Search

open access article Covid-19 has led to renewed public support for public services. Frontline workers symbolise a renewed ideal of public service ethos (PSE), though little attention has been paid to how the public managers delivering vital services interpret and mobilise PSE. We show how PSE is implemented by public managers reflecting their local contexts. We examine the theoretical roots of PSE and challenges by newer theories of public management before illustrating its contemporary manifestations through three case studies of local government responses to Covid-19 in England, showing how PSE has been adapted in current contexts and continues to inform public management practice.

This paper analyzes a UK polity that is characterized by fragmentation, differentiation, and decentered governance which is evident at multiple layers of public policy and administration. The development of devolved governments as well as ongoing debates around regional and local governance have created increasingly fragmented places. The intensification of policies associated with the new public management has fragmented the provision of public services. And the absence of a common approach to professional development has led to growing fragmentation of public service workers from different professions and sectors. We argue that these trends reflect many of the aspects of an advanced or late-stage new public governance. This is ripe territory for further research and demonstrates that UK public administration continues to have much to offer to international scholars. It also raises important questions about what forms of public administration might emerge next.

This gem of a publication, which hit the bookstores around the same time as COVID 19 arrived on English shores, provides excellent historical and constitutional analyses of a neglected level of loc...

The turbulence of Brexit threatens to undermine England–European Union (EU) transborder cooperation at the subnational scale. This paper discusses the lived experience of city and regional leaders involved in developing cross-European cooperation during the early phase of the Brexit ‘project’. It contributes to the idea of relational leadership as a framing device for studying leadership in transborder cooperation in the England–EU subnational setting, and surfaces challenges faced by subnational leaders in transborder cooperation during significant policy turbulence. Two main findings of the research have wider relevance for emerging city and regional (place) leadership theory and practice. First, the unanticipated shock caused by Brexit to the supra-national policy environment is impacting significantly on subnational leaders’ ability to maintain good transborder working relationships; and second, continuing non-prejudicial dialogue and meaningful conversations between subnational partners are an antidote to the negative legacies of such policy disruption.

This paper focuses on new governance arrangements in an English context and seeks to answer the question on whether or not Combined Authorities are strategic or fit for purpose. Combined Authorities are a fragmented response to changing boundaries, employment and labour markets and the desire for functional geographies to aid competition in a global world, but also a response to the UK and English devolution conundrum. The paper highlights some of the challenges and issues arising in a BREXIT era and points to some key research priorities for the future. Drawing on the findings from all papers presented in the special issue, the authors conclude that in a post BREXIT world there will be an even greater imperative for the leaders of Britain’s cities and towns to simultaneously act locally and globally in developing economic development strategies to transform local economies.

Will the UK Industrial Strategy deliver anything substantial to the North of England? This article examines the faltering steps taken to develop Local Industrial Strategies by Local Enterprise Partnerships and Mayoral Combined Authorities and argues Place Leadership and Industrial Strategy will both need to be substantially re-galvanised after COVID 19. It is also still not clear if a significant step change can be made by the Johnson Conservative government of 2019, which will have a major impact on Northern economies. Agencies’ capacity to intervene in the Northern economy and deliver is a major issue, alongside stronger leadership. Analytically the paper uses theory on Multi-Sectoral Collaboration and Place Leadership to show how uniqueness of place, past and current interpersonal connections and networks can facilitate or frustrate economic development. Place leaders must create institutional arrangements, seek agreement over visions, objectives and strategies, otherwise the lack of shared information, resources, activities and capabilities lead to ‘contestation’ over space and action. We analyse the levels of cohesion or contestation in four different localities as each develops a Local Industrial Strategy.

The competency-based management system has grown to become one of the most influential HRM tools of the 21st century. However, there remains limited empirical data addressing the relationship between the adoption of a competency framework and organizational performance. The study reported upon in this paper is based within the Nigerian banking sector. A qualitative methodological approach was adopted, employing interviews with employees of the top ten high street banks in Nigeria. The result of the field data was subsequently analyzed using NVivo in order to achieve the aim of the research. The findings revealed that competency-based management frameworks are being used and that indeed they are a key management tool within the selected Nigerian banks. Importantly, the findings clearly suggest the adopted competency frameworks are having a positive impact on the banks’ performance.

Le present article etudie les dimensions verticale et horizontale des activites menees par les dirigeants des secteurs public et prive et les responsables locaux en faveur du developpement economique en Angleterre, en particulier ceux qui œuvrent dans le cadre complexe des partenariats d’entreprise locaux (Local Enterprise Partnerships ou LEP), un outil de partenariat au cœur du programme localiste de l’Etat britannique visant a stimuler la croissance. Cette etude eclaire la maniere innovante dont des acteurs etatiques et non etatiques et des citoyens pilotent un ensemble complexe de structures legales verticales au sein de nouveaux « espaces » d’interactions/d’interrelations fragmentes, horizontaux et largement informels pour coproduire des strategies et des projets destines a transformer les regions. Pour progresser dans notre connaissance de l’animation collaborative, il nous faut elaborer de nouvelles methodes d’etude des imputabilites multiples et de la maniere dont la coproduction fonctionne dans des reseaux « au maillage lâche ». Il est imperatif d’apprehender les problematiques d’exercice de fonctions de direction en transcendant les frontieres sectorielles de reseaux complexes de structures legales verticales et d’espaces d’action informels horizontaux. Dans ces reseaux, les dirigeants, en tant que representants institutionnels, collaborent pour realiser des objectifs que les organisations membres agissant de maniere isolee ne pourraient atteindre aisement. Ils doivent egalement definir, au moyen de compromis et de negociations avec l’organisation dont ils sont issus, leur role de representation dans le cadre de la defense et de la promotion des priorites, buts et interets de la nouvelle entite, en l’espece un partenariat d’entreprise local. D’un point de vue theorique, cet article s’inscrit dans les recents debats qui ont eu lieu sur les aspects theoriques et pratiques de la nouvelle gouvernance publique, afin de mettre en lumiere l’inaptitude des modeles de la nouvelle gestion publique a saisir l’articulation complexe qui existe entre des structures de pouvoir formelles et des ensembles de relations informels et fragmentes. Il s’inspire egalement des modeles d’imputabilite, notamment de l’ecole d’Utrecht, pour identifier les relations sociales qui s’etablissent entre animateurs collaboratifs dans les partenariats d’entreprise locaux et pour montrer comment ces derniers font valoir les concepts d’agentivite (agency) et d’action individuelle dans le cadre des institutions participantes.Remarques a l’intention des praticiensLes donnees recueillies dans le cadre de la presente etude devraient etre utiles aux experts, aux gestionnaires publics et aux decideurs pour comprendre les liens formels et informels qui s’etablissent au sein des partenariats de developpement economique. Cet article devrait permettre de saisir l’interet de renforcer l’imputabilite des acteurs pratiquant une collaboration intersectorielle. Par ailleurs, il montre la pertinence des partenariats d’entreprise locaux comme moyen essentiel de coproduire des strategies collaboratives de transformation des localites regionales, en etudiant les dimensions verticale et horizontale des activites menees par les dirigeants des secteurs public et prive et les responsables locaux dans ce cadre complexe.

This paper provides a case study regarding an innovative model of grass-roots democracy, called democratic confederalism, which is currently being implemented in Northern Syria. The difference betw...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain the global, historic context of public administration and the specific British context of teaching and research for public administration. Also, it asks the question, “is twenty-first century public administration still ‘fit for purpose?’”. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a personal reflection on the changes to public administration and management during the twentieth and early part of the twenty-first century, in particular how the UK Learned Society has responded to a number of global, policy and cultural changes. Findings The findings demonstrate how the UK Joint University Council (JUC), representing public administration, has responded to changes, in particular to recent forces impacting on HE and training providers. It includes the outcomes of a series of recent UK debates as JUC approaches its 100-year centenary in 2018. It concludes by showing that public administration research, teaching and scholarship are as necessary, if not more so, in 2018. In particular, issues such as accountability, legality, integrity and responsiveness, the overall ethical guidelines are vital for both public and private educational curricula. For either theory building or empirical descriptions, public administration research can still positively contribute to the wider economy Research limitations/implications As a personal reflection, the findings are offered to add to a debate on the future of public administration scholarship in the UK, and much wider afield. Practical implications The contents should be of benefit to academics, policy and practitioners in the field of public administration and management. Social implications This study has wider societal implications, as all states are facing growing social problems and a need to seek novel ways of delivering public services. Originality/value Though the paper is a personal reflection, and may therefore be challenged, it is based on wider literature to support the claims being made.

The chapter sets out the framework and responses to devolution since the demise of the Regional Development Agencies and Government Regional Offices in 2010 and the slow emergence of two new key Combined Authorities for the North East. It illustrates how fragmentation and austerity are impacting on local government and public services. Taking stock of the 2019 local election results, it appears that local government is becoming weaker and more diverse in terms of its leadership and it poses the question of whether in 2020, the North East will be well-equipped to develop its new economic and social and environmental strategies for the next decade. The region must respond to the challenges of involvement in the Northern Powerhouse and increased competition for investment within the UK and Europe and attend to its widening disparities. This chapter argues for closer collaboration between local government and the private and third sectors to respond to the post-Brexit challenges and calls for stronger responses to national finance and the procurement of new replacement funds for regeneration and development and Industrial Strategy.

The conclusions discuss developments brought about by the replacement of European funding – the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the debates on the new Industrial Strategy Challenge and how to respond to the new Town Challenge Funds. It considers what is needed to strengthen the role of local and regional public services in the decade ahead in the region. Policies and priorities need to change, and new partnerships are needed to tackle ever growing inequalities. New interdisciplinary challenges must face demands to accelerate the low carbon economy and bring new hope to non-metropolitan communities and towns. How best to strengthen the core city role of Newcastle-Gateshead? The question remains whether the governance framework fits the Challenges which lie ahead in the post-Brexit age.