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Crisis Management Capacity in Central Government: The Perceptions of Civil Servants in Norway

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Societal Security and Crisis Management

Part of the book series: New Security Challenges ((NSECH))

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Abstract

This chapter examines the civil servants’ perceptions regarding their capacity to prevent and handle crisis based on surveys of Norwegian ministries and central agencies conducted in 2006 and 2016. We ask if there has been a change in their perceptions after the terrorist attacks in Norway in 2011. We also analyse variations in crisis management capacity due to structural factors such as policy field, tasks and position and cultural factors such as mutual trust relations and identification. The main findings are that the civil servants have a rather high self-confidence regarding their ability to prevent and handle crises that there is high stability in their perceptions from 2006 to 2016 and that variations to a great extent can be explained by both structural and cultural factors.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Tom Christensen

  2. Department of Administration and Organization Theory, University of Bergen and Uni Research Rokkan Centre, Bergen, Norway

    Per Lægreid

Authors
  1. Tom Christensen
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  2. Per Lægreid
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Correspondence to Per Lægreid .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Administration and Organization Theory, University of Bergen and Uni Research Rokkan Centre, Bergen, Norway

    Per Lægreid

  2. Department of Administration and Organization Theory, University of Bergen and Uni Research Rokkan Centre, Bergen, Norway

    Lise H. Rykkja

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Christensen, T., Lægreid, P. (2019). Crisis Management Capacity in Central Government: The Perceptions of Civil Servants in Norway. In: Lægreid, P., Rykkja, L.H. (eds) Societal Security and Crisis Management. New Security Challenges. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92303-1_12

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