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PrintPublic Money & Management
Volume 24, Number 4
August 2004
Contents
VIEWPOINT
GOVERNANCE, PARTNERSHIPS AND PERFORMANCE
Edward Peck
EDITORIAL
THEME: FAILURE AND TURNAROUND IN PUBLIC AND NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
Chris Cornforth and Rob Paton
THEME ARTICLES
ORGANIZATIONAL FAILURE AND TURNAROUND: LESSONS FOR PUBLIC SERVICES FROM
THE FOR-PROFIT SECTOR
Kieran Walshe, Gill Harvey, Paula Hyde and Naresh
Pandit explore the literature on failure and turnaround in for-profit
organizations. They present frameworks for describing and categorizing failure
and turnaround, and examine the relevance of studies in the for-profit sector
to the emerging field of failure and turnaround in public services.
WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT PUBLIC AND NON-PROFIT 'TURNAROUND'?
Rob Paton and Jill Mordaunt suggest that policy-makers may be
justified in their concerns about chronic under-performance, and that it is
important to understand better the conditions under which 'moulds can be broken'
and lasting recovery initiated. Some ideas from the business literature are
valuable, but public and non-profit turnarounds are different as well as similar,
and several concepts will have to be adapted not just adopted.
INTERVENTION OR PERSUASION? STRATEGIES FOR TURNAROUND OF POORLY-PERFORMING
COUNCILS
This article provides early results from a long-term evaluation of the turnaround
strategies by poorly-performing local authorities in England. Dave Turner,
Chris Skelcher, Philip Whiteman, Michael Hughes and Pauline
Jas review the history and theory behind central government interventions
into local government, focusing on the CPA. The authors conclude by setting
out a research agenda for the future.
THE ROLE OF BOARDS IN THE FAILURE AND TURNAROUND OF NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
Chris Cornforth and Jill Mordaunt show that boards often play
an important hands-on role in turnaround. As well as needing skills, such
as leadership, board members leading the change process need high levels of
commitment, emotional resilience and a 'safe place' to formulate plans.
THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN THE TURNAROUND OF A LOCAL AUTHORITY
This article examines leadership behaviour during a successful turnaround
in a public services organization. Paul Joyce draws important lessons
from his case study about the kind of leadership needed in public sector turnarounds.
THE DYNAMICS OF CHRONIC FAILURE: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY
For 25 years repeated efforts were made to reduce the costs and refocus the
efforts of a regional office of an agency in the USA. Eventually these efforts
resulted in the office being effectively eliminated. Dean F. Eitel
argues that the processes used during organization change efforts were so
flawed that they actually accentuated chronic failure.
NON-THEME ARTICLE
BEST VALUE: IS IT DELIVERING?
Best Value is intended to improve public service performance by replacing
compulsory competitive tendering with a policy that has been likened to a
local government version of total quality management. Paul Higgins,
Philip James and Ian Roper draw on a survey of local government
officers to explore the extent to which Best Value is providing the basis
for improvements in the quality of local services and find mixed results.