REFORMING PUBLIC SERVICES IN THE UK: BRINGING IN THE THIRD SECTOR

In the UK, the government continues its project to reform public services. Earlier projects have focused on the modernization of public sector organizations; in the latest round of reform, New Labour has focused on widening choice and the personalization of services. To this end, the government has been working with Third Sector (TS) organizations to expand their role in shaping, commissioning and delivering public services. The government’s vision is predicated on a normative assertion, that, unlike traditional public sector organizations, TS bodies create public value by being more innovative, are inspired by altruistic aims and values, and have greater commitment to their clients. This paper reviews recent policy and questions whether the government’s policy is flawed, contradictory and risks damaging the attributes of the TS admired by New Labour.     

MANAGING FINANCIAL STRINGENCY IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

This article contributes to the debate about the most effective ways to manage the effects of financial stringency in the public sector. It tentatively draws ideas for further research from three action research studies conducted longitudinally over several years in different contexts and sectors and at different organization levels within the public sector. Our contribution focuses on the management of the early stages of stringency. We conclude that in stringent times, particularly in the short-term, intra-organizational conflict is likely to increase; organizational climates to become more cautious and reactive; and management to become more centralized, controlling and to take what is termed the efficiency rather than the effectiveness option. To these factors is added the resistance to change inherent in professional bureaucracies. Managers in public sector organizations experiencing harsher environments need to be helped to plan strategically for implementation in the particular context in which they find themselves.     

CHANGE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICES

This article identifies the main themes in recent changes in public sector management and shows the extent of the challenge to past organizational assumptions. While recognizing the objectives of the changes could bring benefits if realized, it argues that there are a series of issues that are unresolved. The language of consumerism, the development of government by contracts, the form of performance management and the use of quasi-markets are seen as creating problems. These are seen as deriving from an attempt to apply approaches drawn from the private sector to the public domain. It is argued that they need to be balanced by approaches that recognize the values of the public sector.     

TRANSFORMING PUBLIC SERVICES: CONTRACTING FOR SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES IN THE US

Government contracting with private service organizations has grown rapidly in the United States in the last 25 years. Advocates of contracting hope that it will spur competition among service agencies, lowering costs and improving service quality. In practice, however, contracting departs significantly from this competitive model. Instead, government and private agencies develop long-term relationships which can be considered regimes governed by specific norms and expectations. These regimes profoundly influence the delivery of services and the politics of contracting. This article analyses these regimes in the context of the contested nature of public authority. The article concludes with suggestions for reforming public policy to improve the performance and effectiveness of contracted services.     

QUALITY AND PUBLIC SERVICES

The issue of quality of service is becoming increasingly important in the public service as a result of new approaches that are being adopted to management, notably the development of contract-based management. The argument of this article is that the concept of quality is a particularly difficult one for the public services, because of problems of information asymmetries. The first sections of the article are concerned with the meaning of the concept of quality and the problems of managing quality in the service sector and the public service in particular. The central argument of the article is that there are important problems of information asymmetries between service providers and service consumers. Four different situations of differential information availability are distinguished. The article argues that the issue of quality in the public service is an inherently political one.     

BENCHMARKING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: A CRITICAL CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

How can we critically address benchmarking? By conceptualizing benchmarking as a normalizing governing technology, a space is cleared for analysing some of the power relations brought into play in benchmarking activities. As a device of power, benchmarking depends upon the production of normalizing knowledge and the freedom or self‐governing capacities of those who are benchmarked. The fruitfulness of this conception is illustrated through an example from the Danish hospital system.     

INDIVIDUALIZATION AND PUBLIC SECTOR LEADERSHIP

This is a conceptual paper whose aim is to relate the development of ‘individualization’ ( Beck and Beck‐Gernsheim 2002 ) to organizational leadership. It does this by examining individualization alongside the implicit assumption on which orthodox approaches to leadership are founded, namely that leadership is an individualized phenomenon. Despite the expanding literature on these topics, particularly that on leadership, these concepts have not been examined in relation to one another. This paper seeks to do this in two ways. Firstly, it highlights the increased attention given to leadership in the UK public sector, locating leadership as a continuation of public sector managerialism. Secondly, it discusses the development of the trend of individualization more broadly. The paper’s main discussion focuses on leadership as an individual activity and of the consequences of that approach. In particular, it argues that individualized leadership presents a restrictive perspective which does not allow for exploration of a broader range of leadership approaches, particularly that of distributed leadership, which have especial relevance for public sector organizations.     

THE ‘NEW PUBLIC GOVERNANCE’ AND EMPLOYABILITY SERVICES IN AN ERA OF CRISIS: CHALLENGES FOR THIRD SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS IN SCOTLAND

Third sector organizations (TSOs) have emerged as key players in the delivery of public services to assist jobless people to improve their employability and move from welfare to work. Drawing on in‐depth research with employability providers in Scotland, this article explores how TSOs have responded to the challenges of a rapidly changing public services environment. Specifically, we use the concept of the ‘New Public Governance’ to explore TSOs' relationships with UK, devolved and local government stakeholders. TSOs demonstrated a pragmatic approach to shaping their services to reflect the priorities of public funders, and identified some opportunities arising from the new emphasis on ‘localism’. However, the evidence suggests that opportunities for collaboration at times remained constrained by certain forms of ‘contractualism’ and top‐down performance management. Based on the evidence, lessons for future policy and practice are considered.     

NEGOTIATION AND MEDIATION IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR - THE GERMAN EXPERIENCE

The article argues that one should look not only at attempts to reduce governmental regulation via privatization and deregulation, but also to pay attention to new modes of dispute-resolution in highly complex and controversial issues. Following an alleged 'crisis of regulatory policy', the authors discuss ways and means of negotiation and mediation in the public sector. Based on American approaches, the German experience is at the forefront of their interest. The systematic and at the same time empirically oriented analysis looks at 'alternative' ways to regulate through cooperative behaviour, evaluates attempts at unassisted and assisted negotiations as a means of conflict resolution, and sheds light on the necessary framework for the use of mediation policies and techniques. A careful optimism on the use of negotiation and mediation in public sector disputes prevails.     

WORKPLACE BULLYING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: UNDERSTANDING THE RACIAL DIMENSION

This paper reports the research findings of the experiences of public sector workers of bullying at work across 13 organizations in South Wales. The study explored the experiences of White and Ethnic minority respondents and found that there are significant differences in the type and frequency of bullying behaviours being experienced by the two groups. Ethnic minority respondents are more likely to label themselves as suffering from bullying behaviours than their White counterparts. The evidence presented in this paper demonstrates how line managers use different tactics when bullying Ethnic respondents compared to White respondents. Furthermore, when colleagues bully fellow colleagues, there are subtly different patterns of bullying behaviour towards White and Ethnic victims. Given the specific requirement to comply with the public duty for promotion of racial equality expected under the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000) , it is important that these findings are recognized by UK public sector organizations.     

STATE REGULATORY CAPACITY: EXPERIENCES FROM PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS IN NORWAY

State regulatory capacity is being threatened by internationalization, commercialization and persistent demand for public services. The article addresses the overarching question of how the state is changing due to recent public sector reforms. By studying changes in the regulation of the health care sector and the food sector in Norway, the article challenges the assumption that recent public sector reforms have necessarily led to a decline of the central state's regulatory strength. The conclusions are that the central state level has in fact been strengthened by regulatory reforms, by transferring authority to the state level and by enhancing the central administration's co‐ordinating and regulating capacity.     

A NEW EPOCH OF INDIVIDUALIZATION? PROBLEMS WITH THE ‘PERSONALIZATION’ OF PUBLIC SECTOR SERVICES

The paper discusses the role of the concept of ‘personalization’ in New Labour policy on the reform of public sector services. The analysis points to the contradictory ways in which the concept has been used in both policy statements, in the work of various authors, and in the think tank Demos, which has been closely associated with the diffusion of the concept. The correlative uncertainties with respect to implementation are discussed and related to the use of ‘epochal’ forms of argument in the justification of this latest instalment of public sector reform in the United Kingdom.     

ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP IN THE ENGLISH PUBLIC SECTOR: PARADOX OR POSSIBILITY?

Our study explores the possibility for the enactment of entrepreneurial leadership in the English public sector under the Labour government’s modernization agenda. To substantiate our analysis, we draw upon data gathered from leaders in three public sector arenas – the National Health Service, secondary schools, and further education (FE) colleges. Our study proposes a definition of public sector entrepreneurship that extends beyond existing literature. In essence, we contend that public sector entrepreneurship is characterized by the combination of three distinct agencies: ‘stakeholder’, ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘political’. The public sector entrepreneur identifies market opportunities within the political landscape, optimizes the performance‐enhancing potential of innovation for the public sector organization, and carries stakeholders in a way that both permits risk and recognizes the stewardship of public sector resources.     

LEADERSHIP IN PUBLIC SERVICES NETWORKS: ANTECEDENTS,PROCESS AND OUTCOME

In this article, the authors examine the implementation of policy aimed to promote the role of organizational networks and distributed leadership in the establishment and consolidation of public service reform. In theory, leadership and networks should complement each other, with the less hierarchical logic of the network allowing leadership of change, distributed among network members, rather than led from a single organizational apex, to flourish. In practice, as a consequence of inherent bureaucracy, power differentials between network participants, and a strong centralized performance management policy regime, a relatively parsimonious form of distributed leadership is enacted, with the networks tending towards ‘managed partnerships’.     

PUBLIC SECTOR PAY: JUSTICE WITHOUT INFLATION

This is the text of the second annual Redcliffe-Maud Memorial Lecture, organized by the RIPA and sponsored by PA Consulting Group, given in June 1985.