PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some pressing but under-researched ... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some pressing but under-researched aspects of public leadership. Ten propositions about public leadership are set out and these are intended to be thought-provoking and even controversial in order to stimulate researchers to design research which addresses key theoretical and practical questions about leadership in the public sphere. They will also help practitioners navigate an increasingly complex leadership context.Design/methodology/approachThis invited essay uses ten propositions about public leadership, selected from three sources: the leadership literature, the author’s own research and from collaborative research discussions with academics, policy makers and practitioners.FindingsThe first proposition argues for distinguishing public leadership from public service leadership given that the former is about leadership of the public sphere. Other propositions concern context; purpose; conflict and contest at the hear...
This chapter examines why, how and under what circumstances innovation and improvement of public ... more This chapter examines why, how and under what circumstances innovation and improvement of public services may add value to the public sphere. It aims to contribute to the understanding of public value in two ways - first, by examining how innovation and improvement may contribute to the achievement of public value; and second, by using the prism of innovation and improvement to illuminate some aspects of the theory and practice of public value. The focus is on innovation and improvement at the organization and inter-organizational level of analysis (Hartley 2008).
Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors a... more Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. This paper is a systematic review of the literature on organizational learning and knowledge with relevance to public service organizations. Organizational learning and knowledge are important to public sector organizations, which share complex external challenges with private organizations, but have different drivers and goals for knowledge. The evidence shows that the concepts of organizational learning and knowledge are under-researched in relation to the public sector and, importantly, this raises wider questions about the extent to which context is taken into consideration in terms of learning and knowledge more generally across all sectors. A dynamic model of organizational learning within and across organizational boundaries is develo...
There is increasing recognition that leaders exercising political astuteness are more effective a... more There is increasing recognition that leaders exercising political astuteness are more effective at work. Understanding how political astuteness skills are acquired is valuable in all sectors and is particularly important in the case of public sector managers, for whom formal and informal politics is an integral part of their context. This article addresses the theory and empirical research gap on leadership development for political skills, by reporting on a mixed methods study of mainly senior managers from the UK, Australia and New Zealand, with a survey of 1012 and 42 interviews. We find that the sources of political astuteness development perceived as most valuable tended to be unplanned and experiential more than formal, and the paper deploys a political skills acquisition framework to explore and explain these findings.
This conceptual paper examines the public value framework developed by Moore (1995) and Benington... more This conceptual paper examines the public value framework developed by Moore (1995) and Benington and Moore (2011) and uses the framework analytically as a way to address demand in policing and to prioritise and justify actions. It is therefore a potential tool for evidencebased policing. This paper examines the policing context in which the public value framework may be useful, and then examines existing theory and evidence about its use in policing. In the United Kingdom ‘traditional’ crime is reported to be falling but the demand on policing services is increasing and changing in nature. A decrease in overall measured crime is incongruent with increases in serious and organised crime, child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse and cyber offences. It is estimated that there may be as many as 3 million unrecorded fraud and cyber incidents (Thornton, 2015). There is undoubtedly a greater demand on specialist skills, time and resources from police forces. Much of the emerging threat i...
Forensic science has a key role in modern policing and criminal justice. In the UK, there has bee... more Forensic science has a key role in modern policing and criminal justice. In the UK, there has been a market for the provision of forensic science services to police forces since the 1990s, but unti...
This chapter argues that political astuteness for public leaders and managers really matters beca... more This chapter argues that political astuteness for public leaders and managers really matters because it enables them to navigate the dual demands of having a nuanced and detailed understanding of informal and formal politics in order to work with a range of stakeholders over complex and contested public policy and services, but also refraining from being party political. This chapter explores these tensions by examining the construct, the theory, and the empirical evidence about leadership with political astuteness. It draws on highlights from three literatures and a large cross-national empirical project based on a survey and interviews, as well as other studies to unpack what is meant by political astuteness and to present an evidence-based framework of the key skills or capabilities which underlie effective political astuteness. The chapter notes that capabilities on their own are insufficient to be effective because the job demands and the organizational and institutional context create constraints and expectations. The
This article examines the social processes of political leadership in situations of contest and c... more This article examines the social processes of political leadership in situations of contest and conflict, taking place within a key and long-established democratic institution, the UK Parliament. The empirical focus is on leadership in House of Commons select committees, which are concerned with holding the government to account. Headlines and media scrutiny, combined with internal challenge from the cross-party mix of politicians on the committees and a range of external stakeholders, create leadership challenges for committee chairs. The study is of two committee inquiries led by the same committee chair, which occurred concurrently and in real time, thereby providing a rare comparative study of leadership through the same leader at the same time but with different leadership challenges. Rather than shying away from conflict, as does much of the leadership literature, this research highlights how leaders who actively engage in challenge and conflict can build a degree of shared pu...
Dans le present article, nous examinons les liens entre l’innovation et l’apprentissage interorga... more Dans le present article, nous examinons les liens entre l’innovation et l’apprentissage interorganisationnel, dans le contexte de la reforme du service public. L’elaboration theorique et la recherche empirique s’appuient sur une analyse longitudinale, qui fait appel a diverses methodes et a des repondants multiples, dans le contexte du Programme Beacon instrument de la reforme du service public britannique. Notre recherche porte sur deux questions : premierement, en quoi l’apprentissage interorganisationnel contribue-t-il a l’innovation ? Deuxiemement, de quelle maniere les evolutions dans la maniere d’envisager l’apprentissage interorganisationnel determinent-elles les changements dans la maniere d’aborder l’innovation au fil du temps ? Les recherches dans l’ensemble du gouvernement local britannique (N=388) utilisaient la decomposition temporelle pour examiner les evolutions en trois phases sur une periode de neuf ans. Dans notre article, nous elaborons une theorie a propos de l’apprentissage interorganisationnel a la base de l’innovation, et nous verrons qu’au fil du temps, l’approche en matiere d’innovation a evolue, puisqu’elle est passee du fait d’apprendre a imiter au fait d’apprendre a innover.Remarques a l’intention des praticiensl’innovation s’appuie sur l’apprentissage interorganisationnel ;les organisations ont ameliore, au fil du temps, leur capacite a acquerir et a utiliser l’apprentissage ;l’innovation suppose le partage de connaissances tacites et explicites ;au fil du temps, les organisations ont appris a passer du fait d’apprendre a imiter au fait d’apprendre a innover ;l’amelioration dans le cadre de l’apprentissage interorganisationnel n’a pas ete uniforme. Au depart, les differences entre les organisations se sont accentuees, puisque ceux qui etaient capables d’acquerir l’apprentissage s’en sont servis pour s’ameliorer plus vite ;on observe une adaptation au contexte local, et non l’adoption d’une approche unique, mais ce trait n’est pas suffisamment pris en compte dans la reforme du service public ;c’est l’attrait de l’apprentissage et non la promotion de la diffusion qui favorise l’apprentissage et l’amelioration.
Background A core component of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (Great Britain. Health and Soc... more Background A core component of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (Great Britain. Health and Social Care Act 2012. London: HMSO; 2012) was the idea of devolving to general practitioners (GPs) a health service leadership role for service redesign. For this purpose, new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were formed in the English NHS. Objectives This research examined the extent to which, and the methods by which, clinicians stepped forward to take up a leadership role in service redesign using CCGs as a platform. Design The project proceeded in five phases: (1) a scoping study across 15 CCGs, (2) the design and administration of a national survey of all members of CCG governing bodies in 2014, (3) six main in-depth case studies, (4) a second national survey of governing body members in 2016, which allowed longitudinal comparisons, and (5) international comparisons. Participants In addition to GPs serving in clinical lead roles for CCGs, the research included insights from account...
Both leadership and public value are increasingly seen as concepts highly relevant to public admi... more Both leadership and public value are increasingly seen as concepts highly relevant to public administration, not only because of complex societal challenges but also as ways to address pluralistic interests in society. This article explores the varied conceptualisations of public value and of public leadership in detail. Furthermore, we argue that political astuteness provides an important conceptual linkage between leadership and public value, enabling actors to read, understand and foster coalitions around diverse and sometimes competing interests. In this introduction to the symposium, we analyse the different conceptualisations of public value, of leadership, and also show how the six articles explicitly or implicitly draw on the linking concept of political astuteness. The article assesses how the six articles of the symposium contribute to each of these three concepts.
This article examines the relationship between leadership and public value, which is particularly... more This article examines the relationship between leadership and public value, which is particularly challenging in a context of explicit contest and conflict. The theoretical framework is illustrated through a case study of policing rural crime. The study reveals that the police worked with multiple and competing publics rather than a single homogeneous public, and that part of their leadership role was to create and convene a public space in which different voices and divergent views could be expressed. The study notes that research needs to pay attention to the loss and displacement of public value, not solely its creation and recognition. The need to convene multiple publics required the police to lead, as part of a leadership constellation, and with political astuteness. The findings have wider relevance for other public services, and for studies of leadership and public value at the intersection between the state and civil society.
Fiscal austerity in North America and Europe is having major impacts on public service organizati... more Fiscal austerity in North America and Europe is having major impacts on public service organizations, yet, we know very little about the effects of these changes on employee attitudes, behaviors, a...
The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2018
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were established in England in 2013 to encourage GPs to exer... more Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were established in England in 2013 to encourage GPs to exert greater influence over the processes of service improvement and redesign in the NHS. Little is known about the extent and the ways in which GPs have assumed these leadership roles. To explore the nature of clinical leadership of GPs in CCGs, and to examine the enablers and barriers to implementing a policy of clinical leadership in the NHS. A qualitative multi-case study approach in six localities across England. The case studies were purposefully sampled to represent different geographical localities and population demographics, and for their commitment to redesigning specified clinical or service areas. Data were collected from the case study CCGs and their partner organisations using a review of relevant documents, semi-structured individual or group interviews, and observations of key meetings. The data were analysed thematically and informed by relevant theories. GPs prefer a coll...
International Studies of Management & Organization
(1983). Ideology and Organizational Behavior. International Studies of Management & Organizat... more (1983). Ideology and Organizational Behavior. International Studies of Management & Organization: Vol. 13, Organization Theories, Symbolism, and Ideology, pp. 7-34.
Many countries face the twin pressures of austerity and recession following the 2007-2008 global ... more Many countries face the twin pressures of austerity and recession following the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. This paper uses the public sector as the setting for this investigation because a major UK national announcement of budget cuts signalled extensive organizational cutbacks. We examine longitudinally whether (a) organizational changes following the national announcement affect public sector employees’ psychological contract breach, (b), breach differentially affects three kinds of employee contributions: towards the organization, co-workers and service users (the public or “customers”), and, (c), whether some of these relationships are moderated by job insecurity or by public sector commitment. Longitudinal survey data collected before and after the national announcement are examined, using a sample of 340 employees from a wide range of public sector organizations and locations in the UK. Results largely confirm the hypotheses. Increases in organizational change predicted psychological contrac...
ABSTRACT There is considerable scholarly writing about the theory and application of public value... more ABSTRACT There is considerable scholarly writing about the theory and application of public value concepts, but this article explores why there is, by contrast, so little empirical research on public value. The article then goes on to provide a framework and a research agenda for inspiring and guiding new empirical research, based on three different conceptualizations of public value, with researchers needing to be explicit about which approach they are using in order to avoid confusion. While case studies have been used as a research method, the authors suggest a much wider array of potential research methods (depending on the research question) covering both quantitative and qualitative approaches and with a wider variety of designs, including comparative analysis. It is suggested that empirical research is undertaken with a more diverse range of stakeholders of public value, breaking out of the public manager-centric approach. This is an exciting agenda for research, though the paper warns that public value may fade from view unless empirical research is undertaken to test, challenge and extend the scholarly contributions.
We add new data to the long-standing debate about the interface between politics and administrati... more We add new data to the long-standing debate about the interface between politics and administration, deploying theory and evidence indicating that it varies. It can be either a “purple zone” of interaction between the red of politics and the blue of administration, or a clear line. We use survey responses from 1,012 mostly senior public managers in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, along with semi-structured interviews with 42 of them, to examine the extent to which public managers perceive that they “cross” the line or go into a zone, and the ways in which they do so. Our inclusion of a zone as well as a line recasts how roles and relationships between politicians and administrators can be conceived. Moreover, it raises questions about how particular contingencies affect whether public managers perceive and work with a line or a zone.
This chapter examines some current limitations of leadership theory which focuses on leadership i... more This chapter examines some current limitations of leadership theory which focuses on leadership in rather than of the organisation and which underplays the skills of leading across diverse and sometimes competing interests both inside and outside the organisation. We propose an alternative view of leadership which we call leading with political awareness but political astuteness, or political savvy are also expressions of this capability. The chapter is based on a large UK research project with middle and senior private, public and voluntary sector managers, which involved a literature review, focus groups with 41 managers; a survey of 1,475 managers and 12 interviews (details in Hartley et al., 2007). The chapter does not report on the empirical findings, but rather sets out some themes concerned with why leadership increasingly needs to take into account political awareness skills; the contexts where such skills are needed; how politics and therefore political awareness is conceptualised; and crucially, a framework of political skills. The chapter argues that political awareness skills raise new questions for leadership theory because the research takes into account the leadership of difference leadership outside as well as, inside the organisation, and the strategic context of leadership. Where is leadership happening? Organisational leadership theory and research has tended to focus on leadership in the organisation rather than leadership of the organisation (i.e. both inside and outside) and this is a limitation. Increasingly leadership activities and meaning-making take place not only inside the organisation but in the networks of stakeholders and other organisations that organisational leaders have to, or choose to, interact with.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some pressing but under-researched ... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of some pressing but under-researched aspects of public leadership. Ten propositions about public leadership are set out and these are intended to be thought-provoking and even controversial in order to stimulate researchers to design research which addresses key theoretical and practical questions about leadership in the public sphere. They will also help practitioners navigate an increasingly complex leadership context.Design/methodology/approachThis invited essay uses ten propositions about public leadership, selected from three sources: the leadership literature, the author’s own research and from collaborative research discussions with academics, policy makers and practitioners.FindingsThe first proposition argues for distinguishing public leadership from public service leadership given that the former is about leadership of the public sphere. Other propositions concern context; purpose; conflict and contest at the hear...
This chapter examines why, how and under what circumstances innovation and improvement of public ... more This chapter examines why, how and under what circumstances innovation and improvement of public services may add value to the public sphere. It aims to contribute to the understanding of public value in two ways - first, by examining how innovation and improvement may contribute to the achievement of public value; and second, by using the prism of innovation and improvement to illuminate some aspects of the theory and practice of public value. The focus is on innovation and improvement at the organization and inter-organizational level of analysis (Hartley 2008).
Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors a... more Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. This paper is a systematic review of the literature on organizational learning and knowledge with relevance to public service organizations. Organizational learning and knowledge are important to public sector organizations, which share complex external challenges with private organizations, but have different drivers and goals for knowledge. The evidence shows that the concepts of organizational learning and knowledge are under-researched in relation to the public sector and, importantly, this raises wider questions about the extent to which context is taken into consideration in terms of learning and knowledge more generally across all sectors. A dynamic model of organizational learning within and across organizational boundaries is develo...
There is increasing recognition that leaders exercising political astuteness are more effective a... more There is increasing recognition that leaders exercising political astuteness are more effective at work. Understanding how political astuteness skills are acquired is valuable in all sectors and is particularly important in the case of public sector managers, for whom formal and informal politics is an integral part of their context. This article addresses the theory and empirical research gap on leadership development for political skills, by reporting on a mixed methods study of mainly senior managers from the UK, Australia and New Zealand, with a survey of 1012 and 42 interviews. We find that the sources of political astuteness development perceived as most valuable tended to be unplanned and experiential more than formal, and the paper deploys a political skills acquisition framework to explore and explain these findings.
This conceptual paper examines the public value framework developed by Moore (1995) and Benington... more This conceptual paper examines the public value framework developed by Moore (1995) and Benington and Moore (2011) and uses the framework analytically as a way to address demand in policing and to prioritise and justify actions. It is therefore a potential tool for evidencebased policing. This paper examines the policing context in which the public value framework may be useful, and then examines existing theory and evidence about its use in policing. In the United Kingdom ‘traditional’ crime is reported to be falling but the demand on policing services is increasing and changing in nature. A decrease in overall measured crime is incongruent with increases in serious and organised crime, child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse and cyber offences. It is estimated that there may be as many as 3 million unrecorded fraud and cyber incidents (Thornton, 2015). There is undoubtedly a greater demand on specialist skills, time and resources from police forces. Much of the emerging threat i...
Forensic science has a key role in modern policing and criminal justice. In the UK, there has bee... more Forensic science has a key role in modern policing and criminal justice. In the UK, there has been a market for the provision of forensic science services to police forces since the 1990s, but unti...
This chapter argues that political astuteness for public leaders and managers really matters beca... more This chapter argues that political astuteness for public leaders and managers really matters because it enables them to navigate the dual demands of having a nuanced and detailed understanding of informal and formal politics in order to work with a range of stakeholders over complex and contested public policy and services, but also refraining from being party political. This chapter explores these tensions by examining the construct, the theory, and the empirical evidence about leadership with political astuteness. It draws on highlights from three literatures and a large cross-national empirical project based on a survey and interviews, as well as other studies to unpack what is meant by political astuteness and to present an evidence-based framework of the key skills or capabilities which underlie effective political astuteness. The chapter notes that capabilities on their own are insufficient to be effective because the job demands and the organizational and institutional context create constraints and expectations. The
This article examines the social processes of political leadership in situations of contest and c... more This article examines the social processes of political leadership in situations of contest and conflict, taking place within a key and long-established democratic institution, the UK Parliament. The empirical focus is on leadership in House of Commons select committees, which are concerned with holding the government to account. Headlines and media scrutiny, combined with internal challenge from the cross-party mix of politicians on the committees and a range of external stakeholders, create leadership challenges for committee chairs. The study is of two committee inquiries led by the same committee chair, which occurred concurrently and in real time, thereby providing a rare comparative study of leadership through the same leader at the same time but with different leadership challenges. Rather than shying away from conflict, as does much of the leadership literature, this research highlights how leaders who actively engage in challenge and conflict can build a degree of shared pu...
Dans le present article, nous examinons les liens entre l’innovation et l’apprentissage interorga... more Dans le present article, nous examinons les liens entre l’innovation et l’apprentissage interorganisationnel, dans le contexte de la reforme du service public. L’elaboration theorique et la recherche empirique s’appuient sur une analyse longitudinale, qui fait appel a diverses methodes et a des repondants multiples, dans le contexte du Programme Beacon instrument de la reforme du service public britannique. Notre recherche porte sur deux questions : premierement, en quoi l’apprentissage interorganisationnel contribue-t-il a l’innovation ? Deuxiemement, de quelle maniere les evolutions dans la maniere d’envisager l’apprentissage interorganisationnel determinent-elles les changements dans la maniere d’aborder l’innovation au fil du temps ? Les recherches dans l’ensemble du gouvernement local britannique (N=388) utilisaient la decomposition temporelle pour examiner les evolutions en trois phases sur une periode de neuf ans. Dans notre article, nous elaborons une theorie a propos de l’apprentissage interorganisationnel a la base de l’innovation, et nous verrons qu’au fil du temps, l’approche en matiere d’innovation a evolue, puisqu’elle est passee du fait d’apprendre a imiter au fait d’apprendre a innover.Remarques a l’intention des praticiensl’innovation s’appuie sur l’apprentissage interorganisationnel ;les organisations ont ameliore, au fil du temps, leur capacite a acquerir et a utiliser l’apprentissage ;l’innovation suppose le partage de connaissances tacites et explicites ;au fil du temps, les organisations ont appris a passer du fait d’apprendre a imiter au fait d’apprendre a innover ;l’amelioration dans le cadre de l’apprentissage interorganisationnel n’a pas ete uniforme. Au depart, les differences entre les organisations se sont accentuees, puisque ceux qui etaient capables d’acquerir l’apprentissage s’en sont servis pour s’ameliorer plus vite ;on observe une adaptation au contexte local, et non l’adoption d’une approche unique, mais ce trait n’est pas suffisamment pris en compte dans la reforme du service public ;c’est l’attrait de l’apprentissage et non la promotion de la diffusion qui favorise l’apprentissage et l’amelioration.
Background A core component of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (Great Britain. Health and Soc... more Background A core component of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (Great Britain. Health and Social Care Act 2012. London: HMSO; 2012) was the idea of devolving to general practitioners (GPs) a health service leadership role for service redesign. For this purpose, new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were formed in the English NHS. Objectives This research examined the extent to which, and the methods by which, clinicians stepped forward to take up a leadership role in service redesign using CCGs as a platform. Design The project proceeded in five phases: (1) a scoping study across 15 CCGs, (2) the design and administration of a national survey of all members of CCG governing bodies in 2014, (3) six main in-depth case studies, (4) a second national survey of governing body members in 2016, which allowed longitudinal comparisons, and (5) international comparisons. Participants In addition to GPs serving in clinical lead roles for CCGs, the research included insights from account...
Both leadership and public value are increasingly seen as concepts highly relevant to public admi... more Both leadership and public value are increasingly seen as concepts highly relevant to public administration, not only because of complex societal challenges but also as ways to address pluralistic interests in society. This article explores the varied conceptualisations of public value and of public leadership in detail. Furthermore, we argue that political astuteness provides an important conceptual linkage between leadership and public value, enabling actors to read, understand and foster coalitions around diverse and sometimes competing interests. In this introduction to the symposium, we analyse the different conceptualisations of public value, of leadership, and also show how the six articles explicitly or implicitly draw on the linking concept of political astuteness. The article assesses how the six articles of the symposium contribute to each of these three concepts.
This article examines the relationship between leadership and public value, which is particularly... more This article examines the relationship between leadership and public value, which is particularly challenging in a context of explicit contest and conflict. The theoretical framework is illustrated through a case study of policing rural crime. The study reveals that the police worked with multiple and competing publics rather than a single homogeneous public, and that part of their leadership role was to create and convene a public space in which different voices and divergent views could be expressed. The study notes that research needs to pay attention to the loss and displacement of public value, not solely its creation and recognition. The need to convene multiple publics required the police to lead, as part of a leadership constellation, and with political astuteness. The findings have wider relevance for other public services, and for studies of leadership and public value at the intersection between the state and civil society.
Fiscal austerity in North America and Europe is having major impacts on public service organizati... more Fiscal austerity in North America and Europe is having major impacts on public service organizations, yet, we know very little about the effects of these changes on employee attitudes, behaviors, a...
The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2018
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were established in England in 2013 to encourage GPs to exer... more Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were established in England in 2013 to encourage GPs to exert greater influence over the processes of service improvement and redesign in the NHS. Little is known about the extent and the ways in which GPs have assumed these leadership roles. To explore the nature of clinical leadership of GPs in CCGs, and to examine the enablers and barriers to implementing a policy of clinical leadership in the NHS. A qualitative multi-case study approach in six localities across England. The case studies were purposefully sampled to represent different geographical localities and population demographics, and for their commitment to redesigning specified clinical or service areas. Data were collected from the case study CCGs and their partner organisations using a review of relevant documents, semi-structured individual or group interviews, and observations of key meetings. The data were analysed thematically and informed by relevant theories. GPs prefer a coll...
International Studies of Management & Organization
(1983). Ideology and Organizational Behavior. International Studies of Management & Organizat... more (1983). Ideology and Organizational Behavior. International Studies of Management & Organization: Vol. 13, Organization Theories, Symbolism, and Ideology, pp. 7-34.
Many countries face the twin pressures of austerity and recession following the 2007-2008 global ... more Many countries face the twin pressures of austerity and recession following the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. This paper uses the public sector as the setting for this investigation because a major UK national announcement of budget cuts signalled extensive organizational cutbacks. We examine longitudinally whether (a) organizational changes following the national announcement affect public sector employees’ psychological contract breach, (b), breach differentially affects three kinds of employee contributions: towards the organization, co-workers and service users (the public or “customers”), and, (c), whether some of these relationships are moderated by job insecurity or by public sector commitment. Longitudinal survey data collected before and after the national announcement are examined, using a sample of 340 employees from a wide range of public sector organizations and locations in the UK. Results largely confirm the hypotheses. Increases in organizational change predicted psychological contrac...
ABSTRACT There is considerable scholarly writing about the theory and application of public value... more ABSTRACT There is considerable scholarly writing about the theory and application of public value concepts, but this article explores why there is, by contrast, so little empirical research on public value. The article then goes on to provide a framework and a research agenda for inspiring and guiding new empirical research, based on three different conceptualizations of public value, with researchers needing to be explicit about which approach they are using in order to avoid confusion. While case studies have been used as a research method, the authors suggest a much wider array of potential research methods (depending on the research question) covering both quantitative and qualitative approaches and with a wider variety of designs, including comparative analysis. It is suggested that empirical research is undertaken with a more diverse range of stakeholders of public value, breaking out of the public manager-centric approach. This is an exciting agenda for research, though the paper warns that public value may fade from view unless empirical research is undertaken to test, challenge and extend the scholarly contributions.
We add new data to the long-standing debate about the interface between politics and administrati... more We add new data to the long-standing debate about the interface between politics and administration, deploying theory and evidence indicating that it varies. It can be either a “purple zone” of interaction between the red of politics and the blue of administration, or a clear line. We use survey responses from 1,012 mostly senior public managers in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, along with semi-structured interviews with 42 of them, to examine the extent to which public managers perceive that they “cross” the line or go into a zone, and the ways in which they do so. Our inclusion of a zone as well as a line recasts how roles and relationships between politicians and administrators can be conceived. Moreover, it raises questions about how particular contingencies affect whether public managers perceive and work with a line or a zone.
This chapter examines some current limitations of leadership theory which focuses on leadership i... more This chapter examines some current limitations of leadership theory which focuses on leadership in rather than of the organisation and which underplays the skills of leading across diverse and sometimes competing interests both inside and outside the organisation. We propose an alternative view of leadership which we call leading with political awareness but political astuteness, or political savvy are also expressions of this capability. The chapter is based on a large UK research project with middle and senior private, public and voluntary sector managers, which involved a literature review, focus groups with 41 managers; a survey of 1,475 managers and 12 interviews (details in Hartley et al., 2007). The chapter does not report on the empirical findings, but rather sets out some themes concerned with why leadership increasingly needs to take into account political awareness skills; the contexts where such skills are needed; how politics and therefore political awareness is conceptualised; and crucially, a framework of political skills. The chapter argues that political awareness skills raise new questions for leadership theory because the research takes into account the leadership of difference leadership outside as well as, inside the organisation, and the strategic context of leadership. Where is leadership happening? Organisational leadership theory and research has tended to focus on leadership in the organisation rather than leadership of the organisation (i.e. both inside and outside) and this is a limitation. Increasingly leadership activities and meaning-making take place not only inside the organisation but in the networks of stakeholders and other organisations that organisational leaders have to, or choose to, interact with.
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Papers by Jean Hartley