Table Of ContentDevelopingPublicServiceLeaders
Developing Public
Service Leaders
EliteOrchestration,ChangeAgency,
Leaderism,andNeoliberalization
Mike Wallace
Michael Reed
Dermot O’Reilly
Michael Tomlinson
Jonathan Morris
Rosemary Deem
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First look
Why read this book? To inform the decision every potential reader must
make about whether to invest time in reading it and, if so, in what depth,
wecaptureherewhatweseeasoursignificantcontributiontoknowledge—
an explanatory answer to part of a topical question for the study of public
service change: what role does the development of leadership capacity play
inpublicservicereform?
Contribution.Theaspectofthisquestionthatweaddressistheroleofmajor
leadership development interventions in facilitating the implementation of
regulatedmarketizationreformsand,inrecentyears,austeritymeasuresfor
publicservices.Wedevelopacriticalexplanationofthefoundationalcontri-
butionthatnationalleadershipdevelopmentinterventions,mountedaround
twodecadesagoinEngland,havemadetotheemergence,proliferation,and
normalizationofleadershipdevelopmentprovisionforpublicservices.Our
account is based on findings from large-scale qualitative research on three
nationalleadershipdevelopmentinterventions:forschooleducation,health-
care, and higher education. We examine the contemporary legacy of these
interventions within the burgeoning international movement to develop
seniorstaffinpublicserviceorganizationsasleaders,illustrativelycomparing
interventions for our three focal service sectors in five Anglophone coun-
tries: the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and England. We reflect
on the diffuse impact of the foundational interventions and their legacy in
Englandfortheregulatedmarketizationofpublicservicesandtheircontri-
butiontowidersocialchange,andpointtowardspromisingstarting-points
forrethinkingdevelopmentalsupportforthecoordinatedeffortthatpublic
serviceprovisionentails.
Explanation.Tenheadlineclaimsarethat:
• PowerfulgroupsinandaroundtheUnitedKingdom(UK)Labourgov-
ernment harnessed leadership development as a means of furthering
the neoliberalization, or marketization, of public services by applying
regulatedmarketprinciplestopublicserviceprovision.
• Government politicians deemed it essential to sustain the cooperation
ofseniorstaffinpublicserviceorganizations,becausethegovernment
dependedonthemtoputintopracticereformstoextendtheregulated
marketizationofpublicservices.
vi Firstlook
• Governmentalinvestmentinnationalleadershipdevelopmentinterven-
tions was directed towards acculturating senior staff in public service
organizationsasleaders,committedtoactingasthegovernment’sagents
in spearheading the translation of reform policies into practice within
theirorganizationalandcommunityjurisdictions.
• However,provisionwithintheseinterventionsfocusedongenericlead-
ing activity, diluting the government’s envisioned link with change
agencyforreforms.
• Thisprovisionwasrelativelyineffectiveforacculturation,failingtoover-
lay the service professional culture to which most participants already
subscribed, but they valued the record of participating as a source of
credentialsfortheircareeradvancement.
• The provision and associated credentials contributed towards the pro-
fessionalization of public service leadership, since expertise in leading
activitycouldbegainedthroughthisspecializedtraining.
• Being a leader legitimated senior staff expressing their service profes-
sionalvaluesinshapingthedirectionofpublicserviceprovision,butthe
government circumscribed its parameters through reforms specifying
expected service outcomes and increasing the accountability of senior
stafffortheirachievement,enforcingcomplianceandpre-emptingresis-
tance.
• Over time, subsequent iterations of these interventions have gradu-
allybroughtgreateracculturationofseniorstaffasleaders,thoughnot
necessarily their commitment to acting as change agents for reforms
andausterity measuresthatfurthertheneoliberalizationofpublicser-
vices, while accountability measures continue to pre-empt concerted
resistancebyidentifyingindividualunder-performersandapplyingand
publicizingnegativesanctions.
• Theinterventions,alongsideotherfactors,haveinformedinterventions
elsewhere as part of the international expansion and consolidation of
publicserviceleadershipdevelopment.
• They have made a more indirect, diffuse contribution to furthering
the neoliberalization of public services, changing the nature, quality,
andavailabilityofprovidersandtheirprovision,inturnshapingpublic
expectationsaboutpublicservicesassocietalinstitutions—butthereare
possibilitiesforalteringthenatureandfocusofdevelopmentalsupport.
These unqualified summary claims can scarcely do justice to the complex-
ity of the phenomenon we investigated or the depth of explanation we
have attempted. The contextualization of these claims, their elaboration,
Firstlook vii
and their justification—empirical, conceptual, theoretical, metatheoretical,
axiological—take up the entire book. Greater investment in reading it
promises a fuller grasp of our argument; more prosaically, you haven’t read
the book till you’ve read it. Chapter 1 contains more information on the
book’s content: the concluding sections of this introductory chapter intro-
duce our three-part structure and indicate how chapters within each part
sequentiallydevelopourargument.
Acknowledgements
Ourresearchprojectliesattheheartofthisbook.Wewouldliketoacknowl-
edgethevaluableguidanceofferedbyoursteeringgroup:NickAbercombie,
JohnClarke,MikeDavies,LouiseFitzgerald,RonGlatter,TobyGreany,Bob
Hudson,andKathThompson.WeareindebtedtoPaulaMullins,ourproject
manager, for her calm efficiency and reliability. Jenneth Parker conducted
most of the HE interviews. We are grateful to all our interviewees for their
willingness to participate in the research during a turbulent time. Cardiff
Business School gave Mike Wallace research leave in 2019–20 to work on
the book, and Alison Wray contributed ideas and wordsmithing expertise
thatwereinstrumentalinbringingittofruition.KristyBarker’sexpertcopy-
editing of the manuscript greatly improved the readability of the text. We
would like to extend our special thanks to Karthiga Ramu, Senior Project
Manager at Integra Software Services, for the highly professional way in
which she guided the book through every stage of the complex production
process with courtesy and meticulous attention to detail. The project was
fundedbytheEconomicandSocialResearchCouncil(ESRC),awardnum-
ber RES-000-23-1136-A. The ideas expressed in this book are those of the
authors,anddonotreflecttheviewoftheESRC.
