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Public sector management, theory, critique and practice
S~'and. J. M~mt. Vol. 14. No. I/2. pp. 121-130. 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. Prmted in Great Britam 0056--5221/08 $1t).00 ÷ 0.00
Pergamon
BOOK REVIEWS
Public Sector Management. Theor).'. Critique and Practice. by David McKevitt and Alan Lawton (Eds) (London, Sage Publications, 1994), 306 pp., ISBN: 0-8039-7713-! For some time now. the introduction of new public management arrangements has been on the agenda in most West European countries. Increased use of performance measures, a stronger emphasis on results, the creation of autonomous units which cannot be directly controlled by politicians, more competition and a general stress on managerialism are significant elements in this gospel. Owing to both differences in social and cultural traditions and in conceptions of"what was needed" in terms of modernization, the various measures have been introduced in different ways in different countries. Britain may have suffered most. and this may be one reason why British scholars are working so hard to contextualize public management practices. In their edited volume on Public Sector ~/lanagement, McKevitt and Lawton emphasize the collective values that constitute "public" management. The b(~k is a reader. It consists of 19 chapters that seem intended to make life somewhat more complicated fi)r public managers. The book is aimed at managers, and it focuses on their social and moral role. The approach is theoretical and, consequently, critical. Through their selection of articles, the editors question the tendency in public organizations in most Western countries to imitate private management approaches and techniques. The concern of the collection of articles is to challenge the rationalc for managerialism - - the idea of a generic solution. The ambition is clear enough. Managers who read the articles should bc sh:tken in their belief that complex inventions such as financial accounting and purchaser-provider m o d e l s - - to mention but t w o - will bring happiness whcrcver they are used. The volume is divided into three parts. The first - - "'Thc Context of Ideas'" - - is concerned with the ccont,uic, social and moral purposes within which public organizations operate. Management in public organizations, according to the editors, should not be reduced to political instrumentalism, but must face up to complex moral and s(~:ial issues. This part includes, among others+ Michael Oakeshott on the cult of rationality. Michel Foucault on the ga)wth of government and John Stewart and Stewart Ranson on the role of public management as creators and realizers of collective values. And there is an excerpt fronl Herbert Simon's Admhffstrative Behaviour written in the 1940s, in which the legendary writer includes the realization of wider community values in his definition of efficiency. One of the editors, McKevitt. concludes the first part of the book with an article (written together with Leonard Wrigley) about professional codes of ethics. The authors claim that there are certain socially important areas, where there is a differential supply of information which privileges the producer. Responsibility in these areas is therefore necessarily on the government agenda, i.e. in the public domain. Service delivery should, thus, be regulated by institutions bearing social responsibility. This could mean regulation either by a professional code of ethics or by legal rules, but not by the market which is considered to be an institution lacking in social responsibility (or maybe markets are not considered as institutions at all). McKevitt then concludes that the public sector ~ or rather, the core of the public sector - really is different from the private, and that "'... all those ideas about reinventing government to 121
I~--.
BOOK REVIF_V~s
bring in the management practices of private enterprise are just cocktail party chatter". The argument is that it is possible to define what is in the core, and which should therefore be freed from managerialism, and what is in in the periphery and could possibly benefit from a bit more managerialism. In the second part - - "'Control and Implementation" - - the focus moves down to more everyday organizational processes and attempts at reforming organizations. Issues touched upon include the use of charges in the allocation of resources, the increase in competition, deregulation, the introduction of tighter financial controls and problems of implementation. This part includes, among others, Richard Rose on the complications of using charges, Andrew Dunsire et al. on the complicated relations between ownership and performance, James March et al. on the doubtful metaphor of implementation, and Anthony Hopwood on the social and institutional practice known as accounting. These are all illuminating pieces and they have in common that they all analyse and theorize about general developments throughout the public sector. And they do so with the authority of experienced scholars. The articles in the third part - - about "Responsiveness and Performance" - - focus on the external orientation of public managers. One of the basic ideas is that there are many stakeholders in public organizations, and that managers have to respond to the demands made upon the services. The ambition to control and implement may not be compatible with the ambition to be responsive to external demands. And these external demands may also be incompatible among themselves, making responsiveness and accountability problematic. This part includes, among others, Rosabeth Moss Kanter on different constituencies and multiple demands, Margareta Bertilsson on the role and power of professions, and Lynn Meek on difficulties in engineering an organizational culture. McKevitt and Lawton have definitely chosen the articles well. Most of them are both analytical and thought-provoking. However. the book is not really edited. McKevitt and Lawton only provide the reader with very short introductions. They could have used more space to tie the articles together. They may not have wanted to push themselves f~rward, but a bit more connectedness would not have made this reader ~ or probably others - - any less happy, in order to teach public management, a but more of an encompassing frame of reference is needed than the one provided here. However, it is not difficult to understand the editors" strategy. Although the qualities of most of the individual pieces are indisputable, a volume that includes Michel Foucault. James March and Richard Rose may not be very easy to squeeze together into a coherent whole. in the field of public org:mizations in the 1990s, wc c:m see the emergence of(good government) practices which are floating around on a European and even a world-wide scale. These practices could be described as solutions k~)king for organizations, and it seems to be extremely easy for organizations to import these solutions by "creating" internal problems to which they may be linked. Managers who want their organizations to be perceived as modem, seldom have to search for solutions: many are on offer by organizations like the OECD, the European Union, associations of local authorities, professional groups, the management discipline, consultancy firms, etc. I guess that the manage~ who read the collection of articles in this volume, will be a lot more cautious and sceptical about such offerings in future. It that is the case. it will be no mean achievement. Bengt Jacobsson SCORE Stockhohn University 106 91 Stockholm
Pergamon
BOOK REVIEWS
Public Sector Management. Theor).'. Critique and Practice. by David McKevitt and Alan Lawton (Eds) (London, Sage Publications, 1994), 306 pp., ISBN: 0-8039-7713-! For some time now. the introduction of new public management arrangements has been on the agenda in most West European countries. Increased use of performance measures, a stronger emphasis on results, the creation of autonomous units which cannot be directly controlled by politicians, more competition and a general stress on managerialism are significant elements in this gospel. Owing to both differences in social and cultural traditions and in conceptions of"what was needed" in terms of modernization, the various measures have been introduced in different ways in different countries. Britain may have suffered most. and this may be one reason why British scholars are working so hard to contextualize public management practices. In their edited volume on Public Sector ~/lanagement, McKevitt and Lawton emphasize the collective values that constitute "public" management. The b(~k is a reader. It consists of 19 chapters that seem intended to make life somewhat more complicated fi)r public managers. The book is aimed at managers, and it focuses on their social and moral role. The approach is theoretical and, consequently, critical. Through their selection of articles, the editors question the tendency in public organizations in most Western countries to imitate private management approaches and techniques. The concern of the collection of articles is to challenge the rationalc for managerialism - - the idea of a generic solution. The ambition is clear enough. Managers who read the articles should bc sh:tken in their belief that complex inventions such as financial accounting and purchaser-provider m o d e l s - - to mention but t w o - will bring happiness whcrcver they are used. The volume is divided into three parts. The first - - "'Thc Context of Ideas'" - - is concerned with the ccont,uic, social and moral purposes within which public organizations operate. Management in public organizations, according to the editors, should not be reduced to political instrumentalism, but must face up to complex moral and s(~:ial issues. This part includes, among others+ Michael Oakeshott on the cult of rationality. Michel Foucault on the ga)wth of government and John Stewart and Stewart Ranson on the role of public management as creators and realizers of collective values. And there is an excerpt fronl Herbert Simon's Admhffstrative Behaviour written in the 1940s, in which the legendary writer includes the realization of wider community values in his definition of efficiency. One of the editors, McKevitt. concludes the first part of the book with an article (written together with Leonard Wrigley) about professional codes of ethics. The authors claim that there are certain socially important areas, where there is a differential supply of information which privileges the producer. Responsibility in these areas is therefore necessarily on the government agenda, i.e. in the public domain. Service delivery should, thus, be regulated by institutions bearing social responsibility. This could mean regulation either by a professional code of ethics or by legal rules, but not by the market which is considered to be an institution lacking in social responsibility (or maybe markets are not considered as institutions at all). McKevitt then concludes that the public sector ~ or rather, the core of the public sector - really is different from the private, and that "'... all those ideas about reinventing government to 121
I~--.
BOOK REVIF_V~s
bring in the management practices of private enterprise are just cocktail party chatter". The argument is that it is possible to define what is in the core, and which should therefore be freed from managerialism, and what is in in the periphery and could possibly benefit from a bit more managerialism. In the second part - - "'Control and Implementation" - - the focus moves down to more everyday organizational processes and attempts at reforming organizations. Issues touched upon include the use of charges in the allocation of resources, the increase in competition, deregulation, the introduction of tighter financial controls and problems of implementation. This part includes, among others, Richard Rose on the complications of using charges, Andrew Dunsire et al. on the complicated relations between ownership and performance, James March et al. on the doubtful metaphor of implementation, and Anthony Hopwood on the social and institutional practice known as accounting. These are all illuminating pieces and they have in common that they all analyse and theorize about general developments throughout the public sector. And they do so with the authority of experienced scholars. The articles in the third part - - about "Responsiveness and Performance" - - focus on the external orientation of public managers. One of the basic ideas is that there are many stakeholders in public organizations, and that managers have to respond to the demands made upon the services. The ambition to control and implement may not be compatible with the ambition to be responsive to external demands. And these external demands may also be incompatible among themselves, making responsiveness and accountability problematic. This part includes, among others, Rosabeth Moss Kanter on different constituencies and multiple demands, Margareta Bertilsson on the role and power of professions, and Lynn Meek on difficulties in engineering an organizational culture. McKevitt and Lawton have definitely chosen the articles well. Most of them are both analytical and thought-provoking. However. the book is not really edited. McKevitt and Lawton only provide the reader with very short introductions. They could have used more space to tie the articles together. They may not have wanted to push themselves f~rward, but a bit more connectedness would not have made this reader ~ or probably others - - any less happy, in order to teach public management, a but more of an encompassing frame of reference is needed than the one provided here. However, it is not difficult to understand the editors" strategy. Although the qualities of most of the individual pieces are indisputable, a volume that includes Michel Foucault. James March and Richard Rose may not be very easy to squeeze together into a coherent whole. in the field of public org:mizations in the 1990s, wc c:m see the emergence of(good government) practices which are floating around on a European and even a world-wide scale. These practices could be described as solutions k~)king for organizations, and it seems to be extremely easy for organizations to import these solutions by "creating" internal problems to which they may be linked. Managers who want their organizations to be perceived as modem, seldom have to search for solutions: many are on offer by organizations like the OECD, the European Union, associations of local authorities, professional groups, the management discipline, consultancy firms, etc. I guess that the manage~ who read the collection of articles in this volume, will be a lot more cautious and sceptical about such offerings in future. It that is the case. it will be no mean achievement. Bengt Jacobsson SCORE Stockhohn University 106 91 Stockholm