Solo-Effort, Group-Effort or Team-Effort: The inner workings of parliamentary offices on political communications on behalf of parliamentarians

Only a few recent studies have explored the role of professional political staff employed by parliamentarians. The dynamics and working relationships among parliamentary assistants within parliamentary offices have rarely been the subject of academic research and are understudied. This paper addresses this gap using 58 semi-structured interviews with former and current parliamentary assistants. This study focuses on the interplay between staff members of parliamentary offices when working on political communication. It aims to answer the following research question: How is political communication on behalf of parliamentarians organised and undertaken within the parliamentary office? The distinction between groups and teams has been particularly helpful in getting an insight into the inner-office dynamics. While groups are characterised by a clear division of labour and individual accountability, teams feature much more flexible roles and dynamic interaction by their members. The findings show that parliamentary offices are idiosyncratically organised and shaped by the parliamentarians' preferences. Their choice can significantly impact the professionalisation of parliamentarians' political communication.