“New” Management in local government — rhetoric or reality? A case study of changes in middle management roles and behaviour

Abstract

A growing volume of literature during the 1980s and 90s has focused on changes in local government management systems, involving essentially a move from bureaucratic and professionally dominated “administration” to more flexible and private sector style, customer orientated “management” of service provision. However, relatively little empirical investigation has been undertaken into the impact of these changes on middle managers' work roles. Middle managers play a key role in the implementation of these organisational changes, and this paper, using a case‐study analysis of a County Council well advanced in its adoption of “new” management practices, identifies the changes which middle managers have experienced in their work roles since the mid‐1980s.

Citation

Keen, L. (1994), "“New” Management in local government — rhetoric or reality? A case study of changes in middle management roles and behaviour", Management Research News, Vol. 17 No. 7/8/9, pp. 40-41. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb028356