The authors of this paper conducted a case study analysis six years ago. There was some sensitivity in that the case concerned a large metropolitan criminal justice organisation in the UK, and the events were very politically ‘live’. Allowing the passage of time has limited the political ‘heat’ and enabled a consideration of shifts within the leadership literature that might allow a new perspective on the analysis originally conducted.
The combination of elite interview with public empirical data and participant observation generated a unique lens through which to consider public service change. Taking the personal account of the leader of the organisation, the authors tested assertions about the effect of leadership on transformational change within public service. Such a method permitted a deep, insider, change-leadership perspective, as well as an opportunity for comparison with the managing change literature.
The authors were afforded an opportunity to shadow a period of significant turbulence, and given close proximity to a leader new in post and practising during a turnaround period. The contextual implications led to a deep, single, case study, given the environment and timeliness. There was therefore an attempt to capture the spirit of the ‘classic’ case studies, in terms of context, depth and narrative much advocated by Dyer and Wilkins in their response to Eisenhardt. Indeed, quoting Dyer and Wilkins (1991, pp.618), “ . . .we hope that many scholars will continue to try to tell good stories which have theoretical import”, as authors we originally felt compelled to follow this advice.
The case organisation
In 2009, staff morale was low and target culture deeply resented. Following a difficult merger of a number of services in 2001, there had been three leaders and a short period under ‘Specialist Performance Improvement’ conditions. In an attempt to address the performance deficits, there had been three significant structural re-organisations, which, in the context of additional legislative changes, had negatively impacted on employees’ attitude both to change and senior management as well as not achieving the required performance improvements. This was the environment into which the new leader was invited by the appropriate state ministry, with a remit to address the challenges of a troubled organisation. Over the period of the study, the organisation demonstrated corporate turnaround and achieved a new more autonomous status in 2011. Government set targets were achieved. There was a dramatic shift in measured performance. Key to such change appeared to be the impact of the new Chief Officer, the most senior role in this organisation.
The review
This case, and its analysis, was reviewed at a recent leadership conference (9th Developing Leadership Capacity Conference: University of Brighton, 13-14 July, 2017) to ascertain whether more recent theoretical work on leadership would illuminate learning or theoretical contribution from this single, deep case.
New perspectives were indeed achieved. In particular regarding path dependence, context and ‘followership permission’ which made clearer how leadership theory itself might be limited in value given contextualised practice fields, urgently requiring academics to engage with narratives of practice.
The practice panel (Connecting researchers and practitioners SIG)
