John Fenwick

Organisational Learning and Public Sector Management: An Alternative View:

The public service modernization agenda has directed attention to the problematic questions of how public sector organisations learn, what they learn, and how they fail to learn. This article considers: definitional problems of organisational learning; the critical differences between individual and organisational learning; the public organisations capacity to learn; some of the principal sources of public sector learning; the ambivalent nature of learning networks; and the main barriers to effective learning. Drawing from a current study amongst senior public service managers, the discussion assesses the extent to which public service modernization encourages, or rather inhibits, organisational change and improvement. It is suggested that organisational learning in the public sector is not necessarily delivered through partnerships and the agenda of modernization: it may derive instead from internal processes and a focus upon the existing strengths of the organisation. The article re-evaluates the conventional wisdom of organisational learning and proposes a heretical view of learning and networks. In drawing out prospects for future research, it advocates a renewed emphasis upon effective internal learning.

Managing Competition in UK Local Government

Examines the impact of compulsory competitive tendering on the management of UK local government. The changing managerial skills required under conditions of competition are considered alongside overall changes in the role of local government. Drawing directly from the authors′ recent research study, the “three Cs” of local authority management are identified: the client‐side, the contractor, and the corporate manager. Considers the characteristics of each in turn, before a general review of the implications for a “new” public management. Concludes that there has been a fundamental diversification in the needs of (and skills required of) local authority managers in a competitive environment. This may be moving UK local government either towards greater efficiency or towards a fragmentation of its central activities.

The Elected Mayor and Local Leadership

This article examines the new leadership role of the English elected mayor. The authors suggest that the management and governance of the local authority is subject to significant change within the mayoral system, and that elected mayors represent a form of strong political management which is essentially new within English local government. The authors discuss the prospects for the future of the executive mayor, and suggest potential areas for further research, including succession planning in mayoral authorities, the nature of the first mayoral re-election campaigns outside London, and the possible growth of this form of local leadership.

Leadership and management in UK local government: a role for elected mayors?

The paper assesses the impact of the elected executive mayor on leadership and management in UK local government. After exploring the new executive arrangements introduced by the Local Government Act 2000, the three themes of governing, governance and allegiance within mayoral councils are discussed in detail. Principally using the results of interviews with a group of the mayors first elected in 2002, the paper suggests that the directly elected mayor has an enhanced individual role in the leadership of the local council, that elected mayors increasingly coordinate the efforts of external partners in the wider governance of the area, that new and potentially problematic relationships are developed with elected councillors and with senior managers, and that there is a changed local political context in which the mayor must now operate. The elected mayor is seen as both leader and manager. It is suggested that mayors have sought a new direct relationship with the public, and that this has implications for the continued role of other local representatives. Finally, the prospects for extending the mayoral experiment under the ‘modernization’ framework of the government re-elected in May 2005 are examined. Although the mayoral initiative has been adopted in only a small number of councils, it is concluded that leadership and management of the local authority are significantly changed within those areas.

Compulsory competition for local Government services in the UK: A case of market rhetoric and camouflaged centralism:

Recent years have witnessed a considerable extension in the defined activities covered by the CCT regime in UK local government. While the 1980s saw CCT applied to mainly manual services (such as refuse collection), the 1990s have witnessed the spread of compulsory competition into white-collar professions and services such as Housing Management. Recent accounts of CCT have tended to assess its overall impact within a framework that is mainly informed by the emphasis on how the management of local public services will benefit from the contemporary introduction of Competition and Quasi-Markets. While CCT has clearly had some important managerial implications, this article argues that its more important political impact has been to intensify central control and regulation in order to restructure the local welfare state. In this sense, the vocabulary of the market has served to camouflage a process of centralisation which is characteristic both of New Right ideology and more traditional concerns within the UK political system.

UK Local Government: The Impact of Modernization on Departmentalism

The issue of departmentalism has been a recurring theme in discussions about UK local government. In this article the implications of the Labour Governments modernization agenda for departmentalism in local authorities are considered and assessed. In particular, the potential impact of the political management reforms, Best Value, the rise of the regulation agenda and community governance and partnership working is discussed. An analysis of executive committees, scrutiny committees and Best Value investigations in the shire counties and the London boroughs and a case study of Devon County Council are used to support this discussion. The article concludes that the modernization agenda is exerting pressure towards more cross-departmental models of working.

Local government and the problem of English governance

Abstract The paper is concerned with the problematic nature of English governance. The discussion begins with reference to the reluctance to engage in debates about English national governance. It then poses a series of questions about the balance to be drawn between localism and regionalism and the fragmentation of local governance in England (in contrast to the rest of the UK), suggesting that local government might provide a solution to the problem through the building of effective patterns of governance from the bottom up. This is contrasted with the various proposed formal and institutional ‘solutions’ to English governance, which are bound to fail. The discussion goes on to consider the problem of the English regions and concludes that the political conditions do not exist for the English regions to be the primary sites for the building of new English governance. After a review of ways in which governance can be built, attention reverts to the local level where it is suggested that the current reorganisation of English local government suggests ways in which the foundations of English governance can be developed locally.

Elected Mayors: Leading Locally?

Abstract The directly elected executive mayor was introduced to England a decade ago. Drawing inspiration from European and American experience, the elected mayor appealed to both New Labour and Conservative commentators in offering a solution to perceived problems of local leadership. There was a shared view that governance of local areas was failing and that elected mayors were the answer. The first local referendums were held in 2001. Most have continued to reject the idea of the elected mayor. During 2012, the coalition government initiated 10 further mayoral referendums in England’s largest cities but only one, Bristol, opted for an elected mayor. Overall, there is no evidence of widespread public support, yet the prospect of more mayors – with enhanced powers – remains firmly on the policy agenda. Drawing from a decade of research, this paper considers reasons for the persistence of the mayoral experiment, the importance of local factors in the few areas where mayors hold office and the link to current policy debates. Using the authors’ analytical leadership grid, this paper links the governmental, governance and allegiance roles of mayors to the problematic nature of local leadership. It then draws tentative conclusions about the strange case of the elected mayor in England. Drawing from a decade of research, this paper considers reasons for the persistence of the mayoral experiment, the importance of local factors in the few areas where mayors hold office and the link to current policy debates. Using the authors’ analytical leadership grid, this paper links the governmental, governance and allegiance roles of mayors to the problematic nature of local leadership. It then draws tentative conclusions about the strange case of the elected mayor in England.

The reorganization addiction in local government: unitary councils for England

Structural reorganization of local government is an addictive habit to which British government ministers and civil servants are peculiarly prone. In the latest instance, several unitary authorities were created where two-tier systems existed previously. Interviews and documentary research carried out before and after the reorganization demonstrate that many of the supposed benefits of structural change have not materialized, and some local authorities are still recovering from the resulting disruption.

Out of the Loop? Councillors and the New Political Management

As part of the local government modernisation agenda, and under the specific terms of the Local Government Act 2000, local authorities have been required to adopt one of the new models designed to strengthen their core executive: principally, the leader and cabinet, the elected mayor and cabinet, or the elected mayor and council manager. Although the new political management structures are now in place, little is yet known about how they have affected the lives and work of councillors. This paper presents the initial results from a study of elected members in four local authorities in the North of England. Based on a survey and interviews, the research explores the impact of the new arrangements, and other aspects of modernisation, upon the role of the councillor.