BEYOND CIVIL SERVICE.

The Changing Face of Public Personnel Management.
Klingner D E, Lynn D B

Public Personnel Management, (USA), Summer 97 (26/2)
Start page: 157 No of pages: 17

Examines the changes in the US Civil Service, looking at the implications of the different ways that public services will be delivered through purchase of service agreements with other agencies and non-governmental organizations, franchise agreements, privatization, self-help and other mechanisms, for public personnel management. Considers the impact of these changes on public service employment, focusing on the changing role of public personnel manager in managing the different employment arrangements. Sees the skills needed by public personnel managers expanding as the service shifts away from its traditional base, outlining the challenges that lie ahead. Assesses how well public personnel managers are prepared for these changes, highlighting the need for training.

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Dargie C

Public Administration, (UK), Spring 98 (76/1)
Start page: 161 No of pages: 17

Analyses the managerial roles of chief executives within the UK public sector, focusing on cases studies from local government and National Health Service Trusts. Based on analysing the working week of chief executives from two inner city councils and two inner city NHS Trusts, examines how their work is divided up (meetings, telephone calls, etc.); the main groups of people with whom the chief executives meet; and the content of their work. Uses Mintzberg’s analysis of informational, interpersonal and decisional roles to analyse the chief executives’ managerial roles, assessing the usefulness of Mintzberg’s theoretical work in this area. Concludes that Mintzberg’s model would need to be modified to include the impact of the political environment if it were to encompass the types of managerial roles carried out by public sector chief executives. Even so, doubts if the model can capture the complexity of public sector organizations.

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Transaction Costs and Policy Network Theory

Hindmoor A
Public Administration, (UK), Spring 98 (76/1)
Start page: 25 No of pages: 19

Considers the value of transaction cost analysis for policy network theory, which is used to explain the relationship between government and other groups within the political community, such as pressure groups. Using the example of the negotiations between the UK Government and the British Medical Association (an association representing doctors) during the creation of the National Health Service in the 1940s, examines the trade-offs made by each side to gain the best deal possible in the new National Health Service. Analyses this in term of transaction costs to show the logic of the decision of the British Medical Association to co-operate with the National Health Service rather than reject it. Concludes that transaction costs analysis can be used to identify the strength of a pressure group, when negotiating with government over a policy, and can explain the relationships between the group, the government and other actors within the network, and the subsequent policy outcomes. Argues that trust is a key element in the policy networks, principally because it makes negotiation and exchange possible.

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STRENGTHENING POLITICAL LEADSHIP IN UK LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Public Money & Management, (UK), Jan-Mar 98 Vol 18 No 1
Start page: 41 No of pages: 11

Discusses how political leadership in UK local government can be strengthened, observing that the Labour Government has moved in setting up elections for a mayor for London; looks at the debate surrounding the revitalization of local democracy, setting this in the context of some authorities wishing to try out new approaches and others being resistant to change. Draws on research into alternative forms of political leadership, and establishes that increasing centralization in the UK has led to demoralization of local officers; makes cross-national comparisons in examining models observable in the USA – the mayor-council structure (both strong and weak mayors) and the council-manager structure with and without a mayor. Identifies key roles of UK political leadership and indicators of good leadership; assesses the limitations of current practice in terms of, for instance, an internal focus and a lack of clarity as to responsibilities. Considers the separation of the executive and the assembly and the granting of a formal role of leadership; studies responsibilities of an assembly.

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Rowland H, Harris L

People Management, (UK), 5 Mar 98 (4/5)
Start page: 50 No of pages: 3

Identifies UK’s National Health Service’s research and development strategy as a catalyst for knowledge management, citing the aim of this strategy as being the development of a knowledge-based organization in which clinical, managerial and policy decisions were taken on the basis of information drawn from research and scientific development. Questions whether this is being achieved in practice. Profiles the project set up at the Salomons Centre which looked at how hospitals and health authorities can use research knowledge in their decision making. Lists the features of a knowledge-based health organization, identified by the project, and reports the development of a questionnaire which can be used to generate discussion on knowledge management and identify organizational developmental needs. Describes how this work is carried forward in the hospitals.

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Zeitz G, Johannesson R, Ritchie J E
Group & Organization Management, (USA), Dec 97 (22/4)
Start page: 414 No of pages: 31

Explains the need for a reliable and valid method which can be used by practitioners within an organization to evaluate the implementation of total quality management initiatives. Describes the development and validation of the scale measures proposed. Sets out the total quality management and related cultural dimensions considered and outlines how their relevance was tested in a survey of employees from a US manufacturing firm, a non-profit service agency and students on a post-graduate management course. Draws up a model of the total quality management process that indicates the relationship between the total quality management programme and the organization’s culture. Lists the 113 items that make up the survey instrument which measures the 23 dimensions identified as being significant for a total quality management programme. Discusses how the instrument should be administered.

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Kramlinger T

Training & Development, (USA), Apr 98 (52/4)
Start page: 44 No of pages: 4

Looks at the role of trainers within the change process and asks if this role could be expanded to include helping senior management to construct the actual change message. Considers how they can do this, identifying three objectives within the change message: providing employees with information about the change; addressing their concerns; and making a connection with their shared values. Advises trainers on the input they can make to all three objectives.

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Ulrich D
Harvard Business Review, (USA), Jan-Feb 98 (76/1)
Start page: 124 No of pages: 11

Refers to the debate surrounding the role and maintenance of the human resource (HR) function; argues that HR has never been more necessary in achieving organizational excellence, and lists ways in which this excellence should be delivered. Sees a new agenda by which HR enables the organization to serve customers better and to increase shareholder value; states that the prime responsibility for transforming HR lies with the chief executive, and points to competitive challenges with which HR needs to play a leadership role – globalization, profitability through growth, technology, intellectual capital and change. Defines a new role for HR in terms of its partnering in strategy execution, administrative expertise, championing the employee and becoming a change agent; presents a change model that has been used by HR staff at General Electric (US conglomerate) in guiding the company’s transformation process. Outlines ways in which senior management can make HR focus on outcomes rather than on activities, e.g. investment in innovative HR practices.

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Andrews J P, Field R H G
Leadership & Organization Development Journal, (UK), Vol 19 No 3 98
Start page: 128 No of pages: 9

Summarizes the ideas that underpin the recent growth of interest in the cognitive aspects of leadership, which focus on the followers’ perceptions of leadership as being crucial to the understanding of how leadership emerges within an organization. Identifies the most popular models of leadership by asking people to consider metaphors for an organization and to identify the leader, e.g. one metaphor was the human body and people were asked to say whether the heart, eyes, blood, DNA or the brain was the leader. From this derives five mental models of leadership – directive, motivational, visionary, boundary spanning and design/maintenance and uses further surveys to find out if any of these models dominate how leadership is conceptualized. Discovers that most people chose the directive model of leadership and that this was consistent across age, managerial and work experience, level of education, occupation and geographic location. Analyses the differences between the way that leadership is conceptualized by people and the way that it is looked at in the academic literature.

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Mayo A, Pickard J
People Management, (UK), 22 Jan 98 (4/2)
Start page: 34 No of pages: 5

Identifies three elements that are fuelling interest in knowledge management within UK firms – the recognition of employees’ knowledge experience and skills as being intangible assets of the firm; the increasing interest in learning organizations; and developments in information technology, such as the Internet. Sets out the basics of a knowledge management system, pointing out that the success of these does not rest entirely in using appropriate technology, but also in building up a culture which enables information to be shared. Addresses the human resource management/ personnel specialists’ role in this, drawing on the experience of Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble and Nokia, among others, to illustrate how it can be done. An inset describes how Anglian Water has embraced knowledge management in its move to becoming a learning organization.

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