Editorial

Citation

Brookes, S. (2014), "Editorial", International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, Vol. 10 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLPS-07-2014-0008

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: The International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, Volume 10, Issue 2

I am delighted to write my first editorial for the International Journal of Leadership in Public Services. I would like to begin with a note of thanks to my predecessor editors, Valerie James, John Tatam and Peter Gilbert. I am pleased that their experience will not be lost to the journal as both Valerie and John remain as consulting editors. Until his death in December last year, Peter had been involved with the journal for many years, and I hope that we can continue his work in building and developing the ethos of the journal as a publication aimed at improving public services.

This is a challenging time for public leaders. First is the challenge presented by the financial context in the delivery of public services. The extent of this differs across international boundaries but it is clear that the global recession is just that; global! The second challenge is not so much to “do more with less” but, rather, to “do things differently with less”. The third challenge can be described as the public leadership challenge; how can we better equip and support the leadership of the public sector as it responds to the first two challenges?

It is thus an exciting time for the lnternational Journal of Leadership in Public Services in also responding to these challenges as a means of furthering our aim of bringing together the best international research and lived experiences of leadership to address current issues in the delivery of public services. Public leadership is multi-disciplinary and – as an evidence-based journal – we will continue to publish articles that add to understanding and implementation of leadership skills and knowledge to strengthen and improve public service.

We are currently in the process of reinforcing our editorial board and I am particularly grateful to my colleagues who have agreed to be a member of our board. In particular, I am delighted that we have formed a new relationship with the Guardian Public Leaders Network. I have had the privilege of an association with the network since its inception and am therefore fully aware that the network and the journal share many values and goals. I look forward to our on-going alliance in providing support to public leadership and hope to develop similar relationships internationally. Together with our new and developing editorial board, we are proactively discussing and further developing our strategic aims to ensure that the journal is able to continue to grow and play a significant role in influencing the public leadership landscape. We hope to be able to say more about these plans in the next few months.

The papers in this issue take a further step in supporting our aim and include quantitative and qualitative research, alongside illuminating narratives on the effective exercise of leadership in a range of public leadership contexts.

The first paper considers the role of information systems as an alternative to modernization based on the requirement of information systems that are responsive to population needs. Taking both a quantitative and qualitative approach, the paper highlights the challenges of information systems and describes how a specific information system was developed based on the research in six municipalities in Mexico.

The second paper also considers the wider public leadership context in discussing the evolution of public services from co-production to co-creation. It begins by exploring the current financial crisis and the constraints imposed. The paper notes that economic constraints and advanced technology have an effect on how public services are led and how organizational cultures are renewed within the domain of public services. It asks whether this represents the need for the evolution of public services from what is describes as New Public Management's unfinished trajectory.

Good governance is a critical component of public leadership. The third paper considers the meaning and benefits of knowledge-based governance and explores the view that ideas and evidence-based governance benefit from knowledge, learning and innovation. It draws on some interesting case studies, including the transformation of the New York Police Department during the leadership of Mayor Rudi Giuliani and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and provides a good platform to consider how learning governance – facilitated by leadership with the proper attitudes and behaviours – has potential to respond to the challenges presented to public leadership. The paper examines the potential of action learning approaches.

The fourth and final paper provides both a narrative and an interesting research perspective in relation to one critical element of public services; healthcare. In particular, the paper discusses the changing role of clinicians in the UK National Health Service, and also explores the evidence for, and the continued need of, evolutionary change in management and leadership. The paper describes research undertaken with specialist registrars and focuses on a medical leadership competency framework. The research findings suggest that there is a strong view that the current training and structure does not allow clinical leadership potential to flourish amongst trainees.

I look forward to receiving many more papers that will help public leaders to respond to the very complex and collective challenges that they face.

Stephen Brookes