Kuntaorganisaation viranhaltijoiden ja poliitikkojen valmistelutyö fantasiointina

Abstract

Both the management and decisionmaking in municipal organizations may be characterized as tensional. Previous scholarly work has tried to identify (cf. Haveri, 2010; Luomala, 2003) and solve (Pynnönen, 2015) some of the sources of tensions. In this empirical study we focus on the orientations of political decision-makers and office-holders towards preparation in municipal decision-making in a relatively large municipal organization. According to our findings, both politicians and office-holders resort to the principles of new public management (NPM) including management accounting ratiocentered functional planning, but also to more subjective, value and attitude-based metaphorical symbolic planning in their preparation of decision-making. While for office-holders functional planning seems to be the dominant orientation, politicians, instead seem to display tendency to resort to more symbolic planning orientation.