PRIVATE INITIATIVE AND COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY: A STRATEGY FOR THE BLACK COMMUNITY

In Britain black leaders are generally less well integrated into community agencies and local administration than their counterparts in the United States. This is partly explained by reference to the American 'arms length' approach to funding community development which, in contrast to the more centralized British approach, enables black leaders to work 'within the system' apparently without sacrificing too much of their political independence. In this context the paper views the activities and funding of the US community action and development agencies and British community relations councils.     

USER INVOLVEMENT IN COMMUNITY CARE: ORIGINS, PURPOSES AND APPLICATIONS

Whilst the drive towards public sector consumerism is intensifying, it is also evident that somewhat different 'brands' of consumerism are currently being marketed. This article develops a framework to assist in the disaggregation and understanding of the range of approaches to consumerism currently being pursued in the field of health and social care. Its principal elements concern the ideological origins of consumerism in this field; their purposes; and the forms through which consumer preference are expressed. This framework is applied to the Birmingham Community Care Special Action Project, a major developmental initiative which the authors have been studying. An important area for further investigation is the extent to which users and carers seek to exercise greater collective control over services as opposed to influencing the development of services more responsive to their individual needs.     

THE FINAL OUTCOMES OF THE REVIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN NORTHERN IRELAND. TENSIONS AND COMPATIBILITY WITH DEVOLUTION,PARITY AND MODERNIZATION

In terms of the configuration of structures and the distribution of functions for the delivery of public services, the final decisions on the Review of Public Administration in Northern Ireland encompass significant changes compared to those proposed in 2005. This article places that review in the context of a devolved system of public administration. It identifies four different phases of the review process which have had a differential impact on the predominant themes, principles and structures. A range of tensions are identified, particularly between the proposals for structural change in the final outcomes and earlier recommendations, and also between the final decisions on structural changes and the guiding principles set out as underpinning these changes. The review proposals can be located within the public service reforms of the UK government and a number of perspectives are suggested for evaluating the extent to which the outcomes of the review are compatible with key components of the modernizing and devolution agendas of the UK government.     

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AND POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: THE CASE OF COMMUNITY CARE

This article explores the contention that the conventions of public expenditure accounting conceal, rather than reveal, the real nature and implications of resource trends. A benchmark — a constant level of service output — is established as a basis for examining the relationship between trends in expenditure inputs and service outputs. Changes in unit costs are identified as the major source of deviation between expenditure and output trends. The impact of resource constraint on policy and policy-implementation is then examined in relation to one, essentially stable, area of policy in the personal social services: community care.
The meaning of the term'policy' is far from straightforward and community care is best understood as the interaction of relatively independent streams of policy, towards service outputs and resource inputs, extant in both central and local government. Mechanisms by which policy streams could be reconciled are of particular interest and an innovative example — joint finance — is examined in some detail.     

ECONOMIC DISCOURSE AND THE MARKET: THE CASE OF COMMUNITY CARE

The UK government has introduced fundamental reforms into the provision of social care. The'community care'programme, which was fully implemented in 1993, requires local authorities to assess the needs of potential users, to design an individual package of care that reflects those needs, and to purchase the package from a range of statutory, voluntary and private providers. Thus the new arrangement introduced a'quasi-market'in community care, along the lines of those already operating in other areas of the UK public sector, such as health and education. Hitherto, much analysis of the functioning of such markets has been conducted within a neo-classical economic framework. This article examines the relevance to the complex new community care market of three alternative theoretical perspectives: the transaction costs literature, the Austrian school and the new economic sociology. It is concluded that, although neoclassical economic discourse has been influential in shaping policy, no single perspective can capture all the issues relevant to analysing the market in community care. Therefore, in evaluating the reforms, an eclectic theoretical approach will be required which draws upon a variety of economic discourses.     

CITY RULES OK? POLICY COMMUNITY,POLICY NETWORK AND TAKEOVER BIDS

This paper uses the concepts of policy community and policy network to analyse the particular set of industrial policy issues related to the conduct of takeover and merger bids. Within the general context of the law, the regulatory climate is governed by the principle of voluntary self-regulation, which since 1968 has been partly articulated in a written code whose rules are interpreted and enforced by a non-statutory body, the City Takeover Panel. The panel is one of several 'insider' organizations identified and categorized in terms of policy community. Relationships between it and other 'insiders' in the policy processes are analysed in terms of policy network and 'rules of the game'. It is argued that the stability of that network is increasingly threatened by the environmental turbulence provoked by the Guinness affair and the passage of the 1986 Financial Services Act.     

GOVERNMENT FUNDING,EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS,AND WORK ORGANIZATION IN NON‐PROFIT COMMUNITY SERVICES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

The article provides a comparative exploration of New Public Management (NPM) funding models on the non‐profit sectors in the UK and Australia, and the implications for services, employment conditions, and worker commitment. A degree of convergence exists around the principles of NPM in the two case studies, creating employment regimes of low pay, casualization, and work intensification. Enhanced vulnerability to pay cuts in the UK, and insecurity in Australia are explained by national differences in exposure to recession, industrial relations institutions, and competition, leading to diminishing worker commitment and raising important concerns for policy‐makers as benefits gained from outsourcing to non‐profits are eroded.     

STRATEGY CONTENT AND PUBLIC SERVICE PROVIDER PERFORMANCE IN THE UK: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH

This article presents an alternative empirical test of the relationship between strategy content and service provider performance. Strategy content, conceptualized as comprising strategic stance and strategic action, has been shown to be a means to improve public service performance. We contribute to this growing body of research by deriving an alternative typology of strategy to better reflect competitive conditions in the public sector, which existing strategy typologies cannot fully explain. By assuming that public service providers must follow strategies best suited to their internal and external conditions for improved performance, we evaluate the significance of ‘fit’ between alternative strategic stances and organizational characteristics. Compromising the delivery of a strategy invariably leads to a misfit between strategy and what the service provider is actually doing. We highlight how to optimize strategic fit, to maximize service provider performance. Conclusions are drawn for public management theory and practice.     

FROM POLICY COMMUNITY TO ISSUE NETWORK: SALMONELLA IN EGGS AND THE NEW POLITICS OF FOOD

In the last two years the issue of food has been subject to increasing political controversy with firstly salmonella in eggs and later listeria and BSE becoming the focus of conflict and widespread media attention. This is an important change. In most of the post-war period food policy was conducted within a relatively closed policy community where issues concerning food policy were largely treated as routine technical decisions. The significance of the salmonella in eggs affair is that it is indicative of wider changes in the making of food policy. The increased activity of interest groups, the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy and changes in the retail economy have combined to transform the food policy community into an issue network.     

NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT VALUES AND PERSON‐ORGANIZATION FIT: A SOCIO‐PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH AND EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION AMONG PUBLIC SECTOR PERSONNEL

This paper takes a socio‐psychological approach to NPM and its value‐based theory in public administration. We develop a model for the study of NPM values based on the idea of Person‐Organization Fit (POF) and examine it empirically. Findings, based on a survey of 205 Israeli local governance personnel, revealed that the POF of several core NPM values (that is, responsiveness, transparency, innovativeness, and achievement orientations) was positively related with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and service climate, as reported by these public personnel. The findings suggest that, beyond modern strategies and effective policies for the public sector, lies an essential quest for NPM value‐fit with public personnel. Consequently, the study advocates a better theoretical and practical understanding of the socio‐psychological interfaces, such as POF, in public administration. Implications and directions for future studies are discussed, both in the context of public administration research and in the generic field of organizational behaviour theory and practice. The detailed results of the factor analyses are available directly from the authors.     

INTRA-ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS IN LOCAL AUTHORITIES: TOWARDS A NEW APPROACH

Much of the recent literature on local government has emphasized the impact of non-local factors on local authority decision-making. This article argues that the administrative processes, power structures and conflicts of interest inside local authorities can often affect policy processes by mediating external influences and providing an internal dynamic of their own. We suggest that most of the current literature concentrates too narrowly on officer-councillor relationships and invariably emphasizes the total dominance of an officer-councillor elite. Our new approach identifies six possible arenas of policy influence within local authorities (of which the officer-councillor elite is just one) and emphasizes the dynamics of intra-organizational politics inside local authorities.     

THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE: BUDGETARY CONTROL IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY

The problems of budgetary control in the EC have been assuming ever greater political importance recently. Yet behind the facade of concern is a lack of knowledge of the extent of the problem, and a seeming inability to take effective action to deal with some of the best known aspects of it. It is argued here that the achievement of budgetary control is particularly difficult in the context of the EC for a variety of reasons. Using a simple cyclical model of budgetary control, the constraints can be grouped into four main categories – conceptual, structural, operational and political. These are examined in turn drawing specific examples from community documentation. Finally, certain avenues for reform are suggested which may be implemented in the future.     

DEWEY AND THE DIALOGICAL PROCESS: SPEAKING,LISTENING, AND TODAY'S MEDIA

This article examines John Dewey's understanding of the importance of communication in the development and transmission of shared community values, and consequently, in the maintenance of democratic practices. At the root of any community is the storehouse of its common goods, and the process by which such goods are designated as common is dialogue. Dialogue is characterized by two activities—speaking and active listening—both of which involve the will of the actors to participate. This kind of dialogue becomes especially important in a democratic society when there are differences and disagreements about what constitutes the good. In a diverse and plural society, the communicative practice of dialogue then becomes a critical process for the maintenance and enrichment of the fundamental democratic bond. Failure to sustain authentic dialogue leads to social fragmentation and isolation and to the erosion of democratic community. Do today's media of communication—television, radio, and, especially, the Internet—enhance or constrain the possibilities for the authentic communication necessary to sustain democracy?     

PUBLIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP: RHETORIC,REALITY, AND CONTEXT

ABSTRACT

Public Entrepreneurship: Rhetoric, Reality, and Context

The concept of entrepreneurship has entered the discourse of public management amongst practitioners and scholars across a range of different public service organisations in different countries. It has been recognised, for example, in the UK,[1] 1999. Modernising Government: White Paper London: HMSO. Cabinet Office [Google Scholar]the USA[2] Osborne, D. and Gaebler, T. 1992. Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector Reading MA: Addison Wesley. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]and Australia[3] Wanna, J., Forster, J. and Graham, P., eds. 1996. Entrepreneurial Management in the Public Sector Brisbane, , Australia: Centre for Australian Public Sector Management.  [Google Scholar]and variously interpreted by its promoters as:

• An integral part of a transformational political philosophy, affecting not just the delivery of public services but also community life (e.g., the ‘Third Way’ in the UK).

• More modestly, a response to the ‘dead hand’ of bureaucracy which inhibits public organisations becoming more responsive to their customers, clients and communities,

• A way of allowing public service managers the ‘freedom to manage’, deploying skills and approaches identified with private sector management.

Entrepreneurship is used primarily to make normative judgements. The form that entrepreneurship takes in a public service management context and the extent to which it exists, are undeveloped empirical questions. This paper examines three main sets of questions:

• Why there has been a call for entrepreneurial government–the rhetorical dimension.

• What practising managers perceive the term to mean to the services they are responsible for–the reality dimension.

• Whether public entrepreneurship has any meaning outside of the particular political, economic and social context found in western, industrialised democracies–the context dimension.

The paper explores the nature of the discourse within which notions of public entrepreneurship are located and given legitimacy by different groups of stakeholders. It also seeks to uncover some variables that have an impact upon the practice of public entrepreneurship in different countries, organisations and social, economic and political cultures and organisations.

Although organisations such as the OECD identify universal themes and trends in the delivery of public services, there is little empirical evidence of convergence or universality.[4] Pollitt, C. 2001. ‘Clarifying Convergence: Striking Similarities and Durable Differences in Public Management Reform’. Public Management Review, 3(4): 471–492. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]This paper notes that although the concept of entrepreneurship is not unique to one or two contexts, there is limited convergence on what it means and whether and how it is ‘practised’.     

THE CHALLENGES TO TEACHERS,TEACHING, AND POST-SECONDARY TEACHING INSTITUTIONS: ASSUMPTIONS,PREDILECTIONS, PROCESSES,AND PROJECTIONS

ABSTRACT

The contemporary forces impacting teachers and teaching are capable of becoming an overwhelming, uncontrollable wave of disaster or an opportunity for proactively redesigning teaching at a higher level of commitment, performance, and relevance to make and shape critically important intellectual and societal contributions for the future. This symposium aims to galvanize the teachers in post-secondary education to reject the deadly viruses of reactive fear, credentialed complacency, and intellectual rigidity in their current stages and replace them with proactive options, alternatives, and designs.

More specifically, this Introduction clarifies why the respective articles were commissioned to appear in this symposium based on the reasons, concerns, and observations that stimulated the Editor to pursue and design a symposium on teaching in the social sciences.

The concluding contention of this Introduction is that all teachers can, and must, influence the events in both their personal and professional lives by actively immersing themselves in the values, visions, and cultural anchors of their profession, discipline, craft, society, and belief systems. There is no doubt in the Editor's mind that the symposium presentations will add much substance that will help make all of us great teachers.

“What in context beguiles, out of context mortifies.”

David Wayne     

ANALYSING POLITICAL CHOICE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY APPROACH

Despite the centralizing trends which have characterized the 1980s, local authorities have displayed considerable skill in their pursuit of policies designed to cope with effects of the government's grant abatements and other, legislative restrictions. Indeed, it is paradoxical that a continued diversity in response has characterized the strategies of various local authorities over the period. However, our theoretical understanding has often failed to keep pace with the reality of a still vibrant local government. Even those 'output' studies which identified the different influences at work invariably failed to explain why localities diverged in their responses. Similarly, the expository power of sophisticated intergovernmental relations (IGR) models has not fully accounted for such divergence. This research builds on the IGR model but explicitly acknowledges the importance of a 'localities effect' in shaping the application of the model in specific local authorities. This is facilitated by a comparative case study approach based on evidence from Glasgow and Liverpool.