Performance Management of Coordinating Agencies: The Importance of Administrative Capacity in the Field of Societal Security

Abstract

This article addresses performance management of coordinating agencies in the field of societal security by examining what kind of administrative capacity their parent ministries focus on. It examines the performance contracts issued to the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. Based on a structural-instrumental and a cultural perspective, the importance of coordination, delivery, analytical and regulatory capacities is analyzed. A main finding is that the different governmental models of Sweden and Norway affect the number of performance objectives, while tasks and external shocks have some effect on the distribution of the different types of capacity. Despite being set up to act as boundary spanners in the policy field, both organizations are hybrid and compound agencies combining coordination capacity objectives with analytical, delivery and regulatory capacity objectives.