Administrative Leadership and Public Sector Reforms in a Small Developing State

This study focuses on administrative leadership associated with reforms to improve effectiveness and efficiency in the public sector in Jamaica, a small developing state. Ultimately, the expectation is that improved... [ view full abstract ]

This study focuses on administrative leadership associated with reforms to improve effectiveness and efficiency in the public sector in Jamaica, a small developing state. Ultimately, the expectation is that improved performance will help to overcome developmental challenges manifest as anaemic economic growth rates over many decades, poverty, and other social ills, among others. It contributes to theorizing about administrative leadership in emerging and developing countries particularly in the context of reform or change. Administrative leaders in the Jamaican public sector have had to navigate a myriad of reform initiatives as public entities seek to overcome challenges to execute their mandates within the context of shifting perceptions about the role of government and a dynamic global and technological environment. The shift to accommodate neoliberal views of increased privatization and reliance on the market often pushed by external funding changes emphasized a particular reform agenda that brought its own challenges and expectations on the role of the administrative leader. Shifts in administrative theory towards a governance agenda have yielded yet another set of challenges. Most recently at the behest of international lenders, administrative leaders have been forced to accelerate and deepen administrative reform efforts in order to reduce the burden of the cost of government’s administrative machinery on public finances. The embeddedness of administrative leadership in complex contextual factors that include technocratic imperatives, demands of international lending agencies, and political and bureaucratic agendas suggests the need for administrators to both drive and respond to directional forces. It further suggests administrative leaders may need to balance leader and follower roles and even demonstrate both simultaneously in order successfully achieve change. The balance implies deliberate and marked oscillations among roles rather than the maintenance of the position of a neutral bureaucrat. While many studies focus on transformational, transactional, or participatory leadership styles to effect change in the public sector, not many studies examine the use of the adaptive style to cope with the contextual challenges identified in this study. This paper explores the extent to which administrative leaders engage in role shifts while facilitating public sector reforms driven by international lending agencies. The paper draws on elite interviews of senior and middle-level managers and workers of public entities that are in an advanced stage of the reform process. This paper argues that transformational, transactional, and participatory leadership styles do not accurately reflect leader roles of administrative managers. Instead leaders have to be flexible and adaptive as a result of the complexity of contextual factors, hence the paper seeks to advance theoretical perspectives on the adaptive leader.