Coping with Autonomy

Rudi Kirkhaug and Knut H. Mikalsen

Public Management Review, 2009, vol. 11, issue 2, 137-154

Abstract: The question examined in this article is how decentralization of power and responsibilities in public administration affects the interaction between bureaucrats and politicians. Three factors were identified as potential predictors: executive authority; the nature of administrative decision making; and the nature of the relationship between bureaucrats and union officials. Data were collected through a survey administered to ninety-eight senior bureaucrats at the county level in Norway. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the character of the relationship between bureaucrats and union officials had the greatest impact on the interaction between bureaucrats and politicians. The more trustful the relationship, the less the interaction, while the stronger the dependency of bureaucrats on unions, the more intensive the interaction. Decision making that involves negotiations increased interaction, as did the bureaucrats' perception of themselves as clearly superior to their staff -- as opposed to a perception of themselves as being in an advisory position.

Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14719030802685735 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:11:y:2009:i:2:p:137-154

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RPXM20

DOI: 10.1080/14719030802685735

Access Statistics for this article

Public Management Review is currently edited by Professor Stephen P. Osborne, Jenny Harrow and Tobias Jung

More articles in Public Management Review from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().