The Grit in the Oyster: Professionalism, Managerialism and Leaderism as Discourses of UK Public Services Modernization

Abstract

The representation of organizational agency in UK policy discourse on public service modernization is analysed in order to disclose the legitimation of elite organizational centres and the structuring of organizational peripheries and their potential for resistance. Three discourses are identified and explored: the residual, but still potent, discourse of professionalism; the dominant discourse of managerialism; and the emergent discourse of leaderism. The emergent discourse of leaderism is shown to be linked to an imaginary of neo-bureaucratic organizing, which represents an evolution of New Public Management. As such, the analysis of leaderism, a new form of privileged agency, contributes an insight into the dynamics of public service modernization. This is developed through exploring leaderism's tension between its strong affinity with unitarist managerialism and its weaker linkages to quasi-pluralist stakeholder networks which create potentialities for new forms of active resistance.

Role-meanings as a critical factor in understanding doctor managers' identity work and different role identities

“…Accordingly, enthusiasts' self-description as clinical leaders cannot be considered as a faddish substitute to being called managers. The terms leader and leadership were used differently from the political and policymaker justification of NPM reforms as an evolution of managerialism or a leadership discourse as a means of connecting doctors with the formal management agenda (Martin and Learmonth, 2012;O'Reilly and Reed, 2011). In our study, leadership was never a meaningless concept (Storey, 2004), nor a rhetorical device constructed artificially, as studies on leaderism have noted (Learmonth, 2005).…”

“…We therefore suggest role-meanings are an important way to understand influences on identity work. Accordingly, we propose that the influence on role identities of certain institutional logics and discourses such as managerialism, professionalism or leaderism (O'Reilly and Reed, 2011;Ford, 2006), pervasive in the hospital context, operates through the construction of particular role-meanings. This mechanism acknowledges that influences act differently and to different degrees.…”

“…In this regard, our findings suggest there are implications from identifying the managerial role with leadership. Extant literature has explored the impact of leadership discourses on managerial positions (Ford, 2006;O'Reilly and Reed, 2011). However, our case provided a distinct scenario since "leader" was not an imposed category but emerged as a label DMs used to distinguish themselves from managers.…”

Who Doesn’t Want to be a Leader? Leaders Are Such Wonderful People Comment on “Leadership and Leadership Development in Healthcare Settings - A Simplistic Solution to Complex Problems?”

“…That's why in this short piece I've shown how leadership might be used in an ironic (maybe even a sarcastic) manner. I've also drawn attention to those views which reject the almost fetishist celebration of leadership so common in the official pronouncements about healthcare; celebrations which O'Reilly and Reed have recently called "leaderism" (8). Unfortunately, I foresee little prospect of any immediate turn against leaderism in healthcare.…”

"Change Initiatives, Stressors, and Job Satisfaction: A Social Information Processing Perspective"

“…Managerialist-driven change is one that is informed by a centralized hierarchy that follows an ideology of 'performance ' (O'Reilly & Reed, 2011). Indeed, the notion of managerialism as 'ideology' more generally is well established in the literature (e.g., Deem & Brehony, 2005) implemented on the strength of exaggerations about the problems facing the public sector (Hood, 2000) that in turn has led to a dystopian nightmare (Diefenbach, 2009).…”