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Public services will face major challenges over the next decade; severe financial pressures and cuts; growing demand; raising public and user expectations; decentralisation and community empowerment; opportunities to deploy new technology; and global competition. This will result in a changing relationship between citizen and services users with the state and service providers. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenges and opportunities in contemporary public sector leadership which face executive leaders.

The paper considers what public service leaders will need to do; how they will need to behave; and the competencies and styles of leadership that will be required. It is a commentary and thought piece based on the author's wide experience, conversations with leaders from all sectors in the UK and his advisory and research projects.

There will be a paradigm shift in the relationship between the business, public, social and third sectors and this will require more effective collaboration between the sectors. The result of these far‐reaching changes is the need for a strong, outcome focused and collaborative leadership across all sectors, and specifically in the public sector. Leadership will be critical.

This article provides challenge and advice for leaders in the public sector and in the business, social and third sectors who work with the public sector and are responsible for public service delivery. It should enable leaders and potential leaders to consider how they can develop and practise collaborative leadership personally and within their organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the competing values framework (CVF) could be used by public service leaders to analyze and better understand public sector leadership challenges, thereby improving their ability in leading across borders and generations.

This paper applies the CVF, originally developed for understanding leadership in the private sector and shows how it can be adapted for analyzing and developing skill in addressing different leadership challenges in public sector contexts, including setting out specific learning exercises.

The paper has four parts. The first provides an overview of the origins, logic, and evolution of the CVF. The second part shows how the CVF is relevant and useful for assessing management and leadership values in the public sector. The third part identifies specific leadership challenges and learning exercises for public sector leaders at different stages of development. The final part concludes by reflecting on the CVF and similar frameworks, and where future research might go.

Because of the chosen research approach, propositions within the paper should be tentatively applied.

This paper provides guidance for the better understanding of complex leadership challenges within the public sector through the use of the CVF.

The social implications of the paper could include the more widespread use of the CVF within the public sector as a tool to lead more effectively.

This paper adapts and extends an analytical tool that has been of high value in the private sector so that it can be used in the public sector.

With increased globalization, technology advancements, and interconnectedness, greater alignment on values and leadership is needed. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role that personal values play in sustaining leadership during challenging times. The importance of values as a guidepost in an environment in constant change offers leaders a foundation for decision making.

Narrative inquiry and narrative interviews were used so leaders could share their stories of navigating challenging situations. One group interview was scheduled to share preliminary research findings with the research participants and receive their input. Both narrative analysis and thematic analysis were used.

Sustainable leadership included the ongoing pursuit of personal mastery, a values-based personal and professional support network, and expertise in leading self and other through the inevitable transitions that occur during change and challenge.

The above recommendations allow for leaders to sustain themselves and others while working in service of the common good.

This research offers practical guidance to public sector leaders who wish to sustain themselves amidst the inevitable challenges that they experience as part of their public sector leadership.

Leaders who adopt the above recommendations will be well positioned to support their leadership and to use values as guiding principles to release the hero in everyone around them.

This narrative study harvested the wisdom of the lived experience of leaders working in the public, health, and education sectors who have navigated challenges in their leadership. The findings offer valuable guidance to public sector leaders.

The purpose of this paper is to identify differences, if any, that exist in leadership style, behaviors, and competencies to drive performance between public/non‐profit and for‐profit organizational leaders.

The study describes the results of in‐depth interviews with leaders in small to medium‐sized organizations in California. Approximately half of the leaders work in non‐profit and public organizations, while the other half work in for‐profit companies.

The findings reveal both similarities and differences between the two groups.

The results are a first step in examining the key leadership competencies required for success in each sector and serve as a springboard for future research.

This paper explores some of the gaps and contradictions that can often be found in public sector leader development approaches and then examines some of the theoretical assumptions related to these gaps and contradictions. The purpose of this examination is to further identify and define some corresponding gaps within public sector leadership development theory, as well as to encourage future theory development.

Using three common examples of contradictions often found within the leadership literature, gaps within public sector leadership development theory are identified and then linked to relevant components of leader development models found within other disciplines. As they were developed in other contexts, these components were then further reviewed to determine their potential applicability in speaking to the gaps often found in public sector leader development theory.

Proposals are made to address some of the common gaps and contradictions often identified in some public sector leader development approaches, along with the detailing of future research directions for the further development of theory.

This exploratory review highlights some of the central assumptions and gaps in the literature for the purpose of clarifying future directions of research into public sector leadership development theory.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons for and consequences of leaders moving from other sectors to the public arena and provide guidelines for successful transitions to the public sector.

The paper relies on a conceptual analysis of leadership theory, critical reasoning and several examples to explore the phenomenon the authors call Leadership Leap (LL).

The paper explores the context, antecedents, causes and consequences of LL. The leaders’ self-confidence, ego and hubris are often considered to be the reason for leaping to an unfamiliar sector; however, the causes are much more complex. The authors suggest that in addition to the leaders’ personal characteristics, LL is encouraged by a culture of celebrity, excessive focus on the leaders and a longing for heroes. Ignoring or disregarding the context and overestimating the need for revolutionary change further exacerbate LL. The authors consider conditions for success and suggest areas for future research.

We are increasingly witnessing leaders who are successful and considered experts in one sector transition into the public sector. Although some are successful, others face obstacles and fail to live up to expectations. The unique characteristics of public leadership, specifically the collective nature of the sector and the crucial role of context and systems, provide a particular challenge for LL in the sector.

The objective of this study is to examine the predicting role of Machiavellianism, locus of control and moral identity on ethical leadership. This study also assessed the moderating role of ethical role modelling in the linkage between Machiavellianism, locus of control, moral identity and ethical leadership.

A total of 202 public service leaders in Malaysia participated in the study. A quantitative study was conducted and structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.

Moral identity poses a substantial influence on ethical leadership. Ethical role modelling is a significant moderator in the association between moral identity and ethical leadership.

This study contributes to the social learning theory by assessing Machiavellianism, locus of control and moral identity as the predictors of ethical leadership among public service leaders in Malaysia. Future study can be further extended to both managerial and support staff to understand the ethical phenomenon in Malaysian public sector.

The study highlights the need for public sector to give considerable attention to moral identity in boosting ethical leadership among public service leaders in Malaysia's public sector. Furthermore, the element of ethical role modelling should not be neglected as this factor is a valid moderator in nurturing ethical leadership among public service leaders.

The study deepens the knowledge on the importance of ethical role modelling as a moderator in assessing the influence of the predictors on ethical leadership. Further, this study demonstrates that public service leaders who reported high moral identity would have higher ethical leadership if they experienced good ethical role modelling.

This study investigates the complex interaction between properties of some emergent crises and the expertise of particular public sector leaders, who themselves are embedded in particular institutional processes that further constrain identification of these emergent crises. It is suggested that discrepancy in the ability of leaders to detect crises is due not only to their own proficiency in some cognitive skills, but also to their interaction with, and differences in, particular properties of some emergent crises, which render some emergent crises more detectable than others in some institutional environments.