Draws upon detailed empirical work undertaken with elected members and senior officers from a sample of 30 UK local authorities. Its focus is on the ways in which authorities have responded to rapid changes in the economic, social and political contexts and the profound challenges which these...

Deals with the question of whether senior managers in the public and private sector differ psychologically. There are many ways in which such a difference might be measured. Examines one aspect: the predisposition to adopt particular roles in teams. Compares the results found by Meredith Belbin...

Wollongong City Council in New South Wales, Australia, won the Australian Quality Award in 1997 and the Australian Customer Service Award in 1998, the first local council to receive such awards. This article presents a case history of the cultural reform journey of the council since 1990, in...

Purpose – This paper aims to show the value of a direct handling of multicultural issues and some of the details of how to go about motivating a multicultural workforce. Design/methodology/approach – Completely empirical, all based on hard‐won experience in several companies although only...

Purpose – The purpose of this case study is to highlight to individuals and businesses the importance of work‐life balance and how it can have a massive impact on one's daily life. It aims to describe the pitfalls of not having a policy in place and also how a business can go about...

Purpose – This paper aims to form a best practice guide on how to successfully customize employees' work experience to engage the workforce and boost talent retention, as well as employee performance and productivity to the benefit of the organization and its workforce....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report and analyse a recent case, in which the safeguarding procedure adopted by one local authority was criticised by the High Court. It also seeks to identify the key lessons to be learned. Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers the...

Presents the first survey evidence of privatization of local authority services in the Republic of Ireland. The survey focuses on the case of refuse collection. Describes findings in the context of economic theories underpinning such policies which have relevance to countries adopting pragmatic...

Studies of management development (MD) can be pursued at company, sector or national levels. “Sector” studies of MD are quite rare, despite providing a potential natural “laboratory” in which a variety of approaches to MD can be studied. The research here was concerned with MD in local...