Who runs stakeholder organisations in education? A case study of Norway

This paper examines the profiles of employed and elected leaders of stakeholder organisations and how different organisational characteristics shape the rise of these individuals into leadership positions. Stakeholder organizations provide important policy goods such as information, expertise and legitimacy, and therefore have several important roles that are crucial for overall quality of policies and governance. Research thus far often highlights top leaders of stakeholder organisations as crucial resources for the organisation. These individuals are recruited through varied routes and they bring to these organisations a wealth of knowledge, skills, and competencies obtained through previous professional and educational experiences. Understanding who these individuals are and the kind of competencies they bring into the organization remains understudied. Towards an effort for a deeper understanding of the composition of elected and employed leaders of stakeholder organizations in education and how they vary across different organizational characteristics, the study analyses biographical data of 282 elected and employed leaders in the central administrative units of 14 stakeholder organisations in education in Norway. The paper explores whether there are typical profiles of elected and employer leaders, focusing on their education, functional and demographic characteristics. Furthermore, the study explores the extent to which these typical profiles vary across (1) types of positions within organisations (employed or elected), (2) types of interest these organisations represent (profession/employees, users/beneficiaries or providers), their (3) organisational and (4) task complexities, as well as (5) level of education the organisation focus on (e.g. early childhood, higher).