Towards territorial leadership: missions and roles of territorial public organizations (TPO)
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852317723713 |
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
| Author | Charlène Arnaud,Edina Soldo |
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
Towards territorial leadership:
missions and roles of territorial
public organizations (TPO)
Charle
`ne Arnaud
LAREQUOI – Public management, Universite
´de Versailles, France
Edina Soldo
CERGAM – Public management, France
Abstract
This research, conducted from the point of view of management sciences, is based on a
hybrid exploratory approach. In view of the experience of the territory of the Pays
d’Aix in carrying out a territory project – the development and structuring of a local
contemporary music sector – an integrative model of territorial leadership is proposed
here. This is hinged around three dimensions (being at the service of the territorial
stakeholders, being a local transformer, being a collaborative leader) that are inter-
dependent, making it possible to question the roles and missions of public organizations
in the implementation of territory projects.
Points for practitioners
The goal of this research is to question the capacity of a territorial authority to seize
leadership in its territory of action. The theoretical construction carried out as well as
its managerial implications are aimed at both local elected officials and territorial man-
agers. Indirectly, they can also be of interest to the various territorial stakeholders who
will see them as key elements for the understanding of territorial authorities. Territorial
leadership is a process that is built around different, interdependent dimensions and is
based on territory projects.
Keywords
hybrid exploratory approach, integrative model, leadership, public management,
strategic territorial management
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
2019, Vol. 85(3) 473–489
!The Author(s) 2017
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852317723713
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Corresponding author:
Charle
`ne Arnaud, LAREQUOI – Public management, France, Universite
´de Versailles, France.
Email: Charlene.arnaud@uvsq.fr
Introduction
Leadership has long been the subject of research in public organizations, as, from
the first half of the twentieth century, research has been conducted into the leeway
for decision-making of public leaders (Brest, 2011; Van Wart, 2003). However, few
authors from the field of management sciences have questioned territorial leader-
ship, a concept we choose to anchor in the scientific current of strategic territorial
management (Arnaud and Soldo, 2015a). The latter covers ‘the efforts made by the
public authorities to adapt the methods used to elaborate and implement their
public policies, on the one hand, and the functioning of the institutions, on the
other hand, to changes in their territorial context (globalization of economic pro-
cesses, atomization of society, the crisis of public finances, etc.)’ (Decoute
`re et al.,
1996: 2). This concept aims to analyse the capacity of territorial public organiza-
tions (TPOs) to seize leadership of their territory. How is the legitimacy of a ter-
ritorial authority built on its sphere of action, over and above the competences
attributed to it by the institutional framework? What are the roles and tasks
assigned to it? What is the role of the different territorial stakeholders in the
drafting, implementation and evaluation of local public policies and actions?
These are all questions that make it possible to define the challenges and dimen-
sions of the territorial leadership of the TPO.
In 2011, the territory of the Pays d’Aix,
1
in partnership with the Aix_Marseille
University and l’Arcade (Provence-Alpes-Coˆ te d’Azur Performing Arts Agency)
launched a study that set out to conduct a territorial diagnosis of the contemporary
music sector.
2
The goal of this three-year evaluation
3
was to take stock of the
local contemporary music sector (in terms of facilities, audiences and artists’ path-
ways), in order to make strategic recommendations that would inform the neces-
sary adjustments and the structuring of an intermunicipal policy in this sector. To
do so, researchers and managers, specialized in public management at territorial
level, launched a mixed research
4
that allowed the triangulation of data (semi-
directive interviews, focus groups, quantitative surveys, database processing,
etc.).
5
On the basis of this experience
6
and in the light of the actions and
approaches that the TPO of the Pays d’Aix has implemented as the carrier of
this territory project, we question the different roles of the territorial leader and
discuss the conceptual scope of this case. As such, this article allows a conceptu-
alization of territorial leadership based on a single case study. Consequently, the
concept of leadership is transposed to the scale of a TPO while taking into account
its specificities. Thus, an integrative and multi-dimensional model of territorial
leadership is proposed and discussed.
Leadership and territory: the issues and conditions
of integration
Questioning the role and the mission of the territorial leader requires, in the first
place, a theoretical reconstruction of the concept of leadership in order to adapt it
to the subject of the territory.
474 International Review of Administrative Sciences 85(3)
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