Alexander Stevenson

The Public Sector

Managing the Unmanageable

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

The Public Sector: Managing the Unmanageable offers practical advice to public sector managers on how to develop techniques to deal with the challenges they face, particularly in the areas of accountability, setting targets, risk management/encouraging innovation, managing people, decision making and working with politicians. Based on original interviews with politicians and senior public sector managers, including the last four cabinet secretaries, it is full of anecdotes, actionable lessons and insights. Each chapter takes a specific aspect of management and starts by explaining why it is different in the public sector, then sets out ways for public sector managers to handle those differences and ends with an executive summary and a checklist to prompt managers to think about how they might change what they currently do. The book has a foreword by Peter Mandelson and insights based on interviews with more than sixty successful public sector managers including: Michael Bloomberg, Brendan Barber, Sir Michael Barber, Lord (Michael) Bichard, Lord (John) Browne, Lord (Robin) Butler, Helen Carter, Sir Merrick Cockell, Charles Clarke, Lord (Geoffrey) Dear, Brian Dinsdale, Charles Farr, Lord (Charles) Guthrie, Lord (Chris) Haskins, Lord (Michael) Heseltine, Ken Livingstone, Paul Martin, Lord (John) Monks, Lord (Gus) O'Donnell, Sir Robert Naylor, Jan Parkinson, Sir Hayden Phillips, Jonathan Powell, Heather Rabbatts, John Ransford, Gill Rider, Paul Roberts, Sir Peter Rogers, Stephen Taylor, Lord (Andrew) Turnball, Sir Robin Wales, Nick Walkley, Ian Watmore and Lord (Richard) Wilson.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Kogan Page
• Seitenzahl: 216
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Juli 2013
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 234mm x 156mm x 12mm
• Gewicht: 336g
• ISBN-13: 9780749467777
• ISBN-10: 0749467770
• Artikelnr.: 37041809

Autorenporträt

Alexander Stevenson worked for the Financial Times and was a key member of the team which launched FT.com. He then set up a public sector consulting company and has advised over 150 public sector organizations.

Inhaltsangabe

Foreword by Lord Mandelson
Acknowledgements
About the author
Introduction - managing the unmanageable
01 The challenges of managing in the public sector
No single simple success measure
Democratic accountability
Pressure?
02 Managing accountability
Introduction - the unaccountable lack of accountability
Why is it so hard to be accountable in the public sector?
How to create accountability
Creating accountability in a partnership
Summary
03 Managing target setting
Introduction - to target or not to target
The consequences of bad targets
Why it is even harder to get targets right in the public sector
So what should you do about targets?
Further tips for setting targets and picking indicators
Summary
04 Managing politicians
Introduction - the challenges of arranged marriages
Some marriage guidance counselling
Summary
05 Managing people
Assessment and development - appraising the appraisal
Managing poor performance
Recruitment
Summary
06 Managing risk and innovation
Introduction - mitigating risk, stimulating innovation
Characteristics that stimulate risk aversion and mitigate innovation
Managing risk effectively
Innovation - or the lack of it
How to encourage innovation
Summary
07 Managing decision making
Introduction - public sector decision making
How to improve your decision making
Summary
08 What the private sector can learn from the public sector
The art of persuasion
Making complex decisions
Crisis management
09 Public sector managers and their public
The importance of good public sector management
The status of public sector managers
Backgammon versus chess - unfair comparisons with the private sector
High importance, (relatively) low status - does it matter?
Making the public sector more attractive - better status, better pay
Conclusion
Twenty-five key insights
Interviewee biographies
Index