Richard Kerley, Director, Scottish Local Authorities Management Centre, Strathclude Business School, University of Strathclyde

Managing in Local Government provides a comprehensive guide to the tasks of the local government manager. Starting with a concise introduction to recent developments and trends in public management and local government institutions and services, the core of the book focuses on the key managerial functions and relationships in a local authority context. It is an ideal primer for all practicing and aspiring managers, above all for professionals moving into service management at a senior level for the first time.

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Woods G, Lantsheer C, Clark R E The Learning Organization, (UK), Vol 5 No 2 98 Start page: 74 No of pages: 9

Reports research that indicates the training which has a ‘customer service’ focus produces different knowledge and organizational results from training which is job and task focused. Describes a training programme that focused on customer satisfaction, designed for the European Patent Office and assesses the success of this approach to training. Outlines the content of the training, which was designed to improve the way that people chair the oral hearings involving technical and legal disputes, and which focused on how the people involved in the hearings (the customers) were treated during the proceedings. Sets out the training methods used, including the use of role play and feedback, and explains the way that the learning is structured. Concludes that the training was very successful, achieving major improvements in the way that the hearings were handled.

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New directions have been published which the Government says will ensure
lottery money going into education and health will back up Government policies
and strategies already underway in these areas.

Due to the success of the National Lottery, a New Opportunities Fund is being
set up to distribute a billion pounds to new projects beyond the arts, heritage
and sport, which are already regular beneficiaries.

Read more on MORE DETAIL ON THE LOTTERY MONEY TO GO TO HEALTH AND EDUCATION…

The Government has announced plans to get rid of one of the more wasteful
aspects of the internal market in the NHS. It is allowing the NHS to pool its
resources over insurance.

Read more on NHS TO SAVE UP TO 45 MILLION POUNDS ON INSURANCE PREMIUMS…

Paul S. Myers (Manager, Ernst & Young Centre for Business Innovation, Boston, USA)

This collection of essays examines how the management of an organization shapes the levels of knowledge transfer, innovation and learning. It draws upon 50 years of management thinking and presents issues facing knowledge-intensive organizations with examples from real management experience. The chapters are arranged thematically and discuss decision-making, organisation structure, innovation, strategic alliances and power relations. The study draws together the work of economists, sociologists, psychologists, management thinkers and practitioners. Represented in this volume are the ideas of academics including the late economist Frederick Hayek and the French sociologist Michael Crozier as well as management thinkers such as Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Charles Handy.

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McDougall M
The International Journal of Public Sector Management, (UK), Vol 11 No 1 98. Start page: 71 No of pages: 10

Describes the case study of a public sector organization aimed at exploring views on the implications and outcomes of devolving the responsibility for gender management to line managers. Focuses on whether development offers an opportunity to integrate the importance of equality and valuing of gender differences into organizational cultures, or whether such a strategy offers a route for opting out of considering gender issues. Discusses the concerns voiced by line managers and employees of both sexes at the removal of a specialist equal opportunities role and devolvement of full responsibility to line management. Puts forward a three-stage devolvement process which moves from the initial stage of having a centralized equal opportunities specialist or unit, through an interim stage at which an integration team is developed, comprising representatives from all functions and also senior management, before the final stage of full devolvement is reached with line managers being fully responsible for equality.

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Local authorities have been called upon to come up with fresh thinking if they
are to qualify for funds set aside to improve rural transport.

Dr John Reid, Minister for Transport, said: “The Rural Bus Challenge is a new
competition that aims to encourage local authorities to think up innovative
schemes to improve public transport in rural areas.

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Organisations who treat employees over 50 unfairly have been warned they cannot afford to continue the practice. New figures show that in eight years time 25 per cent of the workforce will be in this category.

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Edited by D E Hussey, Nottingham Business School.

The implementation of strategy remains one of the most difficult areas of management. Success depends both on the selection of the appropriate strategy and converting that strategy into action. If either of these aspects is deficient, the strategy may fail, or be less effective than it should be. Although much less has been written on change management and transformational leadership, both of which are relevant to strategy implementation, there have been few books which look at implementation as a whole subject. David Hussey brings together a collection of the best papers from the Journal of Strategic Change, covering a number of concepts and approaches. The articles collected here will help the reader to meet the challenge of implementation in his or her own situation. The task of implementing a new and complex strategy will never be easy, but there is much here that will help.

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Bennett N, Ketchen D J, Schultz E B

Human Resource Management, (USA), Spring 98 (37/1)
Start page: 3 No of pages: 14

Analyses the environmental, strategic and organizational factors that affect the likelihood that an organization will integrate its human resource function in its decision making. Using a sample of 148 US organizations across a wide range of industry sectors, concludes that the strategic type of an organization and the belief among its senior managers that employees are a strategic resource predict that an organization will integrate the human resource function in its strategic decision making the nature of the labour market in which it operates and its rate of growth do not. Focuses on those organizations in which the human resource function and strategic decision making are integrated and discovers that integration is not a guarantee that the human resource function will be rated as being particularly effective, or that the organization’s performance will improve. Explores the explanations for this, suggesting that the link between the integration and organizational performance may be indirect, or not sufficient in itself to guarantee better organizational performance. Considers the implications for human resource managers.

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