Search citation statements
Paper Sections
Citation Types
Year Published
Publication Types
Relationship
Authors
Journals
This article draws on research and education with public sector managers in the UK health and social care sector to expose the intensity and rapid spread of private profit within public services. It conceptualises this spread as key to "high managerialism," which, rather than improving public services, enables the incursion of capital into the public realm with corrosive impacts. These include the perverse results of performance targets, distorted priorities, and dehumanised practices, which impact crucially both on public sector workers and on the public. We chart the shift from control through direct performance management techniques to the use of more nuanced, discursive resources for control. These include market structures and assumptions and "morphing" of public services into new forms akin to corporate models. Key contours, from the international arena to the individual manager, are interpenetrated by market discourse; this can "stitch" managers into a "common sense" notion of how to act within the structures of high managerialism: a business mindset held in place through fear and silence. The article describes how through our role in management education we draw on managers' possibilities and motivations to challenge this "common sense," using three interlinked strategies to work with them and help "unpick the stitches." These strategies challenge the normalisation of market assumptions; name and connect what is usually implicit and disconnected; and take a campaigning approach to action. Our work focuses on supporting the agency of individual managers who lead 115 key public services to take a critical perspective, build on public sector values, and act for progressive change in their workplaces as well as for public service improvement.
This article draws on research and education with public sector managers in the UK health and social care sector to expose the intensity and rapid spread of private profit within public services. It conceptualises this spread as key to "high managerialism," which, rather than improving public services, enables the incursion of capital into the public realm with corrosive impacts. These include the perverse results of performance targets, distorted priorities, and dehumanised practices, which impact crucially both on public sector workers and on the public. We chart the shift from control through direct performance management techniques to the use of more nuanced, discursive resources for control. These include market structures and assumptions and "morphing" of public services into new forms akin to corporate models. Key contours, from the international arena to the individual manager, are interpenetrated by market discourse; this can "stitch" managers into a "common sense" notion of how to act within the structures of high managerialism: a business mindset held in place through fear and silence. The article describes how through our role in management education we draw on managers' possibilities and motivations to challenge this "common sense," using three interlinked strategies to work with them and help "unpick the stitches." These strategies challenge the normalisation of market assumptions; name and connect what is usually implicit and disconnected; and take a campaigning approach to action. Our work focuses on supporting the agency of individual managers who lead 115 key public services to take a critical perspective, build on public sector values, and act for progressive change in their workplaces as well as for public service improvement.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.