Thomas, Robyn  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7887-8679 and Dunkerley, D.
1999.
Janus and the Bureaucrats: Middle Management in the Public Sector.
Public Policy and Administration
14
(1)
, pp. 28-41.
10.1177/095207679901400103
|
Abstract
Two dominant discourses have been identified as underpinning the restructuring of public sector organisations - the New Right ideology (free markets, customer sovereignty, individualism) and the 'post-modernism' position emphasising change, discontinuity and flexibility in organisations. Both are centrally critical of bureaucracy either because of its inefficiency or of its obsolescence respectively. In both views, middle management is a key problem that can be overcome by delayering but middle management is also a solution through implementing change and encouraging the new culture of initiative and entrepreneurialism. The article reports on original research focussing on the perceptions of middle managers in a range of public sector organisations. Rather than moving towards a post-bureaucratic form, the findings suggest that change is being driven by opportunistic cost-cutting leading to a disillusioned and demoralised middle management stratum experiencing long working hours, feelings of job insecurity and working within a strong performance culture - a culture that remains very bureaucratic. Many of the traditional middle management frustrations remain and are exacerbated by the pressures to achieve increasingly demanding targets with little discretion or decision-making opportunity. The article argues that this is the latest stage in the evolution of bureaucracy rather than its impending demise.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Status: | Published |
| Schools: | Schools > Business (Including Economics) |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management |
| Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
| ISSN: | 0952-0767 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Oct 2022 10:12 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/39426 |
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