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This article reflects on the leadership and management of public services, at a time of political and professional appraisal and the appointment of a new prime minister in the UK. It argues that this is a moment of opportunity for leaders of public services and professions, and that they should now impose themselves more firmly on the debate.

To report findings from an updated survey of environmental policy and practice among UK organizations. To draw conclusions about the relationship between environmental concerns and organizational strategy making.

The paper reports findings from a 1999 survey of 911 UK organizations, updated by interviews conducted with participant organizations in 2004. The paper represents an extension of a ten‐year longitudinal study of environmental policy and practice in UK organizations.

The gap between policy formulation and implementation in the environmental area has continued to narrow, but environmental concerns appear not to have moved towards the centre of the strategy making process in many firms. Organizations are still primarily influenced by short‐term rather than long‐term imperatives, and although recognition of opportunity offered by the environment is increasing, organizations are still liable to adopt a reactive position, increasingly so as the size of the organization decreases.

It offers a contribution to the debate over the ongoing relationship between organizational strategy and environmental factors as a determinant of organizational strategy. It locates the debate in the wider discussion of determinants of organizational strategy.

It highlights the complex decision‐making processes facing managers in satisfying a variety of stakeholders who may be making competing demands of their organization.

The paper offers a longitudinal review of changes to environmental policy and practice among UK organizations, providing an opportunity to explore the nature of change over a ten‐year period.

The notion of bounded rationality is used to consider strategic alliances with a view of providing an insight into the presumptive reasons for action in choosing strategic alliance partners. The research methodology used is one of a realist approach (after Stiles, 1995) and a discerning of patterns (after Tesch, 1990) in thematic interviews. The discussion examines the issue and concludes that bankers, when entering into strategic alliances, do not consider every option. That is they use filters to reduce the potential choice; thus the range of possible alliance partners is restricted in many ways, some of these being unconsciously employed. Furthermore, it is clear that, while bankers consider margins, ratios and percentages, relationships have a pre‐eminent place in strategic alliances and that relationships are poised between ends and means to ends.