Focuses on the introduction of strategic management into a UK local authority, based on several years of empirical research. Aims primarily to explore conceptual and practical links between strategic management and scientific management. Demonstrates that clear parallels exist between the two...

Explains the process of strategic management based on the existing literature and fits these concepts within the domain of local government. Develops a tentative model of the development of a strategic process for local government and reviews aspects of current practice. The desire to be more...

A number of internal and external pressures in UK local government have led to the examination of different options for internal organisation and management. A particular pressure has recently been the reorganisation of local government towards the creation of new unitary local councils. The...

The management of organisational change has assumed critical importance in English local government. Participant perceptions of this change process are examined, reflecting interviews conducted with Chief Executive Officers in 1989‐90. After considering external pressures for change and...

The delivery of public services in developing countries is over‐centralised. One of the reasons for this is the presence of centralised decision‐making apparatus, which distances power from communities. The centralised decision making reduces accountability among public sector employees and...

During the 1990s the contract has become a key feature in the restructuring of the UK public sector. Currently available literature demonstrates an awareness that the implementation of contracting must entail new forms of management control and organizational structure which involve new patterns...

When making decisions about budget expenditures, governments often confront stakeholders with dramatically opposing positions. These stakeholders attempt, through lobbying, to impress on politicians a preferred decision. Frequently forgotten in the process are issues of ethics. The bitter divide...

This article reports and evaluates how a traditional approach to recruitment and selection in the Social Services Department of West Sussex County Council was superseded by a competency‐based approach. The authors discuss the impacts of external and internal changes on the local authority and...

There has been a global phenomenon in public sector management which advocates a paradigm shift from administrative to managerial values. Governments have been able to put an ideological gloss on managerial strategies to suit local political agendas. The spread of this policy, where public...