Since the early 1980s there have been fundamental changes in the structure and management of the UK public sector, based on the introduction of quasi‐markets. The literature suggests that, for markets to operate at their maximum level of efficiency, there is an overwhelming need for entrepreneurial activity. Attempts through a synthesis of the published literature, surveys of educational and health managers and case examples, to determine whether a new strain of leadership ‐ the public sector entrepreneur ‐ is emerging to display many of the characteristics of their business counterparts.
We argue that in the UK, New Labour's modernization policy differs from New Public Management because it is more interventionist, with a social facet, as well as economic. However, in simultaneously attending to social and economic goals, tensions develop that the case of leadership in schools exemplifies. So, for example, principals sidestep policy prescriptions to enact a contingent approach to leadership that takes account of their school's context. However, any discretion in leadership activity appears constrained by government pre‐occupation with standards and targets for pupils’ attainment. At the same time, leadership is difficult to distribute beyond the principal to stakeholders inside and outside the school.
Argues that changes in education policy over the last decade-and-a-half have moved some of the most traditionalist organizations in the UK, the "old" universities, into a totally alien environment. The number of universities has nearly doubled, competition is encouraged through external audit and league tables, resourcing has been cut, while the student numbers have grown; and the twin concepts of "business" and "management" have entered their vocabulary. Asks whether, in a period of such accelerating change, the leadership styles in the old universities have changed to accommodate the new managerial culture. Gives a case example of the changing management and organizational development at the University of Nottingham to provide an example of the new style of higher education leadership.
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