Collaborative Management in Norwegian Municipalities: Do Middle Managers Make a Difference?

Norway is an example of the Nordic model in which the local level is of fundamental importance. However, the municipalities are relatively small and increasingly subject to decentralisation of their activities. To compensate for scale disadvantages, a mixture of collaborative activities is pursued in order to build system capacity. Paradoxically, little is known about collaboration among key stakeholders. This article makes a contribution to reducing this knowledge gap by focusing on mid-level managers and municipal departments. This research is empirically underpinned by a cross sectional survey of middle managers in 64 municipalities in Norway (N = 1354) and presents, for the first time, …