Service, Counsel & Values: Managing Strategically in the Public Sector,

Abstract

Public management is in the throes of great change. In some countries, it is even undergoing a form of re-invention as hoped for since the early nineties1. Much of this change is bound up with innovation in the way public services are delivered, managed and accounted for. New structures and processes abound and there is widespread borrowing from private sector practice. However, the pace and scope of change often leaves senior management ? even the committed champions of change ? at a loss for guidance in pursuing new waves of change or in managing the consequences of those recently implemented. Their concerns have much in common with private sector managers in industries and companies beset by revolution and restructuring: how to understand what is happening in the environment while having to respond and decide immediately; how to take action without new models of new realities; how to cope with unexpected and unintended consequences of actions already taken; how to stay in command of such rapid evolution and provide the leadership that others seek anxiously; how to manage strategically rather than tactically when context is poorly understood, options are many and ill-specified and leadership is more important than ever before. In this chapter I will address some of these concerns by discussing the core and unchanging strategic responsibilities of the senior public manager; the context in which the interpretation of these responsibilities is being re-cast and by suggesting some of the strategic management challenges and dilemmas that arise.