Strategic management and public leadership

Strategy, political regulation and management control in the public sector: Institutional and critical perspectives

“…By contrast, the present study demonstrates how evolving strategy discourses frame the very definition of what counts as "good" performance and relevant interests and thus provides a starting point for questioning the nature of strategy as a universally benign phenomenon. Future research following such a lead should counterbalance the strongly managerialist perspective dominating emerging research on strategy in the public sector (see Boyne and Walker, 2004;Lane and Wallis, 2009).…”

“…Historically, relatively detailed regulatory frameworks focusing on operating aspects and compliance with the rule of law evolved in most advanced democracies and were long legitimized as necessary vehicles of democratic accountability and control (Hood, 1995). The emergence of more explicit notions of strategy and strategic management in the public sector is part of the wider onslaught on such regulatory frameworks, notably spearheaded by the Reinventing Government movement in the US (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992;Gore, 1993) but also replicated elsewhere (see Luke and Verreyne, 2006;Lane and Wallis, 2009). Several observers have traced current discourses pivoting on the need for a more "strategic" management approach to Osborne and Gaebler's (1992) critique of political regulation for stifling the propensity for innovation and service improvement (Lynn, 2001;Luke and Verreyne, 2006;Lane and Wallis, 2009).…”

“…The emergence of more explicit notions of strategy and strategic management in the public sector is part of the wider onslaught on such regulatory frameworks, notably spearheaded by the Reinventing Government movement in the US (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992;Gore, 1993) but also replicated elsewhere (see Luke and Verreyne, 2006;Lane and Wallis, 2009). Several observers have traced current discourses pivoting on the need for a more "strategic" management approach to Osborne and Gaebler's (1992) critique of political regulation for stifling the propensity for innovation and service improvement (Lynn, 2001;Luke and Verreyne, 2006;Lane and Wallis, 2009). Following the identification of excessive political regulation as a key problem for strategy to resolve, the ideal conception of strategic management has often been one of long-term goal-directedness and pro-active management as opposed to the allegedly reactive and short-term nature of traditional public management practices (Johansson, 2009;Lane and Wallis, 2009).…”

“…Several observers have traced current discourses pivoting on the need for a more "strategic" management approach to Osborne and Gaebler's (1992) critique of political regulation for stifling the propensity for innovation and service improvement (Lynn, 2001;Luke and Verreyne, 2006;Lane and Wallis, 2009). Following the identification of excessive political regulation as a key problem for strategy to resolve, the ideal conception of strategic management has often been one of long-term goal-directedness and pro-active management as opposed to the allegedly reactive and short-term nature of traditional public management practices (Johansson, 2009;Lane and Wallis, 2009). The adoption of private sector techniques presumably fostering long-term management (e.g., strategic planning) has also occurred as a response to growing concerns with the traditional absence of explicit strategies (Llewellyn and Tappin, 2003).…”

Decoupling the use and meaning of strategic plans in public healthcare

“…Furthermore, the selected planning documents had different types of content and different structures, indicating that LHAs (and PHOs in general) are overloaded with formal strategic planning documents. Thus, although the strategic culture of NPM has strongly influenced the Italian National Health Service by promoting the adoption of strategic planning documents, the huge number of ‘strategic’ documents can impede successful strategic management [22]. Strategic planning documents may have a bureaucratic origin, when they represent an administrative constrain imposed by law or by a higher level of Government.…”