The Contemporary Norwegian Municipal CEO

Abstract

This chapter describes the evolution of the Norwegian municipal chief executive officer (MCEO) from 1980 to 1992 and 2018, when the position was weakened politically but strengthened administratively. Today, the Norwegian MCEO corresponds to Mouritzen and Svara’s council–manager model, making it one of the most powerful in the Nordic region, second only to the Finish MCEO. Despite multiple significant contextual changes in the last two to three decades, the essential role of the Norwegian MCEO has remained remarkably stable, demonstrated in survey data from 1997 to 2017. Nevertheless, the data also show that the biographical characteristics of the MCEO have undergone considerable change during this period, most notably the increase in the proportion of female MCEOs from 7% to 30%. Further, today’s MCEOs are older and more highly educated, especially in disciplines such as economics, administration, and public management, reflecting the strong emphasis on economic management and performance in Norwegian municipalities. Finally, MCEOs are met with increasing expectations to combine innovation and management, cooperate internally and externally, and govern municipal affairs through complex, hybrid networks.