Using collage as an inquiry method into gender related processes

Methodology resource: Using collage as an inquiry method falls into the broader scope of arts based research methods. These approaches are interested in eliciting data that are not readily accessed using more traditional methods such as surveys or interview

Pedagogic implications of anxiety and loss of agency in public services managers and leaders

Purpose - The purpose of the paper is to report on the results of an inquiry into the possible reasons why many public service managers and leaders across six European countries report a loss of personal agency and suggests a possible pedagogic response to this. Design/methodology/approach - The nature of agency is explored with reference to theory, and the methodology for the study - heuristic action inquiry - is outlined. The paper argues that spaces within postgraduate education are needed to facilitate managers' critical reflection and working with anxiety, and the article goes on to outline how public services leadership programmes can seek to achieve this. Findings - The paper suggests that programmes need to work both with the cognitive and affective domains, and to find ways of exploring within the curriculum how managers may begin more to see their roles as potentially key actors in the policy-making process rather than as passive recipients of policy imperatives received from above. The loss of agency experienced by public servants in several European countries suggests that MPA programmes and the like need to work with students' anxieties in a contained way. Originality/value - Some trends within contemporary public services that lie behind anxiety and loss of agency are identified, including high emphasis on performance targets, centrally driven change, financial stringency, loss of professional and organisation identities, a perpetuation of a "private is best" governmental ideology, and contradictory accountability structures

Organizational culture change and management development

The approach adopted in the facilitation of this change process was based on extensive experience of working in the Public Sector over the last decade. Culture change is a much debated issue, and whilst a rigorous examination of such approaches is beyond the scope of the discussion here, we argue that any efforts in this arena must acknowledge the complexity of the task. In practice organizational culture is not a single, identifiable phenomenon: it is experienced differently and variously throughout an organization. We do find, however, that as a concept it has value in organizational development as a means of facilitating the exploration of key aspects of behaviour and performance. We are thus not seeking certainty and precision, but rather looking for open discussion, a sense of ownership rather than mere involvement, and a developing consensus rather than agreement. The iterative nature of the change process is central.In the case presented here we identify progress in defining and operationalising a new culture throughout the organization, but we would not claim to have established a common view of that culture. Nor would we claim that the task is complete. The struggle of this programme has been to engage in open and challenging dialogue, to work with conflict, and to live simultaneously with both a sense of achievement and a sense of stuckness