IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jomstd/v40y2003i4p955-982.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategy in the Public Sector: Management in the Wilderness

Author

Listed:
  • Sue Llewellyn
  • Emma Tappin

Abstract

ABSTRACT The central question addressed in this paper is ‘Why have organizational strategies emerged in the public sector?’ Two broad answers are suggested. First, ‘strategies’ profile the organization through identifying aims, outputs and outcomes. Public services must, now, provide such transparency in order to secure on‐going funding from government bodies. Once ‘strategies’ are being produced, they also offer an organizational vision that potential additional funding agencies can buy into (with both commitment and money). And public services are short of resources. Second, ‘strategies’ signal greater devolved responsibility in the public sector for both acquiring resources and achieving results. They enable the inclusion of managerial priorities and values in setting the direction of public services. And politicians desire more control over the professionals that dominate public services whilst, simultaneously, wanting to make them more responsible for outcomes. This article explores the growth of strategic planning in a particular area of the public sector – the national parks. Strategies as ‘dormant documents’ and strategies as ‘funding pitches’ are discussed. It is suggested that, in the public sector, strategies should be the object of strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Sue Llewellyn & Emma Tappin, 2003. "Strategy in the Public Sector: Management in the Wilderness," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 955-982, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:40:y:2003:i:4:p:955-982
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-6486.00366
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00366
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-6486.00366?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John Alford & Carsten Greve, 2017. "Strategy in the Public and Private Sectors: Similarities, Differences and Changes," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Edoardo Ongaro & Ewan Ferlie, 2019. "Exploring Strategy-Making in ‘Non-New Public Management’ Public Services Settings: The Case of European Union Agencies," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Nyamori, Robert Ochoki & Lawrence, Stewart R. & Perera, Hector B., 2012. "Revitalising local democracy: A social capital analysis in the context of a New Zealand local authority," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 572-594.
    4. Sue Llewellyn, 2005. "Performance, Productivity and Innovation in Health Care Organisations: Comparing England and Scotland," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 15(37), pages 15-24, November.
    5. Raphael Zumofen, 2016. "Public accountability: a summary analysis [Accountability publique - Une analyse synthétique]," Post-Print hal-03623871, HAL.
    6. Jan-Erik Johanson & Åge Johnsen & Elias Pekkola & Stephen Affleck Reid, 2019. "Strategic Management in Finnish and Norwegian Government Agencies," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-20, October.
    7. Ola MATTISSON & Anna THOMASSON, 2007. "The Strategic Process And Its Impact On The Outcome Of A Tender," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(3), pages 439-454, September.
    8. Aidan R. Vining, 2016. "What Is Public Agency Strategic Analysis (PASA) and How Does It Differ from Public Policy Analysis and Firm Strategy Analysis?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-31, December.
    9. Bruno Cazenave, 2016. "Les manifestations des mécanismes de transparence dans les ONG humanitaires françaises – Le cas de Handicap International," Post-Print hal-01901232, HAL.
    10. Maran, Laura & Bracci, Enrico & Inglis, Robert, 2018. "Performance management systems' stability: Unfolding the human factor – A case from the Italian public sector," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 324-339.
    11. Elin Smith & Timurs Umans, 2015. "Organizational Ambidexterity at the Local Government Level: The effects of managerial focus," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(6), pages 812-833, July.
    12. Vanessa Stjernborg & Ola Mattisson, 2016. "The Role of Public Transport in Society—A Case Study of General Policy Documents in Sweden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-16, November.
    13. Andrew Goddard & Alexa Simm, 2017. "Management accounting, performance measurement and strategy in English local authorities," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 261-268, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:40:y:2003:i:4:p:955-982. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2380 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.