in Norway. Our comparison shows that both countries had mandatory strategic planning and utilised decentralised strategic planning in government agencies. The stronger legal orientation in the public administration in Finland, however, made strategic changes more complicated in Finland than in Norway.

Keywords: agency governance; central government organisations; formal strategic planning; Nordic administrative traditions; performance management; strategy content (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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