1. The Complexity of Managing in the Public Sector: Introduction
Chris Mowles and Karen Norman
2. Calls to Interprofessionalism and ‘Best’ Practice in Healthcare Distract Attention from Everyday Experience: Practical Implication for Leaders and Practice Consultants
Marion Briggs
3. The Double Bind of Metrics
Emma Elkington
4. Working with Difference: The Emergence of Prejudice When Integrating Care in the National Health Service (NHS)
Fiona Yung
5. Trust, Metrics and Complexity in Meaning-Making
Sara Filbee
6. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the UK University: From Idealism to Pragmatism
Jana Filosof
7. Reflections on How Differing Values and Power Relationships Impact on the Local Implementation of Central Policy Directives in the UK National Health Service
Sheila Marriott
8. Reworking Meaning through Process Consultancy Interventions
Åsa Lundquist Coey
9. Complexity and the Public Sector: Key Themes
Chris Mowles and Karen Norman
Biography
Chris Mowles is Professor of Complexity and Management at the University of Hertfordshire Business School and Director of the Doctor of Management programme there. He is the author of Complexity: A Key Idea for Business and Society (2021) also published by Routledge.
Karen Norman is Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School, UK, and Visiting Professor at the School of Nursing, Kingston University and St George’s, University of London, UK. She also works as a Non-Executive Director at Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
"Across the globe, it is widely assumed that management is natural and universal, serving everyone’s interests equally. So it is refreshing to read a new book which challenges these assumptions in the context of public services, and which recognises the interests being served by the managerialist systems which now dominate many country’s public sectors. Its international set of authors all hold senior positions and are trying to get things done, in spite of the ideological dominance of today’s quasi-competition and league tables. Their work is complex, and any successes are often paradoxical, but their personal narratives in the book are all the more compelling for the challenges involved. Their stories represent vital reading for anyone who wants to make a similar difference when faced with the neoliberal modes of governance that have become so widely used in today’s society."
Mark Learmonth, Professor Emeritus, Nottingham Trent University
"A refreshing perspective on managerialism and a highly recommended read. The book offers a unique window into senior practitioners’ lived experiences of their management role within the public sector within the UK and internationally. A very useful resource for managers, consultants and academics faced with complexity and the dilemma of making sense of their role and the context they find themselves in."
Dr Julia Gale, Associate Dean (Special Projects), Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, a joint enterprise of Kingston University and St. George’s, University of London
"Resonates absolutely with the reality and tumult of public sector leadership. The authors clearly describe the realities of improvement in the public sector, and help our understanding of the mismatch between overly simplistic rhetoric and the complex reality leaders and their teams experience."
Danny Mortimer, Chief Executive of NHS Employers, Deputy CEO of the NHS Confederation
