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'Managing to Improve Public Services' shows how management can be harnessed to improve a range of public services (e.g. policing, health, local government) by examining them through different theoretical lenses (e.g. governance, innovation and change, performance metrics and management)

AbstractThis article argues for a population level of analysis, addressing a theoretical and empirical gap and enabling the analysis of transition, tempo, and timing at the macro level. The article examines four theories of population‐level innovation: population ecology, neo‐institutional theory, innovation diffusion, and population‐level learning theory. A population‐level empirical study of innovation and organizational learning addresses three research questions: the first and second examine patterns of innovation underpinned by learning over space and over time. The third concerns the processes and dynamics of those patterns. The data derive from the local government using mixed methods and multiple respondents over 9 years. The research shows the uneven spread of learning across the population, with the emergence of two subpopulations. Over time, innovation and learning strategies shifted. Learning in the population occurred through both direct interaction and vicarious learning from others in the population. Implications for population‐level theory, innovation, and learning are explored.

Employee surveys are becoming increasingly widespread among both public and private sector organisations. Yet, while there are many articles and books on the technical aspects of how to carry out an employee survey there is much less contemporary information about the impact of employee surveys on the organisation? This paper examines why local authorities undertake employee surveys and the extent to which these contribute to strategic change. The research is based on a review of the use of employee surveys by 12 organisations using surveys at the corporate level. The research found that surveys are used for a variety of purposes to influence change. Purposes are primarily either concerned with organisational assessment (as a diagnostic prior to change) or to implement organisational changes. These results suggest that employee surveys are both mirrors and makers of organisational change. The paper concludes with some theoretical, methodological and ethical implications for academic researchers in the ways that they use and report surveys.

"It is vital for healthcare leaders to have a clear sense of which leadership ideas and practices are rooted in sound theory and convincing evidence, and which are more speculative. This book provides a coherent set of six lenses through which to scrutinise the leadership literature relevant to healthcare - leadership concepts, characteristics, contexts, challenges, capabilities and consequences. It offers a view of leadership beyond the traditional focus on the individual, and argues instead that leadership has to be understood and developed as a complex set of practices by many people within specific organisational and inter-organisational contexts and cultures."--Publisher's description