Joanne Duberley

Contracting in ten English local authorities: preferences and practices

During the 1990s the contract has become a key feature in the restructuring of the UK public sector. Currently available literature demonstrates an awareness that the implementation of contracting must entail new forms of management control and organizational structure which involve new patterns of intra‐ and extra‐organizational relationships. However, there is little consideration of the nature of the relationships which are developing between contractors and clients nor the factors that influence those behavioural processes. This paper reports on research funded by ESRC into contracts in ten local authorities in the UK. Analysis was undertaken to identify the nature of the contracts and the factors which both clients and contractors felt had led them to develop a particular type of relationship. This is followed by an exploration of the literature on partnerships, summarising the implications for the nature of the relationship between the client and contractor, based in particular on the distinction between transactional and relational contracting. It is shown that “textbook” approaches provide a useful heuristic, but do not reflect the subtleties of the interactions which develop during contracts. The overall implications are then considered, and related to theories of fair process and trust. The practical implications for public sector contracting (in particular best value) and for partnership activity are then outlined.

Surfacing embedded assumptions: Using repertory grid methodology to facilitate organizational change

This article outlines a 3-year research project that examines the role of performance evaluation and control systems in bringing about change in manufacturing organizations. A key aim of the project was to develop tools and techniques that managers can use to enable them to understand and enact change. As part of an indepth case study methodology, repertory grid interviews were used with both managers and operatives in three companies as a means of identifying commonly held assumptions about a range of work behaviours. The article discusses the use of the grid as a developmental, rather than exploratory technique, thereby focusing on its use as a process through which managers can assess their systems in use and highlight any necessary change issues. It is argued that repertory grid techniques have a useful part to play in diagnosing the key change issues that work and organizational psychologists face when planning organizational change and development interventions.

Manufacturing change: The role of performance evaluation and control systems

This paper reports on research currently being undertaken into change in performance evaluation and control systems. Case study research involving the use of repertory grids, in‐depth interviews and observation has been undertaken to examine the impact of these systems on behaviour and the potentially problematic nature of change in performance evaluation and control systems. This contrasts with previous research which has often assumed that such systems can be treated almost as easily manipulable independent variables. The case study illustrates the ways in which performance evaluation and control systems provide a formative context which means that change can be difficult to achieve and requires an understanding of the cultural assumptions underpinning both current and desired systems.

Organisational learning – it’s just routine

Reports research into how the organisational learning process can be routinised. Three sets of enabling routines and four sets of defensive routines are identified which are core to facilitating and challenging the learning process. A field‐tested prototype methodology is reported which supports the introduction of a strategy for organisational learning and change by practitioners within companies. In this way the abstract notions of organisational learning, corporate regeneration and change can be made operational.

Negotiating field roles in manufacturing management research

Despite some notable exceptions, the intricacies, dilemmas and impact of manufacturing management researchers’ adoption of different field roles during data collection in collaborating organizations tends to be glossed over in published work. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential impact of different field roles upon manufacturing management research. Through a discussion of the research methodology literature two ideal types are presented: the researcher field role and the consultant field role. By drawing upon examples from the authors’ own experience we argue that inadvertent oscillation between these roles influences research findings. Nevertheless it is argued that both field roles are important in manufacturing research, so what is important is to maintain a balance between them. Such a balance requires both situational and epistemic reflexivities. This paper seeks to encourage researchers to be more reflexive in their published research and to avoid the tendency to present rationalized (and sanitized) accounts. The consequence would be a more rigorous analysis of the impact of the researcher’s field role upon the manufacturing management research process and findings.

Performance evaluation and control: supporting organizational change

Many companies have found that the presumed benefits of organizational change initiatives, such as TQM or team working, have not been forthcoming because managers have failed to support those developments through the simultaneous adaptation of the company’s performance evaluation and control systems. This paper reports new research sponsored by the EPSRC which has developed a prototype practitioner methodology to help managers in their role as organizational designers to critically appraise and diagnose current organizational control practices and, where appropriate, intervene.

Contracting In Local Authorities

During the 1990s the contract has become a key feature in the restructuring of the UK public sector. Currently available literature demonstrates awareness that the implementation of contracting must entail new forms of management control and organizational structure which involve new patterns of intra-and extra-organizational relationships. However there is little consideration of the nature of the relationships that are developing between contractors and clients nor the factors that, influence those behavioural processes. This paper reports on research funded by ESRC into contractual relationships in ten local authorities in England. Analysis was undertaken to identify the nature of the contracts and the factors which both clients and contractors felt had led them to develop a particular type of relationship. Finally implications for practice under ‘best value’ are considered.

Methodology:: Philosophical Underpinnings and their Implications

As a therapeutic technique, psychoanalysis had variable but at times spectacular results, as depicted in the film A Dangerous Method (2011). Starting as a clinical practice, psychoanalysis developed a theory of the unconscious that encompasses a wide range of phenomena, both normal and pathological, by problematizing the former and normalizing the latter. More generally psychoanalysis developed a wide range of critical theories that have had a direct bearing on the study of politics, culture and organizations. As a result, psychoanalysis has had a considerable influence on numerous disciplines, including psychology, philosophy, sociology, aesthetics, linguistics and others. The originality of its ideas and their ability to illuminate hitherto opaque phenomena made psychoanalysis an important cultural current in the last hundred years whose influence reaches outside scholarly and clinical contexts, in arts, music and popular culture. (Less)