PROFESSIONALIZING MANAGEMENT AND MANAGING PROFESSIONALIZATION: BRITISH MANAGEMENT IN THE 1980s

Reed, Michael; Anthony, Peter

doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1992.tb00680.x

Cited by 142 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Since the early to mid 1980s, debate over public services modernization in the UK has been dominated by a managerialist policy discourse that has indelibly shaped the ideological terrain on which various reform programmes and practices have been enacted and inculcated. As such, managerialism has been subjected to intensive analytical scrutiny and extensive historical research (Barley and Kunda 1992;Bendix 1974;Parker 2002;Reed and Anthony 1992), which has revealed the highly protean and adaptable nature of managerialism as it has evolved and mutated through a series of complex discursive iterations and combinations geared to changing material conditions and cultural contexts from the late 19th/early 20th century onwards.…”

Section: The Three Discoursesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Grit in the Oyster: Professionalism, Managerialism and Leaderism as Discourses of UK Public Services Modernization

Reed

O’Reilly

2011

Organization Studies

114

105

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The representation of organizational agency in UK policy discourse on public service modernization is analysed in order to disclose the legitimation of elite organizational centres and the structuring of organizational peripheries and their potential for resistance. Three discourses are identified and explored: the residual, but still potent, discourse of professionalism; the dominant discourse of managerialism; and the emergent discourse of leaderism. The emergent discourse of leaderism is shown to be linked to an imaginary of neo-bureaucratic organizing, which represents an evolution of New Public Management. As such, the analysis of leaderism, a new form of privileged agency, contributes an insight into the dynamics of public service modernization. This is developed through exploring leaderism's tension between its strong affinity with unitarist managerialism and its weaker linkages to quasi-pluralist stakeholder networks which create potentialities for new forms of active resistance.

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Section: The Three Discoursesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Grit in the Oyster: Professionalism, Managerialism and Leaderism as Discourses of UK Public Services Modernization

Reed

O’Reilly

2011

Organization Studies

114

105

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“…Previous studies have argued that management is not a science and has not developed as a cohesive professional group (Reed and Anthony 1992). These studies tend to challenge the view that there exists the potential for a linear relationship between the production and use of knowledge by managers, including the notion that business schools can function in a similar way to medical schools as institutions of professional education (Author withheld).…”

Section: Organizational and Management Knowledgementioning

confidence: 43%

In Search of Relevance: Perspectives on the Contribution of Academic—Practitioner Networks

Knights

Scarbrough

2010

Organization Studies

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This paper contributes to the current debate on the relevance of academic research to organizational practice but departs from the conventional view of perceiving the problem as one of improving the diffusion of knowledge from research to practice. Two theoretical lenses — Mode 2 and actor network theory — are drawn upon to examine case vignettes of the authors’ involvement in academic—practitioner collaborations. The resulting analysis assists us in understanding the production of knowledge relevant to practitioners and, by implication, has the potential to free industry—academic collaborations of unrealistic demands.

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“…21,32 Furthermore, such differences in interest and perspective highlight the potential importance of power relations as they relate to flows of knowledge and learning occurring within and between managerial groups. [33][34][35] As the managerial knowledge base is continually contested and debated, 4,36 it becomes important to recognise that the acquisition and use of such knowledge to effect change is not necessarily neutral in its effect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Being a manager, becoming a professional? A case study and interview-based exploration of the use of management knowledge across communities of practice in health-care organisations

Bresnen

Hodgson

Bailey

et al. 2014

Health Services and Delivery Research

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BackgroundUnderstanding how managers in the NHS access and use management knowledge to help improve organisational processes and promote better service delivery is of pressing importance in health-care research. While past research has examined in some depth how managers in the NHS perform their roles, we have only limited understanding of how they access management knowledge, interpret it and adapt and apply it to their own health-care settings.ObjectivesThis study aims to investigate how NHS middle managers encounter, adapt and apply management knowledge in their working practices and to examine the factors [particularly organisational context, career background and networks of practice (NoPs)/communities of practice (CoPs)] which may facilitate or impede the acceptance of new management knowledge and its integration with practice in health-care settings. Our research was structured around three questions: (1) How do occupational background and careers influence knowledge receptivity, knowledge sharing and learning among health-care managers? (2) How do relevant CoPs enable/obstruct knowledge sharing and learning? (3) What mechanisms are effective in supporting knowledge receptivity, knowledge sharing and learning/unlearning within and across such communities?Design and settingThree types of NHS trust were selected to provide variation in organisational context and the diversity of services provided: acute, care and specialist foundation trusts (FTs). It was expected that this variation would affect the knowledge requirements faced by managers and the networks likely to be available to them. To capture variation amongst managerial groups in each trust, a selection framework was developed that differentiated between three main cohorts of managers: clinical, general and functional.ParticipantsAfter initial interviews with selected key informants and Advisory Group members, the main empirical phase consisted of semistructured interviews combined with ethnographic observation methods. A purposive, non-random sample of managers (68 in total) was generated for interview, drawn from across the three trusts and representing the three cohorts of managers. Interviews were semistructured and data was collated and analysed using NVivo 9 software (QSR International, Warrington, UK).Main outcome measuresThe analysis was structured around four thematic areas: context (institutional and trust), management (including leadership), knowledge and networks. The research underlines the challenges of overcoming fragmentation across a diffuse managerial CoP in health care, exacerbated by the effects of organisational complexity and differentiation. The research highlights the importance of specific training and development initiatives, and also the value of NoPs for knowledge sharing and support of managers.ResultsThe main findings of the research stress the heterogeneity of management and the highly diverse sources of knowledge, learning, experience and networks drawn upon by distinct management groups (clinical, general and functional); the particular challenges facing general managers in establishing a distinct professional identity based around a coherent managerial knowledge base; the strong tendency for managerial knowledge – particularly that harnessed by general managers – to be more ‘home grown’ (localised) and experiential (as opposed to abstract and codified); and the tendency for this to be reinforced through the difficulties facing general managers in accessing and being actively engaged in wider networks of professionals for knowledge sharing, learning and support.ConclusionsManagement in health care is a complex and variegated activity that does not map onto a clear, unitary and distinct CoP. Improving flows of knowledge and learning among health-care managers involves taking account not just of the distinctiveness of managerial groups, but also of a number of other features. These include the complex relationship between management and leadership, alternative ways of bridging the clinical–managerial interface, the importance of opportunities for managers to learn through reflection and not mainly through experience and the need to support managers – especially general managers – in developing their networks for knowledge sharing and support. Building on the model developed in this research to select managerial cohorts, future work might usefully extend the research to other types of trust and health-care organisation and to larger samples of health-care managers, which can be further stratified according to their distinct occupational groups and CoPs. There is also scope for further ethnographic research that broadens and deepens the investigation of management using a range of observation methods.FundingThe National Institute for Health Research Health Service and Delivery Research programme.

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PROFESSIONALIZING MANAGEMENT AND MANAGING PROFESSIONALIZATION: BRITISH MANAGEMENT IN THE 1980s

Cited by 142 publications

References 18 publications

The Grit in the Oyster: Professionalism, Managerialism and Leaderism as Discourses of UK Public Services Modernization

The Grit in the Oyster: Professionalism, Managerialism and Leaderism as Discourses of UK Public Services Modernization

In Search of Relevance: Perspectives on the Contribution of Academic—Practitioner Networks

Being a manager, becoming a professional? A case study and interview-based exploration of the use of management knowledge across communities of practice in health-care organisations

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