Stuart Holland

On the centrality of human value

The financial crash of 2008 following the selling of fictitious derivatives was a crisis of both rationality and values whose aftermath has thrown the legitimation of deregulated markets, and governments, into question. This paper critiques the Becker metaphor of human capital and submits that human value is central to and the fulcrum of both economic and social values. It illustrates that Hume and Adam Smith directly countered the Hobbesian hypothesis that human nature is based only on self-interest, distinguishes market values from social values, explicit from implicit values and parallels Sen in adopting an ordinal ranking of what people value rather than a search for cardinality. It draws on cognitive psychology, neural research, revealed preference theory and a principle of implicit verification. It also outlines implications for what Adam Smith centrally valued as concern for the welfare of the whole of society.

A modest proposal for Europe: a two-part plan for overcoming the eurozone’s crisis, redesigning its crumbling architecture, and reinvigorating the European Project

During 2010, each and every response by the Eurozone to the galloping sovereign debt crisis has been consistently underwhelming. Monthly European Union Summit pronouncements, which during the first half of 2010 were met with initial goodwill by the markets and commentators, quickly proved the harbinger of further deepening of the crisis. By the end of 2010, the markets did not even wait for the European Unions leaders to conclude their monthly meetings before signalling another jump in yields and a further deterioration of the continents financial outlook. Eventually, it became clear to everyone that the European approach (of extending expensive loans to fiscally stricken sovereigns on condition of savage austerity) was deeply flawed. This article outlines the basis of a policy mix that would end the crisis without any substantial institutional changes. It is in this particular sense that this proposal is both practical and modest.

How to Learn Up from Lean Management in Health Services? HRM, Leadership and Relational Coordination

This chapter suggests that while the case for New Public Services rather than New Public Management is well grounded, some expositions of it have neglected the degree to which much can be learned for lean hospital management from the Toyota Production System . It distinguishes inflexible Fordist production based on economies of scale and Taylorist surveillance of performance from Post Fordist lean production based on economies of scope and continuous improvement in work methods . It highlights the contrast between top-down management and transactional leadership in Fordist-Weberian hierarchies with relational coordination through lower-level transformational leadership enhancing base-up learning in the Toyota Production System. It seeks to inform hitherto inconclusive debates on the effectiveness of strategic Human Resource Management by distinguishing institutional, organisational and operational logics and the case for recognising mutual advantage from psychological contract not only between individuals or within groups but also at organisational levels. The chapter gives examples of learning from lean in health reforms in the US and Sweden , contrasts this with not learning from lean in New Public Management in the UK and also draws implications for operationalising lean management within New Public Services paradigm .

From New Public Management to New Public Services: Challenges for Hospital Governance and Lean and Hybrid Management

New Public Management (NPM) in health services has proved increasingly controversial. It has been criticised as Weberian in terms of authoritarian hierarchy, Fordist in its obsession with gaining economies of scale and Taylorist in its surveillance of performance criteria. It has assumed a production and output logic derived from manufacturing, whereas both private and public services differ from this. Nonetheless there recently has been a resurgence of interest in what can be learned in terms of lean management in manufacturing, both in terms of economies of scope rather than scale and of multi-tasked and multi-skilled hybrid management at operational levels. This chapter seeks to inform this by distinguishing operational and organisational logics within institutions and by evaluating alternative models of governance of health, including the scope for New Public Services rather than NPM to reinforce social rights and the degree to which replacing a command-and-control model of hospital management with health professionals as ‘hybrid’ managers may enable both social efficiency in service delivery and enhance the wellbeing and fulfilment at work of health service employees .

Economic and Social Cohesion in the 1990’s

1992 was intended to be the historic year of realising the internal market and ratifying the Maastricht agenda for economic and monetary union. Instead it witnessed the greatest crisis for the Community since France left a vacant chair in the Council of Ministers in 1965.