Adina Dudau

Leadership in Public Sector Partnerships A Case Study of Local Safeguarding Children Boards

In the complex cobweb of public sector organizational structures, the need to tackle intricate societal problems set the context for a new direction in leadership studies, one that enables the achievement of policy goals by creating collaborative capabilities. In the policy area of children and young people, Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) can allow leadership to manifest itself through a number of media. First, the local authority is the statutory designated leader of this partnership in the local community. Second, the representatives of agencies with a duty to cooperate on children’s issues are themselves leaders of their organizations’ resources and commitment to the partnership’s goal. Third, in the light of unprecedented complexity in policy making, getting things done often depends on the leadership capabilities of people and of organizations to work with the tension between multiple sets of professional, organizational and sectoral values. Although, in theory, leadership should be an important element of inter-agency working, essentially being about making things happen beyond usual institutional constraints, in reality however, empirical findings have shown that leadership in LSCBs is systematically inhibited, hence endangering the outcomes of collaborative, inter-professional and inter-organizational work. The article concludes with the paradox of public servants demonstrating leadership in inter-organizational settings while remaining an impersonal administrator subjected to tight public scrutiny. The article seeks to make a contribution to the public policy and management field in general and to that of collaborative management in particular. To this end, the existing developments in the leadership literature have been used to shed light on one case study of one of the more controversial partnerships in the British public sector: LSCBs.

Developing Collaborative Capabilities by Fostering Diversity in Organizations

Abstract This article considers some of the risks associated with multi-agency working, especially barriers to collaboration within partnerships between public agencies and their core professions. The article explores the hypothesis that an inability to act collaboratively comes from a fundamental resistance to diversity, both within and across organizational and professional boundaries. It uses a case study of two interacting partnership settings from youth justice and from safeguarding children and young people. The research examines how better integrated, more diversity astute partnerships might act as a catalyst for others to establish better collaboration.

The Unsung Heroes of Welfare Collaboration: Complexities around individuals’ contribution to effective inter-agency working in LSCBs

Abstract The article addresses an under-explored aspect of public partnerships: individuals’ role in the effectiveness of collaborations such as the Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards (LSCBs) in England and Wales. Building upon theoretical concepts around complex emergence, we conceptualize individuals as conveyors of complex negotiated individual, professional and organizational frames. Shifting focus away from inter-organizational and towards inter-personal communication in partnerships is consistent with miscommunication being the widest recognized problem in collaborations. Qualitative data from policy documents, interviews, and participant and non-participant observation are used to show individuals in the LSCB case study advancing or hindering collaborative work as ‘boundary spanners’ or ‘reluctant’ partners.

Failure in welfare partnerships – A gender hypothesis: Reflections on a serendipity pattern in Local Safeguarding Children Boards:

This article examines the roles that occupational segregation and gender bias in the welfare professions play in persistent failures in inter-agency and inter-professional collaborations. Drawing on case study evidence from a Local Safeguarding Children Board in England, a ‘serendipity pattern’ of gender dominance is identified within professions affecting inter-professional collaborations such as those prevalent in Local Safeguarding Children Boards. As we assign this pattern ‘strategic interpretation’, we suggest that policy measures taken to augment the effectiveness of welfare partnerships have, so far, paid insufficient attention to the critical variable of gender, due to over-emphasis on the organisations, rather than the professions, involved. The article’s contribution to practice is unravelling the potential of this oversight to contribute to failure to establish a collaborative mind-set. Our contribution to theory is highlighting specific cultural barriers to inter-professional collaborations, unravelling the power differentials rooted in gender inequity in public sector workforces and challenging professional and organizational traditionalism. In doing so, we offer empirical evidence of the ‘gender hypothesis’ in welfare partnerships and indicate how future investigations might be pursued in this area.

Innovation failure in the eye of the beholder: towards a theory of innovation shaped by competing agendas within higher education

ABSTRACT This paper examines a case of perceived innovation failure in higher education, a service dominated by conflicting institutional logics of professionalism and markets. Through a mixed methodology investigating student attitudes to, and behaviour around, technological innovation, the paper makes a contribution to the public service innovation literature by focusing on duality in innovation outcomes. This is suggestive of an innovation typology in public services: professionalism-driven and consumerism-driven innovation.