The Demise of an Agency Director – A Puzzling Saga of Political Control and Professional Autonomy.
Please note: This page may contain data in Norwegian that is not translated to English.
Author
Christensen, Tom; Lægreid, Per
Year
2020
Publisher
Routledge
Type of publication:
Tidsskriftsartikkel
Link to publication:
https://bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2755911/The%2bdemise%2bof%2ban%2bagency%2bdirector.pdf
Link to review:
https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2019.1707224
Comment:
Tidsskrift
International Journal of Public Administration
Number of pages:
13
ISSN:
0190-0692
Language of publication:
Engelsk
Country of publication:
Norge
NSD-reference:
4708
This page was last updated:
2021-09-01 09:24:20.397
Summary
This article aims at addressing the relationship between expertise and politics by examining a reorganization process of Statistics Norway. The puzzle is why a minor reorganization with low political salience, in a consensus-oriented political administrative setting with high level of trust between ministries and agencies, and high autonomy for agencies ended up as a major conflict resulting in the resignation of the agency director. Based on an instrumental, a cultural and a symbolic perspective the article examines the internal and external dynamics ensuing from conflicting views regarding the balance between political control and professional autonomy, and from reorganization proposals that represented a break with the cultural path the organization had followed. It adds insights into the tensions between different types of institutional logics, resulting in institutional hybridity.