We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Living in the Past? Change and Continuity in the Norwegian Central Civil Service.
- Authors
Christensen, Tom; Lægreid, Per
- Abstract
In this article, the authors describe the changes that have taken place in the Norwegian civil service over the past 30 years, focusing on demographic changes in education and gender and on changes in civil servants' tasks, attitudes, and contact patterns. The changes are analyzed using tenure, structural, and demographic perspectives. The unique empirical database is provided by surveys conducted every 10 years of civil servants in the ministries since 1976. The main empirical findings are that there has been a combination of robustness and change. The findings show little support for the generational version of a tenure perspective, meaning that civil servants are not living in the past. The structural perspective, illustrated by the importance of formal position, best explains the variations in civil servants' contact patterns and attitudes, followed by the career version of a tenure perspective. Demography, as represented by different educational backgrounds and gender, also has an effect.
- Subjects
NORWAY; CIVIL service; OCCUPATIONAL surveys; DEMOGRAPHIC characteristics; PUBLIC administration; HISTORY of Norway, 1945-; NORWEGIAN politics &; government, 1945-; TWENTIETH century; SOCIAL policy; SOCIAL history
- Publication
Public Administration Review, 2009, Vol 69, Issue 5, p951
- ISSN
0033-3352
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02044.x