The last 2 posts have tried to direct readers to posts they may have
missed last year - relating to one of the three subjects which most occupied my
thoughts viz the nature of the economic beast which had us in its grips. You
can read these thoughts more easily on “To
Whom it May Concern” – the latest version of which is accessible by
clicking on that title in the list in the top-right corner of the blog’s
masthead.
Today I want to switch the
focus to the section of the collection which is entitled “What is it about
Admin Reform which makes it so sexy?” But first
I owe my readers some explanation of why I continue to be so fixated about
public management reform….Quite simply I find the writings on the subject less
than satisfactory because they are produced either by academics (who reify and obfuscate) or by think-tankers (who simplify and exaggerate). It’s very difficult
to find material written by practitioners – or, even better, by those who
straddle boundaries of discipline, nation or role.
I came to full adult consciousness in the 1960s, getting my
first taste of political power in 1968 and of political responsibility and
innovation in 1971 when I became Chairman of a Scottish Social Work Committee.
“Reform” was very much in the air – although no one could then
have imagined what
an industry public administrative reform would become. Indeed, in those days, the only management author you could
find in the bookstores was Peter Drucker. And the only books about reform were
American….
The opening pages of my How
did Administrative Reform get to be so Sexy?
try to convey a sense of what it was like to be an early pioneer of
organisational change in the country. My position in academia encouraged me to
develop a habit of publishing “think-pieces” often in the form of pamphlets in
a Local
Government Research Unit which I established
in 1970 at Paisley College of Technology – this
1977 article gives a good example of the style.
The same year I published a
little book about the experience of the
new system of Scottish local government and, for the next decade, musings on my
experience
of running a unique social strategy in the
West of Scotland.
In
Transit – notes on good governance (1999)
were the reflections which resulted from my first decade living and working in
the countries of post-communist central Europe. Eight years then followed in
three Central Asian countries and strengthened a feeling about the
inappropriateness of the approach we “foreign experts” were using in our
“technical assistance”.
In 2007 I tried to
interest people in the NISPace network in a critique called Missionaries, mercenaries or witchdoctors – is
admin reform in transition countries a religion, business or a medicine? – but
to no avail.
I started blogging in 2008 with a website which is still active
– publicadminreform - clearly signalling that I wanted to use it to reach out to
others. Sadly that has not happened…but it has not stopped me from continuing
to “talk to myself” on this blog and from trying to produce a book which does
justice to the thoughts and experiences I’ve had in about 10 countries over the
past 50 years….
So let me try to
summarise why I persevere with this fixation of mine –
-
Authors in
this field focus either on students or
experts in government, academia and think tanks.
-
I know of
only a handful of books which have been written for the general public
-
Most writers
about PAR have known only one occupation – whether academic or think-tanker –
and one country
-
I’ve occupied
different roles (political, academic, consultancy) in different countries and
can therefore see the issues from many sides
-
few authors
have bothered to try to explore the possible reasons for the stratospheric and continued rise in
interest in administrative reform
-
New cohorts
of politicians, public servants and even academics arrive in the workforce
without a good sense of the history of this subject
Post
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What sparked it
off
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Why it’s worth
reading
|
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Oxfam report for Davos
Rereading last year’s draft book
about administrative reform
|
Gives us the encouraging lessons
from the experience of those who have rolled back privatisation
|
Going back to Burnham
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Explores the question we rarely ask
|
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How did it happen? part II
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My 1999 book “In Transit – notes on
Good Governance”
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Looks at how reform was seen in the
1990s
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a Rare voice of clarity – part III
|
Gerald Caiden
|
A prescient voice
|
Machiavelli’s Warning – part IV
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A reminder of the strength of organ
inertia
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A first stab at an answer to the
question
|
The Managerial Turn - part V
|
Clarifying professionalism
|
First we rubbished the professionals
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We don’t seem to have learned much
in 40 years……
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Key lessons are however extracted
|
|
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Belated acknowledgement of a great
scholar
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Those who express important truths
in a clear language deserve honour
|
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“The Puritan Gift” is a rare
critique of how modern management has poisoned us all
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Has a good summary
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Peter Drucker’s Deadly
Sins of PA – part VII
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The Grand Old Man of management says
it better
|
Important proverbs
|
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Technocracy is the new enemy
|
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Laloux book
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Summary of one of the most important
books about organisations in recent years
|
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Good references
|
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Workforce management again
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Neoliberalism
|
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Hilary Cottam’s book
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Time to take this issue seriously
|
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A rare article about translation should leave us wondering why international
summits are not more conflictual..
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