Power and Influence Tactics in Promotion of Regional Development An Empirical Analysis of Leadership in the Finnish Regional Development Activity

It is always easier to find out the elements of success and/or failure in retrospect than to find new development paths for the future and new modes of action in the middle of uncertain and open-ended situations. True leadership is becoming more and more important and hence there seems to be a need to direct attention also towards studying power and competences needed in promotion of economic development of regions. When aiming to bring human agency back to regional development studies, one way to do it is to ask how people engaged in promotion of regional development actually influence complex processes and networks, how they influence other actors and what kind of power they have. It might also provide us with additional analytical leverage if we understood better the consequences of the choices made and the actions taken by powerful individuals and core coalitions formed by them. The research questions discussed here are: a) what is leadership like in regional development; b) what kind of sources of power are used by regional development officers; and c) how regional development officers aim to influence the course of events? The empirical research is based on data gathered a) through 41 interviews of Finnish actors responsible for the promotion of economic development in city governments, technology centres, regional development agencies, and ministries and other national bodies, and b) through internet survey of development officers at local, regional and national levels (531 respondents, response rate 51.8 %). The survey was designed to solicit information about power, influence tactics and competences in the context of regional development. In addition various bottlenecks in the daily work were probed. The empirical analysis shows, for example, how interpretive power and network power are more important for regional development officers than institutional and resource power, and how indirect influence tactics surpass the direct ones.