En administrativ elite under forandring

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En administrativ elite under forandring

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En empirisk analyse af danske kommuners make-or-buy beslutninger

Hvorfor vælger nogle danske kommuner at producere offentlig service internt, mens andre anvender eksterne leverandører? Hvilken betydning har disse valg for kommunernes tilfredshed med den leverede service? Forskellige teoretiske perspektiver bliver i denne artikel anvendt til at besvare disse spørgsmål. Baseret på en spørgeskemaundersøgelse vises det, at specielt ressourcebaserede og neoklassiske økonomiske variable kan forklare graden af intern og ekstern produktion, men også lokale institutionelle kræfter kan trække i retning af større anvendelse af eksterne leverandører. Desuden er flere variable udledt af transaktionsomkostningsteorien signifikant knyttet til kommunernes oplevede tilfredshed med valget af leverandør. Resultaterne indikerer, at lokale kommunale forhold, hvad end det drejer sig om markedsforhold, ekspertise eller kommunalpolitisk pres, både forklarer, hvorfor kommunerne vælger de løsninger, de gør, samt hvor godt de fungerer. Dermed tyder resultaterne på, at der er behov for nuancerede analyser, hvor de enkelte kommuners specifikke forhold i højere grad spiller en rolle. Samlet peger artiklen på, at et vigtigt område for fremtidig forskning og debat om kommunal udlicitering må være et øget fokus på, hvordan de enkelte kommuner bliver i stand til at træffe bedre og mere kvalificerede beslutninger ud fra en kortlægning af såvel deres egne kompetencer og viden som de lokale markedsforhold.Why do some Danish municipalities choose to produce service internally, while others use external suppliers? And how do these choices influence their degree of satisfaction with the service delivered? The article discusses various theoretical perspectives to answer those questions. A questionnaire survey shows that particularly resource-based and neoclassical economic variables may be used to explain the degree of internal and external production; however, local institutional forces may also pull in the direction of wider use of external suppliers. In addition, several variables inferred from transaction cost theory have significant impact on the satisfaction experienced by local authorities with choice of supplier. The findings indicate that local municipal conditions, such as market situation, expertise or municipal pressure explain both why the municipalities choose the solutions they do, and how well they work. This seems to indicate a need for varied analyses of the specific situation of the individual local authority. The overall conclusion is that an important field for future research and debate on municipal outsourcing should include increased focus on how the individual local authority can enhance its ability to make more qualified decisions on the basis of a mapping of own competences and knowledge, and local market conditions

Cognitive Abilities in the Wild: Population-scale game-based cognitive assessment

Psychology and the social sciences are undergoing a revolution: It has become increasingly clear that traditional lab-based experiments fail to capture the full range of differences in cognitive abilities and behaviours across the general population. Some progress has been made toward devising measures that can be applied at scale across individuals and populations. What has been missing is a broad battery of validated tasks that can be easily deployed, used across different age ranges and social backgrounds, and employed in practical, clinical, and research contexts. Here, we present Skill Lab, a game-based approach allowing the efficient assessment of a suite of cognitive abilities. Skill Lab has been validated outside the lab in a crowdsourced population-size sample recruited in collaboration with the Danish Broadcast Company (Danmarks Radio, DR). Our game-based measures are five times faster to complete than the equivalent traditional measures and replicate previous findings on the decline of cognitive abilities with age in a large population sample. Furthermore, by combining the game data with an in-game survey, we demonstrate that this unique dataset has implication for key questions in social science, challenging the Jack-of-all-Trades theory of entrepreneurship and provide evidence for risk preference being independent of executive functioning.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, and 2 table

Under pres? En empirisk undersøgelse af kommunale og statslige chefers oplevelse af politisk pres

Hvis man følger den offentlige debat, får man indtryk af, at chefer i stat og kommuner er udsat for et massivt politisk pres. Men det er ikke så ofte, vi får mulighed for at høre, hvordan cheferne selv oplever deres forhold til de politikere, de skal servicere. I denne artikel undersøger vi, hvordan det politiske pres opleves af chefer i stat og kommuner. Vi finder, at en del embedsmænd oplever politisk pres, og at det er mere udpræget blandt statslige chefer end i kommunerne