The Relationship between Politics and Administration: The Importance of Contingency Factors, Formal Structure, Demography, and Time

Abstract

The article starts with the notion that the relationship between the political and the administrative sphere should be viewed as a variable, opening up for the possibility that it may vary among contexts, formal structures, demographics, and over time. Studying the interaction between politicians and administrators in 30 Norwegian municipalities, data indicate that the interaction between the spheres is mainly a function of the position politicians and administrators have within the formal structure. More importantly, the effect of the formal structure is strengthened over time. This indicates that election may work as a "shock" to the political and administrative system, weakening the effect of the formal structure. Over time, this formal structure is rebuilt, and thus strengthens its effects on the relationship. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.

Interaction Frequency and Quality as Two Dimensions of Complementarity: An Empirical Examination of Some Contingency Variables

“…Only when these processes are established, Jacobsen (2006) argues, politicians can turn their attention to the administration and to the specific issues and policies (p. 317). Nalbandian (2004), for example, found out that "more than newly elected officials, senior elected officials are respectful of staff, understand role differences between staff and council, and endorse consensus building and teamwork on the council" (p. 204).…”

“…The survey asked city managers to rate their agreement with the statements on a 5-point Likert scale from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree." This study formulated four specific associations to examine: 1: Interaction frequency is positively associated with elected officials' respect for administrative competence 2: Interaction frequency is positively associated with elected officials' respect for administrative authority 3: Interaction frequency is positively associated with elected officials' provision of strong policy guidance 4: Interaction frequency is positively associated with interaction quality A contingency perspective: some important variables and their operationalizations Although the complementarity scholars frequently emphasize the notion of frequent and quality interaction between elected officials and public administrators, there is not much empirical research conducted to identify important contingency variables that might have an impact on interaction frequency and quality (Jacobsen 2006). Although there is a literature on contingency variables and their impact on city managers' and elected officials' roles and behaviors, it is important to link that literature more explicitly to the major concepts of the complementarity view.…”

Erklärungsfaktoren für die Managementautonomie in kommunalen Mehrheitsbeteiligungen

“…Die unerwarteten, negativen Zusammenhänge mit den Vorjahresgewinnen der Organisationen begründen die Autoren damit, dass Manager von sehr erfolgreichen Unternehmen die rigiden Gehaltsvorgaben stärker wahrnehmen oder dass gerade diese Unternehmen in Phasen der Depression dazu gezwungen werden, Mitarbeiter einzustellen (Lioukas et al 1993: 660 Leistungen, Unsicherheiten in der Branche oder politische Sichtbarkeit erklären lässt (Ditillo et al 2014: 12). Bei bürokratische Kontrollen besteht ein positiver Zusammenhang zur Messbarkeit der Leistung und ein negativer Zusammenhang zum Vorjahresverlust der Kommune (Ditillo et al 2014: 13 Herkunft der Budgets scheinen eine besondere Bedeutung zu besitzen (Lioukas et al 1993;Jacobsen 2006;Bach und Jann 2010;Fan et al 2013;Bach 2014). Ebenso sei die…”

Public and Private Sector IT Governance: Identifying Contextual Differences

“…Public sector organizations exist in a relatively stable environment occasionally subjected to periodic but deep structural transformations brought about by political change. Jacobsen (2006) argues that the interaction between political and administrative spheres is determined by formal structures. These structures tend to strengthen over time but elections act as a shock that weakens the effect of the formal structure.…”