Abstract
This article focuses on perceived coordination quality among Norwegian civil servants. It explains how they assess the quality of coordination in their own field of work along different dimensions. To what degree have such perceptions changed over the past 10 years and what can explain the variations in perceived coordination quality from a structural and a cultural perspective? The data base is a comprehensive survey in ministries and central agencies. The civil servants perceive coordination as better within their own policy area than across administrative levels and policy areas. The perceptions are rather stable over time. The most important factors for understanding variations in coordination quality are coordination capacity, mutual trust and administrative level.
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Notes
Excluded from the analyses are civil servants who do not see coordination on the different dimensions as relevant for their own daily work or who did not answer the questions on coordination quality. In 2016, this varies between 39% of the respondents for coordination within own policy area to 66% for coordination with local and regional bodies. In 2006, it varied between 24% for coordination within own policy area to 55% for coordination with local and regional bodies.
It has been controlled for demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, tenure and education but they have no significant effect.
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Christensen, T., Lægreid, P. Coordination Quality in Central Government – the Case of Norway. Public Organiz Rev 20, 145–162 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-018-00434-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-018-00434-0