SpAds: political sherpas bridging minister and civil servant

This paper examines how opinion-shaping political and civil service stakeholders view the role and contribution of Special Political Advisers (SpAds) within the Westminster system of government. The literature only recently paid considered attention to this role, partly due to the recent reforms that spawned the emergence of SpAds, but also because political advisers still only represent a small population within the government community. It is acknowledged that each country’s institutional and administrative traditions greatly influence SpAds’ tasks; arrangements with the UK being no exception. Recognising that SpAds take on the role of “temporary civil servants” whose duties vary according to ministerial direction, the study reported in this paper concludes that SpAds can make an invaluable contribution to policy delivery by acting as a bridge between Secretary of State and Permanent Secretary. The capability to bridge the tensions between ministerial urgency to realise policy goals and civil servant realism to accurately assess the “fracture points” to be overcome in the process of policy delivery is reported as particularly valued by the public official. This paper concludes that the SpAd’s relentless pursuit of the Minister’s agenda is distinctly counterproductive for both Minister and civil servant, but adopting the function of bridging across contrasting interests enhances policy delivery effectiveness

An interview with Sir John Parker, Chairman, National Grid.

This article aims to capture latest thinking from an internationally renowned practitioner on the themes of Chairmanship, purpose of the board and governance

A role-based perspective on leadership as a network of relationships.

The research described in this article seeks to address the question of the extent to which a role-based perspective can provide insight into the distributed and networked form of leadership

Enhancing policy delivery: normalizing four critical contributions

The desire to be more responsive to the demands of citizens complicates the relationship between Secretary of State and Permanent Secretary and has an impact on policy delivery capacity. This article considers four separate contributions to effective policy delivery in a context of increasing and increasingly variegated demands: those provided by the Secretary of State, Permanent Secretary, special political adviser (SpAd) and chair of the departmental board. Drawing on insights garnered through a series of interviews with key policy actors, we draw attention to the SpAd bridging function between Secretary of State and Permanent Secretary, which eases the tension between ministerial urgency for outcomes versus the officials’ realistic appraisal of ‘smoothing out’ the challenges to policy delivery. The departmental board’s stewardship of policy delivery, meanwhile, is minimal due to the lack of chairmanship by the Secretary of State, requiring professional chairs to be appointed to this role

Strengthening the democratic project: information as the foundation of the fourth estate

Studies show that citizen dissatisfaction with democracy is on the rise. Equally, trust in public institutions is on the decline, but despite this, citizens desire to shape the future of society is growing. The contribution of this paper is three-fold. First, the varying interpretations of democracy are scrutinised in order to surface the nature of scrutinized liberal democracy. Second, the negative impacts of democracy cycles are highlighted as shaped by the interests of elites in their pursuit of economic gain thus undermining liberal democracy and the adoption of diversity. Third, and through such influence, the independence of the fourth estate is diminished requiring the institutionalisation of the custodiary in order to promote a fourth democratic wave. Thus, the aim of our paper is to surface a free flow of contrasting perspectives from multiple entities and in so doing make the case for regulation which limits undesired monopolistic and oligopolistic interests

Reading the mindset of the secretary of state: shaping policy delivery effectiveness

This paper examines the nature of the relationship between the Secretary of State and the Permanent Secretary, with particular focus on determining how policy delivery can be enhanced. The review of the literature offers insights into the role and tasks of the Secretary of State and Permanent Secretary concluding that the quality of their relationship is central to effective policy delivery. The study highlights the considerable attention given by public officials to understanding the Secretary of State in order to ensure better engagement with their political masters. To this end, civil servants report that appreciating the Minister’s propensity for drawing on evidence (soft or hard data) and their level of personal confidence (feeling secure or insecure) provides the necessary insights to ‘get on to the Minister’s wavelength’. Officials report the extent of their flexibility to position arguments in order to win the Minister’s attention and approval. The paper concludes that the appropriate (or inappropriate) reading of the Minister is fundamental to enhancing (or damaging) policy delivery. The lengths officials go to so that the Secretary of State can, and can be seen to, appropriately deliver policy seemingly goes unrecognized by the Minister

Role and contribution of the non-executive director : implications for corporate social responsibility in the boardroom

This research examines the role and contribution of the Non Executive Director (NED) within the corporate board. The literature identifies the NED as a boundary spanner. Boundary spanners are believed to be essential to the fulfilment of the firm's corporate responsibility mandate. The research specifically examines the ability of the NED to influence corporate responsibility practices within the board, whilst balancing the divergent expectations of different constituents. Previous research examining the role of the NED has failed to take account of the context in which the role is performed. Therefore an interpretive framework is developed, to examine the individual subjective perceptions of the NED, from within the role. Through a qualitative interpretation of 25 in-depth interviews, with individual NEDs, the dynamic context of the boardroom emerged as a key moderator of the their ability to make a contribution. The boundary spanning role prescribed for the NED by some theorists emerged as problematic. The research suggests that despite NEDs' personal expectation that they should represent a range of constituents, within the boardroom their ability to fulfil this role is often limited by the presence of groupthink. NEDs appear to set aside their personal beliefs in order to maintain the status quo within the group. As a result of their unfulfilled role expectations many NEDs appear to experience role conflict. This research contributes to our understanding of the actual role of the NED within the corporate board, and specifically the NED's ability to perform a boundary spanning role. The research also informs business and society literature, by examining how boards currently deal with issues of corporate responsibility. Finally, the research contributes to both group and role theory, by developing current understanding of how the complex dynamics of the group affect the individual's ability to contribute.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Who runs the place? : the evolving role of corporate centre in the strategy-making process : an empirical investigation of a major Russian multi-business corporation

This research was inspired by a particular business problem – the search for an optimal model of strategy-making process in Severstal, a major Russian metals and mining company going through a period of rapid growth and transformation. The research reports on the results of a longitudinal explorative case study based on two distinct empirical projects. The first project addressed strategy process nature, participants, roles of corporate centre, time perspective and impact of the external environment. Its results highlighted the importance of CEO leadership and personal traits, which became the principal focus of the second empirical project. The key empirical contribution of the research was definition of "leader-focused decentralisation" as a particular approach to strategy-making in a multi-business group. This approach combines decentralized, bottom-up, business units-led generation of strategic proposals and initiatives with a crucial role of a company leader as a deeply involved decision-maker, presiding over a small and lean corporate centre with minimal corporate rules and bureaucracy. In Severstal’s case, the "leader-focused decentralisation" approach to strategy was a good match to its volatile yet rewarding external environment. The suggested model can be seen as an empirically-derived step towards a theoretical synthesis of "activist" vs. "detached" views of corporate centre roles in relation to strategy process in multi-business firms. It exhibited some distinctive features which were not yet described in other contexts, including co-existence of strong entrepreneurial leadership and organisational decentralisation. From a practical standpoint, the research highlighted weaknesses and limitations of existing strategy-making model and offered a background for the discussion of ways to develop it in the future.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The dynamics of third dimensional power in detemining a pre-orientation to policymaking : an exploratory study of transitional elite interactions in the post-Cold War period

In the contemporary political setting, the emergence of transnationalism represents a significant challenge to traditional state-centred depictions of international relations and raises many questions concerning its purpose, legitimacy and effects. This study is concerned with one aspect of the transnational debate: the dynamics of power that drive consensus formation within informal, and collaborative, elite transnational networks. Situated in debates related to international relations, political economy, policy science, political sociology and social network theory, this study identifies the role played by transnational elites in articulating, as well as interpreting, structural determinants of policy. In short, transnational elite interactions are responsible, often unconsciously, for the legitimisation of pervasive social constructs within the wider elite community. The process of legitimisation within such settings is highly contested and, as a consequence, power relations are critical to our understanding of eventual consensus. Utilising Steven Lukes’s (1974) third dimensional form of power, this study considers the discrete mechanisms of preference formation at play within transnational elite networks. Exploring processes of socialisation, acculturation, familiarisation and fraternisation within such communities, the complex, and highly personal, demands of elite membership are revealed. The study suggests that these demands have a considerable bearing upon the nature and substance of consensus formation activity within elite networks. It also makes clear, however, that any resulting consensus is far from absolute and highly idiosyncratic. This qualitative study is the first of its kind concerned with the interactions of transnational elites. It reports the findings of interviews conducted with sixteen members of the Atlantic transnational network – arguably the most powerful and interconnected of all transnational networks. In presenting an analysis of the first-hand accounts of these individuals, and exploring the dynamics of power within such a context, this study represents an original contribution to knowledge in the field.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo