In recent years government economic policy in the UK and elsewhere has been guided by the belief that changing organisational status improves performance (Ott and Hartley, 1991; Vickers and Yarrow, 1988). This is most evident in the case of the UK privatisation programme, where it is believed that...

Long waiting times for inpatient treatment in the UK National Health Service have been a source of popular and political concern, and therefore a target for policy initiatives. In the London Patient Choice Project, patients at risk of breaching inpatient waiting time targets were offered the...