Study title

The project has analyzed three different county municipal governance models - the governance models in the free county municipalities of Akershus and Hedmark, and Oppland county municipality which is used for comparison. The following main issues have been highlighted: 1) How are change processes organized, how does this affect the outcome of the processes? 2) What is the influence of the elected officials under different governance models, what affects their influence? 3) How is the County Manager function organized in the different models, what effects does this have on the relationship with other administrative and political bodies? 4) How is control and motivation organized in relation to the operational units organized in the different county municipalities and what effects does this have on efficiency and employee attitudes? 5) How is feedback, planning and budgeting organized? What effects does the organization of these functions have on learning behavior, budget behavior and county finances? The project has clarified the effects of parliamentary governance models and governance models with extensive liberalization of institutions and operating units. The dataset contains data from 2 years, 1987 and 1989. The questions were asked to the county council representatives in Akershus, Hedmark, and Oppland county municipalities.