Liverpool City Council will launch one stop shops, media kiosks and a call centre, Liverpool Direct, early next year to give better access to council services. The initiative is based on a 500 million pounds partnership deal with BT that will put all the council’s facilities on line. The joint venture will initially concentrate on delivering services such as revenues and benefits, customer relationship management, web-based personnel and payroll, and ICT business services.This initiative follows similar announcements about large scale networks by Leeds and Nottingham City councils. A senior local government official said that the risk inherent in powerful networks was that authorities would put all hard copy documents such as telephone directories and circulars on line resulting in information overload. Benefits beyond those set out in the business case are achievable through a structured approach to knowledge management. A spokesperson for Publicnet confirmed there had been a sudden upturn in enquiries from councils about using Publicnet Briefing on intranets.
The first report on the pilot ‘ONE’ service for new benefit claimantslaunched in 12 projects in1999 is inconclusive in assessing the success of the initiative.The aim of ONE is to bring together all services relating to claiming benefit and finding a job by joining up in one location staff from the Benefits Agency, the Employment Service and voluntary bodies such as the Citizens Advice Bureaux. A private sector company operated one of the pilots. ONE involves closer working across a range of welfare providers with the aim of delivering a personal and streamlined service to clients and helping them to consider the possibilities of work and training. The key feature of the pilot is the role of a personal adviser who deals exclusively with a client and particularly seeks to remove barriers to work.
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Landrum N E, Howell J P, Paris LLeadership & Organization Development Journal, (UK), 2000 Vol 21 No 3.Start page: 150. No of pages: 7
Points out that more must be known about the effectiveness of teams in designing and managing organization-wide strategic change as organizations move towards more democratic, team-based structures. Assesses the value of change led by a single, charismatic leader against change led by teams, and suggests that team-based change may be longer lasting and more responsive to future needs for change. Considers the type of organization that will support team-based change and proposes that organizations in which power is widely spread will be better suited to this, than those which emphasize charismatic leadership. Discusses if teams can block a charismatic leader in whom they have little confidence and concludes that they can do this. However, also believes that teams can enhance the efforts of a charismatic leader.
