Global exchanges provide an important tool for international readiness, offering a unique opportunity for ICMA members to learn from and share with their local government counterparts around the world. They help to foster relationships for cultural and economic growth, drive innovation through the exchange of diverse best practices, and heighten personal awareness of diversity and inclusion dimensions of leadership. In addition to the long-lasting connections and friendships that are made, exchange participants have relayed stories of how their experience has helped them find innovative approaches to solving their governance and community challenges.

Each global exchange is unique. The specifics of each trip are worked out between the exchange partners, but include immersive programming such as:

• Shadowing local staff through the course of a typical workday.
• Attending council and community meetings.
• Meeting with various departments to gain an understanding of how they are structured and funded and to learn about the services and programs they manage.

The host partner may also arrange for the visiting participants to meet with colleagues in neighboring communities, other levels of government, local nonprofits, or private-sector organizations.

ICMA members have been participating in global exchanges for decades, some on their own through their municipalities, state associations, or universities, as is the case of the Nebraska-Norway Exchange below, while others have been facilitated by ICMA.

A Decade of Nebraska-Norway Exchange Tours

A shining example of a successful global exchange is the program established by Nebraska-based members of ICMA and Norwegian city administrators. What’s significant about the program is the value that comes from collaboration with the universities that have facilitated this exchange. The Nebraska City/County Management Association (NCMA) and University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) have had a tremendous partnership with University of Agder (UiA) in Kristiansand, Norway, and city administrators from municipalities in the county of Agder in southern Norway.

Since the Nebraska-Norway exchange began in 2014, the tours have involved direct interaction between city administrators from both countries, visits to multiple municipalities, focused discussions, and academic seminars. Over the years, discussions among participants have included topics such as how to foster community collaboration, how to reduce greenhouse gases in city enterprises, innovations in recycling, how to create safe spaces for pedestrians, and how to serve residents in small rural municipalities with a robust set of services.

The combination of sharing professional experiences and working together with research faculty to build knowledge about city management enriches the experience. Chris Anderson, ICMA-CM, city administrator of Central City, Nebraska, said, “During my three visits to Norway, I’ve seen significant differences between Norwegian governance and our local governance, but we also discovered great similarities in the problems we encounter and how we respond to them. We all want to improve the lives of our residents and care deeply about public service. Our Norwegian colleagues have enriched our appreciation of collaborative leadership focused on serving every member of our communities with dignity and equality.”

Jeff Hofaker, city administrator of Sutton, Nebraska, said, “The exchange has broadened our view of ideas that our community could potentially utilize for future development, and it provided additional perspectives about how community or regional challenges can be overcome by having more citizen and leadership involvement.”

Funding

NCMA has prioritized global engagement by budgeting for travel assistance for the exchange program, covering most of the cost of the flights to Norway for the participating Nebraska city administrators. The exchange has also benefited from university research grants and university funding commitments that help to cover lodging and food costs. This funding support makes the exchange more accessible and attractive for city and county administrators, especially those from smaller communities.

University Partnerships

Much of the value of the exchange comes from the university partnerships that support it. The exchange tours emerged from a university partnership between UiA and UNO. Years ago, ICMA member and UNO Professor Robert Blair stepped into the role of furthering the partnership, working directly with Professor Dag Olaf Torejesen of UiA.

These types of exchange collaborations between universities and professional associations contribute to a nexus of theory and practice that is crucial to the long-term viability of the local government management field. Based on extensive research involving numerous focus group sessions, it’s clear that local government administrators greatly support university partnerships that enable global interaction. Both practitioners and scholars agree that collaborative exchange, like that of Nebraska and Norway, encourages research and engagement that facilitate best practices that help move the field of local government 

management forward.

The university partners also add value to the exchange in several other ways. They have the staff and expertise to coordinate the program over several years and to maintain the institutional memory of the program. Structuring experiences to empower learning is their professional passion. This allows the local government participants to easily step into the learning framework created by the university partners.

Valuable Research

The relationship between the exchanges and city management research is a symbiotic one. Professors Blair and Torjesen, along with Professor Christian Janousek of Creighton University, have gathered data from the tours over the years and have made presentations and published articles in academic journals. Topics include comparative city management issues such as political culture, management orientation and strategy, and coordination mechanisms of intergovernmental and interorganizational collaboration.

On the value of the exchange program, Professor Blair said, “This is one of the few (if only) city management professional exchange programs that is designed and implemented by faculty and practitioners from both countries. The exchange program not only supports professional development, but also provides valuable information to university researchers.”

During one visit to Norway, the Nebraska delegation and Norwegian city administrators discussed various management tools used for effective interlocal cooperation and initiatives. The discussion contributed to prior research gleaned from the Nebraska-Norway exchanges, which revealed notable distinctions in service delivery and professional associations for local government professionals in the United States and Norway.

Following discussions from the 2016 exchange, researchers connected with participating administrators from both countries for community site visits and interviews to observe innovative projects and perspectives of interlocal coordination. Currently, Professors Blair, Janousek, and Torjesen are exploring the comparative attitudes and characteristics of managing informal municipal collaborations in global settings. The research component of the exchange program offers a forum for the transfer of knowledge and practice among city administrators and scholars.

Conclusion

Through the Nebraska-Norway exchange and other exchange programs planned through ICMA, the possibilities of expanding global horizons for city/county management are being realized. These programs provide a vital platform for interlocal collaboration from a global perspective. University partnerships can bring additional value to exchange tour programs, helping to foster immersive experiences that incorporate career development, innovation, and the promotion of best practices, all key strategies for reaching the vision of cultivating international readiness.

SUE E. S. CRAWFORD, PhD, is city administrator of York, Nebraska, USA. She is also professor emeritus, Creighton University, USA.
CHRISTIAN L. JANOUSEK, PhD, is an assistant professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Creighton University, USA; as well as the faculty advisor for the university’s ICMA Student Chapter.
With
DAG OLAF TORJESEN, PhD, professor, Department of Political Science and Management, University of Agder (UiA), Kristiansand, Norway.
ROBERT BLAIR, PhD, professor emeritus, School of Public Administration, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA; Fulbright Canada Fellow, 2022.