In this article the failure of a competence-based management development programme in a hospital trust to achieve organizational objectives is illustrated. The approach and content of the management development programme is resisted by participants despite the facilitators drawing upon management theory to legitimate it. The question posed in this paper, building upon earlier studies, is whether the generic approach of competence-based management development is appropriate in the UK National Health Service. The theoretical inspiration for the research is what may be termed a ‘processual’ or ‘contextualist’ approach which is clearly influenced by ‘negotiated order’ literature.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Albert, M. and Silverman, M. (1984a) ‘Making Management Philosophy a Cultural Reality: Part 1’, Personnel61(1): 12-21.
2.
Albert, M. and Silverman, M. (1984b) ‘Making Management Philosophy a Cultural Reality: Part 2’, Personnel61(2): 28-35.
3.
Allan, D. (1996) ‘The Shape of General Hospital Nursing: The Division of Labour at Work’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
4.
Barnett, S. , Buchanan, D., Patrickson, M. and Maddern, J. (1996) ‘Negotiating the Evolution of the HR Function: Practical Advice from the Health Care Sector’, Human Resource Management Journal6(4): 18-37.
5.
Barrett, S. and McMahon, L. (1990) ‘Public Management in Uncertainty: A Micro-political Perspective of the Health Service in the UK’, Policy and Politics18(4): 257-268.
6.
Bower, J. L. (1970) Managing the Resource Allocation Process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
7.
Brown, A. D. (1994) ‘Politics, Symbolic Action and Myth-Making in Pursuit of Legitimacy’, Organisation Studies15(6): 861-878.
8.
Burgelman, R. A. (1983a) ‘A Model of the Interaction of Strategic Behaviour, Corporate Context, and the Concept of Strategy’, Academy of Management Review8(1): 61-70.
9.
Burgelman, R. A. (1983b) ‘A Process Model of Internal Corporate Venturing in a Diversified Major Firm’, Administrative Science Quarterly28: 223-244.
10.
Burgoyne, J. and Jackson, B. (1997) ‘The Arena Thesis: Management Development as a Pluralistic Meeting Point’, in J. Burgoyne and M. Reynolds (eds) Management Learning: Integrating Perspectives in Theory and Practice. London: Sage.
11.
Cameron, K. S. , Freeman, S. J. and Mishra, A. K. (1991) ‘Best Practices in White Collar Downsizing: Managing Contradictions’, Academy of Management Executive5(3): 57-73.
12.
Cascio, W. F. (1993) ‘Downsizing: What Do We Know? What Have We Learned?’, Academy of Management Executive7(1): 95-104.
13.
Cousins, C. (1987) Controlling Social Welfare: A Sociology of State Welfare Work and Organisation. Brighton: Wheatsheaf.
14.
Czarniawska-Joerges, B. (1988) Ideological Control in Non-ideological Organisations. New York: Praeger.
DHSS (1986) Neighbourhood Nursing: a Focus for Care (Cumberlege Report). London: HMSO.
17.
DHSS (1989a) Caring for People: Community Care in the Next Decade and Beyond. London: HMSO.
18.
DHSS (1989b) Working for Patients (White Paper). London: HMSO.
19.
DoH (1991a) The Health of the Nation. London: HMSO.
20.
DoH (1991b) The Patient’s Charter. London: HMSO.
21.
Dopson, S. , Risk, A. and Stewart, R. (1992) ‘The Changing Role of Middle Managers in the United Kingdom’, International Studies of Management and Organisation22(1): 40-53.
22.
Ferlie, E. , Ashburner, L., Fitzgerald, L. and Pettigrew, A. (1996) The New Public Management in Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
23.
Fine, G. (1984) ‘Negotiated Order and Organisational Cultures’, Annual Review of Sociology10: 239-262.
24.
Floyd, S. W. and Wooldridge, B. (1997) ‘Middle Management’s Strategic Influence and Organisational Performance’, Journal of Management Studies34(3): 465-485.
25.
Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
26.
Hage, J. and Aiken, M. (1970) Social Change in Complex Organisations. New York: Random House.
27.
Hall, P. M. and Spencer-Hall, D. A. (1982) ‘The Social Conditions of the Negotiated Order’, Urban Life11(3): 328-349.
28.
Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P. (1983) Ethnography: Principles in Practice. London: Tavi-stock.
29.
Hancock, C. (1994) ‘Managers Out For The Count’, Health Service Journal105(5384): 17.
30.
Health Service Journal (1994a) ‘Experts Warn Against Lack of Leadership in the NHS’, 104(5427): 3.
31.
Health Service Journal (1994b) ‘The First Lesson for Margaret Beckett’, 104(5427): 15.
32.
Holman, D. and Hall, L. (1996) ‘Competence in Management Development: Rites and Wrongs’, British Journal of Management7(2): 191-202.
33.
Hunter, D. (1986) Managing the NHS in Scotland: Review and Assessment of Research Needs. Edinburgh: Scottish Home and Health Department.
34.
Hunter, D. (1988) ‘The Impact of Research on Restructuring the British National Health Service’, Journal of Health Administrative Education6(3): 537-553.
35.
Kanter, R. M. (1989) When Giants Learn to Dance. New York: Simon & Schuster.
36.
Kling, R. and Gerson, E. (1977) ‘The Social Dynamics of Technical Innovation in the Computing World’, Symbolic Interaction1: 132-146.
37.
Kling, R. and Gerson, E. (1978) ‘Patterns of Segmentation and Interaction in the Computing World’, Symbolic Interaction1: 24-43.
38.
Maines, D. R. (1982) ‘In Search of Mesostructure: Studies in the Negotiated Order’, Urban Life11(3): 267-279.
39.
Mintzberg, H. (1978) ‘Patterns in Strategy Formulation’, Management Science24(9): 934-948.
40.
NHSTD (1991) Bureaucracy to Enterprise. London: NHS Training Directorate.
41.
Palmer, C. (1995) ‘White Collar, Black Hole’, The Observer Business, 12 February: 6.
42.
Peters, T. J. (1992) Liberation Management. New York: Macmillan.
43.
Pettigrew, A. M. (1985) The Awakening Giant. Oxford: Blackwell.
44.
Pettigrew, A. M. , Ferlie, E. and McKee, L. (1992) Shaping Strategic Change. London: Sage.
45.
Porter, M. (1980) Competitive Strategy. New York: Free Press.
46.
Schatzman, L. and Strauss, A. (1973) Field Research: Strategies for Natural Sociology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
47.
Strauss, A. (1978) ‘A Social World Perspective’, in N. Denzin (ed.) Studies in Symbolic Interaction, 1. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
48.
Strauss, A. (1982) ‘Interorganisational Negotiation’, Urban Life, 11(3): 350-367.
49.
Strauss, A. , Schatzman, L., Bucher, R., Ehlich, D. and Sabshin, M. (1963) ‘The Hospital and its Negotiated Order’, in E. Freidson (ed.) The Hospital in Modern Society. New York: Free Press.
50.
Strong, P. and Robinson, J. (1988) New Model Management: Griffiths and the NHS. Nursing Policy Studies Centre: University of Warwick.
51.
Strong, P. and Robinson, J. (1990) The NHS: Under New Management. Buckingham: Open University Press.
52.
Trice, H. M. and Beyer, J. M. (1993) The Cultures of Work Organisations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
53.
Williams, A. , Dobson, P. and Walters, M. (1993) Changing Culture: New Organisational Approaches. London: IPM.
54.
Zaltman, G. , Duncan, R. and Holbek, J. (1973) Innovations and Organisations. New York: Wiley.
