Kieron Walsh

Marketing and Public Sector Management

Examines the development of marketing in the public service and presents a short discussion of the growth of marketing in public service organizations over the last 20 years. A critical analysis of marketing as applied to the public service, argues that, if it is applicable, it needs to be adapted to the particular character of the public realm. Gives an analysis of how an approach to marketing that is appropriate to the public service might be developed. This implies not so much the application of marketing as it exists, but the development of a new form of marketing. The management of the public sector is political management, and marketing, if it is to be effective, will need to be politically informed.

The changing organisation and management of local government

The Nature of Local Authorities - The Contribution of Organisation Theory - Organisational Continuity and Organisational Change - Internal Management: Structures and Processes - The Political Dimension - Managing People - Decentralised Management - The Role of the Centre - Managing with Other Organisations: Competition and Enabling - Conclusion: The New Local Authority?

Performance measurement: When performance can never be finally defined

The development of performance‐based management poses special difficulties for the public service. There is a tendency to focus on measurement, but that ignores the way quality needs to be judged in the public realm. The assessment of performance, when values can conflict, is necessarily a matter of judgement. The assessment of performance will shift as political debate develops. Fully satisfactory measures of performance are unlikely ever to be discovered. There is a need to recognize the imperfections and limitations of measures, and to use them as a means of supporting politically informed judgement.

Power and Advantage in Organizations

This article examines the way in which recent critiques of the concept of power, notably by Clegg and Lukes, can be taken into account in the study of organizations. It is argued that this can best be done if we utilize the concepts of values and interests as well as the concept of power. Doing so allows us to consider the way in which advantage is distributed in an organization, and the contexts in which power is and is not used. Six patterns of organizational action are identified, using the concepts of values and interests, and their consequences for the exercise of power are examined. In conclusion it is argued that an understanding of power must utilize elements of both bureaucratic and political models of organizations.

Citizens and consumers: Marketing and public sector management

There is a growing interest in the use of marketing techniques and approaches in the management of the public services, as a result of changed perceptions of public services, and the developments in public service management in the last decade. This article discusses the nature of marketing and distinguishes strategic marketing from consumer marketing. The particular difficulties of marketing public services are considered. Specific development of marketing approaches in the civil service, local government, and the National Health Service are discussed. Finally, it is argued that the applicability of marketing concepts in the public services is limited because of the nature of the polity and the relationship between states and citizens.

Contracting for change : contracts in health, social care, and other local government services

Preface Introduction 1. The Experience of Change in the UK Public Service 2. Understanding the Process of Public Service Management Change 3. The Introduction of Contracts 4. The Research Investigation 5. Structures for and of Contracting 6. Markets 7. Managing Contracts 8. The Context of Change 9. The Contract Revolution: The International Experience 10. Conclusion Appendix 1: Analysing Contracts Appendix 2: Attitudes References

Competition for white‐collar services in local government

Competitive tendering has had a major impact on the public services, and especially local government. It looks set to have even more of an impact as it is extended to professional services. This article considers the implications of contracts and tendering for the nature of local authorities as political organizations.

The Role of the Centre

In the previous chapter, we analysed recent changes which had taken place in the organisational structures and processes of local authorities. In this chapter we focus on one particular aspect of structure and process, which has received a good deal of attention recently — the role of the centre. In fact, the nature and role of the centre in the local authority has been the subject of debate and review since the mid-1960s. The centre typically consists of a number of services and structures that are not engaged in the management of the direct delivery of service but contribute to the overall effectiveness of the organisation, either through providing indirect services or through corporate activity. The functions that are typically organised on a generalised basis are finance, legal services, personnel management, computer services, property management and public relations. Virtually every local authority now has a Chief Executive who is the head of the organisation at the officer level. At the elected-member level there is also a central organisation, involving the policy committee, the leading elected members and leader of the council. The central organisation of the local authority tends to be large, often contributing 10 per cent or more of total costs and employment.

The politics of reorganizing schools

Understanding the implications of falling rolls the challenge from central government local strategies of reorganizations reorganizing schools in Manchester - a case study analyzing the changing politics and government of reorganizations public policy for the future.

The Changing Context of Local Authority Organisation and Management

This book is about the changing approaches to and patterns of the organisation and management of local authorities in the UK at a time of rapid and destabilising change. In this introductory chapter we set out the basic assumptions which provide the starting-point for the analysis contained in the chapters which follow, and introduce the conceptual terminology which will be used throughout the book.