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The NHS began life in 1948 with the noble intention of providing free health care for all from cradle to grave. Today the NHS is the largest employer in Europe employing in excess of one million people and it has commonly been held that, since the NHS is an organisation committed to treating and providing care to patients, those working for the NHS are generally perceived to hold, in the main, altruistic values. Over the last two decades NHS managers have been given the responsibility for the implementation of the various NHS reforms which have been aimed at making the NHS more efficient, effective, accountable and business like. This paper explores the extent to which the managers in this role as change agents believe that they hold core values that are in line with the altruistic service ethos of the NHS and as a result the extent to which they believe they are seen to be performing and behaving in a socially responsible manner. Furthermore this study also provides an insight into understanding the managers' perceptions of their public image and assesses the extent to which this has an impact on the managers’ psyche, performance and commitment to the NHS ethos. Twenty eight managers from two Acute Care and one Community Care NHS Trusts in London were interviewed, after completing questionnaires, with a view to understanding their perceptions of their managerial culture and their public image. It appeared that managers generally believed that all NHS workers, themselves included, share altruistic values and demonstrated a collective commitment to the altruistic service ethos of the NHS. This therefore demonstrates the managers' commitment to behaving and performing in a socially responsible manner. As far as the managers’ perceived public image is concerned the research revealed that the majority of the managers, despite holding values that were altruistic in nature and similar to those held by clinicians, appeared to be convinced that the general public believed that doctors and nurses are the only professionals in the NHS who are motivated by a desire to serve/provide care to society and that these groups alone have an altruistic ethos. The managers indicated that they felt the public viewed them in a generally poor light and did not confer upon them the service driven values that were ascribed to clinicians. It is in the context of being the main change agents within the NHS that NHS managers appear to have become unpopular with the general public who tend to hold the view that “a service which managers are trying to make ever more efficient, rational and controlled cannot at the same time be caring and people centred” [Learmonth, 1997, pg. 219]. Whilst the NHS managers were aware of this negative view held by the public, they felt certain that this public perception was misguided and driven by several unfair and politically motivated agendas. They do not appear to have allowed this perceived negative public opinion to affect how they view their own role and in fact offered various reasons to explain why this public opinion was misguided and misinformed. This paper considers the implications of these views as regards the managers' role and commitment to the NHS.

This conceptual article aims primarily to illustrate the impact of public value thinking on the process of public sector modernisation. Public value management (PVM) is analysed from two perspectives. First, the principles and features of PVM approaches are detailed, including a comparison of the literature on the other approaches characterizing the modernisation process, that is, traditional public administration (TPA), new public management (NPM) and new public governance (NPG). Then PVM is contrasted with NPM and TPA. Subsequently, the elements connecting PVM with NPG are explored. Second, the theoretical and methodological frameworks within which public value has been operationalized are investigated. One of the core topics is the measurement of public value, which is illustrated focusing on the link between public value (in the singular) and public values (in the plural). The impact that the adoption of public value thinking exerts on the multiple performance objectives for public sector organisations is also investigated. Ultimately, the article aims to highlight the potential of the public value view – considered in conjunction with performance measurement and performance management systems – without neglecting the challenging and problematic aspects of this wave of reform. The comparison with other waves of reform is intended to provide a clearer picture of the way forward for PVM.

Theoretical and methodological investigation, elaborating on the relevant literature on the process of public sector modernisation, is carried out.

The approaches that have emerged during the last two decades (PVM, NPG) are other than alternative solutions. But also less recent waves of change have left, or are expected to leave, their own legacy for public administration over time. This could be the case for NPM, although, according to many scholars, it is in trouble and has lost its driving force, while others see it as simply ‘dead’ and doomed to give way to the ‘digital-era governance’. Several core elements of NPM are no longer in evidence either in PVM or in NPG. Different distinguishing elements have been brought into the foreground. For instance, the idea of the public as citizens characterises PVM and NPG, instead of the public as customers, qualifying NPM. What we are seeing is a progressive expansion of the public’s involvement, through co-production and participation. Contemporary public officials interact with members of the public in ways that involve all of their possible roles: as citizens, customers, partners. There are two salient aspects under which public value thinking can contribute. First, a focus on public value can – better than other approaches – represent a ‘glue’ capable of bringing together debates involving ‘values, institutions, systems, processes, and people’ (Smith, 2004, p. 18). Second, such a focus makes it possible to link insights from different analytical perspectives, fostering a broader view on the determinants of public sector change. This could be of decisive importance for the purpose of reshaping performance measurement and performance management systems, which is a crucial step in public sector reform.

Significant contributions are offered under two aspects. First, in terms of exploration of the concepts of public value (also in relation to public values) and private value. Second, in terms of analysis of the impact that PVM can exert on the logic of performance measurement and performance management.

This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.

This paper explores the potential application of public value management theory to the practice of UK healthcare procurement. By conducting a literature review, key elements of public value theory and practice that can be applied to healthcare procurement are identified together with mechanisms that can be used in procurement to protect public values and enhance the creation of public value. These are formed into a Public Value Healthcare Procurement Framework which represents a fresh normative approach to healthcare procurement by focussing on a broader, societal view of value; by providing a blue print for procurement leaders centred around Moore's vision of “exploring” and “moral” public managers; and by promoting a public service ethos amongst all providers including the private sector.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

European performing arts companies, intrinsically fragile, have been severely hit by the economic crisis. Within the global search for new economic models in the sector, a growing number of initiatives have been taken in the form of establishing collective and participatory firms. Their forms vary from simple interorganization resource pooling to proper registration of a cooperative. Our research aims to understand the motivations of project initiators for collectively organizing their business. We test the influence of instrumental versus ideologically driven motives as well as the influence of the socio-economic context on the decisions of performing arts entrepreneurs (artists, producers, or directors) to establish participatory firms. We relate these results to the success or failure of collective firms and to the degree of cooperation. We use a qualitative method based on semi-directive interviews conducted in 21 performing arts collective organizations, over two years and in six European countries. Interviews were integrally transcripted and processed using qualitative data analysis software (QSR NVivo 10) in order to realize axial coding. We found that while the context, instrumental logic, and ideologically driven motives influence the decision to establish collective organizations in performing arts, it is the ideological dimensions that are predominant and constitute a necessary condition for the success of a participatory organization. We observe that the more collective organizations are ideologically motivated, the more they are likely to be successful in the long run (success being assimilated to economic sustainability). We also find that the greater the importance of the ideological motive, the more integrated the cooperation. Eventually, these results provide significant information regarding the form of collective firms in performing arts. We observe the emergence of new forms of cooperatives that comprise cooperatives of production and projects or companies, establishing participatory and democratic governance, and pooling resources and financial risk while preserving the artistic freedom of artists. We view these emerging types of cooperatives as a promising avenue both for the sector itself and for the development of the cooperative movement beyond its traditional sectors. The findings suggest that public incentives, as they are currently set up, may miss their objective of promoting shared practices in the arts or even be counterproductive; thus, it would be to their advantage to be modified in light of the above results. We also defend the interest of trans-border cooperative organizations inspired by the cooperatives of production and their governance models and organizations. Despite a number of studies highlighting cooperation in the cultural sector, research on cooperatives in this sector remains embryonic. This paper contributes to this literature. We argue that applied research in this sector can be of contributive value to the literature on cooperatives and participatory firms.

Is public entrepreneurship an oxymoron? Why and how is enterprise/entrepreneurship important for public service delivery? The growing role of enterprise within the public sector has been the subject of much recent debate and policy focus, surrounding issues such as public value, meeting targets, and the need for innovation across public services by policy makers and managers given rapid reduction of budgets in this sector. This chapter reflects on these developments and examines the effects that an enterprise focus in the public services has in terms of vocation. Drawing on the Weberian notion of vocation (1941) in politics and the sciences, what does enterprise mean for the notion of public service? Certainly, historically the public services have enjoyed a strong vocational drive from its workforce, resulting in employee loyalty, and links with communities as well as higher levels of public trust than politicians or bankers, for example. The chapter draws on examples from education, public services and localism, all of which have seen to some degree the parachuting of managers in from the private sector or the aping of these behaviours and cultures in search of more entrepreneurial delivery. Drawing on the Weberian framework of bureaucracy and vocation, the chapter examines the changing role of public service and notions of community and duty, arguably damaged by failures of the Big Society agenda (Shand & Higman, 2014; Smith, 2010) and examines if and how enterprise can maintain the ethos of public service and vocational areas of the public sector in the enduring and pressurised new public management environment of meeting targets and value metrics.

The chapter adopts a Weberian approach in terms of vocation, and applies this concept to the notion of enterprise across the public services. The vocation approach in the public services, drawing upon Weber’s discussion of politics and science, underpins our discussion in this chapter as we argue that the role of innovation needs to be more widely applied and appreciated in the public services.

The chapter finds that examples of innovative behaviour and delivery are evident across the public services, but these need to be understood within the context of culture, values and ethos. These underpinning goals, across several frontline and first respondent public services particularly, are driven by dedication to duty and having to respond to rapid changes in targets, ‘customer’ service, and most recently, austerity. These responses need to be seen as innovative traits, linked to leadership and the Weberian notion of vocation.

The chapter raises several issues driven by failures or mistrust in the practical delivery and underpinning ethos of the public services. The focus on ethos has direct implications for both leadership within the public services and how these leaders’ roles and actions are interpreted by sections of wider society such as the media or the public. Notions of public trust are touched upon in the chapter, which highlight the role of key public services as different from the activities of politicians and bankers, areas which have become central to growing attitudes of mistrust among the public. The notion of vocation in the chapter is applicable to the practical arena as the role of innovation in public service needs to be reconsidered. The chapter suggests that, to date, the idea of innovation in public services has been driven by private sector innovation, and this has led to far too narrow an appreciation of what we term innovation within and across the public services.

This chapter unites debates around trust and innovation in the public and private sectors with the Weberian ideal of vocation, drawing upon key public services and their leadership and delivery to argue that we need to understand the drivers and motivating ethos behind the public services when we consider the role of innovation and indeed how we understand and apply this term within public service delivery.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a state-owned Colombian multi-utility conglomerate (CMC) has used management accounting practices (MAPs) to shape efficiency. The authors bring out the interplay between structures and agency in the process of shaping efficiency, which has enabled the company to operate as a private enterprise, taking advantage of NPM-led reforms and management accounting technologies.

This is an interpretative case study of a CMC. Data for the study are derived from interviews, non-participative observations and document analysis. Giddens' structuration theory (ST) provides the theoretical approach for the study.

Results show that MAPs have shaped efficiency in a CMC, promoting the profitability criteria prevailing in private enterprises. Theoretically, the paper shows how structure and agency are embedded in shaping efficiency in an emerging economy context through MAPs. It does this by analysing both the broader influence of the School of Mines and multilateral development banks and the micro-situated practices of employees at the CMC. The employees who have worked in the company for long periods of time have transformed the profitability criteria into a corporate value that influences their day-to-day practices.

The paper adds to the literature that draws on the ST by illustrating a paradigmatic case, in which agents have brought in knowledge and values to a state-owned company, and changed its ethos and practices whilst remaining under state control.

In this chapter, we contextualise an ethical codex introduced in the Danish Central Administration. As a management tool, the codex is intended to curb a mounting distrust induced by a number of political-administrative scandals. This is attempted via a revitalisation of classical bureaucratic duties. At the same time, the codex’s attempt at restoring trust is challenged by a number of obstacles. Launching our exploration from an ethos of office-perspective, we contextualise the codex in three dimensions: an organisational dimension, a semantic dimension and a training dimension. From this three-pronged analysis, we show how a number of historical and contemporary obstacles work counter to the codex’s stated attempt to revitalise the ethos of the civil servants. Building on these analyses, we discuss the tensions between official and private selves in particular ethical training exercises as well as the implications the codex brings with it, including a possible obscuring of political-administrative responsibility.

Public service ethos (PSE) is traditionally associated with public administration, bureaucracy and frontline response. Thinkers such as Aristotle and Weber embedded ideas of public virtue and vocation, yet new managerialism, as well as changes to public services management challenge traditional notions of PSE. Recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, counter terrorism and government austerity agendas have put PSE back into the public eye. In this chapter we examine the context for a renewed PSE as a crucial aspect of resilience for workers in public services and public management. We focus on three areas that we feel are important for PSE: policy, purpose and pedagogy, and how a renewed PSE can inform pedagogy in the discipline, renewing ideas of vocation in public administration training.