Project

It takes two to tango: The barriers, catalysts and benefits of strategic information sharing between political boards and senior management in local authorities.

Code
01P05321
Duration
01 November 2021 → 31 October 2024
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Social sciences
    • Public and not for profit management
    • Strategic management
    • Micro-based behavioural economics
    • Public administration organisations
    • Public management
Keywords
Strategic information sharing Politics-administration relationship Interdependence.
 
Project description

Although political boards and senior management in local authorities are often seen as independent groups (i.e., politics-administration dichotomy perspective), governing effectiveness is believed to depend on their interdependence (i.e., complementarity view). Pivotal in such interdependence perspective is that political boards and senior management share strategic information. However, albeit the assumption that strategic information sharing between political boards and senior management is a prerequisite, research using an integrative perspective to investigate the extent to which strategic information sharing occurs and what barriers, catalysts and benefits are at play is missing. This research proposal aims to address this void by (1) mapping the level of strategic information sharing between political boards and senior management in local authorities; (2) Investigating the impact of political board and senior management role behavior and group dynamics on strategic information sharing; (3) Studying how strategic information sharing impacts governing system effectiveness. By conducting four multi-source/multi-informant studies, the project findings provide new, tailored insights into the politics-administration relationship central to the study of public management.