Suchergebnisse

This article examines the dimensions of information culture (Choo 2013) in Finnish social and health care. Secondly, we ask how information culture should be developed in the context of reforms. Information culture is defined as interactive, open and value­based activity in organizations, and it can be defined by four dimensions: rule­following, relationship­based, risk­taking and result­oriented. The dimensions are studied based on 223 survey responses from the managers and supervisors in two health care districts. The results show that there is activity in all dimensions, result­oriented gets the slightly highest scores. Result­oriented and relationship­based information cultures are highly valued, but borders and problems in information reliability effect on information usage. Conclusively, supporting information creating and sharing activities and leadership practices are considered important in developing relationship­based and creative information culture in social and health care organizations.

This chapter describes how Finnish legislation follows the articles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. In general, even though local self-government in Finland is constitutionally and legally protected, it is highly state-dependent and restricted in many ways. The current government reform challenges local self-government by establishing a new regional level of governance, altering the Finnish local government system. The burden of public services exposes local government for reforming, which has affected the relationship between central and local governments. In Finland, to follow and implement the principles of the Charter, the biggest challenges are with the municipalities' wide responsibilities, financial constraints, and strong state steering. This chapter illustrates how the role of local government as a service provider has led to a situation where municipalities are strictly steered by and financially dependent on the national government. ; publishedVersion ; Peer reviewed

This chapter describes how Finnish legislation follows the articles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. In general, even though localself-government in Finland is constitutionally and legally protected, it is highly state-dependent and restricted in many ways. The current government reform challenges local self-government by establishing a new regional level of governance, altering the Finnish local government system. The burden of public services exposes local government for reforming, which has affected the relationship between central and local governments. In Finland, to follow and implement the principles of the Charter, the biggest challenges are with the municipalities' wide responsibilities, financial constraints, and strong state steering. This chapter illustrates how the role of local government as a service provider has led to a situation where municipalities are strictly steered by and financially dependent on the national government.

In this article, we focus on the challenges for local self-government in Finland. Finnish legislation follows the Articles of the European Charter of Local self-government rather closely. We illustrate how the role of local government as service provider has led to a situation where municipalities are strictly steered by and financially dependent on the national government. Besides this, the burden of public services exposes local government to reforms. Current local government reform by national government challenges local self-government by establishing a regional level of governance. However, it can also bring opportunities for municipalities to focus more on local tasks and decrease the need for strict steering by the state.