Developments in Internal Management

Abstract

Chapter 5 outlined the basics of internal management in local authorities. It focused on the central role of departments and committees in managing local authority activities. It is, however, necessary to move beyond structure. Recent internal management agendas have emphasised the central importance of culture and values. From a focus during the 1960s on service delivery, through professionally specialised departments, the emphasis shifted towards Corporate Management from the early 1970s through to the early 1980s. Exemplifying this new approach, Skelcher (1980, p. 156) observed that the ‘new image of the local authority as an active body striving alone or with others to tackle pressing issues in the community contrasted strongly with the traditional view of the local authority as a set of separate departments providing services largely independent of each other’. From the early 1980s and into the 1990s there was a further shift towards a focus on customer service management with organisational structures reflecting an authority’s ‘core values’. Strategic planning and management have come to the fore. Examples of these different perspectives are provided in this chapter.