It Takes Two to Tango - The Role of Collective Strategic Information Processing in the Politics-Administration Relationship

Many public organizations in Western democratic settings have a dual governance structure consisting of a governing board populated by elected or appointed local politicians (i.e., a political board) and an administrative team led by senior management. If, how, and to what extent both groups of strategic actors should collaborate when developing and implementing their organization’s strategy has been long debated. The politics-administration dichotomy perspective pleas for independence, while the complementarity view exalts interdependence. However, what form of collaboration works best when, and under what circumstances, to effectively manage a public organization’s strategic processes? To help answer these questions, we highlight the relevance of focusing on the barriers, catalysts and benefits of “collective strategic information processing” (i.e., sharing and collectively interpreting information pertaining to the formulation and realization of an organization’s strategic goals and strategic plan), and determine a set of literature-based research priorities. Departing from these research priorities we propose a conceptual model (including potential operationalizations of the different core elements of the conceptual model) providing insights on the antecedents and the outcomes of collective strategic information processing. The presented conceptual model can help to gain relevant insights on how to effectively manage strategy processes in public organizations.